I just realized how screwed our retirement opportunities are

[Brian_Expat]

I'm in my 20s. I have never had a defined benefit pension. My retirement account is usually a 401K that has NO contribution from an employer, just me putting money into it.

With the shitty stock market, that's done terribly.

But it gets worse for everyone.

With defined pension plans going bust in major industries such as transportation and manufacturing, the federal government is picking up the tab for those expenses.

Which comes out of taxes I pay.

In addition, Social Security payments for todays retirees come out of. . . taxes I pay today.

So when I retire, I will have whatever my 401K is worth (far from reliable), and that's likely it -- Social Security will be insolvent by then.

Meanwhile, I'll have made tremendous contributions to the Social Security system to tide over existing retirees, plus tax contributions to cover massive pension deficits from the private sector.

I'm not the only one who gets screwed either. The people retiring today are going to discover that the Federal pension guarantees will only pay out a fraction of their actual pension! Meanwhile, Bush's age test for SS will make it increasingly hard to get.

At the same time, the fat cats who raided "overfunded" pension accounts, bankrupted the companies shortly afterwards, and left with all that pension money, are laughing all the way to the bank.

We need a solution to this problem soon, or the standard of living in the USA over the next forty years isn't going to be all that hot for retirees OR workers who are paying sky-high taxes to make up for all that lost and stolen pension money (and looking forward to retirement opportunities only provided by their own savings).

[DemWitch]

1. Welcome to the wonderful world of

Compassionate Conservatism... Save your money, but we won't give you a living wage. You can collect Social Security at 70 maybe, course by 71 you'll be dead. But don't even suggest a CEO give up his golden parachute... that's Un AMerican...

[Nimrod]

2. Very true

I'm in my 30's and it's become apparent that when I hit retirement age my 401k and fifty cents will get me a cup of coffee.

The project I've got going is to more or less abandon the concept of retirement and just try to get myself into a position where I won't have to live in a cardboard box when I get too old to work. I'm building up a method of income that can be continued during retirement (animal breeding) and doing my damnedest to buy a small home that could theoretically be paid off before I'm a doddering old man with three marbles left.

I know full well there isn't going to be anything there for me that I haven't created for myself BY myself.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

3. Unfortunately, the rest of the country won't realize for another 10 yrs.

It will be too late by then...

[Deja Q]

9. We're already too late.

They see many problems, albeit on a vague level, but they refuse to do anything about it and blindly support a candidate.

Many of us are the same way, but we all do what little we can anyway.

It's an impasse.

[Skittles]

4. honey, I am 47 and I feel the same way

we are all screwed

[grasswire]

5. plan now...

....to build layers of income and build equity in something that will hold its value.

Example: a friend of mine has spent more than two decades building two careers. He teaches, but he also has built a add-on business as a dealer in coins and photographic images. Even if he never gets his pension or SS, his second business will provide. Plus the value of his stock can be liquidated in bits or at once.

You can turn a hobby into a home business. Especially with the power of the web and eBay.

The key is diversification of revenue streams, if you no longer can rely on a pension for retirement.

[Kanary]

6. Do others your age see it that way? Is it dire enough to make people

start taking an honest and open look at how other countries have done it much better?

Kanary

[Brian_Expat]

8. Most people in my age group aren't even thinking about it

Most didn't even save for retirement, they bought fancy cars. Many lost them and are pissed, but many others kept them and got in even bigger debt.

I have married/partnered friends in my age group and younger who have $500,000 mortgages, SUV leases, and $60,000 in credit card debt. The idea of retirement is a quaint one, and think they'll be "real estate millionaires" with property appreciation in their home.

Those of us who focus on retirement are often mocked as "stupid," and I have to admit, they have a point. If I'd taken all the money I put into my 401K, bought a new BMW with it, and put the rest in a savings account, I'd STILL have more money in the account than in my 401K today -- and a BMW.

[ramapo]

7. Social Security isn't the problem

I'm 49. When I was in high school, the popular notion was that social security would soon be insolvent and not paying retirees.

Hasn't happened, probably won't happen because of the political implications. Social Security will not fail. There is plenty of money (well make that IOUs) in the trust fund.

The real problem is that you cannot live on social security alone nor was it meant to be the sole source of support of everybody's retirement.

Forget about private pensions too. Those were a relatively short-lived phenomena.

That means people must save, something that can be nearly impossible for many and generally not encouraged in today's society. False expectations were foisted on us by the stock market of the '90s. Investing is not a get rich quick scheme. Financial goals take planning, discipline, and a certain amount of good luck to reach.

[Randypiper]

10. And p.s.

Don't get sick

[Lefty Pragmatist]

11. Actually, in your 20's you're fine.

That's over the hump and after The Fall. I'm 41 and right on the cusp. Those in my cohort who were smart and started building 401(k)s in their early 30's will be okay. Those who weren't...

OTOH, if you are 30-35 right now, either marry somebody older (sorry, taken) or get thee to law school, because otherwise you are f u c k 'ed.

