Current Events > is "saving for retirement" a big scam?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Blue "I had to declare bankruptcy because I maxxed out too many credit cards for the points" monk out here complaining about saving for retirement is comedy gold.

inb4 "who posted"

As a Brit what is a 401k?

Yes its a scam

its literally impossible to enjoy life when youre 60 anyway so whats the point

SHRlKE posted...

As a Brit what is a 401k?

Im at employee benefit retirement fund, you enroll every year with your employee and they match a certain amount. unfortunately 401k got so popular they replaced pension benefits.

If youre spending 80-90k per year you should be able to save 1.5k per month easy. Work on cutting your expenses.

pick4six posted...

Im at employee benefit retirement fund, you enroll every year with your employee and they match a certain amount. unfortunately 401k got so popular they replaced pension benefits.

Oh ok. That makes sense.

Here in the UK we get a "state pension" which everyone gets when they reach retirement age which is 68 for most people. For people closer to retirement it's currently 65. The state pension currently works out to about $12,000 a year in your money.

It sounds like we have similar to a 401k which we just call a "workplace pension" which is essentially just a private pension through your employer. It sounds similar where your employer contribute a minimum of 3% and there is a requirement of needing a minimum of 8% between employee and employer combined. I actually contribute 15% in total at the moment (5% from work and 10% my own).

It became mandatory for an employer to enrol you in one of these schemes a few years back although you do have the right to leave. So it's opt out rather than opt in.

I think the reason these were made mandatory is because the government realised that the state pension just isn't going to cut it anymore and could see a big fucking issue in 30 years as people are struggling so much that they couldn't afford a standard private pension so didn't bother enrolling. By making it mandatory they are hoping people just don't bother to opt out. There are benefits through doing it through your workplace as it's taken from your pay BEFORE tax so you effectively get an extra ~20% (for most people) on whatever you put in versus a traditional private pension.

There is a big furore about them raising the pension age in the UK. I think the desire to raise the pension age is because people are living longer and the government bill gets bigger and bigger every year.

The bit in bold worries me they'll do something similar over here which is essentially a 10k cut for everyone's retirement. Just sounds like an excuse for the government to cut costs.

_BlueMonk posted...

AND REPUBLICANS WANT TO CANCEL SOCIAL SECURITY!?!??!?!?!

They won't. It would simply put too many people out on the streets the next day. They'd have an entirely new and different problem on their hands.

Prismsblade posted...

I wish instead of SS we had Singapores system that you're essentially forced to save out of pocket individually for retirement.

So people who worked hard but dead end jobs into their 60s will at least have a few hundred thousand at a minimum for retirement. Rather then tiny checks to barely live off and if they die sooner then expected have nothing to pass on to younger relatives.

Omg CPF getting mentioned here on gfaqs, never thought I'd see the day