It is never too early to talk about retirement

The pension, if all goes well, should arrive sooner or later: just work, pay the compulsory contributions and then – at more or less the appropriate age, when the pension piggy bank is sufficiently full – find out what, how much and how we will be there. given back. For how many does this image still correspond to reality? It is an idea of ​​the world of pensions that we have inherited from previous generations, but which now has little to do with the current situation. Yet, either for lack of information, or for lack of foresight, it is particularly difficult to overcome. Compared to the past, today there are not only different regulations (already in 1995 the pension reform has changed the situation, weighing more on the citizen, who has full responsibility for the construction of his own social security piggy bank), but also a more dynamic, discontinuous and precarious. These factors, added to the rampant lack of interest in a subject that is perceived as distant or directly unattainable, expose you to the real risk of living the retirement years in poverty.

What is needed is a change of attitude towards the topic: no longer passive, but active. And the sooner you start to (pre) deal with it, the better. It arises from these premises Foresightedthe six-part podcast available on Spotify (the second season will arrive in autumn 2022) conceived and conducted by employment consultant Elisa Lupo. From the monitoring of contributions to the line of investment to be chosen in a supplementary pension plan, the project aims to disseminate the fundamental information for orienting oneself in the world of pensions. The target audience is above all the younger generations, those who could reap the greatest benefits by taking care of their social security contributions immediately but who, according to the data, are the least likely to do so. According to an Eures-CNG survey of 2021, 44% of Italians under 35 imagine retiring after the age of 70 and 53% do not know the pension system in force. The podcast was also distributed by the Foundation for Financial Education and Savings to high school students as part of the project Ready, work … go!.

«It was an exciting experience», comments Elisa Lupo, who has held a series of webinars with the boys and girls of the last few years. “The lesson began with the utmost skepticism and disinterest. In the end, however, the students said: “I have to explain this at home too”. Here is the necessary change of mindset: it is no longer the parents who explain what must be done, but it is the children who make them understand what the new horizon is “.

Elisa Lupo, how did the idea of ​​the podcast come about?
«For some time I had the idea that there was a need to convey certain concepts in a simple way. I work as a labor consultant and I notice that there is little knowledge on the subject of pensions, but also little desire to have it. I thought that the podcast was the tool that could best convey the information I wanted to give: a basic kit useful for anyone to understand something more about their retirement purse “.

As he said, there is little knowledge on the subject of pensions. Is it true for everyone or especially for young people?
«In younger people it is more marked, but I cannot say that those who are older in age have more awareness just because they are more adult. In general, it is a subject that is rarely dealt with: partly because historically, for the generations that preceded us, it was not necessary to deal with it; partly because it is not very popular. In my opinion this is the most serious thing: it is important that everyone has the minimum necessary knowledge ».

Previous generations had less need to deal with retirement, but the job market has changed since then. How are these changes reflected in pensions and contributions?
«There are two factors that have undermined the previous way of thinking. The first is, in fact, the change in the world of work. Work today is much more discontinuous: there is no longer a single employer and there are no more careers that remain stable or growing for 40 years, without holes, unemployment or changes. Now everything is much more dynamic and the various contributory situations must “talk” to each other. The other thing that has changed is the pension system itself: before it was not necessary to create a second pillar, a second leg. Once upon a time we reached the threshold of retirement and then we began to inform ourselves, we knocked on the doors of the INPS and asked ourselves: ok, when will you give me my pension? Now it doesn’t work like that anymore and this change requires an active attitude towards the subject, which was not what it was before ».