The big question was: \u201cWhy not?\u201d Honestly, I had to stop and ask myself the same thing. And the real worry: Is it too late now? Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve figured out.<\/p>\n
1. I never thought I was old<\/p>\n
Most of my adult life, I\u2019ve been convinced I\u2019m still about 22, like the Leaving Cert summer just kept rolling on for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I wore runners that were meant to be \u201cironic\u201d, stayed up too late, and honestly thought if I ever needed a pension, some magical financial fairy would just sort it for me.<\/p>\n
Then I hit 45, and it landed: I\u2019m closer to retirement than to my first pint. There\u2019s something very Irish about refusing to admit we\u2019re getting older. We don\u2019t age here, we just \u201cget notions about stretching\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We grew up where youth was everything. You could be called a \u201cyoung fella\u201d well into your 40s, as long as you kept quiet about heat pumps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our parents expected to get old. They saved, wore cardigans before they had to, and knew the value of a proper orthopaedic slipper.<\/p>\n
My generation thought we\u2019d never age. The Celtic Tiger told us we wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Nobody in Ireland ever sat us down and explained money to us. We were told to \u201cget a steady job,\u201d \u201cjoin the Credit Union\u201d, and \u201cdon\u2019t show off with direct debits\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Financial literacy wasn\u2019t on the Leaving Cert. We learned about the Treaty of Limerick and about how an earthworm digests food, but not a word about tax.<\/p>\n
In school, we did \u201cbusiness studies,\u201d which was mostly about filling in cheques, a skill now as useful as Morse code.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you grew up in a working or middle-class Irish house, talking about money was private, nearly shameful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Your parents didn\u2019t talk about pensions or investments. They talked about \u201cWho is leaving every door open in the house and letting the heat out?\u201d<\/p>\n
We had two financial role models. The Saver: Cautious, suspicious, had at least one biscuit tin of emergency notes hidden in the hot press.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Spender: Bought a 2005 car in 2009, \u201cbecause it was a great deal\u201d.<\/p>\n
There was nothing in between. The idea of a proper pension just wasn\u2019t there. Our parents saved for rainy days. We save for sunny holidays.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One is driven by fear, while the other is driven by a desire to escape. Neither one leads to a decent retirement plan.<\/p>\n
The long finger might be Ireland\u2019s best invention. It\u2019s the invisible drawer where all our good intentions go to die.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve built a whole national identity on putting things off: \u201cI\u2019ll do it after Christmas\u201d, \u201cI\u2019ll look into it when the kids go back to school\u201d, \u201cI\u2019ll sort it when I get this tax thing sorted\u201d.<\/p>\n
Except we never specify which Christmas, which tax thing, or which school year.<\/p>\n
Our ancestors survived colonisation, famine, and the Celtic Tiger by putting things off until it was safe to deal with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m great at short-term coping, hopeless at long-term planning. The trouble with the long finger is that it gets older, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By the time you\u2019re ready to tackle \u201cthe pension thing\u201d, the finger\u2019s gone stiff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Behavioural economists refer to this as \u201cpresent bias\u201d. We go for the short-term buzz \u2014 a night out, a gadget, an air fryer we\u2019ll use twice \u2014 instead of the long-term good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And honestly, who wants to picture being 70 when you\u2019re already wrecked at 45?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a special shame in starting late.<\/p>\n
We hate doing things we feel we \u201cshould\u2019ve done years ago\u201d. If you don\u2019t start a pension in your 20s, you assume the ship\u2019s sailed and everyone else is already on deck with cocktails and compound interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, you\u2019re left on the pier, clutching a Lotto ticket.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same with fitness, Irish lessons, meditation apps \u2014 anything you\u2019re meant to start early. I don\u2019t want to look like a beginner. It\u2019s pride disguised as practicality.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The real barrier? It\u2019s emotional. Attach guilt to the things I\u2019ve ignored \u2014 exercise, skincare, the NCT \u2014 and the guilt becomes heavier than the task itself. Starting a pension now feels like giving in.<\/p>\n
But what\u2019s the alternative? Relying on my kids? They\u2019ll be in Vancouver, paying \u20ac67 for an oat milk latte by the time I\u2019m 70.<\/p>\n
Pensions are not sexy. No one has ever whispered, \u201cTell me more about your contribution limits\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s paperwork, percentages, and people who have got their life together years ago, saying \u201cIt\u2019s never too early to plan for your future\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Ireland, discussing money is already awkward enough. Add \u201cretirement\u201d and it\u2019s like planning your own wake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pensions sit on the same conversational shelf as solar panels, and cholesterol. They matter, but no one wants to bring them up at a barbecue. And yet, they\u2019re unavoidable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every so often, you\u2019ll see an ad with a good-looking couple in their 50s walking on a beach, grinning like they\u2019ve just discovered security.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those ads don\u2019t inspire me. They just make me want to find out where the beach is and ask them if they are really happy.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the thing: At some point, you start to pay attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You realise \u201cthe future\u201d isn\u2019t just an idea \u2014 it\u2019s coming, and it\u2019s bringing bills. It\u2019s not sexy, but neither is asking your kids if you can move in with them.<\/p>\n
The truth is, I don\u2019t have a pension because I\u2019ve spent most of my adult life investing in living \u2014 kids, comedy, groceries, and the odd panic holiday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I was younger, I thought money was for getting by, not getting ahead.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t care about the future. I just never thought it would show up this fast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The big question was: \u201cWhy not?\u201d Honestly, I had to stop and ask myself the same thing. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175,19930],"class_list":["post-84856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-this-much-i-know-column-shape-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}