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I don't know about the USA, but in Europe "ordinary" people don't do investment portfolios. You can safely assume that if they don't have any savings, they most certainly won't have investment portfolios.

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I find that hard to believe. Europeans don't have retirement investments? Even if it's just a pension they have some sort of portfolio even if it's not managed by the individual.

I don't know about Europe, but here in Uruguay and South America in general you have absolutely no say about what they do with your pension money.

There are even laws mandating the pension funds to invest in local Treasury bonds (which are fortunately reasonably safe and high-yield, Uruguay is among the most stable in the continent)

In Latin America in general pension funds are mismanaged and periodically raided by populist governments.

Pensions are managed by pension funds. Can't touch 'm until you're 67 (in the Netherlands). And even then you won't receive a lump sum, but a monthly allowance (that's how I see it). All employees take part in a pension fund, as mandated by law. It's one very important reason why I'm self employed. It's the only way to avoid this nonsense.

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