I don't expect to live in the same country 5 years from now. I currently live in Taiwan, and hope to move to New Zealand at the end of the year. My dad told me

I don't expect to live in the same country 5 years from now. I currently live in Taiwan, and hope to move to New Zealand at the end of the year. My dad told me I should think about retirement, but I see no reason to save for retirement when I can barely pay for the visa application. I've already made the lifestyle sacrifices - I don't even have a driving license, I can't afford to marry, and I travel once or twice a year only to visit parents. Once, I had money that I thought I didn't need for a year. It was a scholarship from university, awarded simply because I studied engineering. I decided to invest it. I bought $1000 of gold, and $1000 of shares. I wanted to buy Apple shares, but the banker at UBS told me that I would have to pay huge fees simply to get the shares - unless I bought shares in the bank, which had no fees. But that was 2008. The bank shares went down to $300. The gold went up to $1070. It was a terrible investment. I lost all trust in bankers. During that year, I went on exchange programme to California and some situations in life meant that I desperately needed the money. But it was locked up in shares and gold, and I couldn't get to it. So now I just keep a current account. Major life problems happen to me quite regularly, and I can't have my resources locked away when I need them. Maybe I'll be able to save after I settle down somewhere. But I also wonder whether just giving it all away to friends would provide a better investment. Social capital is resistant to inflation, war, banking crises, environmental disasters, and everything else I expect to happen during my lifetime.