What are you doing for your old age provision?

[Topper]

Hi,

because of the world wide economy crisis, i will ask you, what do you think is the best way to invest for a long time period? (let's say ~30 - 40 years)

No panik, this is not the only way i will inform me! And i don't prefer anyone to invest all the money in the most clicked answer!

Please note, this is multiple choise, so you can select more than one point if you prefere to share the money.

I know this question depents on where you are living, but I'm curious about your answers.

 

[Urwumpe]

I plan to never become that old.

 

[Artlav]

Education.
If you are rich the knowledge decorates you, if you are poor the knowledge feeds you.

That applies to your kids too.

 

[insanity]

401k, savings, and a separate portfolio that is heavy on mutual funds and bonds.

 

[FADEC]

Nothing.

I can't anticipate how old I become. I can't even anticipate what will be in ten years. I will work for as long as I can. If I can't work anymore due to afflictions, then I can't properly live anymore, therefore it's over then anyway. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

To do nothing and enjoy the pension is a wide-spread myth I think. Most people who are able to enjoy it physically still do something. Others suffer from afflictions. I think the number of pensioners who really enjoy their free time is not really big. Humans aren't made for doing nothing. It most likely ends in an old folks home.

 

[RisingFury]

I plan to never become that old.

Ritual suicide? :lol:

I plan to trust the public pension model, but save up money on the side. It worked out very well for my grand parents who can now live with more comfort than most working people.

 

[mojoey]

im 16 so im not looking too terribly far into the future, but IF i get old im going to buy gold

 

[RisingFury]

im 16 so im not looking too terribly far into the future, but IF i get old im going to buy gold

I'm pretty sure the point is to buy gold before you get old, so that you can sell it when you're old and live comfortably :thumbup:

 

[Urwumpe]

Ritual suicide? :lol:

Suicide is not an option. :lol:

But I don't really expect to get interest rates on my years on this planet by saving my life up until the end.

 

[garyw]

One serious answer to the question:

I've been paying into a private pension fund since I was 23, I've also got a couple of other funds one of which matures December of next year and will help pay off part of the Mortgage and I have a savings fund.

The key is to split whatever money you have to invest into various funds and to have a very good financial advisor who will keep a watch on the funds and move when a fund starts to lose value.

 

[Topper]

Suicide is not an option. :lol:

But I don't really expect to get interest rates on my years on this planet by saving my life up until the end.

Ah you don't need to wait for so long. If i think about it, I don't need to invest, because the world will end in 2012...
Or will the Probe rescue us?

 

[Urwumpe]

Ah you don't need to wait so long. If i think about it, I don't need to invest, because the world will end in 2012...

Only if you believe in the wrong religion.

I am very confident in the interpretation of the Maya and will thus, like them, have a party like it's 3114 BCE. :lol:

 

[Jarvitä]

I regularly donate between 25% and 50% of my income to the Future of Humanity Institute and the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. I'm convinced that long-term fundamental existential risk mitigation, combined with careful advances in friendly AI, is the best bet for ensuring humanity's pattern continuity in the mid-distant future.

Also, just in case aging isn't cured in the next ~50 years, I'm currently negotiating with several insurance agencies for a cryonics-friendly life insurance policy, so I can sign up for neuropreservation with Alcor.

So yeah, "long-term" investments are pretty meaningless when you plan on living forever.

 

[T.Neo]

Well, if I ever hear someone saying they want to dedicate their retirement to making wood carvings of Romanian politicians or painting portraits of dogs standing in front of the pyramids at Giza, I won't be able to say that it's the craziest long term life planning I've ever heard...

 

[N757QQ]

Well, I do the following and so far, I am financially secure:

I invest in good mutual funds that ---I--- research, and think are best for me, with the help of a good advisor that I really trust, and who answers my questions. If he just says trust me, I wouldn't be there.

I am not currently, but if I had the extra money would be, invested in real estate. I own a house that I got for a steal thanks to a buyers' market.

If my house were paid for, I would invest a portion into real estate, given the current market.

I also believe the best way to make money if to be debt free, except a mortgage, perhaps. If I own 2 pieces of real estate, they would both be paid for. Since I just purchased my first house, I have a mortgage, for now.

Being debt free, or predominantly so, frees up your income for larger investing, savings, and playing. I am, and will always be, debt free, excluding this first mortgage.

I would not invest in gold, or other 'precious' metals. The market is volatile. You never know when these big buying companies (who are the major pushers of the price) will start selling. And when they do, the price will fall again, the market will go away, and the little guy is left holding overpriced gold.

Additionally, gold & silver will never become the monetary exchange chose if the dollar dies. It's too cumbersome, and bartering is much better, along with other options, to lugging around 100+ lbs sacks of metal to buy something.

 

[Ark]

I'm 22 and have never been in a position where I had enough money to spare to even think about investing. It's starting to look more and more like a luxury item that the common folk will never be able to afford.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Am I missing something in the question?

Is taking a calculated risk of establishing your own small enterprise, a few years before your planned retirement, by investing some of what you have earned into a nook in your local or regional market such a difficult thing everywhere else in the world that it did not even merit being an option on the poll?

Challenges keep the mind active. I have seen up close what the boredom of retirement did to a once active mind. I also know a man now in his eighties who still runs his own, highly competitive business, and thrives on finding ways to overcome each and every obstacle. It is what I would call courage. The difference is marked. My "plan" is to be the latter, not the former.

It is all in a lifetime, in any case.

 

[Linguofreak]

I would not invest in gold, or other 'precious' metals. The market is volatile. You never know when these big buying companies (who are the major pushers of the price) will start selling. And when they do, the price will fall again, the market will go away, and the little guy is left holding overpriced gold.

I've never heard precious metals called "volatile". I'd always heard that they were not a very great investment for the opposite reason: They're too stable, so while you aren't likely to lose a great deal of money investing in them, you aren't likely to gain much either. They're good as a hedge against inflation, but don't offer much return on investment.

 

[N757QQ]

I've never heard precious metals called "volatile". I'd always heard that they were not a very great investment for the opposite reason: They're too stable, so while you aren't likely to lose a great deal of money investing in them, you aren't likely to gain much either. They're good as a hedge against inflation, but don't offer much return on investment.

In my opinion, and limited (in the sense that I have not invested in gold) knowledge, the current gold market is not a stable long term investment. The price is rising through the roof, artificially inflated predominantly by large companies, looking to make quick cash from under-informed consumers.

Compare a 20 year investment in gold to a good growth stock mutual fund. In the last 3-5 years the price of gold has been so quickly inflated that it has to drop back to realistic levels eventually. Look at a 30 year gold chart. In the early 1980s, it spiked to $700 or so an ounce, then fell to below $400. Who took the hit?

I see it as a mirror of the housing market. Artificially high prices cause a bubble that will burst. There is profit to be made, just hope you are not holding the bag when it pops.

This is obviously my opinion, and I may very well be completely wrong. I'm certainly not a financial expert. I just use what works for me.

 

[SiberianTiger]

1. One big investment is done on my side: I've bought a three-bedroom flat in outskirts of Moscow. If that survives future revolution and civil war (and I do myself; the good side - probably no one would mind my mortgage debt then), then there's a chance I still retain ownership of it in that time. Maybe I sell that estate sometimes to a substantial profit.

2. Investments in kids: too bad, I'm much overdue, I still only have one! :facepalm:

3. I actually see myself in elder age as an owner of a private seasonal hotel at Crimean seaside, still engaged in external IT jobs at free-lance basis.

I don't trust pension programs and mutual finds a slightest bit.