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Pensions: Rewarding the Prudent (& Lucky) in Old Age


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Pensions: Rewarding the Prudent (& Lucky) in Old Age

 

I attending a presentation this morning that made me aware that many people may have inadequate savings for their later years, and those that "come up short" are expecting some help from the government

 

cranky.jpg

 

That may be possible when a small percentage of our population is over retirement age, but as that percentage grows, it will be more and more difficult for the government to shoulder this burden.

 

Years, even decades ago, retired people would turn to their children for help, but many of those children are also less willing to accept that responsibility.

 

Are there any WISE ANSWERS for this dilemma ?

 

Also, the problem looks different (more serious or less, more urgent or delayed) in different countries.

 

W.Africa+vs+W.+Europe.jpg

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I think that many people with an employer-funded pension plan will be deluded into thinking there actually may be some money in it for them when they retire. I can't see these funds not getting raided.

 

Making one's own provisions including having adequate savings to pay living expenses, a paid-off property and a decent car -- these seem like the very basics.

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Public pensions are a giant ponzi scheme and should be shut down. We are not paying into our future - we are paying for the current recipients.

 

However I'm all for private pensions. Current annuity rates may suck because of QE and ZIRP, but that won't be the case forever, and I expect the macro variables to be vastly different when the time comes to draw from the pension.

 

Here's a previous thread.

http://www.greenener...showtopic=15474

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I think that many people with an employer-funded pension plan will be deluded into thinking there actually may be some money in it for them when they retire. I can't see these funds not getting raided.

 

Making one's own provisions including having adequate savings to pay living expenses, a paid-off property and a decent car -- these seem like the very basics.

Better yet:

nocar.jpg

Live somewhere that you do not need a car, and grow some of your own food.

Like days of old...

 

post_full_1271610080agriculture-new-golf.jpg

 

After all: "Agriculture is the new Golf!"

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Better yet:

 

Live somewhere that you do not need a car, and grow some of your own food.

Like days of old...

 

 

 

After all: "Agriculture is the new Golf!"

 

Dunno about that - we have friends who have allotments, and if you add up all the costs of the land and the agriculture (plus their time) it works out horrendously expensive for what they manage to get. Nice, but expensive.

 

Honestly, Division of Labour is usually A Good Thing

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Dunno about that - we have friends who have allotments, and if you add up all the costs of the land and the agriculture (plus their time) it works out horrendously expensive for what they manage to get. Nice, but expensive.

 

Honestly, Division of Labour is usually A Good Thing

 

it works, better when the Kitchen Garden, is in your own backyard

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Private pensions are just a piggy bank for governments to raid when they need the cash.

Which country was it that forced pension funds to buy government bonds?

You can do it overtly or covertly.

For instance, the government can change the rules on how to value assets to manipulate pension fund administrators/trustees into changing the ratio of shares to bonds in the portfolio.

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Private pensions are just a piggy bank for governments to raid when they need the cash.

Which country was it that forced pension funds to buy government bonds?

You can do it overtly or covertly.

For instance, the government can change the rules on how to value assets to manipulate pension fund administrators/trustees into changing the ratio of shares to bonds in the portfolio.

 

Sure.

If you have money in a property with a garden, where you are growing a significant part of your own food,

and you have no mortgage, you are approaching a situation that governments cannot easily threaten you,

except with (maybe) higher property taxes.

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And as for public pensions, well, there's this:

http://finance.yahoo...-211937220.html

Basically, if there's a lot of money in any pot, you can expect the government to dip into it.

 

Do you think the citizens are better off without such a pot?

Just compare the US, where the Social Security fund is loaded with government IOU's,

with Singapore where the required savings are invested in real assets, and securities issued by private sector entities.

 

Which country is better off?

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Obviously a prudent person should have a pot of savings for his old age but lousy governments take advantage of this.

If you have cash or bonds, they steal it with inflation.

If you have real assets, they find other ways to dip in surreptitiously - eg the unrefundable tax credit on dividends which was a very clever underhanded way of taking money from the pension funds. And don't say it was an unexpected consequence for the actuaries did warn that it will happen but that was all buried. Talk about plucking the goose with the least amount of hissing.

The problem is the regime that the saver has to live under.

 

I'd much rather live in S'pore than the UK but that's not likely to happen in this lifetime.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 9 months later...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-04/interest-rates-cannot-rise-heres-why

 

Interest Rates Cannot Rise - Here's Why

 

....the Fed has effectively robbed the retired class of any hope for having enough of a nest egg to live off through the end of their lives if they want to retire at 65.

