Look after your money, those blokes in the City won't

There has never been a sadder headline than this in today's telegraph:

The investment fund that is guaranteed to lose you money

 

Pension savers who hold money in Clerical Medical's Cash Pension are being charged more in fees than their money earns in interest.

This provides absolute proof that the financial institutions set up to look after the wealth of the people don't give a toss about you but only themselves. The poor people who chose to invest their pension savings in Clerical Medical's Cash Pension fund are earning themselves 0.5% interest a year, but after Clerical Medical take their 1% of fund fee per year, it means the fund loses money. You can't make this stuff up. This is real and happening. It could be happening to you too. A cash pension should be safe. It shouldn't be possible for it to lose money, but in the hands of the idiots at Clerical Medical it does.

It's clear and obvious that you need to take money management into your own hands and don't trust the 'advice' or 'skill' of investment professionals. If you are taking the safe option of investing in cash only, then a monkey could make 3% a year without fees by putting it into a cash ISA every year. If you have spare money fill your cash ISA first, stocks and shares ISA second then think about putting it into a pension after. Then check long and hard that your pension provider is making decent returns on the money you put into their safekeeping.

You can use the governments new money advice service free to compare savings accounts and easily beat the muppets in the City.