A long time ago Jeremy Clarkson had a TV show alongside his 53 cars and a death wish. And in one episode he discussed pensions [1].
Watch the video below for proof, and note that Clarkson’s pension plan involves:
- Spending 10% more than you earn
- Eating and smoking enough to die before you’re old
- Blowing anything left over on an E-Type Jag!
It’s pretty funny stuff, but obviously Clarkson was speaking as a bigshot media personality who now earns well over £1 million [2] a year. (Not to mention someone who probably will die of one of those things!)
He’s also right to note the stupid limitations and restrictions on pensions.
Most of these are still in place today, and they are why I use (and mainly write about) ISAs [3] instead of pensions.
I thought the other guy did quite well, considering. He’s called Steve Bee and he’s still flying the flag for pensions on Twitter [4].
According to his Jargon Free Pensions [5] website, Steve Bee is:
The former Head of Pensions at Prudential and pension strategist at Royal London. A multi award winning blogger and commentator on pensions, is the only person ever to have submitted evidence to a Commons Select Committee in cartoon-strip format.
Steve’s website is stuffed with cartoons, too. It also has pictures of Mr Bee looking a lot older than in the video above – living proof that time catches up with us!
Clarkson’s TV chat show was aired sometime in the late 1990s. He would only have been in his late-30s back then, but he looks like a case study for the anti-pension strategy he espouses.
Yet he’s is still going strong – and he actually appears less like he’s at death’s door now than in the video.
According to Clarkson’s website [6] he was born in 1960. At 50 this year, it looks like Clarkson’s going to make it to a bus pass (and a fat pension) after all.