Monthly Musing – March 2026 – Grown up stuff

“This makes me feel very grown-up!”

Not so small daughter and I were sitting at the kitchen table setting up a SIPP (self-invested personal pension) in her name.  Still at university, she did take some persuading that it was a good idea as like most teenagers she’s immortal and will never have any need for an “old age” pension, but now that I have passed my own immortal phase and know that life really is finite, I am determined that she’s going to have some cash behind her in her twilight years.

It’s actually very easy to set up a SIPP in the UK these days.  We set up not so small daughter’s on a low cost platform and we’re managing it ourselves, leaving it to do its own thing whilst tracker funds and compound interest work their magic.  I wish someone had been able to explain it all to me at my girl’s age, but at least I know about it now and I can help her and her big sister to try to get the best out of their savings.

The good thing as far as my adventurous girl is concerned is that she can’t touch the  money until she is considerably older.  She has a list of places she wants to visit, sights she wants to see, journeys she wants to make, and none of them come cheap.  She’s done a fair bit of far-flung travelling over the last few years and now, before families and mortgages, is an excellent time to explore the world (global events permitting) – but there are also a great number of people who choose to travel later in life and I’m hoping that starting her savings now will fund that too.  She is pretty good at not spending all her money, I have to say, and she’s already putting money aside for the travelling she wants to do over the next few years.  The long-term savings are safe for now!

Our conversations made me realise that we’re at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Not so small daughter is wondering why she needs a pension at her age, I’m talking to friends who are getting ready to take the money from theirs as they look towards the next stages of life.  It’s a funny place to be, and I find it quite unsettling at times.  I often joke that my “showbiz age” is 28, but it’s been a good few years since I was that age and the gap between 28 and where I am now is only getting bigger.  Thankfully, I’ve still got quite a while before I’m considering taking any money out of my pension, but it’s certainly closer than I ever imagined it would be in the days when I was going to stay a teenager forever and never have to join the ranks of the grown-ups.

I might not like the idea of getting older so much but there’s not much I can do about it; the days pass whether you like it or not and one day, we will all stand in the doorway of retirement – my girls included.  I hope that when that day comes, they will both think it was worth the effort of doing something grown up at the kitchen table – and I hope they will be happily doing their reflecting from wherever it is in the world they choose to spend their retirement travelling to!