'Dismal' eurozone data sparks concerns -Simon Read

Central Bank chief Mario Draghi is under pressure to launch promise stimulus before the EU slides further

The latest figures could build up pressure on European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi to boost intervention in the region to help countries avoid following Italy's recent unexpected slide into recession.
"The eurozone is staring recession in the face once more," warned Ben Brettell, senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown. "Mario Draghi needs to make good his pledge to 'do whatever it takes' and embark on a quantitative easing programme. Indeed the French Finance Minister has released a statement urging the ECB chief to act."
Mr Draghi launched stimulus measures in June and would prefer to wait longer to give them the chance to have the desired effect, but more bad news could force his hand.
"We're two years on from Draghi's 'whatever it takes' speech and a huge amount of reform has been undertaken," pointed out Tim Stevenson, director, European specialist equities at Henderson.
"Nonetheless, growth seems to be plateauing, and we remain in a pretty low-growth environment. Europe still faces significant problems."
But he added that he believes that European valuations remain reasonably attractive, while profit margins still have a lot of room to improve.
Juliet Schooling Latter, research director at investment funds rating agency FundCalibre, warned: "Europe is no longer the raging bargain it was a couple of years ago, but it still isn't expensive.
"Having said that, there are headwinds. For starters, earnings are very depressed and we do need to see them improve in order for the market to continue to do well.
"Meanwhile, deflation remains a big threat. Even Germany has below-target inflation, and this is constraining economies. Profit margins are also quite low, but this means any pick-up in the domestic economy should boost domestic-facing stocks."
Looking ahead, there are certainly a rocky few weeks to overcome, but further ahead, experts are more confident. "In terms of the potential for European equities, we think corporate earnings should recover from here," said Andreas Zoellinger, co-manager of the BlackRock European Equity Income fund.
"Market expectations for earnings growth have moderated significantly since the start of the year and are now much more realistic. We maintain our projection of 8 per cent earnings growth this year in Europe."
Wouter Sturkenboom, Europe strategist at Russell Investments also remains positive. "European equity markets have experienced something akin to a summer of discontent, started by problems in the Portuguese bank Espirito Santo and continuing unrest in the Ukraine.
"Our European economic growth expectations lowered following the recent sanctions and countersanctions, although not to such an extent as to change our modestly positive outlook on equities."
But Eoin Walsh, portfolio manager at TwentyFour Asset Management advised caution. "We now have a market where many sectors are trading at expensive levels compared to historical averages. but while the ECB continues to provide support and cheap money, spreads are likely to tighten further and bonds are likely to get even more expensive.
"But this support will not continue indefinitely and investors need to remember that cheap financing will eventually end and corporates will have to be able to afford debt at more reasonable levels."

Culled from the Independent

4 Ways to Avoid Running Out of Money in Retirement-Fishers Investments

Average Life Expectancy*

*Source: 2006 US Total Population Life Table (revised as of 06/28/2010). National Vital Statistics Reports, volume 58, Number 21. Life expectancy rounded to nearest year.

Compared to the length of retirement, fifteen minutes is no time at all. But that's all you need to learn the basics of developing a plan to make your savings last as long as you need them. Still, many investors don't take this time-putting their retirement in jeopardy.
Investors' biggest errors often occur long before any buying or selling takes place. They tend to have poorly defined objectives, no real sense of their time horizon (how long they need the money to last) and don't quite understand that any investment has risks and returns to consider.
To start, ask yourself how long you'll need your retirement savings.
Most investors need their savings to last as long as they do-sometimes longer if you'd like your portfolio to support a younger spouse, children or charity after you're gone. So exactly how long that could be isn't black and white. Average life expectancies are published every year, but they can only tell you so much. After all, an average is the middle, and you probably aren't exactly "average." To get a better idea, consider your heredity-your family's history of health and longevity. Be sure to consider advances in health care and technology! Merely because your father lived to be 70 doesn't mean you'll do the same. Most people outlive their ancestors, hence rising average life expectancies. Planning for a longer life early is smart.
You could also be underestimating the amount of cash flow you'll need after retirement.
Maintaining your lifestyle becomes much more costly if your expenses are heavily tilted to categories of goods or services with fast-rising prices-like health care! Overall inflation has averaged 3% annually-a retirement plan that doesn't account for inflation has a significant hole.**

Source: Retirement cheatsheet

The perception of people as it affects their pension contributions in Nigeria-Odunze Reginald C

People always have the erroneous believe that the Nigeria pension system is not right and to a largest you discover that they are the architect of their own woes or misfortunes.What is perception, to a lay man perception is the way people see, feel or think about issues, things, projects, schemes, endeavors and generally life activities. They tend to think that everything is all about government and every aspects of government life are nose diving towards the negative, they feel that all is not well and all will be not well. They have been defeated in their mind and that defeat is contagious as it also affects other aspects of their life. They have been blinded not by what they see but by what they hear.
And according to Wikipedia, "Perception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio) is the organization, identification, and interpretation of in order to represent and understand the environment. Wikipedia went on to assert the following highlighting on the theory of Alan Saks and Gary Johns they stated that there are three components to perception

The Perceiver, the person who becomes aware about something and comes to a final understanding. There are 3 factors that can influence his or her perceptions: experience, motivational state and finally emotional state. In different motivational or emotional states, the perceiver will react to or perceive something in different ways. Also in different situations he or she might employ a "perceptual defence" where they tend to "see what they want to see". Continuing in Wikipedia, Alan Saks and Gary Johns elaborated on the following:

1. "The Target. This is the person who is being perceived or judged. "Ambiguity or lack of information about a target leads to a greater need for interpretation and addition."
2. The Situation also greatly influences perceptions because different situations may call for additional information about the target.
3. The Situation also greatly influences perceptions because different situations may call for additional information about the target."

