111–120 of 260 posts
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You mean like in good, old Europe? No way!
I'm not sure that the European version of outsourcing that responsibility to the government is the way to go for the same reason. Letting people set up private companies with competitive options I think would probably drive the best results.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mean like in good, old Europe? No way!
I'm not sure that the European version of outsourcing that responsibility to the government is the way to go for the same reason. Letting people set up private companies with competitive options I think would probably drive the best results.
... and this is why pension schemes should be managed by the government or at least tightly regulated. Just imagine GE going bankrupt - who's gonna pay the pension, then? The government in a bailout or what?
Do people not understand this is how pensions work. If your company isn't there when you retire, you don't get a pension. I find it incredibly risky to rely on pensions. I don't quite understand why employees are so excited about non cash benefits.
In the UK pensions are independent of the company due mostly to some scandals in the past Robert Maxwell for example.
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I wouldn’t even agree to getting a defined benefit pension these days - why wouldn’t you want to invest your own money instead of letting one company you happened to work for control your pension? I have a defined benefit pension from a previous employer and frankly I count it as zero in my financial planning since I have no idea if it’s actually coming or not.
It still has value, assuming you're intending on working until you retire and the company has no signs of failling - why wouldn't you want a (nearly) guaranteed income for the rest of your life? That doesn't preclude you from investing your own extra cash into investments. I understand the dynamics have changed, but my boomer parents and in-laws are both enjoying retirement with the fruits of a defined benefit pensio…
The article below mentions how poorly things can go, with private equity groups buying a company, things go poorly, it gets liquidated (pension gets dissolved), then the same private equity group buying it out of bankruptcy. Funny enough, with Marsh, the executive pension plan got a good payout relative to the thousands of store and warehouse employees.
The pension isn't free to offer. I'd much rather they increase my base pay or give a more generous 401k match.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-a-grocery...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mean like in good, old Europe? No way!
I'm not sure that the European version of outsourcing that responsibility to the government is the way to go for the same reason. Letting people set up private companies with competitive options I think would probably drive the best results.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean that in common vernacular, when someone says "pension", they are referring to a defined benefit pension. Otherwise, in the US, we use 401k, IRA, "retirement funds", or other words.
And a 401k and IRAs is are very poor "pension" plan compared two other countries.
An important distinction to make with GE is that most of their pension plan is "defined benefit" as opposed to "defined contribution". The latter is much more common nowadays because it avoids these massive long-term obligations to the company. EDIT: Added "most of". A percentage of their employee base has already transitioned to defined contribution.
In the US, "pension" typically means a defined benefit pension.
It's always surprising to me to see those huge companies stopping payments and the story ending there
I really think that the sooner we can separate out pensions and healthcare from employers, the better. Businesses main area of expertise is not in pensions and healthcare, and they cannot provide these services as efficiently as if there were many different insurance companies on the market offering these services for sale, and instead the company paid you a fee for your services, and then you went out on the market…
1) It is some sort of badge of honor to get a "job with benefits".
2) What if more people decide to not get healthcare? If your job gives it to you and you "only" have to pay a few hundred a month for your family, you are more likely to get it than if you payed everything out of pocket each month (even if your compensation increased). People would see all the extra money and just not get healthcare. If enough people did this, healthcare would be too expensive for the rest of us.
3) People are just reluctant to big change. And this is a big change. There would be politicians on the news claiming someone was "taking away your benefits".
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And a 401k and IRAs is are very poor "pension" plan compared two other countries.
I'm not sure what you're claiming. It's possible to design a very lucrative and costly defined benefit pension, but in the US, no employer is offering it other than governments, and even the governments are beginning to croak under the stress of unsustainable benefits, so new employees are not eligible for them.
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>There are annuities, but my research into those has come up with very high costs with lots of fees. Yes, as most non taxpayer funded employers have found out, and reduced their offering of defined benefit pensions accordingly. My point is that no one has the ability to protect and afford against the kind of long term risk that you are talking about, and the best model I've seen to address it is when children and gra…
I agree that no individual can reasonably plan for to have enough money for 0-30 years but I disagree that nobody has the ability to spread that risk around. If your pool is the whole country then it’s very manageable sans the human problems that any large government / financial institutions run into at scale.
Pretty much every developed nation is raising retirement ages and reducing benefits to grapple with the fact that there is less wealth being created in their countries. No one can "manage" automation and labor from China/India/etc taking out a huge portion of your middle class.