[Wcross]

12. Your retirement is up to you.

You have a long road ahead of you if you are in your 20's. You have a world of choices you can make. If you live within your means and save you will be able to retire comfortably. If you live above your means and spend every penny you make, you will work until you die. It really is that simple.

[sventvkg]

13. Real Estate is you only hope...

Work up to owning about 5 duuplexes or a couple apartment complexes or 10 houses over the next 45 years and you'll be doing ver well..My granfather told me when I was a kid to NEVER trust the market or Market driving accounts like a 401k..he tol me to do what I just told you to do and said it's the only true way to secure assets for retirement. You can go beyond a few properties too but he said that more then 5 is too much work unless you want that kind of thing. Imagine owning 5 duplexes when you retire..The income the rentals could produce would be enough to live anywhere quite nicely..Also, your net worth would be several million dollars by then, just about anywhere...Anyway, this is good advice that I will be heading myself and it's very doable over the long-haul, you just need to plan it out. There will be no social security to speak ot and I wouldn't trust the most over-valued market in history.

[EST]

16. I really hate to disabuse you.

But with the building of all these new dwellings, the low interest rates, mega-borrowing, etc, when interest rates do go up significantly the banks are going to have to foreclose on all this and the folks who borrowed and spent their equity in their homes and other real property. The net result is you are going to see many banks and thrift institutions going belly up 'cause they can't sell their repos to anyone without a good job (and you know where those are going.) They will have to give up all those titles to the mortgage guarantors, read- big business and government-oops I repeat myself- so now big business has all the money, all the property and all the other shit. Which includes us-we, the people. Not a very appealing prospect. Our lives, our country, our very being is in total jeopardy here. We gotta get these megalomaniacs out and gone, by whatever means possible. This really is probably the very greatest crisis humanity has ever faced.

[lastknowngood]

14. Hey at least you got a chance I'm 51 I'm totaly Fuc*ed no retirement

no social sec and I've been paying in for over 34 years.

[cidliz2004]

15. That is the truth

I have been working for over 30 years and am worried that I will have NO Social Security when and if I retire. I have been paying into it for 30 years and there may be Nothing in it for me when it is my turn to retire.

I think that we need to form a class action lawsuit against the Federal Government for requiring us to pay this all these years for Our Retirement, and then not able to cough up the money that we and our employers have contributed.

If you pay into Social Security you should get benefits when originally set. If you didn't pay into Social Security then you can get what may be "left over". Why should I have contributed for 30 years and people that never worked and contributed a day in their life reap the benefits? As selfish as that may sound, I'm sorry, but that is something that I counted on to help me when I do retire. No one asked me if I WANTED to contribute, I had to. The money "black hole" that the Government controls is RIDICULOUS!!!!

Sharing with others is something that I am all for, but all of the sharing has been with the crooks in Washington.

[Corgigal]

17. No one really knows when they will retire

You just think you do. You're one bad car wreck away from finding out. It's called security for a reason and as long as America doesn't fund BS war at the price of a billion a month the money will be there.

Everyone wants to think it won't be there for them because they hate paying it. Really who doesn't? However I don't think a 1st tier country can allow their millions of seniors to be homeless. Think of all the industry that would die and the thousands more out of work if we can't help the seniors. Hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, retirement communities and a bunch of other things that you, personally, need today might not exist without Social Security. That's just a few off the top of my head.

Just plan to live long enough to collect. I wish you luck.

[cidliz2004]

18. I understand that my deductions are paying for the current retirees

I don't mind that, that is how the system works. What I do mind is the "surplus" being squandered right now.

The Social Security Fund is being used to fund things that the general fund should be paying. I am really angry at the funds being comingled.

I do resent people who have never contributed to the fund being able to use it and collect, while people like myself are being told that we have to be older, and then again, older in order for us to qualify to "retire" and collect.

For all of the people that this fund is helping, great, but, there should be some differentiation on those funds and where those funds are coming from. If my contributions are helping every Tom, Dick and Harriet, then how in the world will there every be enough for us? There will be less people contributing when I reach retirement, that is a fact. The "surplus" being collected right now is being spent and not saved. So, as we use this as a cash cow for "everyone", the origninal people who have contributed their whole life are going to be left out in the cold.

If every "Tom, Dick and Harriet" want to collect then the Federal Government needs to "define" a fund for these people and to deal with this group seperately. If Social Security is truly for our retirement, then it should be saved for such, or at least a major portion of it.

Thank you for your concern and kind words, but I don't have the confidence in the Government right now. Look who is in the White House now, look what they are doing now...do you believe in for every action there is a reaction? The reaction can affect all of us.

You take care to, we all need to!

[Yupster]

19. If the government doesn't have the money

to pay you your social security, they're not going to have the money to pay off a class action lawsuit award either.

[cidliz2004]

20. Can they go to jail if they lose the law suit?

Kind of kidding, kind of not