As with everything tied to the fickle threads of time, the service of a knight in the 14th century was destined to end sooner or later. If sooner, possibly due to a blow delivered on the battlefield by a crushing mace, or the spiked end of a war hammer. Or it could arrive via the lingering wasting of minor infection, that the medicine of the time was unable to treat.
This is the time we start asking our elected officials the validity of continuing taking a chunk of our earned salaries for the illusion of a pension we won’t have. This money would be better invested by anyone than a government that is lying for us as we have Known for a long time. Also in the last 3 years, the irresponsible spending of the taxpayers money has reached a high that politicians don’t even care to pretend to be accountable anymore. We need to start seriously confronting our politicians and demanding answers with proof of the spending every step of the way. Since they love talking about “misinformation” in order to push censorship, this is high time to start demanding surveillance on politicians 24/7. No more revolving doors, backroom deals, etc, without us knowing. The absurd what is happening is that they no longer hide the corruption either. They are doing it on purpose in order to get people to feel hopeless. We need to have a turnaround on that. It is time to push back rather than continuing being pushed back. But how to do this without the majority not having a clue of what’s happening? We need to use our mouths or tools, every means possible to keep exposing the lack of credibility of the media that serves as henchmen for this system and the politicians and demanding full consequences. The more people demand it, the more we have on our side.
Worldwide, infertility is a problem for 30-50 percent of couples. When I was growing up, it was 10%. The ones who can get pregnant don't want to. What person wants to bring an innocent into a world with climate change, worsening income disparity, on the brink of nuclear war, and disconnected modern cultures?
Excellent advice, but many so called appreciating assets will only do so while the population is growing (real estate, for example), or, at least, while the population of wealthy people is growing.
For the young, investing needs to be for longevity, which is more about routine reevaluation than specific investments
Leon, you touched briefly on a subject that few in Australia are aware of, regarding government pensions. Actually, they are not government pensions at all - they are OUR pensions.
Until the late 1940's P.A.Y.E. payroll deductions were listed as two separate items, one for gov't revenue (income tax) and one for the pension fund. The pension fund was run by the gov't as a separate trust to invest and manage OUR money so that a non-means tested pension could be paid to every retiree at an appropriate time.
However, the politicians at the time, decided they just couldn't bear to see all those billions of pounds just sitting there growing in value just to be paid to the plebs in 30 or 40 years, so they stole the lot of it, disbanded the pension fund, and wasted most of it on pork barreling exercises, and left it to future governments to fund pensions out of consolidated revenue. however, the deductions for the pension fund didn't disappear - they were simply added to the income tax component which meant that there was absolutely no change in the total payroll deductions.
In my own case, I'm a self funded retiree (thankfully!) and have been told that I will never receive the government pension that I paid for for 47 years of my working life.
The point I'm making here is that the taxes of current workers was never meant to pay me a pension - I have already provided the money for that (twice! Once to the gov't and once to my own investments) and any honest gov't would make pension payments the first thing they provided funding for. It's an outrageous truth that there's always enough money to pay for Senator's pensions, and benefits to unemployable "refugees" who hate us and our culture, but never enough to give back the money that people like me have trusted the government to return to me.
Yes I agree with Thomas Tolan as I also think that real estate as a investment only as opposed to being a home to live in, is currently a bad choice to make with rising interest rates. I think the interest rate cycle turned about 2 years ago & is now headed much higher over the next 30 years or so which means much lower real estate prices in the future as most future real estate buyers will be priced out of the market. Cash will be KING again. The real estate price bubble is now popping WITH LOWER PRICES TO COME IN FUTURE YEARS IMO. The historical record of the interest rate cycle proves this to be the case. Time will tell. Furthermore I also agree that investments require routine reevaluation from time to time & the switching of investments is a good idea IMO AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME. TIMING IS KING IMO.
Nicely written. The only person you can count on is yourself. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
The only countries where the population is increasing are the poorer ones. Demographics are key drivers, particularly in years to come.
Agreed! Look at Chicago's pension for fireman & police - Broke!
This is the time we start asking our elected officials the validity of continuing taking a chunk of our earned salaries for the illusion of a pension we won’t have. This money would be better invested by anyone than a government that is lying for us as we have Known for a long time. Also in the last 3 years, the irresponsible spending of the taxpayers money has reached a high that politicians don’t even care to pretend to be accountable anymore. We need to start seriously confronting our politicians and demanding answers with proof of the spending every step of the way. Since they love talking about “misinformation” in order to push censorship, this is high time to start demanding surveillance on politicians 24/7. No more revolving doors, backroom deals, etc, without us knowing. The absurd what is happening is that they no longer hide the corruption either. They are doing it on purpose in order to get people to feel hopeless. We need to have a turnaround on that. It is time to push back rather than continuing being pushed back. But how to do this without the majority not having a clue of what’s happening? We need to use our mouths or tools, every means possible to keep exposing the lack of credibility of the media that serves as henchmen for this system and the politicians and demanding full consequences. The more people demand it, the more we have on our side.
Worldwide, infertility is a problem for 30-50 percent of couples. When I was growing up, it was 10%. The ones who can get pregnant don't want to. What person wants to bring an innocent into a world with climate change, worsening income disparity, on the brink of nuclear war, and disconnected modern cultures?
Excellent advice, but many so called appreciating assets will only do so while the population is growing (real estate, for example), or, at least, while the population of wealthy people is growing.
For the young, investing needs to be for longevity, which is more about routine reevaluation than specific investments
Leon, you touched briefly on a subject that few in Australia are aware of, regarding government pensions. Actually, they are not government pensions at all - they are OUR pensions.
Until the late 1940's P.A.Y.E. payroll deductions were listed as two separate items, one for gov't revenue (income tax) and one for the pension fund. The pension fund was run by the gov't as a separate trust to invest and manage OUR money so that a non-means tested pension could be paid to every retiree at an appropriate time.
However, the politicians at the time, decided they just couldn't bear to see all those billions of pounds just sitting there growing in value just to be paid to the plebs in 30 or 40 years, so they stole the lot of it, disbanded the pension fund, and wasted most of it on pork barreling exercises, and left it to future governments to fund pensions out of consolidated revenue. however, the deductions for the pension fund didn't disappear - they were simply added to the income tax component which meant that there was absolutely no change in the total payroll deductions.
In my own case, I'm a self funded retiree (thankfully!) and have been told that I will never receive the government pension that I paid for for 47 years of my working life.
The point I'm making here is that the taxes of current workers was never meant to pay me a pension - I have already provided the money for that (twice! Once to the gov't and once to my own investments) and any honest gov't would make pension payments the first thing they provided funding for. It's an outrageous truth that there's always enough money to pay for Senator's pensions, and benefits to unemployable "refugees" who hate us and our culture, but never enough to give back the money that people like me have trusted the government to return to me.
Yes I agree with Thomas Tolan as I also think that real estate as a investment only as opposed to being a home to live in, is currently a bad choice to make with rising interest rates. I think the interest rate cycle turned about 2 years ago & is now headed much higher over the next 30 years or so which means much lower real estate prices in the future as most future real estate buyers will be priced out of the market. Cash will be KING again. The real estate price bubble is now popping WITH LOWER PRICES TO COME IN FUTURE YEARS IMO. The historical record of the interest rate cycle proves this to be the case. Time will tell. Furthermore I also agree that investments require routine reevaluation from time to time & the switching of investments is a good idea IMO AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME. TIMING IS KING IMO.
Perhaps a single partnership(marriage) should be rethought