Living in Asia

Might sound strange to hear when you're only 22 or so, but you need to get it started now. In the UK and Australia what you may receive would be about GBP£80 a week in state pension, and I think you need to pay in for ten years in an American company (sorry, I don't know about other countries). You can't rely on these which would have you living in poverty. Your employer may pay into a pension scheme, but usually us foreigners cannot claim this unless they've lived there long enough, or are still living there (for retirement). In some cases, there may be no contributions or a scheme available. So, you need to put away for your retirement now, and be doing it yourself. I'd like to know about North American, South African and Kiwi laws on this, so please e-mail me at enquiries@winjeel.com

Japan's new laws:

For Social Security, paying into their Welfare System, you must pay monthly for at least twenty five years. It's mandatory if you work 30 hours a week or more. What happens to those who stay for only 5 years? You can request a return, where you get most of it back, but the catch is, you can only do this once in your life. If you return to Japan, and start paying in, you can't get it back, unless you've done your 25 years of paying in.

However, there are some ways to independently plan your retirement, but remember that I'm not a financial expert, so do more investigation of your own:

Term Deposit:

This can be done at any bank in the country you're in, and assuming you have an account with them. This is where you put some money in a term deposit for anywhere between 3 to 12 months. This money can earn fixed interest, possibly at 4.5% (good), or variable which can fluctuate depending upon the market. This is slow to build, but very safe. What I have done is put my annual bonuses into a term deposit and reap a bit from this. There's no reason why you can't do this year after year, building it up steadily. HSBC Taiwan has some general information for you to look at: http://www.hsbc.com.tw/tw/product/sd/default.htm

Superannuation or Mutual Fund:

Especially in Australia, and is my preferred option. First you need to have had a job in Australia, and set up a superannuation (which is easy and mandatory for those working there). This is where your employer pays contributions to a superannuation company, and they in turn invest money, and it rides the stock market. It is managed for you and you can manage the risks by selecting either low, moderate or high risk yield  investments. Remember, low risk carries low return; high risk carries high return. The advantage is that you can 'voluntarily' contribute to it through out your life, whether you're in Australia or not, and presumably whether you're Australian or not.

This link is for people who have worked in Australia as you maybe able to find your past (or lost) superannuation here. It also contains useful information about how superannuations work: http://www.unclaimedsuper.com.au/

UK Pensions:

Unfortunately, you need to be there a few times in a five tax-year periods so you can legally contribute to these accounts. However, you can set one up, and have it ticking away, but can't contribute if you're away for extended periods otherwise. Virgin has the easiest to access information on this. http://uk.virginmoney.com/pension/

Someone e-mailed and asked about getting their UK pensions in Australia. As far as I know there is an agreement where your UK pension can be paid to your Australian bank account. I think you just go to the appropriate government office in Australia (used to be called Dept of Social Security, then Centrelink, now perhaps anything) and have it organised.

The Stock Market:

With this, it's like the Australian Superannuation, but you manage the money yourself, and you need to keep up-to-date, on a daily basis. The National Australia Bank makes it easy to do this from your NAB account. There are other ways to do this, but remember success here depends on how good you are in managing your investments. It has been said that you can practice with a small amount at first, then build up from there.