Pensions are the part of your money most people ignore until it’s nearly too late. Between lost pots, default funds quietly underperforming and confusion over what advice is actually worth paying for, it’s easy to end up with far less than you should. These five Money Gains Podcast episodes cut through that.
We’ve picked the conversations that go beyond “just pay into your pension” and actually explain what to check, what to fix and when to get help. You’ll hear from a pensions specialist who’s helped people find six-figure lost pots, a financial adviser with two decades of experience calling out the myths around risk, and Sammie’s regular panel answering the pension questions listeners actually send in.
Each one is short enough for a commute and packed with things you can act on this week: tracing a lost pot, checking whether your default fund is dragging your returns down, and working out if you genuinely need an adviser or just a better system. Here are the five pension episodes worth your time.
David Henderson: How to Find Your Lost Pensions (Step-by-Step)
There’s an estimated £31 billion sitting in around 3.3 million forgotten pension pots across the UK, and David Henderson, Head of Pensions at Penny, explains exactly why. Job changes, house moves and name changes are enough to knock you off a provider’s records completely.
David walks through how to trace a lost pot using the government’s free Pension Tracing Service or an app like Penny, using little more than your National Insurance number and past employer details. He also covers why 90% of default pension funds underperform their own benchmark, the PLSA’s retirement living standards (from £14k to £43k a year), and what the 2026 pensions dashboard rollout will mean for tracking everything in one place.
If you’ve ever wondered whether an old workplace pension is still out there, start here.
Rotimi Merriman-Johnson & Laura Ann-Moore Answer Your Pension and Money Questions
Sammie’s regular Ask Me A Money Question panel, Rotimi Merriman-Johnson (Mr MoneyJar) and Laura Ann-Moore, tackle five listener questions in one sitting, and pensions run through most of them.
They explain how auto-enrolment now covers 88% of employees yet still leaves huge sums invisible and unmanaged, why the pension access age is rising from 55 to 57 by 2028, and how a poorly performing default fund can quietly cost you tens of thousands over a working life. Cryptocurrency risk, joint finances and buying a first home also get airtime, but the pension segment is the standout.
It’s a useful reminder that state pension, workplace pension and personal investing all need to work together, not one covering for the others.
Andy Hart: Is the Stock Market Actually Risky? No Bullsh*t Money Advice
Andy Hart, a financial adviser with twenty years’ experience and author of “No Bullsh*t Money Advice”, flips the usual framing on its head: cash, not the stock market, is the riskiest long-term asset once inflation is factored in.
He breaks risk into three categories (volatility, permanent capital loss and inflation), argues that financial planning is really about managing behaviour rather than picking products, and takes on Elon Musk’s claim that AI will make retirement saving pointless. His answer: longer lifespans make pension planning more important, not less.
There’s also a genuinely useful take on retirement readiness, boiled down to three questions about work, money and how you’ll actually spend your time.
Pete Matthew: Do You Need a Financial Adviser? The Cash Flow Ladder Explained
Pete Matthew makes the case for a “cash flow ladder” in retirement: one to three years of spending kept in cash, the next three to eight years in a balanced portfolio, and everything beyond that invested for growth. It’s a practical way to manage sequence-of-returns risk without panicking every time markets dip.
He also challenges automatic “lifestyling”, the default setting that shifts your pension from equities into bonds as you approach retirement, arguing it’s outdated now that pension freedoms have removed the old requirement to buy an annuity.
If you’ve ever wondered whether paying for financial advice is worth it, Pete sets out exactly when it earns its fee, and when it doesn’t.
Is a Pension Right for You? David Henderson on Lost Pensions and Default Funds
A shorter Money Moments hit with David Henderson back to add two things worth five minutes of anyone’s time. First, employer pension contributions are essentially free money, often 3% or more on top of your own, which makes opting out one of the costliest decisions you can make.
Second, roughly 90% of workers are sitting in a default fund they never chose, and many of those default funds underperform their own benchmark. David explains how to check yours against a provider’s “best buy” list and why even a small switch compounds hugely over thirty years. He also revisits the £31 billion lost pension problem, with real examples ranging from a few pence to £450,000.
Ten minutes, two changes, potentially thousands of pounds difference.
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