Gov't pension fund posts ¥9.1 tril profit in 4th quarter

I hope they aren't paying hefty commissions to financial advisers or other middlemen.

I don't know about external advisers, but within the organisation alone they have 131 full-time staff, plus a handful of governors, executives and part-time staff.

This is the sole topic on which JeffLee and I agree 100%. Everyone should listen to Jeff in this instance because I am right!

Seriously though, these quarterly reports are pretty pointless because the headlines simple reflect short term market moves, but over the long run, at least with foreign stocks exposure, chances are very good that periodic investments will have increased in overall value when it comes time to cash out.

Jeff has this all right. Just be prepared to sit through some stock markets crashes along the way.

Yes, but if you had done the same thing in 1988 you would still be way, way behind... 41 years later.

How do you figure that? The S&P 500 was around 270 in 1988. Today, it's nearly 3,000. That's a 1,000% return. I'd call that being "way, way ahead."

@JeffLee

Yes, but if you had done the same thing in 1988 you would still be way, way behind... 41 years later.

 waiting to disappear with the next stock market crash?

If you had invested in the market in 2006, only to see about 40% of the value of your holdings disappear by the end of 2008, then today, you'd still be way, way ahead.

Have they realized this profit or is it just on paper, waiting to disappear with the next stock market crash?

I smell money baby and lot of it.

Just not enough to cover the average person's retirement despite them having paid into the system their entire working lives.

I hope they aren't paying hefty commissions to financial advisers or other middlemen.

All anyone - including the pension corporation - needs to do is buy a cheap index fund tracking the S&P and a smaller one tracking a major bond index. And then do nothing, and pay no one. And then watch your wealth grow over time.

"The fund, which managed 159.2 trillion yen of assets as of end-March, had quarterly profits of 2.7 trillion yen on domestic stocks and 5.1 trillion yen on foreign equities, its earnings results showed."

I smell money baby and lot of it.

LOL

I smell 'elections' around the corner (eye-roll)