 

Some may argue well this past 10 years has just been an anomaly of low interest rates but they will come back i.e. normalize to higher levels here in the next couple years. Well let me show you why that is simply wrong.

 

20141104_rates.jpg

 

....total debt as a percentage of GDP (green line) recently exceeded 100%.

 

...even the CBO is forecasting debt to GDP to continue rising for as far as the eye can see and so there must be a negative slope on interest rates.....

 

...we’ve had a fairly steady decline in interest rates since the late 1970′s about the same time that total debt began rising as a percentage of GDP. ...

 

....interest rates are locked into a very low range forever or at least until total debt gets paid down, which none of us expect to ever happen....

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  • 2 years later...

SMART people have figured out some Sound & Essential principles

 

Growing up to be a Smart & Successful Adult

- A positive vision of Future is essential, especially for men

 

"90% of the people who watch my Videos are men"

"I talk about responsibilities, not rights. You cannot have one without the other.

Your Rights are my Responsibilities... There's no meaning in Life without responsibility."

 

Once a viable idea of a future is established, young men are much more motivated to carry more responsibilities which gives meaning to one's life.

.

Jordan Peterson - Growing Up and Being Useful is The New Counterculture

Published on 25 May 2017

original source: https://youtu.be/T4fjSrVCDvA?t=2h20m3s
Psychology Professor Dr. Jordan B. Peterson explains why the Future Authoring Program works better for men who are doing worse in society.

Once a viable idea of a future is established, young men are much more motivated to carry more responsibilities which gives meaning to one's life.

 

Comment:

I never had someone had this big of an impact on my mental well-being through the internet before.

x1623 Likes !

 

/ 2 /

Strategy (1): 12 principles for a 21st century conservatism

Published on 22 Jun 2017

Conservatism has all-too-often found itself unable to articulate a coherent positive doctrine. By this I mean specifically that the laudable conservative tendency to preserve the best of past has too-often manifested itself in a series of "thou shalt not" statements, instead of laying out a manifesto of fundamental values that might serve to unite people around a set of common ambitions. I am attempting to rectify this problem with this statement of principles, some of which I believe might have the additional virtue of being attractive to young people, looking for mature and forthright purpose and responsibility.
I am not making the claim that the statement is perfect, comprehensive or final.
Background to the talk:
I spoke at Carleton Place, a town in Lanark County, Thursday, June 15/17. I was invited by Randy Hillier, who is a Member of Provincial Parliament for Ontario (randyhilliermpp.com).

 

12 principles for a 21st century conservatism

 

TENETS of a viable conservatism
=======
1. The fundamental assumptions of Western civilization are valid.

2. Peaceful social being is preferable to isolation and to war. In consequence, it justly and rightly demands some sacrifice of individual impulse and idiosyncrasy.

3. Hierarchies of competence are desirable and should be promoted.

4. Borders are reasonable. Likewise, limits on immigration are reasonable. Furthermore, it should not be assumed that citizens of societies that have not evolved functional individual-rights predicated polities will hold values in keeping with such polities.

5. People should be paid so that they are able and willing to perform socially useful and desirable duties.

6. Citizens have the inalienable right to benefit from the result of their own honest labor.

7. It is more noble to teach young people about responsibilities than about rights.


8. It is better to do what everyone has always done, unless you have some extraordinarily valid reason to do otherwise.

9. Radical change should be viewed with suspicion, particularly in a time of radical change.

10. The government, local and distal, should leave people to their own devices as much as possible.

11. Intact heterosexual two-parent families constitute the necessary bedrock for a stable polity.

12. We should judge our political system in comparison to other actual political systems and not to hypothetical utopias.

==

 

Those wanting to be handed Prosperity, and gain from the redistribution of the Wealth of others,

would really do well to THINK about these 12 Principles.

They want to be handed something (meaning, wealth & a respectable livelihood) that simply cannot be handed out,

the respect & meaning MUST be earned !

The RIGHTS that so many are demanding are someone else's RESPONSIBILITY.

(Like double-entry accounting, you need Balance, and cannot have one side without the other.

The "victims" demanding their Rights, are in fact trying to ENSLAVE others into delivering those Rights.

This simply cannot work in the long term!

 

> thread:

Learning to embrace the Meaning of Life: http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=21615
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