As US citizen, do you invest in 401(k) plan? Do you do any additional stocks or funds investing on your own (Vanguard, Fidelity)? How do you choose stocks or funds you are going to invest in?<p>How about European citizens, do you do any additional investing to achieve financial independence earlier than your country's pension scheme predicts? I have a feeling that phrases like financial independence and early retirement don't really apply for Europe, because most countries have pension scheme and citizens don't need to worry about it. The downside is that you can't really affect the amount and the time you are going to retire. Did you accept that or do you do any additional investing? Where do you invest?
I'm EU citizen, experienced two different attempts to `pension schemes` in two EU countries. I believe no scheme in EU will lead to anything more than to equal benefit that will fill peoples stomachs and maybe provide shelter; and only those who took care and saved/invested independently will get good living. Have not been to US but as far as I understand pension schemes are not ran by the country (please correct me here if I'm wrong) so there is some sort of competition between pension scheme providers. And this is very different from situation here in EU where government is `taking care` of it and you don't really have a choice - so quality of service cannot be compared to what you get in US (these are two very different systems with different aims and end goals).
Pension funds invests in patent trolls:<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0808/features-nathan-myhrvold-intellectual-ventures-trolling-suckers.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0808/features-nathan-myhrv...</a><p>"Myhrvold even managed to raise money from the pension fund set up by the World Bank for its employees."
Maximize your 401K, IRA.<p>Keep less than 10% of your net worth in stocks, commodities(i.e. gold) or mutual funds.<p>Don't count on anything like a pension in the US and hone your lifestyle to fit your preferences and financial resources.