Vulcan Energy gets 104 mln euros in German grants for clean lithium production
The grants, which have been issued by the federal government and the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse, will go towards a project "designed to assist with building Germany's and Europe's critical raw materials supply chain resilience."
The funding will be disbursed from October 1 over the course of 36 months, the company said.
($1 = 0.8548 euros)
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Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of risky moves. I would rather wait an extra hour at the airport than stress over missing a flight, I find it hard to negotiate on price for fear of losing a deal completely and I refuse to get behind the wheel if I've had a single drink. With all these decisions, the anxiety caused by the potential loss outweighs any positive that the risk brings. Rushing through security to walk straight on to a flight may be exhilarating for some, but my heart rate would still be elevated when I landed at my destination. There is one area, however, where I'm simply going to have to take more risk: my pension pot. As a young (ish) saver, the safest thing to do is to assume that the entire responsibility of funding my retirement will fall to me. And that requires more risk. This week the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, said she was 'formally announcing' the next government review of the state pension age. As the last review concluded in 2023 — and the government only has to review the age every six years — this was earlier than expected. It's looking likely that the age at which you get your state pension will rise sooner than planned. The state pension age is 66, increasing to 67 between 2026 and 2028. Another jump to 68 is pencilled in for 2046, but will probably be moved forward. To assume that the state pension age will stay at 68 by the time I get there (in about 38 years) would be foolish. In fact, to assume there will be any state pension at all is unwise. The state pension is a financial headache for the government. It costs about 5 per cent of GDP, up from about 3.5 per cent in the year 2000, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), and is forecast to be 7.7 per cent by 2070. It's also getting harder to find the cash to fund it. People are living longer and having fewer babies — aka future taxpayers. The UK's old-age dependency ratio, the population aged 65 and over as a percentage of those of working-age (16 to 64), is set to increase from about 33 to 50 by the mid-2060s, according to the OBR. So my private pension is going to have to do the heavy lifting in my retirement — at least if I want to stop working before I'm 75. And the easiest and cheapest way to boost my pot is to increase my level of investment risk. • How to get a nation of savers investing 'It's important for younger savers to take risks with their pension — that just means investing in the stock market, not taking a punt on bitcoin. If you have 30 or 40 years until retirement, your pension should be heavily, if not exclusively, invested in shares,' said Laith Khalaf from the investment firm AJ Bell. 'The exception would be if you have a nervous disposition and can't bear to see a fall in the value of your savings. Even then, the fact that you are saving regularly into a pension means you get a smoother journey even with a relatively high content invested in the stock market.' Historically, the stock market has provided the best investment returns in the long run. If, 30 years ago, you had invested £1,000 in the Investment Association's global sector of funds that are invested entirely in stocks, you would have £8,150 today. The sector of funds that are 40 to 85 per cent invested in the stock market would have returned £5,657, while the 20 to 60 per cent stocks option would have returned £4,362. But most pensions are not invested in 100 per cent equities, even for workers who are just starting out. Most pension savers are automatically enrolled into workplace pensions and put into 'default' funds — a one-size-fits-all option that has to be appropriate for 20-year-olds and 50-year-olds. This means that many default funds will only have about 60 to 70 per cent of their pot invested in shares. The rest will be in assets such as cash or bonds, that are considered less volatile but are also unlikely to grow at the same rate. Effectively, these pots are simply the least worst fit for the workforce as a whole. • How to stop the taxman taking a big slice of your pension I confess that this is still how my pension savings are invested. James Coker from the wealth manager Quilter Cheviot said this was unlikely to be my best chance at building a hefty pension pot. He said: 'Moving your pots into an equity portfolio will serve you well over the long term. Someone in their thirties or forties is arguably decades away from retirement and stocks have the greatest inflation-adjusted growth potential. Stocks have to form the basis, if not all, of your portfolio.' With the ever-increasing likelihood that my income in retirement will be on my shoulders alone, it's time to make the move. The cheapest way for me to do this is to move my pension pots into a global tracker fund, a low-cost option that replicates the performance of global stock markets. It may feel risky, but the alternative — a pot that doesn't plug the hole left by a disappearing state pension — feels even riskier. • Top of the pension pots: the best place for your Sipp
