Save more in your pension or face poverty

A stark headline on todays City AM (daily business free-sheet). A study by Policy Exchange - a government funded group gathering information for a better society - reckons that saving for a pension should be made compulsory. Today, average savers have just £36,800 in their own pension pot, well below the £240,000 target for the minimum required for a decent pension in retirement.

I fully support any move for enhancing pension pots for retirement but, rather than just pumping money into mis-managed funds or low-interest-rate bonds, my opinion is that more should be done to educate the population into managing their money throughout life.

This should start at school with lessons demonstrating principles such as compound interest, and pound-cost-averaging. The introduction of SIPP's was a significant step in removing the blinds from the "dark art" of pension funds. Now, the people of Britain need to be educated to know how to get the best from them.

I have set myself a Pension Fund target of £640,000 to be in my SIPP on my 65th birthday (8th November 2024). It may seem an impossible task from my current value of approximately £74,000 but you have to set yourself a goal.

SIPP off to a great start for 2014

Having ended 2013 with a SIP value of £70,400, the fund has picked-up nicely and as of today (lunchtime Tuesday 14th Jan) it has a value of approximately £72,900 - that's an increase of £2,200 less the £300 added to the fund myself on 7th Jan. I'd have been happy with that much growth in a month, never mind just 2 weeks.

The main driver has been £OPAY; valued at 351 at the start of the month, this share is now at 424 - an increase of 20% in a couple of weeks. I honestly think this share could have a market value of over £1 billion, which means there is plenty of growth from its current market value of £645 million, basically another 50% and more. It surely must be coming under scrutiny from a couple of major players in the financial markets who are stake-building pending making a bid offer.

I've also increased my shareholding in the Herald Investment Trust (£HRI) and now hold 650 shares. The plan is to reduce my shareholding in Imagination Technologies Group (£IMG) and move that money into £HRI. What is happening at £IMG is anyone's guess. Essentially, the firm is growing well with (according to the December 2013 interim statement) increased revenues of approx £14 million (or 19%) in the 1st-half-year. This time last year the share had a value of 435 which rose to peak at 540 - so why the shareprice is languishing at 178 is beyond me. There is a bit of bid activity going on elsewhere, and I'm sure that this company is currently being looked at by potential suitors.

I've also recently trimmed my shareholding in JPMorgan Mid Cap Investment Trust (£JMF) from 1315 shares to 1140, which was basically just a piece of rebalancing.

The share price of International Personal Finance (£IPF) continues to fluctuate wildly between 480 - 520, and is may be some time (8 to 12 weeks) before this share stabilises and starts rebuilding confidence. Given the efficiency of this company, I have faith that it wont be long before we see the share price above 600 again.

So, onwards and upwards.