But the people feel and think about issues, programs, project as it relates to pensions have tend to arise based on the previous encounters they heard people recount , they fail to see the positive aspect of all things, they see failure all around and that failure definitely finds them, and according to Le Bouef (1987:21) noted that “your world is a mirror and your mind is a magnet what you perceived in this world is largely a reflection of your own attitudes and beliefs. And life will give you what you attract with your thoughts. Think, act and talk negatively and your world will likely be negative. Think, act and talk with enthusiasm and you will attract positive results”.

From the postulations of Alan Saks et al noted that in “different situations he or she might employ a "perceptual defence" where they tend to "see what they want to see". They have this erroneous belief that the pension scheme is not effective , the result is that most employees exclude themselves from the pension schemes, and bearing in mind that the employer is the one that spends, because for every employee’s contribution, there is a corresponding employer’s contribution, when the employer decides therefore to back out, the employer becomes more happier than that , especially our foreign employers as those employees have succeeded in reducing their wage bills.

The impact of not being a contributor its more devastating especially in Africa, where we have the extended family systems and where we are supposed to be our brothers keeper, what about the immediate families, what happens in the case of the unexpected to an employee who feels indifference in contributing, when the employer have to add his own will definitely not contribute personally for pension elsewhere.

The need for pension cannot be overemphasized and as such one need not be informed to  contribute as old age has with it its challenges, health issues and coupled with the expectations of African, it behooves on the employees to ensure compliance to the scheme, when the employer has already complied,  more so when there are families that need to be catered for should the bread winner join his ancestors and Robert Stevenson  amply stated that “life being one the interest should be that of the whole but man in his characteristic ignorance think he can successfully strive for his own interest and his wrongly directed energy of selfishness only produces suffering”

Odunze Reginald C

Pension scammers make off with nearly £500m -Simon Read

Pension scammers make off with nearly £500m

A relaxation of the rules will lead to a rise in fraudsters taking advantage of customer confusion

Almost half a billion pounds has been lost by unsuspecting victims of pension scams. The problem is becoming so severe that the Pensions Regulator has launched a new campaign to warn people of the risk of losing all their retirement savings.

The total lost to crooks conning people out of their pension pots could actually be much higher than the £495m estimated as many of the crimes go unreported, experts warn.
The scam is simple. Unscrupulous firms claim that you can unlock your pension early, before you reach 55. But they don’t tell you that if you do so, you risk losing up to 70 per cent of your savings through tax losses.
They use jargon to fool you into believing they are genuine, but they’re not. Some suggest that you use “legal loopholes” to move your pension pot into bogus investments that could even result in you losing your entire savings.
Home visits from self-proclaimed “introducers”, offers of “free pension reviews”, claims about unusual investments like overseas property, storage units or biofuels are all used to fool members into thinking they’re being offered a legitimate pension transfer.
For example, they may suggest you transfer your pension pot into a company listed on a stock exchange that you know nothing about. Other dodgy deals involve your savings being lent to other pension savers or being used in some sort of commercial lending business. But none are legitimate.
Being tempted by the crook’s patter can be disastrous. One woman, whose 40-year-old son took his own life after never receiving a promised £17,000 lump sum following the transfer of his £42,000 work pension, said: “I don’t want other mothers to suffer what I’ve been through, and what my family has been through.
“No matter how desperate things get, don’t be tempted to cash in your pension. The people behind these scams are rogues who exploit people’s vulnerabilities.”
Another 49-year-old scam victim, who is facing an £18,000 tax bill and risks losing her home after falling victim to a “pension loan” scam said: “These scams target vulnerable people. I feel very angry that I have been misled. Ignore the sales patter, ignore the glossy websites, ignore the cold calls and text messages. Go to an independent financial adviser – speak to an expert.”
Andrew Warwick-Thompson, of the Pensions Regulator, said: “We have seen victims lose their entire pension savings by signing up to these offers. If you are approached by someone claiming to offer advice or that they can help you move a frozen pension, don’t get suckered.
“You could be left with nothing for retirement, you will not be compensated, and you may have to pay fees and a high tax charge. The only people who benefit financially from the arrangements are the scammers themselves.”
With new relaxed pension rules coming in next April, scammers are likely to increase their activities to take advantage of consumer confusion, warned Duncan Buchanan of the Society of Pension Consultants. “Regulators need to be alive to the fact that we will see many more real-life examples of people being encouraged to invest their retirement funds in mirage investments that soon disappear.”

Culled from the Independent