Meanwhile somewhere else: “You got me a bit confused with the name of the meeting, but I agree with everything you said about the brits.”
For real though, as a gig worker in the US who is trying their damndest to pay off debt and save for retirement so that I have a marginally less chance of being homeless and bankrupt when I’m a senior citizen, is an IRA still a recommended move? How are other comrades investing for old age or is the plan just for us all to work crushing jobs until our bones give out and then we die?
How tf is anyone supposed to plan for this hellscape of a future?
An IRA just has tax benefits if you don’t cash it in before retirement age. It’s still basically just stock market gambling, you have to invest it in something (even just an index fund) for it to be worthwhile. If you have a 401(k) from a company and then leave that company it is better to convert it to a Roth IRA.
Individual financial planning is basically hedging your bets regarding larger trends that are not in your individual control.
Owning a house outright protects you from foreclosure if times get tough so if you are being conservative you might get a mortgage for a modest home and pay it off ASAP even if “on average” you would have made more money by paying it off slower and investing instead. Obviously simply choosing to have a mortgage isn’t realistic for many people, housing prices are increasing much faster than wages, so this is a good example of bet-hedging subject to wider economic conditions over which you don’t, as an individual, have control.
Keeping a good stock of dried rice and beans is a good way to hedge against massive food price increases and gives you the opportunity to isolate for months in case of emergency.
Stable-ish assets are a good hedge against inflation. They appreciate with inflation and can be exchanged for a train or plane ticket or a car if you need to flee. A common example is gold. Gold is silly as a hyperfocused investment strategy but as something you can always trade in fot cash it is useful. Real estate is also good for this, though obviously personal morality on land ownership (and what you do with it) comes into play. Having a small plot of land in an inexpensive area can be in the cards for many. It’s cheaper than a house. Note that taxes might eat up any expectation of this being better than leaving money in a bank account. Like gold this is an inflation hedge that will probably yield less money than an index fund.
Finally, I recommend joining an org and organizing. I’ve described individual actions and these are good, but communal are better. A mutual aid food bank is more efficient than a bag of beans in a pantry and will keep you plugged in. It also is a way to actually build against the systems of deprivation, as orgs can challenge them via direct action - ideally communist orgs.
That feeling of finding a coworker on the same political wavelength. It’s rare but holy shit, is it beautiful.
