Investment, technology and retirement – how can the three be combined to encourage the younger generation to save, asks RisCura's Andrew Slater.

Investment, technology and retirement – the combination of the three prompts RisCura's Andrew Slater to ask how can the younger generation be encouraged to save?

My journey this time was shorter than usual. Instead of Heathrow and onwards to the excitement of Africa, it was to the pub across the road from my office to meet a friend for a drink. And instead of unstoppable African growth, the topic of conversation was the unstoppable growth of London house prices. After pints were refilled the conversation turned to at what age do you introduce computer programming to children?

And where do you start? I knew things had moved on since I coded BASIC on my ZX81. I had heard of Randy Pausch and his involvement with a language called Alice, which was specifically developed for children. By the way, if you haven't heard the "last lecture" by Randy Pausch on how to achieve your childhood dreams then you should, it is an hour well spent.

After some googling I found Scratch, developed by MIT and freely available. It is designed to be "low floor and high ceiling", meaning it is easy for children to get to grips with. For example, there is no arbitrary syntax to learn. But despite its colourful presentation, it is a proper programming language. Searching the Scratch online community I found that someone has rewritten the 1980s classic JetPac. It plays just as I remember, and what's more with a click you can see the code and remix it into your own projects.

As you would expect the majority of members of the Scratch community are teenagers as that is the intended audience. But I found an older member: William Sharpe, Professor Emeritus of Finance at Stanford, renowned for developing the Sharpe ratio and for his influence in finance and investment theory. He is a convert to Scratch. His project is building tools for retirement income scenarios, such as showing the probability of achieving a target real income.

There you go: investment, technology and retirement all in one place. Is it becoming child's play? It raises some interesting questions about the role of financial education and provision of financial advice to the youngest generation. At least these developments encourage retirement saving at an early age.

Written by Andrew Slater, managing director, RisCura

aslater@uk.riscura.com