How much money have you saved for retirement?

[Herman Munster]

There's going to be a lot of destitute people begging their children and family to help support them in their old age. $20,000 average savings for retirement is abysmal in an era of no pensions. People are going to work till they drop dead.

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/business/15152137.htm

About half of Americans have these retirement plans, but most don't know how to handle them. The average American has saved only about $20,000 for retirement, and often doesn't have the slightest idea how to invest the money. In 401(k) plans, they too frequently let money sit idly in money market funds that barely grow savings, or they hold dangerous amounts of their employer's stock.

A study by Hewitt Associates found that 401(k) plans are so baffling that many people don't know if they are in or out of them. About 29 percent of employees surveyedassumed they were participating, even though they never signed up.

Consequently, measures being debated in the House and Senate for a pension bill would help take some of the pressure off Americans to sort through the muddle.

The bill would give employers the green light to automatically put employees into 401(k)'s. They could remove maybe 3 percent to 6 percent of an employee's pay from each check and invest it in what's called a life-cycle fund -- a mixture of stocks and bonds designed to get people ready for retirement by a certain date.

[Skidmore]

1. You are assuming employers are going to let people keept

their retirement plans.

[Herman Munster]

2. A 401k account is your account

you keep whatever money is in their when you change jobs. A traditional defined benefit pension is going the way of the do-do bird. The only places you'll find those anymore in 5-10 years will be in government jobs in the public sector.

[sueragingroz]

3. not as much as I would like

Because I have been a contractor for most of my life, I paid by myself into RRSP's - I have rarely been able to partake of a company pension fund.

But I do my best...

[MercutioATC]

4. $135k in my 401k right now.

Plus a $200k house that'll be paid off in 9 years when I retire.

Plus a $40k/year pension.

Plus a $1000/mo Social Security supplement from when I retire until I'm actually eligible for full benefits.


...and I'm still a little concerned.

[Missy M]

5. Sometimes you think you have enough until a....

catastrophic illness strikes. Even with health insurance both Medicare and a supplemental insurance it doesn't cover everything. The bills just keep coming in every month and it eats away at what you have for your retirement.

[Herman Munster]

7. some people just don't pay the bills

In many states, social security, 401k pension funds, and your homesteaded house are off the table in court judgments.

You can tell the hospitals to go fuck themselves and sue you. And they won't be able to get a dime.

[Missy M]

14. But would the hospitals and doctors still treat you?

We pay all the bills but when once we were comfortable, now the medical bills take away from any spare money. In one year the medical bills were half a million dollars and we have to pay the balance of what Medicare or supplemental insurance doesn't pay. It's a real eye opener when it happens.

[Herman Munster]

16. they are legally supposed to cover you

I mean if an indigent homeless person goes to the ER and is sick. They have to treat them. They can't just turn them away.

But you can get operations and medical services much cheaper overseas and the quality of the hospitals are just as good if not better than what you get in the U.S. It's a huge industry for medical tourism.

Operations cost like small fractions of what they cost in the U.S. Full comprehensive checkups with EKG's, stress tests, x-rays, blood work cost like a couple hundred bucks.

For example, here is one medical tourism hospital in Thailand. Most of their doctors got educated at some of the best schools in the U.S.

http://www.bumrungrad.com/

[Warren Stupidity]

401K plans are supposed to be voluntary.

If the government is concerned then perhaps it ought to raise social security pensions rather than give everyone a mandated paycut and wall street a guaranteed income stream.

[Herman Munster]

8. you'll be able to opt out

just a lot of people won't cause you have to do something. Just like now a lot of people aren't in the program cause you have to "do" something.

For a lot of people, filling out a little form is just too much work.

[MichiganVote]

6. Will it matter. Whatever is saved is eaten up by the gov. in one way or

another. Put savings in the bank, get about nothing while banks make out like bandits. Put money in land and hope the market doesn't fall. Put money in stock markets and hold one's breath. Put it in pensions and maybe, maybe, the company doesn't fold or its worth something.

Put it in the ground? Not if you're in NO or anywhere else in the country that is at risk for natural disasters that the gov. or insurance do not cover.

Everytime congress comes up with a plan it costs us more than when we went in and seems to benefit another major company or economic enterprise. Or, we just get charged more in public fees when revenues drop because God knows, we can't charge the wealthy a fair tax.

[mike_c]

9. I fully expect retirement to equal homelessness....

I have a job that in my parents' generation would have provided for my retirement very nicely, along with giving me a nice middle class life during my working years. These days, I live pretty close to month-to-month, even after nearly 10 years in my current position, and will have very little for retirement, especially if attacks on social security and my California PERS pension succeed.

on edit-- and I'm one of the lucky ones.

