Comments on: The Impending Retirement Crisis

By: TStrump

TStrump — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:44:01 +0000

I can say that in my 20′s and 30′s I cashed in my retirement fund … twice. Oops.
Paying the price now.
I’m now getting more proactive and will be choosing stocks myself rather than mutual funds.

By: Silicon Prairie

Silicon Prairie — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:36:58 +0000

This seems to be saying that people avoid stocks when they’re young, and then learn about their value as they grow older and try to get something out of it before it’s too late – unfortunately this is the opposite of what they need.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:17:14 +0000

The individual perspective and values that need to change before individual wealth accumulation can occur can be summed up with the Keynesian idea that “the marginal propensity to consume exceeds the marginal propensity to save”. Most do not understand their own behavior along the economic dimension of: “friviolus consumption”, “necessry consumption”, “depreciating asset”, “apreciating asset”, “apreciating asset that generates income”.

Personally, understanding this was the first step, followed by due diligence and persiverance. I think that Marci has the “bigger picture” … you go girl ;~)

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:57:51 +0000

“In recent decades, that number seems to have jumped to 15% as a result of longer average retirements and increased late-in-life medical bills.” – This shows the ‘increasing’ awareness among investors.. Good article. Thanks Mike…

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:31:54 +0000

marci: I think you were extremely smart in allocating your resources and net worth but I’m sure most American retirees only have their 401k and IRAs as their retirement. I can only wish to have a pension when I retire but it looks like I will only have my own investments and savings to live off by the time I’m ready to kick back and relax.

It would be great if I get social security by then but I would never assume that I will get anything (even though I’m paying for it which never made sense to me, even when I was young and didn’t know that I won’t get anything back).

By: B7

B7 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:39:54 +0000

The biggest retirement problems are Social Security and Medicare. All the money is gone. The government is getting deeper in debt. There is no way that they will be able to pay. Most wanna-be retirees completely ignore this.

By: ObliviousInvestor

ObliviousInvestor — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:37:29 +0000

Hi Marci.

Sounds like you’re doing very well–quite the model for many of us to look up to.

I suspect, however, that your degree of preparedness puts you in the minority.

As to how much of most people’s assets are held in retirement accounts: According to the Investment Company Institute, about 40% of household net worth was invested in retirement accounts on average.

I don’t have statistics on the other 60%, but I’d imagine a significant portion of it is home value.

By: marci

marci — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:19:11 +0000

I don’t think the ‘experts’ are looking at the whole picture if they are only looking at the totals in the 401K and IRA accounts. For me, at 55, those 401K and IRA accounts are a small portion of my investments (20%), and and even smaller portion of my net worth (10%). I have a small pension already coming in, and a PERS account waiting to be tapped at any time, plus all the interest and dividends from the investment account, plus property contracts coming in, plus real estate I’m sitting on, plus a few other things.

So why would the ‘experts” think that I had all my retirement into 401K and IRA’s? I never put all my eggs in one basket. Yet I am financially ready for retirement, except for that health insurance piece of the pie.

By: ObliviousInvestor

ObliviousInvestor — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:42:33 +0000

Hi Nate.

To the best of my knowledge, to invest in a hedge fund you have to be an “Accredited Investor,” meaning you have to have either $1 million in net worth or $200k annual income.

Though admittedly, I haven’t looked greatly into hedge fund investing, so there might be some way around this that I’m not aware of.

By: Nate @ Debt-free Scholar

Nate @ Debt-free Scholar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:27:15 +0000

I have hardly even begun my savings (I have all of $1,000 saved), but, when I do start saving, I plan on looking into investing into a hedge fund. Precious metals are an excellent hedge fund. If the money is inflated, gold and silver stay the same value, so you never loose anything. [Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. ]

Thanks,
Nate