Why I'm Bearish

   I have actually been bearish for over 10 years. I was pessimistic even back in the 90's and the reason is simple :

   Industrialized economies have below replacement birthrates. In Japan this simply means there will be fewer Japanese years from now then there are today (and that there will be insufficient workers to pay for the huge number of old people). But in the West, the insane solution to below replacement birthrates has been to bring in unskilled people from poor 3rd world countries. So the West not only has a problem with birthrates, but the 'solution' that has been pursued ensures that Western countries will be burdened by new populations which are either a) not sufficiently productive to keep the economy expanding, or b) are actually net consumers of resources. An added twist to this is that diverse societies are fraught with ethnic conflict so social/political stability in the West will be largely destroyed by this immigration and the political and intellectual charlatans that make a living off it.

   You don't need a spreadsheet for this stuff.

Retirement

This is a link to a podcast I am fond of called The Survival Podcast, hosted by Jack Spirko. He does a great show on retirement here and makes some good points. Namely, that the advertisements you see on TV give you a picture of retirement that is often not realistic. Strolling down a beach with your wife and living life to the fullest.

Often people who are 65 or more have health problems and may have to deal with loneliness. The idea of waiting for most of your life to finally get out of the rat race seems stupid and Jack offers some suggestions on how you can go about planning for retirement (and rethinking what retirement is) so that you can achieve freedom and independence earlier.

I think a reexamination of what retirement is and what it should be for YOU is long overdue. With the problems we have with Social Security (a generation put its faith in that and it looks like Uncle Sam may have trouble paying out), I think people will become more and more receptive to this message.

Preparedness as a Retirement Plan