[Herman Munster]

10. I would try to save as much as you can

and then plan to move to Mexico, Costa Rica, Panana, anywhere that has a safe expat community. Usually, the costs of living is 1/6th to 1/10th what it is in the US. Start learning spanish.

It sure as hell beats being homeless in retirement. Lots of people are looking into it. Good Luck.

[mike_c]

11. that is my plan, more or less....

Whether it succeeds will depend in large measure on whether my pension materializes 15 years from now (and whether my health holds out, of course).

[union_maid]

12. Not nearly enough

We were doing all right. It looked like we could expect to have about 350k in the 401k at retirement at one point. We knew better than to expect things to go exactly as planned, but there was only so much we could do about it. My husband's job was off shored. He got severence to cover a transition to a new job, but the new job pays less. We've both had health problems in the last few years. We finally gave in and broke into the 410k to pay some bills. It was going down at that point anyway, and the interest on the medical bills was adding up. I still don't know if that was the right choice, but it was what we did. So, we have a lot less than we did and a lot less ability to put money away than we did, too. I figure if I work a couple of years after I'm dead things will work out.

[sam sarrha]

13. theyll put tilt meters on us for when we die and fall on the grill at McDs

so as not to mess up the other burgers..

[SmokingJacket]

15. About enough to buy myself a nice used car to sleep in. nt

[Ferretherder]

17. Um,....uh,....

...about,......ooooohhhhh.......lemme seeeeeee.............

....uummmmmmmmmmmmmmm,.......

...say, uh, one dollar.......um, nearly one.....

....I think at least, ohhhhhh, .......call it none.

[MrSlayer]

18. About 160K in my annuity and pension so far.

I'm only 36 so by the time I'm ready to retire in 20 years or so I should have about a million between them. Of course it won't matter after I hit the Powerball tonight.

[misanthrope]

19. LOL! Retirement?! Do you mean...

...that period between when the ambulance comes and when I die?

In some sense, my emphysema has been advantageous since I don't have to deal with the nagging question of "What if I outlive my retirement savings?"

Actually, with my health concerns, I'm not going to have to worry about retirement as much as just making it another ten years. I'll have to keep writing up until the end.

[sendero]

20. Having your money sit idly by..

.. in a money market is very preferable to investing in the stock market of a failing economy.

Those who have sat in an MM since Bush took office are about even with those who invested in a typical S&P 500 index fund. And they could sleep.

Be careful buying what the Wall Street money men are selling, the get their take whether you win or lose.

[TheFarseer]

21. about $200

that is, if I stay at my job for 2 years and 11 more months. $100, if not. I just became eligible for the 401k a month ago!

I think the excuse that people aren't smart enough to invest their money is kind of lame. If you don't do anything, it's (normally) put in a guaranteed account that gets maybe 3% interest. That sounds lame, but most people get some matching so you need to count that as investment gains IMO. If you make under 25k, you can get a tax credit for investing in a 401k. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I like 401k. Your employer can't screw you out of it, you can get tax advantages out of it. I just wish more people could participate in one.

[SutaUvaca]

22. Used to have some

but after two dear ones went through losing battles with cancer, all such funds are gone, and that was with really good insurance coverage. It's a fact that in this "blessed" country, if you or your family member is sick long enough, it doesn't matter how well you're insured - you will go broke.

I'll be looking for a nice cave to retire in down the road.

[Nicole]

23. Enough to live modestly

My home is paid for and some rental property will be paid for in the next couple of years.

My 401K, SS, pension & rental income should allow me to live modestly. I would say I could live very well but I'm not counting on all of those things to be there when the time comes.

[Golden Raisin]

24. Three items:

1) No matter how much a middle-class person has put away, our medical/pharmaceutical/hospital/insurance nightmare in this country will ensure that a single catastrophic illness will deplete whatever you've got stashed away --- and damn fast.

2) Halliburton has the contracts to build internment camps. The camps can be used to dump all the homeless, seniors, or destitute retirees somewhere out of sight. No kidding --- this is going to be like the Okies in the 1930's only bigger, nationwide and not so localized.

3) Congress can be counted on to ensure that THEY will have fat, juicy pensions even if the constituents they represent are starving and sleeping on a park bench.

[ThomWV]

25. Retired Last Year With $250K

Plus about a half million in a couple of pieces of udeveloped real estate we've bought over the years. I have a modest pension and my wife receives a modest Social Security check but its actually more than we need.