Not so golden: Wealth gap lasting into retirement [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140803/us--wealth_gap-rocky_retirement-981a534f97.html

Aug 3, 11:50 AM (ET)

By MICHAEL HILL

William Kistler views retirement like someone tied to the tracks and watching a train coming. It's looming and threatening, but there's little he can do.

Kistler, a 63-year-old resident of Golden, Colorado, has been unable to build up a nest egg for himself and his wife with his modest salary at a nonprofit. He has saved little in a 401(k) over the past decade, after spending most of his working life self-employed. That puts him far behind many wealthier Americans approaching retirement.


This July 8, 2014 photo shows William Kistler at work in his office in Denver. Sixty-three-year-old Kistler views retirement like someone tied to the tracks watching a train coming: It{2019}s looming, it{2019}s threatening and there{2019}s little he can do.{201c}There is not enough to retire with,{201d} said Kistler, a Golden, Colorado, resident who said he is unable to build up a nest egg for his wife with his modest salary helping seniors navigate benefits. {201c}It{2019}s completely frightening to tell you the truth. And I, like a lot of people, try not to think about it too much, which is actually a problem.{201d AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)


"There is not enough to retire with," he said. "It's completely frightening, to tell you the truth. And I, like a lot of people, try not to think about it too much, which is actually a problem."

With traditional pensions becoming rarer in the private sector, and lower-paid workers less likely to have access to an employer-provided retirement plan, there is a growing gulf in the retirement savings of the wealthy and people with lower incomes. That, experts say, could exacerbate an already widening wealth gap across America, as more than 70 million baby boomers head into retirement — many of them with skimpy reserves.

FULL story at link.