Thoughts about retirement...

[jean-paul]

Originally Posted by dirkwright

Also, in Europe, your spouse cannot claim your retirement as a marital asset in a divorce. They can and do here in America, making for a lot of unhappy people here.

They do that over here too when a pension is involved. I speak from experience and I am in Europe.

[DF96]

Portfolio diversification means that the very worst place to invest your retirement fund is your own employer. It ought to be illegal for employers to insist on this. By all means invest a little there if you need an incentive to work hard and make sensible decisions (as senior management seem to require), but ideally keep most of your money away from your own sector of the economy.

[dirkwright]

Originally Posted by jean-paul

They do that over here too when a pension is involved. I speak from experience and I am in Europe.

OK, then it must be just Sweden then. I dunno. My wife is Swedish.

[jean-paul]

General wisdom seems to be : don't marry at all or when you're already married: don't divorce

[jacco vermeulen]

Originally Posted by dirkwright

Also, in Europe, your spouse cannot claim your retirement as a marital asset in a divorce.

Here, a prenup is an obligatory/standard routine for selfemployed folks.
For the ones who lack sufficient funds to set up a corporation, a prenuptial agreement ensures that part of the assets are kept out of a bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, the kind of potential long term partners, sought after by financially succesfull folks, are not the prenup "type".
So in the event of a divorce, Gus Petch will nail your asz just as hard.

The number of specialist doctors and engineers I know, as vindictive as Miles Massey, after having to hand in 50% of the funds they accumulated during the years of marriage, far outweigh the happy divorcees.

[suntechnik]

Originally Posted by dirkwright

OK, then it must be just Sweden then...

Depends on a country. We had approach very similar to what is accustom in Sweden but now it is rapidly changing and getting so similar to US 401K and all other legal stuff.

Originally Posted by jean-paul

General wisdom seems to be : don't marry at all or when you're already married: don't divorce

Bridal contract is another option maybe.

[mr_push_pull]

well here's some from a guy who'll be 33 in less than 2 months.

a while back I had this chat with a work colleague, he said "some of us are in their 30s and already started to get fed with it".

when I was at the University a few of us we had this talk with an assistant during a lab. some guy told about some of his electronic personal projects. the assistant said "when will you start those?", the guy replied "well, there's enough time". the assistant said "how much are you willing to bet that if you won't start tomorrow you never will?"

my father died at 60 because of health issues. he spent most of his life planning. he wanted to retire early because of the health issues.
back when the Chernobyl disaster happened he was working as an engineer in construction in Ukraine, less than 600 km away from Chernobyl.
when he filed for early retirement, he found that the company he was working for at the time did not pay retirement contribution for many employees so from the state's point of view he was unemployed for 4 years. he sued the company and lost, the state denied early retirement.
he died a short while afterwards.

I had this friend who started working earlier than I did. after a few years working he told me that had he afforded it, he'd retire at 35. I somehow started to understand why. I've always had decent jobs but they never gave me much joy.

and I'm starting to wonder...

[suntechnik]

Originally Posted by mr_push_pull

....
I had this friend who started working earlier than I did. after a few years working he told me that had he afforded it, he'd retire at 35.
...

Truly believe it is rather subjective. David Packard or William Messerschmitt demonstrate another personal attitudes for example.

[mr_push_pull]

Originally Posted by suntechnik

Truly believe it is rather subjective. David Packard or William Messerschmitt demonstrate another personal attitudes for example.

I never said it wasn't.
depends on how you define work. if it means being at the office at 9 o clock and just doing something that doesn't necessarily give you a sense of purpose, I would definitely retire by the time I'm 35. too bad I can't afford it.

[dirkwright]

Originally Posted by mr_push_pull

I've always had decent jobs but they never gave me much joy.

I've never expected work to give me joy. I expect it to be work, to be labor, and my feeling of accomplishment is enough, as well as being paid. I am grateful for my job but I don't expect to find joy in it. I guess I don't have high expectations for the work environment. Stuff needs to be done. Sometimes it's just not pretty.