I do know those numbers, he showed me. The contributions to the pensions were higher and the pension growth was just garbage for two reasons:
- there was no individual selection in pension investment. They are risk averse so you end up with bullshit total market stuff that gets tepid gains compared to US stocks.
- it’s impacted by the performance of the company. Many pensions invested part of the money into their own stock/industry so a downturn would impact both job prospects and the pension performance
Pensions are “I know better than thee” bullshit run by a company with some kind of elected moron deciding what happens with your retirement. No thanks
I have a pension and if I maxed out a 401k it would grow "bigger" but that means I'd be saving more than the pension plan payments that come from my salary require me to save.