Seek Investment Alternatives to Your Traditional Pension or Potentially Face Poverty in Retirement

There’s a time bomb ticking and it directly affects you, your wealth status and your potential future financial security.  You may think that working hard and squirreling away your cash into a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme (QROPS), or into a property at home or abroad is the best you can do towards your retirement income.  But as this report will show, your money is not necessarily safe in traditional investments such as pensions or property.

A great deal is being written on financial forums and blogs about the deep debt and deficit doldrums we’re in, both in the UK and in the US in particular…and if one digs a little deeper one can see that when you add up all the data, we’re in desperately dire straits.

For your information and research purposes, we’ve put together an easy to digest rundown and lowdown on why you must seek investment alternatives to your traditional pension, or face poverty in retirement potentially; and we’ve covered the angles that financial reporters are commenting on – from the budget deficit to the property time bomb, from social security quicksand to the latest banking bailout waiting to happen.

Let’s Look at Some Damning Stats and Frightening Facts in Favour of Investment Diversification

If all your money is banked in British pounds, linked to a British property or invested onshore in the UK, you need to start thinking about the health and security of your investments and your future financial security!

According to Edward Menashy who’s chief economist at the stockbrokers Charles Stanley: “Pimco, the world’s biggest bond fund, calculates that total UK debt to GDP amounts to 446%, only a little short of the 471% recorded by Japan.”  And look at the mess Japan got itself into!

According to ThisisMoney.co.uk today: “Sterling suffered an 8-and-a-half-month low against the dollar as currency markets shun the UK in light of Eurozone debt fears…Pessimism for the pound was reflected in a fall in UK government bonds.  The fall pushed the yield on a 10-year gilt higher - up 5 basis points to 3.93%. This change indicates that investors are demanding a higher return when they lend to the UK government.”  In other words, no one trusts the state of the UK economy.

Added to that, it’s widely reported that the UK national debt has reached £830billion, (or £1340 billion if you include the likes of pensions), and thanks to CreditAction.org.uk we can report that the state of the British economy is so bad that 9,300 new debt problems are handled by the Citizens’ Advice Bureau every day and the average household debt in the UK is now £57,937.  A property is repossessed every 11.2 minutes and 1,995 people lose their jobs in the UK every day.  1000 people seek some form of formal debt rescheduling plan daily, and the Government’s national debt increases by £4,316 a second.

But it’s Not Just Britain that’s Broke – it’s a Global Problem

The above might be enough to make you think about getting out of the UK if you haven’t already – and it might be sufficient evidence to encourage you to diversify your wealth away from British based or backed assets for example.  However, the fact of the matter is, the whole world’s sitting on one huge, fat, rapidly ticking time bomb and it’s enough to make you wonder where your money would be safe!

In America perhaps? – but no, not according to MarketWatch.com which reports: on “Shadow Banking: The Derivatives Bomb” – they explain that this is the next banking crash and bail out waiting to happen: “Wall Street wants no regulation of this $670 trillion, high-risk, out-of-control casino that’s highly leveraged versus the $50 trillion total GDP of all nations.  We forget that derivatives almost destroyed global economies in 2008-09, finally will by 2012.”

How about emerging economies such as China and India – after all, it’s reported that each nation needs 500 new cities if they’re to cope with their population explosions!  But no, because they cannot afford to grow so far, so fast and not have a damning and deeply damaging impact on the environment!

Europe then?  Nope, not necessarily because the state of the eurozone is undermining every nation within the EU…

Don’t Panic – Just Act Fast

This data and the analysis of it that’s developing apace all across the world leads one to the point at which we cannot deny the fact that the world is still poised on the brink of collapse economically speaking.  The fact that we’re still involved in wars, still spending out on useless causes and money gets lost, wasted and abused by banks every day means that our money, however we choose to invest it, is vulnerable.  But what’s the point in panicking?  Panic never produced the solution! 

The solution is absolute diversification! 

And the solution can be found in seeking personalised, appropriate financial advice from professionals aware of the state of the global economy, and who will work with you as your adviser to protect you from the potential fall out as best they can!  If you would like to speak to an adviser about your own position, complete our contact form today and we will be in touch.