A good day, for once. Got a real compliment from my teacher today on a literature course; she asked me to explain the plot of a book she hasn't read because "you seem to have read everything". Well, as it turned out, I've never even heard of the book so the plot remained unknown but eventhough she was partly ironic concerning my enthusiasm on literature and thus my being one of the few students to comment things and theories and catogorisations every time during the lectures, I was very much pleased. I do think I'd have a Hemulen Syndrome had I read all books: in the Moomin book Hemulen had a severe identity crisis when he had collected all possible stamps, i.e. he was no longer a collector but an owner (he cheered up as soon as Mamma suggested he start collecting plants).
Another positive thing that happened today was at the insurance company. A guy there had asked me to visit there to discuss the pension savings programme. I already knew I won't be doing any saving to boost my pension because I'm not planning to stick arounf that long. Now even less after he calculated my estimated pension (after all the taxes AND the procentage of the pension that goes to the state according to our birth year - can you believe it, we are punished for not being born before!): around 800 euros a month. I have only one thing to say about that: FUCK THAT!
It so happened that they invest the savings on four main funds. No hedge funds among those, though, but still, funds. Some of them are of more high risk (and higher profit chances), some less, some are combination funds. Anyway, as a result of the bank course I know quite much on this now (and all the extra information I've seeked on the matter). Turned out my questions were too difficult for the guy to answer. I smiled a little self-righteously when he went to find a collegue who could answer me. I was sniggering inside when he came back with a woman. xD We conversed for a while about the fund types and their investment expectations and possibilities to choose other funds (though they already had one for China, props for that). I did it half on purpose: to make him an outsider, a pariah of the conversation. But seriously, he should know at least the basics of the funds since he sells insurances based on those funds.
Anyway, I achieved my goal: I now know even more reasons why not to live that long. Not to mention that being employed till 63 is pretty much impossible for most people nowadays, especially women. Of course I can understand that starting the savings as early as possible is the best course of action to most people: ten years delay in the saving can make a huge difference. The only positive thing (possibly, I still have to check; I never trust a straight person to be able to *know* this) is that should I die before pension all my savings could be given to my wife/partner; the trust issue is caused by straight persons insistence to regard civil unions equivalent to marriages when they most certainly are not. Not to mention the (un)likelihood of my finding anyone, anyway. Even I won't be naming A girlfriend (capital to indicate non-commitment) as my benefactor.
And I still don't have pension savings plans. :)