N
NewDArt
Guest
Over here, employers get deals on mutual funds, and usually have a special retirement fund set up for employees. Often they will match a certain amount that the employee will put away for retirement. Mine for instance, matches up to 4%. So if I put away 4% of my paycheck into a bunch of selected stocks and bonds (that i get to select from their plans), then my employer will double that amount automatically.
There's also a government supplied pension plan or social security (which is probably similar to the folkepension you have) but it's very small and not worth much (unless you work in a gov. related field, then it's much better). The one offered to you is probably much better then what we have here.
We have a so-called pyramid 3-step system. The bottom of the pyramid is the public pension + the forced pension contribution (called ATP) - which is not necessarily larger than the others, but is intended as the foundation and guarenteee for everyone to be able to survive.
Then we have another kind of pension which is union-based - and since I'm working in a municipality, it's automatically part of my pay. Quite embarrasingly - I have no idea how much I've contributed to it or what I can expect to gain. I believe they automatically invest and as far as I can tell the yearly average return is around 9-10%.
Then we have "individual pensions" - which, I guess, is simply whatever we choose to save on the side through private pension firms or fonds. Not really sure. Not something I've done, anyway.
However, in Denmark - we can't "officially" retire until age 67 under normal circumstances - and, until then, the first two pensions are locked. Meaning, I don't think they can do anything for me in terms of early retirement.
Of course we can retire before then, but then we will have to rely on our own money entirely - since we'll be forced to work as long as we're able.