To retire securely, save like an Aussie

To retire securely, save like an Aussie

In the United States, fewer than half of all workers participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan. In Australia, about 90% of the workforce has a formal retirement account. The most important difference between the two systems, as Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Nick Summers explains in a recent piece, is that in Australia, contributing to your account is mandatory—and most workers now put in a minimum of 9% of each paycheck. The result: A little more than 20 years after it was enacted, Australia’s Superannuation Guarantee program now has $1.52 trillion in assets, a little over half as much as the $2.8 trillion parked in American 401(k)s—in a country whose population is only one-fourteenth the size of ours.

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http://blogs.marketwatch.com/encore/2013/06/06/to-retire-securely-save-like-an-aussie/