For the first time since the crisis began, pension plants contributions rose year to year. They grew 3.8% in 2013 and totaled just over 4 billion euros. This number is far from the 7 billion that Spaniards piled into retirement savings in 2007, but marks a trend reversal from recent years when people were drawing on their retirement savings to make ends meet.
It is important that during trying times we continue to save for the future. New pension reforms have made future retirees realize that they will need to supplement their state-funded retirement checks with private plans if they want to maintain the same lifestyle after retirement. We are headed toward a mixed pension system because of the way the economy has turned more than the government's willingness to make sweeping change. In fact, upcoming tax reforms will lessen the incentive to build private retirement plans.
