Axa has announced that it is launching a competition to find a new name for “pensions” after a survey revealed that 18% of respondents associated it with “grey” and 72% of younger people associated it with old age. Well – d’uh…yeah!

It is perhaps this last statistic (or rotten lie -depending on your point of view) that is the most worrying.

The hard sad fact is that unless you have begun some sort of decent non-State pension provision by the age of 30, you are likely to retire in penury come age 65 (or 68, 70, take your pick).

If you are lucky enough to have access to an employers’ pension arrangement (one to which they contribute whether it’s Defined Benefit or Defined Contribution) take it. It will be far better than anything the State pension will have to offer. It won’t allow you to retire in luxury but if you can, contribute as much as you can afford.

While I fully understand of course that putting a roof over your head, food in your stomach, and clothes on your children’s backs take priority, don’t leave it until the kids have left home before thinking about how you will survive when you can no longer work. By then (bar a lottery win) it will be far too late.

Another name for a pension? The Australians call it “superannuation”-a long word but why not…