New Year’s predictions are always a fun exercise. We can bet each other over the price of gold on December 31, 2012, or who will win the White House this year, or even make wild, black swan predictions.

It’s like the Charades of thought experiments… good for laughs at a cocktail party, but ultimately meaningless. Serious personal and financial plans cannot be developed from mere conjecture– it takes significant research, uncovering little-known facts, reviewing historical examples, and looking for ongoing signs that either reinforce or void hypotheses.

I’d like to share a few with you today. In my assessment, these ideas are not so much predictions, but rather mathematical near-certainties that underpin some of my own plans and investments.

Note– the timing for these is loose, not based on some fixed calendar date (Mayan or Gregorian). Some may occur this year, others may not arise for another 3, 4, even 5-years. But with each passing day, the likelihood becomes stronger.

1) Social Security in the US, and public pensions in Western Europe, will be completely restructured.