What is a PPR and how does it work in Mexico?

A PPR, or plan personal de retiro, is a financial product designed to build up money over the long term. Insurers, banks, brokerage houses and fund managers all offer one, and the law grants it tax benefits: contributions can be deducted in your annual return, within the limits set by Mexico's income tax law.

The problem is that very different products are sold under that same name. Some genuinely invest your money in instruments such as index funds. Others mix the investment with insurance charges that keep part of what you pay in every month, and there the return dies before it is born.

So the right question is not whether a PPR is worth it, but what is inside the one you are being offered: what it invests in, what it charges you, and how much actually goes to work. An investment plan with index funds puts your whole contribution into the largest companies in the market, and that can be verified with numbers.

Before signing anything, know your number: how much you need to build up and what you invest each month. With that in hand, any product judges itself.