And even if your offspring don’t end up going to university they are still likely to want to

And even if your offspring don’t end up going to university, they are still likely to want to buy their own home and a car at some stage.
Teaching your child basic money management is a parental duty. With the average student graduating up to £12,000 in debt, according to the National Union of Students, raising financially responsible children is one of the greatest challenges facing parents. Only then can people once again look forward to a long retirement, rather than dreading it.m.bien independent.co.uk. The survey makes grim reading, revealing ignorance, mistrust and a lack of confidence in the future.It’s going to be hard to find long-term, realistic solutions to these problems, especially as, among those surveyed by NOP who said they hadn’t made any provision for retirement, 59 per cent said they felt they couldn’t afford to But this shows why the situation has to be tackled head-on.

Only one in nine people, or 11 per cent, believe the Government will provide a decent state pension in future and nearly half don’t understand the current state pension system.The Government has yet to admit it has a pensions crisis on its hands, but NOP’s researchers found one in five respondents did not know how they would survive financially in retirement. An NOP survey, on behalf of Help the Aged, reveals that 70 per cent of those surveyed don’t trust the Government to provide unbiased information, either. Far from taking money out of the market, investors should be thinking about putting more in.A warning on pensionsA new survey is released today underlining what has become painfully obvious in recent years – that the public doesn’t trust pensions. The economic background is fairly supportive of future growth and there are plenty of companies with attractive valuations. But if your assets are well diversified, you will be better positioned to take advantage of the recovery when it does happen.Signs of recovery are just beginning to emerge There’s a long way to go, but things seem to be looking up. If you are too exposed to one sector or market, you will end up struggling if it takes a dive. For example, you may be hanging on to a technology fund when several of your other general funds have large technology holdings.

A more useful practice would be to carry out an annual review of your overall portfolio, addressing any omissions or overlaps. When prices do recover, most investors are likely to find they’ve made a costly mistake, as they will have missed out on the upturn.Given that the usual advice for those opting for equities is to stay invested for the long term – at least five years, preferably more – to get into the habit of selling your investments on an annual basis is just foolhardy. The idea is that equity investors sell up and wait until autumn before piling back in when the market picks up.But with markets so low, selling now is unlikely to be the best course of action. “Sell in May and go away” is the old saying, referring to the beginning of the summer, traditionally a quiet time on the stock market.