Replies

"And that's where diversification comes in.... :)"

But what sort of diversification would be allowed? Will they let us invest the money in real estate? Will they let us invest in foreign markets? Will they let us just invest the money in whatever we want, or are they going to give us limited options? I think the option will be somewhat limited to help ensure against folks making bad decisions on risky investments. I don't know that diversification can help you if all the money everyone is investing is concentrated in a limited number of investments. If all the money went to mutual fund investing in stocks on the DOW for instance it would bring the DOW Jones average up at first, but those stocks would be overvalued and we'd see a correction. In the long run though it might not matter because there would continue to be a steady stream of money infused into the DOW and hopefully those companies would prosper and actually increase in real value enough to justify the inflated prices. I don't know. I'm no economist. All this makes my brain hurt.

Sorry, we were talking about two different things. I was talking about private investments, which we always have the freedom to make for ourselves, not what the government would "let" me do in an investment account. Those are the investments I am paying attention to, not what Social Security will or will not provide.