Will you afford to retire? 

How good (bad?) is the Belgian Pension System, compared to other systems in Europe?

This is the second talk of Belgium Money Week 2025, where I interview Sébastien Commain, co-author of the report  “Will You Afford to Retire".

Every year, BETTER Finance, The European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users publishes the report "Will You Afford to Retire".

It’s  a detailed analysis of private retirement savings plans in the various EU Member States including Belgium. The report highlights the charges, taxation, returns and other key parameters of pension savings to determine whether (or not) they are really helping to achieve pension adequacy for individual, citizen contributors. 

The report stands out as the sole publication that calculates real net returns, and tackles the question of purchasing power for retirees.

In this talk you will learn about the challenges faced by our system, with a special focus on pension products of Pillars 2 and 3. You will learn about their net returns and why they are so low.

You will also learn about one striking example of a pension product in Europe that delivers very high returns and completely dwarfs the performance of all other examples in Europe.

And finally, you will learn about what you as an individual saver and investor can do to invest better and better prepare for your pension.

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►► Free Workshop on Index Investing for Beginners in Belgium: create passive income from the stock market, without paying high fees to banks or advisors, taking unnecessary risks or spending all day analyzing the markets. Free Workshop → https://firebelgium.com/investingworkshop

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