I’ve just about finished my first month of working as a pensions journalist. I had no real idea about the depth and complexity of pensions before I started this job, and I am striving hard to comprehend as many topics, terms and acronyms as possible. Luckily, this is a process that has been assisted by several exceptionally patient colleagues.

In the midst of finding my feet and working out where the toilets are, I have found a couple of issues in the industry particularly curious.

Firstly, as a card-carrying member of the avocado-chomping snowflake generation, ESG is an undoubtedly appealing aspect of pensions. Although it has been extremely difficult, I’ve come to accept that I’m not Jake Gyllenhaal in The Day after Tomorrow. As such, in the case of Hollywood-esque global climate mega disaster, it’s unlikely Dennis Quaid will soldier bravely through a snow-covered New York to rescue me from my library refuge. Consequently, man-made global warming is a pressing concern.

Niche 2000s disaster movie references aside, a shift towards responsible investment is also particularly interesting due to public perception of finance. Given the 2008 recession that so rudely punctuated my adolescence, the idea of trusting large financial institutions to use their influence for good is still an alien concept for many people my age. With more and more companies becoming concerned about ESG, perhaps some trust might begin to slowly build up again.

On a more personal level, I am also intrigued by the pensions dashboard project. As somebody who has long watched a portion of his paycheque trickle off in the form of shadowy student loan repayments, I am keen for an easy to use an online portal that can display the state of my debts in as concise a format as possible, allowing me to then quickly close the tab and have a nice lie down to recover.

With a new student loans portal going live this year, it seems only logical to me that pensions, another aspect of my personal finances that remain something of a mystery to me, follow suit. I’m eager for easy viewing of the funds I can use when I’m viably able to retire at the age of 100, so the long-incoming pensions dashboard is another area that particularly interests me.

I’m looking forward to getting to grips with more aspects of the industry and with each article I write I am learning more. Whatever the subject, I have found something to appreciate in each topic my writing has covered thus far. This leaves me confident that I can look forward to a happy future covering pensions.

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