# 'My pension fund has grown by 69% in three and a half years' - here's how to maximise yours Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-with-money-7327459/my-pension-fund-has-grown-by-69-in-three-and-a-half-years-here-s-how-to-maximise-yours Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-with-money-7327459/my-pension-fund-has-grown-by-69-in-three-and-a-half-years-here-s-how-to-maximise-yours.md Podcast: [Better With Money](https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-with-money-7327459) Published: 2026-05-19T04:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/better-with-money/episodes/my-pension-fund-has-grown-by-69-in-three-and-a-half-years-he Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/67fe6575ad69959fc242080d/e/6a0735ba68dc584eda3abc46/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/better-with-money-7327459/episodes/my-pension-fund-has-grown-by-69-in-three-and-a-half-years-here-s-how-to-maximise-yours Duration seconds: 1606 ## Resource If you have pension anxiety - either because you don't have one yet or because the one you do have won't cut it - this is the episode for you. Sjoerd Bak, a qualified financial adviser and founder of Become a Millionaire explains why pensions should come before any other investing, especially for those worried their retirement fund won’t be enough. Bak shares how a stroke in 2020 prompted him to reassess his finances, simplify his approach, and retrain as an adviser after running workplace “Become a Millionaire” sessions. He explains Ireland’s pension tax relief and argues the tax benefits can’t be beaten by ETFs or stock picking. He urges listeners to track income and spending, log into their pension portal to review fees and asset allocation (especially equity exposure), and focus on consistent, long-term investing. Plus, find out how Freud's pleasure pain theory can help reframe your money mindset. Presented by Aideen Finnegan. This episode is for information purposes only and doesn't constitute financial advice. Check out our previous episode on pensions with assistant business editor Dominic Coyle can be found here . You can find Sjoerd 's guide to pension relief here and his finance tracker here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/better-with-money-7327459/episodes/my-pension-fund-has-grown-by-69-in-three-and-a-half-years-here-s-how-to-maximise-yours/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-with-money-7327459/my-pension-fund-has-grown-by-69-in-three-and-a-half-years-here-s-how-to-maximise-yours.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.