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The Herald Scotland
07-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Retirement saving hacks for young people in Scotland and UK
Many young people want to save for the long term but are thwarted by their own psychology. While they may put off any thought of retirement planning due to more immediate financial concerns, from paying off student loans to saving for a house deposit, they may also find it difficult to think about the distant future. The challenge is that people struggle to imagine themselves as old and lack empathy for their future selves. This makes it hard to commit to long-term savings and pensions – even for those fully aware of the benefits. The result is that many leave themselves short of money in later years, significantly affecting their financial wellbeing. You can hack this problem using a technique known as self-visualisation. What is self-visualisation? Future self-visualisation is a powerful psychological tool that can change this mindset and boost your financial confidence. Elite sportspeople use it for motivation – for example, picturing themselves winning at the Olympics, hearing the crowd's roar and feeling the triumph of achievement as they receive a gold medal. As a long-term saver, you can use the same technique to picture yourself at an older age and imagine what it feels like to be free from any unwanted financial burdens. Why is visualisation so powerful? Research by Hal Hershfield, a professor at UCLA, shows people tend to treat their future selves as a different person. His studies have sought to explore the idea that if people get to know and show more regard for their future selves, they might change their savings preferences to suit. He ran an experiment in which young people had their photos digitally aged. Those who looked at these said they wanted to save an average of 6.2% of their salary for retirement, versus 4.4% for people looking at a photo of their current self. In other words, those who had a clear visualisation of themselves in the future were more likely to favour long-term rewards. Once you have an understanding of your future self, visualisation creates a positive mindset. It helps to think about all the things you might do once you have achieved financial security in the future. Knowing who you want to be motivates you to plan more effectively, set achievable goals and become that person. How to use visualisation to get the life you want The scenarios you visualise are most effective when they contain as much vibrancy, detail and emotion as possible. Think about where you would like to live if money was no object – maybe you would have multiple homes. Visualise what hobbies or interests you would pursue if you had more free time. Allow yourself to sense what life could be like once you achieve your financial goals – conjure the images, colours, details and emotions in your mind. Tony Clark, Senior Propositions Manager at St. James's Place, says it doesn't matter if you're not sure exactly who you want to be yet. Just visualising potential scenarios will help you create tangible targets. Read more Money HQ: 'Nobody knows exactly what the future holds, but you can think about what your life might look like and what you aspire to,' he says. 'For example, do you want to travel the world, or own a nice house? 'Then think, 'If I want these versions of my future, how will I afford them?' Consider how you can give yourself options, so you're not stuck when the time comes.' How do you set long-term goals? Self-visualisation should motivate you to start making smart, practical steps towards achieving your aspirations. You can do many small things now that will make a big difference long-term – putting money aside for emergencies and creating a savings bucket for medium-term goals will help you get into the savings habit. Talking to a financial adviser can help you decide where to start. We can explain how savings and investment vehicles work – such as Stocks & Shares ISAs and pensions – and the tax advantages available. Additionally, we can talk to you about pensions. With an employee scheme, the more you put in, the more many employers will match. And if you're self-employed or a business owner, it's vital to start a private pension. The importance of saving into a pension cannot be overestimated: young people opting out of a workplace scheme or skipping contributions have a lot more to lose than older people who do so, due to how your money will grow over time. A critical concept in planning for the long term is compound returns, which makes your investment growth accelerate each year. Over 20 or 30 years, this growth accelerates ever faster towards the end – and it's exciting to picture. But you need to start early to take maximum advantage. The value of an investment will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested. The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time. The value of any tax relief is generally dependent on individual circumstances. Ben Stark is a chartered financial planner with over a decade of experience advising businesses and families. He is partnered with St. James's Place Wealth Management.
