How secure is your future?

[Johnnie Walker]

I’m fortunate to have a pension that's based on my final salary when I took early retirement. The result of this is that I feel financially secure. I know most people, particularly younger people, aren’t going to be as fortunate as I’ve been. Do you have a plan to secure a healthy income in retirement? If you do, what is it? If you don’t, why not?

[Shones]

a) We are saving like crazy in the hope of being able to buy a house outright in New Zealand.
b) We have a small flat that we are succesfully renting out.
c) We saved like crazy to pay off the mortgage on the house we're in at the moment. Everything we do is geared to the long term plan of renting this house out companies (quite a few foreign managerial workers come to Mexico on 2 year contracts).
If all goes well in New Zealand, then we'd like to sell everything here and have a small rental property in NZ. This I think will help us for our retirement in NZ.

PS Having said all that, I'm pretty fed up of saving like crazy and wish we could travel more now - but I realize that a comfy retirement depends on an income coming in

[Duncan74]

Not worried, 'She'll be right'

[rogercruse]

Not worried, 'She'll be right'

I'm not too worried either and the "she" is my case is my other half who's pension pot is much bigger than mine!

[GrumpyGoat]

Personally, I don't think a pension is much security. Considering most of them are hugely underfunded and very likely to get the ax before my retirement age. I do worry about people who are planning the future based on expected pension payments. I would be very uncomfortable if all my eggs were in this basket right now.

Also, I don't have much confidence in the govt paying any type of retirement in the future either.

But then again, I don't really see myself "retiring" in the way that it has been done the last 60 or so years.

[reptile2005]

I'm one of those young Americans who will probably be working until the day I die. Currently I'm sitting on enough of a nest egg that I am not worrying about the short term (unless a medical issue arises). But I am not expecting the American social security to be there as my safety net when I come of age.

[hoping2win]

I am encouraged by the knowledge that no government can afford to have a heap of older citizens with no income. Our function on this planet is to earn and consume. If we stop doing either, the world economy falls over. Workers are paid only sufficient to stop them revolting (some still are revolting though!) so there is not a lot left for saving for the retirement. Rental houses are no good unless you are extremely fortunate to always have good tenants. Even then you are relying on constant inflation to boost your capital gain. Marry a rich man/woman is the best solution, I did neither !

[Familyofmonkeys]

Personally, I don't think a pension is much security. Considering most of them are hugely underfunded and very likely to get the ax before my retirement age. I do worry about people who are planning the future based on expected pension payments. I would be very uncomfortable if all my eggs were in this basket right now.

Also, I don't have much confidence in the govt paying any type of retirement in the future either.

But then again, I don't really see myself "retiring" in the way that it has been done the last 60 or so years.

Ditto!

Although until my kids are older and I'm able to rejoin the work force, we're limited in our ability to see some of our long term plans come to fruition.

[James 1077]

I have always put aside into a pension fund the maximum amount that gets "matched" contributions by my employer as that is just "free" money.

However I have zero confidence in any pension provider or government to pay out without changing the rules to my disadvantage so won't save any more than that. At the moment any spare money goes into paying off my mortgage and, once I'm mortgage free, we'll look at investing any spare money elsewhere (and not through funds or pension schemes).

[Wooly_Cow]

Like the OP, I had a final salary scheme with excellent pay out and benefits....then the company folded, and the fund closed. Right now it is being assessed for UK Government Pension Protection Scheme. At best I'll get 90% of what it's worth...at worst I'll loose the lot.....20 odd years of careful paying in....down the drain.

So OP you are a very lucky person unlike a lot of people who have not yet retired.....

Out of interest what was the reason behind the OP? To encourage people to save, or just a fascination as to what other less fortunate people are going to do now?