Let's face it, relying on the state isn't going to ensure a happy retirement and, with a declining economy, a good many company pensions might also yield poor or even zero future income.

You can't leave your future to government or employers; you have to set the wheels in motion yourself to provide money for your golden days.

With the benefit of hindsight I can however help you predict the future, certainly as far as collectibles go. It all stems from the day I discovered I was pregnant with my first child and I decided to give up carrying heavy boxes packed with postcards in and out of flea markets the length and breadth of the country. In short, I decided to stop selling at flea markets and collectors' fairs, for a few years at least, and to sell my stock to make room in the house for cots and prams and similar paraphernalia.

So I bundled my stock into the boot of the estate car and headed for a collectibles auction house in Gloucester. There were close to 50,000 cards at the time and overall those cards had cost me about ten thousand pounds.

That's when my problems started:

Problem #1 – I couldn't wait for my cards to sell, I couldn't wait for my cheque to arrive, and I couldn't wait to choose baby clothes and bedding, toys and …………. when the cheque arrived it was for just over £100!

Problem #2 – There was no eBay in those days, about 1985, so the choice was to sell at distant antiques and collectors' fairs or not sell at all. So I comforted myself with the fact I was a lady of leisure now and £100 better off …… which brings me to the light at the end of the tunnel, which is, based on hindsight …… I kept a long list of most of the cards that made me £100 richer …... and by today's standards I reckon they'd be worth about £100,000 and probably a great deal more. That's because collectibles have grown significantly in value over the past 20 years or so, especially made from paper and other fragile materials, and what cost me about £10,000 in the early 1980s would easily be worth ten times that price today.

Which is good news for you and maybe for me also! The good news is, if you begin gathering small collectibles today and continue for ten or twenty years or so, they'll almost certainly grow faster in value than most other investment types. Buying physical collectibles this way, with a view to them growing in value and being turned back into cash in the future is called ‘Alternative Investing', the name deriving from collectibles being an ‘alternative' to investing in stocks and shares and other more conventional investment types.

But there's even better news to come, because a recession is the perfect time to begin growing your alternative investment portfolio. It's a perfect time because collectibles lose a lot of their value as the economy declines when non-investing collectors and virtually all dealers cut down on spending until the economy picks up again. When it picks up collectibles grow in value again and your investment begins to pay off, if that is you liquidate your assets when their price peaks.

As to why I know this is true, well apart from personal experience over twenty years, I've also found prices falling recently at all the auction houses I visit on a regular basis. Some houses, normally fetching hundreds or even thousands of pounds for genuine original postcard collections – also other collectibles - are reporting double figure prices now. Very sad for sellers, but great news for you, and for me, and presenting a great opportunity for growing your pension portfolio starting today!

Oh yes, another tip, when you do retire try to make sure it isn't during a recession, or wait until the recession ends and the economy booms again before liquidating your assets!