ETF aren't rocket science. They are not super easy either, maybe 2-4 weeks of research. It's quite probably they will literally DOUBLE your savings when you will retired. And you will be able to retire when you say so not when the governments tells you that you can.
There are 2 types of pensions funds essentially.
1) The ones that do not save money.
You pay pensions taxes now that just go to pay the people retired today.
Believe it or not the vast majority of governments pension funds are like this.
In Italy it's like this. You IRPEF money doesn't go in an investment, it pays the retirees of today. Now just wait and see what we'll happen with life expectancy increasing and population reduction.
2) The ones that buy things for you. And guess what they buy: usually 3 bonds and 2 ETFs.
And they will take 1-2% for that.
And you might think: "oh but 1-2% I can give awayt if I do not have to care about anything".
In practice though ETFs return 5-8% per year when kept for decades and the earnings are averaged. So the pension fund takes 1-2% from 5-8% which is 20-30%. On top of that there is compounding interest. When you will have retired it's likely you will have given away half of your savings to the company managing the pension fund/retiring plan.
There are many pension funds out there with varying degrees of performance. Just like with your health, in matters of personal finance you have to be an active participant and your own agent. Even if that means picking around for the best pension fund for you.
> Not sure where you are but you can often check where your money is invested and change funds
I did and I found out they just buy 3 bonds and 2 ETFs.
Very standard stuff. You can learn enough about bonds and ETFs to buy them yourselves and literally save HALF of your savings at retirement time.
