TESTIMONIALS. Pension reform: five French people tell how they intend to supplement their pension so as not to “end up with nothing”

“Lack of money is still the main source of concern for future retirees”, according to the 2022 edition of the barometer “The French, savings and retirement” of the Savers Circle (PDF). And the pension reform should not change anything. In particular after the government maintained the vagueness on the number of people actually affected by the revaluation to 1,200 euros of small pensions. “Non-retired people are increasingly saying they are saving to finance their retirement”, again notes this barometer: 65% of respondents, compared to 55% in 2019, say they put money aside more or less regularly for this purpose.

Between the fear of seeing their income drop and that of not being able to take advantage of their retirement because of the decline in the legal retirement age, the people questioned by franceinfo are preparing to benefit from additional income. Everyone has their own way. While some have been thinking about it for several years, the reform has served as a trigger for others. Behind the question of money emerge questions about the relationship to work, about individualism and inequalities, or even the future of the pay-as-you-go system and the solidarity on which it is based.

Nicolas, 27: “I want to enjoy my retirement in good health”

“When I see the amount of current pensions, I tell myself that when it’s my turn, it won’t be folichon. I want to anticipate.” Nicolas is not 30 years old, but this apprentice in the pharmaceutical industry will “don’t delay in putting things in place” for his retirement. Before him, his mother worked as an executive, also in the pharmaceutical industry. “At 60, when she retired, she already didn’t have the same energy as at 40 or 50,” remembers the young man, who would like “to leave before 64, to be able to enjoy retirement with health, to travel…”, lists the apprentice.

This Alsatian reflects on “invest in real estate, and why not on the stock market too”. He also wants to “learn about cryptocurrencies”. “I see 20-year-olds who are already starting to invest”, he says. He wants to take the time “be careful”TO DO “good things”. “I know that not everyone will be able to do this for their retirement. DOn my side, I will try to make it go well for me, no one will do it for me.”

Elisabeth, 62 years old: “I had to secure myself”

On the phone, Elisabeth warns: “Jobs, I’ve had a lot of different ones.” The sexagenarian has “started at 18, with food jobs: waitress, switchboard operator…” Until his 25th birthday and a departure for the United States. “In New York. There, I was an actress”, she smiled. In parallel, for “earn [sa] crust”, she works as a make-up artist. At 30, she returned to Paris and kept these two jobs. “You understand, I was not a resident of the Comédie-Française”, she breathes to mean that she was not constantly finding work. Over time, she only kept her activity as a make-up artist. “I also had two periods at the RSA [revenu de solidarité active]but not long. Clearly, my career is cut short.” His retirement pension may suffer. “I did a simulation. If I want to have a full pension, I have to wait until I’m 67, but I’ll still get less than the minimum wage“she sighs.

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But Elisabeth has a plan to supplement her future pension. “My parents never helped me, I made myself alone”, she wants to clarify. When they died, however, Elisabeth received an inheritance. “I was able to buy a small studio in Paris thanks to that”. She plans to rent it out and “going to live in Normandy”. “I will have a roof over my head and additional income in addition to my retirement”, she summarizes. She explains : “In my life, I have often undertaken things for which I did not have the means. For once, I said to myself that I had to secure myself. If I slam everything I have, at 80 years, I will end up with nothing”.

Eric, 58: “I’ve always put money aside”

“Me, it’s on my health that I capitalize”, says Eric, a lab technician from Sarthe. He thinks “to be lucky enough to still be able to do a lot of sport”. His professional career began “at 17, as an electrician worker”. Subsequently, he became “maintenance technician, for twenty-five years” and, finally, for more than ten years, laboratory technician in a private company. “I have worked all my life”, he summarizes. However, he fears “not to receive a high enough pension” on his retirement. “But, if with the reform, I leave at 61, I will have contributed 44 years, do you realize?” he chokes.

In anticipation of the end of his career, Eric “save”. “I’ve always tried to put money aside, when I could, on classic supports, like an A booklet”, he said. But let’s not talk to him about life insurance or retirement savings plan (PER). “I refuse to invest in speculative productshe thunders. As a worker, I know very well that in order to be able to benefit from pensions, the shareholders rely on the workers, the other workers… On their capital of life, of health… For ethical reasons, I refuse to do this”.

Camille, 38: “For now, I’m saving for my daughters”

“Pragmatic, me? I don’t know”, Camilla smiled. What she does know, however, is that she thinks “more and more” on his retirement “for a few years”. But until now, she only considered “not concretely” to put in place a means of securing a supplementary pension. The government project did “to dive back” in his thoughts.

According to this business analyst who works in Ile-de-France, the pay-as-you-go system risks no longer working when she reaches the end of her professional life. “I have the impression that there will no longer be enough contributors, in the long term, because the population is aging, people are having fewer children… We will either have to contribute more or see our pensions go down”, she anticipates.

For “prepare for it”, she would like open a bank account specially dedicated to [sa] retirement” Or “maybe invest in real estate”. But not right now. “It’s not my priority. For the moment, I’m saving on my booklet A, but this money will be for my two daughters”, she confides. “I think about their future, if they want to travel, go to expensive studies, like business schools…” She pauses. “I don’t want them to end up like all these students that we see in the news right now, who are forced to skip meals, to work at the same time to get by, I want them to have the choice.” Savings for retirement will have to wait a bit.

Anthony, 47: “A feeling of insecurity pushes me to prepare myself”

On the phone, he imitates his parents’ voice. “Anyway, your generation, you will not have pensions, you better plan!” This “ritornello” still spinning in Anthony’s head. “A priori, if I want to leave at full rate, I have to wait until I am 64 years and 7 months old”, believes this sales manager, who spends “lots of time on the road”. “Working for another seventeen years is complicated.” As he plans to leave before, he wants to anticipate “a drop in income”. And lists the solutions he has put in place to remedy this: two life insurance policies, “a small share of stock” in a company and, soon, the opening of a PER.

He is part of a “inner tugging”, when discussing these different investments. “I do, but I’m attached to the pay-as-you-go system, I don’t want to defend the principle of capitalization, he begins. I know a lot of society couldn’t afford it.” But his principles collide with his fears for the future. “I meet a lot of different people in my job, from all walks of life, many share this same unease, with the impression of being pushed towards capitalization in an insidious way”, he describes, in a thinly veiled allusion to the pension reform project and the reform of unemployment insurance. “For my part, I also think about my age. Today, I am 47 years old, but if I lose my job at 57, what will happen to me?”