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Britons staking retirement on stock market
29 January 2008 12:00
Many Britons are investing directly in the stock market as a way of accruing funds for retirement, according to a new survey, despite the risk that this entails.
Having started 2007 at 6,220.8, the FTSE 100 index climbed to a high of 6,7541.1 in July before dropping to 6,546.9 at the close of the year and then starting 2008 in the worst form that any year has begun with for the past three decades.
Yet despite this show of volatility, more than one in four people aged over-55 still see investments in the stock market as an alternative to a pension, Lincoln Financial Group's poll showed, of whom over one in five are planning further speculations.
Worryingly, this attitude seems even more prevalent among future generations of retirees, with over one in four 45-to-54 year-olds considering stocks and shares as a substitute for a pension, as do more than one in three 25-to-34 year-olds.
Lincoln's Simon O'Connor expressed concern at these trends, especially given that the FTSE 100 has still not returned to its 1999 peak and added that the tax breaks that pensions offer make them a more lucrative option than direct stock market investment.
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