According to data produced by Skandia, if grandparents put just £240 a month (which equates to £300 a month gross contribution) into a pension for a grandchild each year for 18 years, when the grandchild reaches age 60, they could be a millionaire.

After a legal challenge, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that ‘gender discrimination’ is illegal when deciding how much people pay for their insurance and the income they receive from their pensions when they retire. There are now changes to the UK Equality Act to implement the judgement – the Gender Directive, by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which removes the ability of insurers to use gender as a factor in pricing policies and determining benefits.

‘No news is good news’ as the old saying goes – or as world stock markets interpreted it in September, ‘No catastrophic news is good enough, thank you.’

UK dividends are income from UK company shares, unit trusts and open ended investment companies. Dividend income is not the same as income from interest and for taxable purposes the two are treated by HMRC separately and differently.

For most of us, it’s simple. Go to work every month, get paid, have a look at the pension deduction on your wage slip. Once a year you receive a pension update that you don’t really understand. Oh well, pop it in the drawer with all the other updates…