The Independent
16-02-2025
- The Independent
I spoke to an AI-version of my future self – and it might have changed my life
When I was 15, I wrote a letter to my 30-year-old self, which was about as far into the future as I could imagine at that age. I found it when I was clearing out some boxes in my mid twenties, and although I'd completely forgotten what I'd written, some of it had already partly come true. I had imagined myself a sports journalist (not far off); that I'd bought a bus and travelled across Europe (it wasn't a double decker, but I'd driven an old campervan from Ireland to North Africa in my early twenties); and that I'd been in a car chase (this one had not come true). I didn't know it at the time, but engaging with an older version of myself in this way is something psychologists refer to as 'future self-continuity' – a field of study that is the inspiration behind a new AI chatbot that lets you talk to a simulation of your future self. Developed by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Future You uses the same large language model (LLM) technology as ChatGPT, but trained on your own personal data. Keen to see how realistic it is – and maybe find out if I ever do get in a car chase – I signed up as one of the thousands of participants in the research. After an extensive survey to determine my emotions, hopes, fears, current situation and future goals, a personalised chatbot appeared, offering to share its 'experiences and insights' with me. The system also used age progression software to transform a picture from my webcam into a 60-year-old version of me. (I apparently keep the bad haircut, but lose the blue eyes.) I began with some simple questions to my future self: Do I have any regrets? (Not spending enough time with my children); What have been the highlights? (Travelling the world with my wife); Will I still have a landlord when I'm 60? (No! I'm told I buy a 'beautiful home in the countryside'.) None of the answers felt particularly insightful, more like the stock answers given by a fairground fortune teller. I gave up asking anymore questions and instead turned to an early study of the Future You chatbot, involving 344 participants, to see what benefits there might be to this AI time machine. The study found that the people who interacted with the AI system were less anxious and reported improved motivation. The results mirrored previous research into future self continuity, which has shown that the connection a person feels with their future self can have a positive impact on their long-term decision making and general well being. In a 2011 study on the subject, US-based psychologist Hal Hershfield wrote: 'When the future self shares similarities with the present self, when it is viewed in vivid and realistic terms, and when it is seen in a positive light, people are more willing to make choices that may benefit them at some point in the years to come.' MIT says its Future You platform draws on these insights to 'create an experience that reduces anxiety and strengthens users' connection to their future potential'. The researchers also said that the more I interact with the chatbot, the more it learns, and the more personalised the responses become. So I tried again, this time being more specific in my approach and sharing more details about my current life. Future me said that the most cherished memory of my middle age is a trip to Bali for my 10 year wedding anniversary. 'The two of you stayed in a private villa surrounded by lush jungles and breathtaking views of the ocean,' the bot told me. I'd never considered that trip before, but it's my 10 year wedding anniversary next year and I immediately began looking into holidays to Indonesia. When I told my wife, she was on board for the trip, but also had a load of questions for future me. 'Will we still live in France?' (No, we move to England); 'Will we have any more children?' (Also no, two is enough apparently); 'Which of us will die first?' (It didn't know because my wife is still alive in this simulated future. Some of my friends are dead though). The more I talked with it, the more convincing it felt, which made me worry – not for the first time – that AI will soon be taking my job. So I asked it if AI will replace my job. ' Artificial intelligence is advancing at a rapid pace,' it told me, ' but there will always be certain aspects of work that require human touch and creativity.' Not very reassuring. I wondered if it could write an article for me. In fact, could it write this article for me? 'As I sit here, talking to an AI version of my future self, I can't help but feel a sense of wonder and curiosity,' it wrote. 'It's a surreal experience to be able to have a conversation with someone who has already lived the years that I am currently experiencing… I learned about the importance of prioritising love and family above all else… And perhaps most importantly, my future self reminded me to embrace the journey rather than just focussing on reaching specific goals or achievements.' Back to platitudes. How about writing this article, but from the AI's perspective? 'This experience highlights the ever-evolving relationship between humans and technology,' it wrote. 'As we talked, I couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. I shared stories and life lessons with my past self – about love, loss, and embracing the journey. These are all things that may seem simple or cliché, but they hold so much truth and wisdom that goes beyond time.' Similar to the letter I wrote when I was 15, it was beginning to feel a bit like a one-way conversation – though this time it was the future me saying what I was going to do, rather than the other way around. But it did allow me to do something that I haven't done since then, which is to properly think about what a future me might be like. These chats may even shape my life's trajectory, even if I forget all about them. Finally, I asked the AI if I will ever be in a car chase. No, future me told me; but he's only 60. There's still plenty of time.
