What are you doing for your old age provision?

[agentgonzo]

Similar to other people on here, I invest in a 'balanced portfolio' - ie not one thing but a good spread of things so that if you invest in one thing and it bombs in the next n-years-to-retirement the others should have a good chance of seeing you through.

I'm surprised you don't mention 'private pension' as one of your options as this is one of the main ways the majority of people I know invest.

I fully expect the UK public pension to be pushed back from (I think now) 67 (for men) to 70 and then to 75 before I get to that age. Then for it to get abolished entirely after I've been paying into it for years.

 

[Artlav]

private pension

How can you be sure that the provider won't disappear by the next half of the century?
At least states have some sort of continuity across disasters, wars and politics.
A company can just go pop.

 

[jedidia]

The state usually puts pension funds into private investment, so it's not really that big of a difference.

I'm more or less relying that our national old age provision won't go bankrupt until I get there, but even in Switzerland that's far from guaranteed. No Idea what we'll do if that'll be the case. I'm working humanitairian and living of donations, of which we're saving up a part, but most of that will be used up for "re-entry". It'll be hard to get back to switzerland and find a job after some 10 to 15 years, and you usually calculate a half-year period of unemployment until you get to grips again with the weirdness of your own country, so there's not really much left to put aside beyond that. But, as it is written on our biggest coins: "Deus providebit". God will provide. Hopefully.

 

[agentgonzo]

How can you be sure that the provider won't disappear by the next half of the century?
At least states have some sort of continuity across disasters, wars and politics.
A company can just go pop.

The funds in private pensions aren't in the company coffers. They are entirely separate because exactly because of what you say. Both me and my employer contribute to my pension fund and this money goes to an entirely separate legal entity from my company's commercial practises. It's managed specifically as a pension fund as a low-risk endeavour and has legal separation from the my employer so that in the event that the company goes tits-up and folds next week, the pension plan will continue to be there and be managed over the next half-century until I retire.

Yes, the pension fund could go bust, but the only thing that the pension fund does is to manage the pension - as such is it unlikely that it'll go bust as it doesn't really have any commercial endeavours and is thus low risk. All pension funds (I think) are also regulated by the Financial Services Authority. It could go bust, but then the same could be said of a state pension.

 

[jedidia]

Yes, the pension fund could go bust, but the only thing that the pension fund does is to manage the pension - as such is it unlikely that it'll go bust as it doesn't really have any commercial endeavours and is thus low risk.

We did have a problem with pension funds going Stock-Market happy at one point in Switzerland. I wouldn't be amazed if it still happened behind peoples back. You only hear of it when they go bankrupt or are in severe crisis.

But' let's be honest, any provision can somehow go down the drain. Leave the money under the matress, it can get devalued or stolen, divide it over several save investements and the whole economy can still come crashing down at you...

 

[Wishbone]

Invest money into your kids' education, invest love into their upbringing...

 

[T.Neo]

Invest money into your kids' education, invest love into their upbringing...

Plan to live long enough to become a problem for your children. :lol:

 

[Enjo]

Precious metals now to shift them into real estate in a few years, when real estate bottoms and metals top.
When I'm not fully employed I can gamble with my money more actively, shifting some of it to Forex. My soul mate makes 7%-10% a month while being uneducated and unexperienced in the field. 10% is as much as my "401k" fund managers do in a year, while yearly increase in money supply in Poland varies between 10% and 15%, so my 401k just loses not as much as it could.
My financial mentor makes 20%-25% a month on Forex. And he's heavy in metals and owns some real estate.

A word of warning - neither of us ever gambles with leverage, because we realize how it may hurt...

Oh, and I'm educated. It always helps.

 

[Ghostrider]

I'll be buying guns. Lots of them.
And I'll be buying ammo. Lots of lots of them.

 

[PennyBlack]

Tinned food and bullets. You can't go wrong.

 

[Enjo]

Hopefully the society will fight together rather than against itself in these tough times. If it doesn't, I'm fine with knives

 

[PennyBlack]

Owe, and a tin opener.