If you have assets in a bank, stock market, investment platform, 401(k) or other pension then there are a number of risks that threaten not only the existence of those funds but your access to them.
First of all, don’t expect to hold onto them unless you go along with the government’s game of Simon says. For example, there is a good chance that you will be forced to get digital ID to access these in the future.
Vietnam is an example of what is likely to come soon, where biometrics were made mandatory to access all bank accounts. The 86 million accounts which weren’t biometrically verified were frozen and are now being closed. Transfers equivalent to around $390 or more also require biometric verification.
Many in the western world have also had their bank accounts frozen or closed for perfectly legal political views. And now when you move or withdraw money you may be asked what the purpose is and the bank may deny your request if they don’t like your answer (just one example). Banks are also required to report anything deemed suspicious to the government.
If such restrictions can be applied to bank accounts, there’s no reason why they can’t be applied to accounts at stock exchanges and accounts with 401(k) and pension providers.
In Hungary and Poland, all private pensions were seized by the government and nationalized, leading many to accuse the government of stealing their pensions. Existing state pensions aren’t safe either, as they are often considered unsustainable due to unchecked government spending and aging populations.
Banks and pension providers can also fail, as we saw in 2023, and US banks have continued to fail every year since then. While on paper there are often guarantees to cover such events, these usually only cover up to a certain amount, and these may not be honored during a financial crisis.
I’m curious, what is your alternative here?
If you say crypto, I’ll say lol. If you say under your mattress I’ll lmao. If you say physical gold, I’ll chuckle subtly.
In this world there aren’t perfect answers. You do the best with what you’re dealt.
The imperfect answer is to diversify. If you think there is a real risk that you get screwed by the organizations you are trusting your money with, keeping some portion of your wealth in any of those things you are ridiculing is a rational choice to hedge against that risk.
Those are all also risky, but the risks are different as they are (mostly) about your personal security rather than trustworthiness of institutions, meaning you have a lot more protection from being completely wiped out in a single event.
Yupp this guy is right. I’d also say you should consider (OP) that Gold specifically tends to do better when the US dollar is doing bad.
And now that US and Isreal is hellbent on starting a world war I’d say that’s a pretty safe bet to have some gold and silver around.
Well as long as you don’t complain about it being unfair
You telling me when I give someone else my money there’s no guarantee that they will give it back? I am shocked and outraged! Just don’t tell my wife.
/S
You’d be surprised how many people don’t know that
ISK what 401(k) means…unless this is US limited info, in which case not ISK.
Yeah it is US only (AFAIK) retirement scheme
And scheme, it is. They offloaded the responsibility of retirement planning from the employer and financial planners, to the individual. After Eron, obviously the existing system had problems, but now all the responsibility and financial risk has been punted to the individual, so society can say “well, its your own fault!” When you don’t have enough money in retirement years, as the lack of social nets and healthcare costs eat through what little you had saved. There’s no one to sue or blame but yourself at the end. Fun.
Yup I hate it, and it’s all I get for my own retirement. They mandate we put our financial future / well being in Wallstreet stocks… hmmm I wonder who that grossly benefits?… I was born after all that shit was instituted and into this broken ass system
It’s not a scheme, it’s the government using tax breaks to encourage the positive behavior of saving your money for when you’re old. That’s literally what it is.
Tax credits for buying EVs is another example of the government using tax breaks to encourage people to do something that’s beneficial.
Lots of people just don’t save money. 401Ks make it easy and you get good returns, and penalties for withdrawing before you’re old. So you put money in because usually you’ll have a lot more later, and then you keep it until you’re old so you don’t get penalties and lose a bunch of money.
I swear this site is full of the dumbest people on the Internet.
Let’s be more concrete. The real danger here is that the rules around 401ks and IRAs could be changed with new legislation. Or perhaps through a twisted interpretation of law via executive order. Or that new taxes could be levied against them.
The kleptocrats are in charge. And the wealth of the middle class can be plundered to give to the billionaires. For example, maybe they find a way to raise the age where IRA and 401ks can be accessed without the 10% penalty. Or they just straight-up announce a new tax on 401k account balances in order to feed the war effort. The retirement savings of the middle class are one of the few areas the kleptocrats haven’t managed to completely plunder yet. You start a big war. You somberly announce the need for all sorts of new taxes. You conveniently write them so they fall lightly on the rich and heavily on the middle class. You tax the middle class and feed the proceeds to the defense contractors. The wealthy owners of those defense contractors end up with the profits. The retirement accounts of working people get raided to feed the billionaires.
…I know how its supposed to work, I’m just saying instead of giving us healthcare and social nets we get to save money under our own responsibility, and then watch it get spent away in elder years. If you haven’t watched family members spend hundred of thousands on cancer care, or emergency room visits, etc, even though they ‘did the right thing’ and saved, you eventually will.
Also, thanks for calling me dumb. You’re quite a great person to converse with… Don’t bother replying, I won’t be reading any more of your comments because it will not be pleasant exchange of opinions, it seems…
So… should I start stashing my cash under my mattress?
Better to stash precious metals since they won’t lose their value. Of course there are other options so make your own decisions based on your own assessment of the various risks involved.
