Edward Painter
09:17 | 06 Oct 2009
Yvonne
Whilst I agree that we need to save more, as a younger person I find the tone of your post so typically patronising. The savings culture is not lost in this country, I don't know if you keep an eye on macroeconomic news but the last few months have seen the largest net savings inflows in decades, as people pay down debt, save and in general restrain themselves. My friends and I are not in huge amounts of debt, we all have student loans, a requirement given that the easy days of student financing open to your generation are far behind us, and maybe some of us lucky enough have a mortgage, and probably a car loan. I do not think any of these are irresponsible.
I would suggest that your generation has allot more to answer for than the younger generation, it is those with properties who remortgaged in the belief that house prices would never fall to fuel their ongoing consumption. Exactly how we are expected top save a reasonable amount as the excesses of our elders come back to roost in the form of higher taxes and national insurance, together with having to shoulder the responsibility for a large proportion of adults who have lived a life of consumption on the never and never and now have to be supported through retirement, is beyond me.
Rant over.
Phil Castle - Edward
10:05 | 06 Oct 2009
I think you owe Yvonne an appology. as you directed your rant against someone who was being positive and trying to help.
If you re-read her article, at no point was she going on at young people and suggesting they were being irresponsible. She was in fact suggesting helping them avoid the pitfalls of the "never never" as you describe it.
Young Buck - We are too obsessed with climbing the property ladder
10:08 | 06 Oct 2009
As ever Yvonne, the points you make are excellent.
I fear though that as a country we are obsessed with tying all our money up in our properties (borrowing) and trying to climb the property ladder (I blame Kirtsy Allsop)
This has happended boom and bust for at least the past hundred years (since civilisation) in england.
Until we change this sentiment towards property in this country we will always have the majority (if not all) of our wealth tied up in our homes and therefore we will not be able to save as a country until we have paid our mortgages off i am afraid which is likely to get older as we are always accruing more debt until they turn the credit taps off.
Edward Painter
10:16 | 06 Oct 2009
Phil
You should note that my post was from a younger persons view and was in essence the frustration felt at the hypocrisy from the older generation. This does not include Yvonne, yourself, or any other person genuinely trying to be helpful. Yvonne would know from my previous comments on her posts that I find her blog both informative, and genuinely interesting. However if I have offended anyone I do apologise unreservedly.
However I would also disagree with your point on the article, as by saying that younger people do not have a saving habit is by proxy saying they are irresponsible.
Edward Painter
10:25 | 06 Oct 2009
Also Young Buck -
Not everyone may agree but paying a mortgage off is a form of saving. If you were to pay your mortgage off prior to retirement this roughly equates to an annuity equal to the annual cost of renting, index linked with capital preservation.
Phil Castle - Edward - accepted
10:27 | 06 Oct 2009
Circumstances can mitigate against a savings culture. As we all see as advisers, it is easier to (even now) to obtain credit for £10,000 than to set up or arrange savings of the same amount. Even when someone sensibley saves for their future, one slight slip up and an over reaction from a bank can put someone off saving completely. My sons ISA transfer went out the day before his pay came in and the overdraft charge exceeded the interest he would have earnt over teh whole year and that's even when he'd arranged both his current account and ISA with the same bank accepting the interest would be lower than if he'd shopped around!
Philip Wise - Now back to the point
12:50 | 06 Oct 2009
The Smartypig website is great in my opinion.
I think my 9 year old son would like it and it would also appeal to many older people. I can also see the use of it for relatives who want to give small amounts of money to children (though heaven knows how they would get round the money laundering paranoia in the UK).
The daft thing is that they arent doing anything new but just putting saving and technology together in a new way.
It has a lot of similarities, in my mind, to the justgiving website which seems to work really well for charities and people seeking sponsorship.
copywriter - banks used to do this
13:53 | 06 Oct 2009
The website looks really cool and positive. However, one teeny critism - it's a bit girly. Can't see any self-respecting teenage boy having a smarty pig bank account.
But that's easily changed.
Bank of Scotland used to have really cool kids activity mags with competitions etc, for their kids' savings acounts.
Use to be put together by some serious Direct Marketing creatives who had a lot of fun making sure children responded to a postive message about saving up.
The benefit for the bank was that their customers felt secure about a bank that looked after their kids, and people never left. It never went online. Then they ditched it when Halifax took over and thought that this kind of nonsense was insane.
Michael Hellman
09:14 | 07 Oct 2009
Smartypig what a good idea, but it would irritate the pants off me.
But I can see its attractions. Thinking back to the days when oh everything seemed so easy and university was free, there were those who saved and those who didnt.
Looking at much older friends, do you know its the same you can see who saved and who didnt, for those that didnt the state will bail you out or maybe a charitable trust, and everything will be ok, thats if you have that mindset.
I think saving comes from an early age and is to be encouraged by whatever works, but there will always be those that dont and always has been.
Phil Castle - Sorry - Yes the question in hand
09:33 | 07 Oct 2009
Just got round to looking at their website and it seems a simple but clever idea. The important word being SIMPLE and keeping it simple if it came to the UK would be what is needed.
It would be nice to see a credit union or mutual taking it on here and running with it. I like the idea of being able to just add to someone elses (I see what someone else meant about money laundering though) and the idea of having a link on facebook is clever.
Perhaps the conservatives should replace the child trust funds with a UK version operated by NS&I bearing in mind they are talking about ditching child trust funds........
Ian - Connection...
15:19 | 07 Oct 2009
was lost a long time ago, when regulation made things complicated and when provider documents went from 3 or 4 pages in big print to as much as 70 pages of small print waffle and protection against never ending potential claims.
That is the truth.
Now the savings message is lost under a mountain of rubbish.
I really think, even though I liked the website it will take a little more than a sexy pig, or even Jessica Rabbit to entice people.