I'm 54 and I could SCREAM when I hear "anyone over 55 doesn't need to worry about Social Security"

[llmart]

86. I forgot to add.....

that you and I are old enough to remember when there was no such thing as 401k's and the general populace was bombarded with propaganda about how this was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. I believe it was during the Reagan years. I was in my early 30's. Some of my coworkers were practically orgasmic over the idea that they were going to become millionaires and I was furious, trying to get them to see that it was a ruse to allow corporations to do away with the guaranteed pensions that our parents' generation had always had.

Well, we all know how that turned out. I don't know too many people who became millionaires.

The same meme was applied to IRA's. Everyone was going to have a million dollars after so many years. Why are people so gullible? Most of this is just common sense or it always seemed to me. I may have been only 30 but I distinctly remember saying to people, "What happens if the interest rates were earning right now (which was in the double digits) are much lower when we retire?"

I guess it's difficult for most young people to ever imagine being a senior so they can't picture themselves in that scenario.