Retirement Woes: More Retirees Are Unable to Retire
Retirement is a word that is becoming more and more obsolete. Most employers nowadays only offer defined contribution plans (401K) as opposed to the defined benefit plans they used to offer in 1985. This change lowers the cost and liability for employers but it has left more and more retirees unable to retire since they have been forced to provide for their own retirement with little to no knowledge of how to do so.
They have also been forced into the stock market with defined contribution “401(k)”s with little to no knowledge of stock market investing and limited choices in these plans to begin with.
Alan Greenspan once said that the average American “needs to increase their financial education exponentially“. This leaves many would-be retirees without enough savings to live on and is helping to maintain high unemployment levels for millennials.
Large U.S. employers continue to eliminate traditional pension plans that pay retired workers a monthly lifetime pension in favor of defined contribution and hybrid plans that offer lump-sum payments at retirement. Indeed, most Americans have saved only 12% of what they actually need in retirement according to a 2018 CNBC article, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/19/most-americans-close-to-retirement-have-saved-12-percent-of-what-they-need.html.
Among Fortune 1000 companies, only 11 percent still offer a traditional pension plan to newly hired salaried workers, down from 14 percent in 2011 and continuing a long slide from 90 percent in 1985. Conversely, in 1985 only 10 percent of those companies offered only a defined contribution plan to salaried workers — today that figure stands at 70 percent.
The primary reason for this trend has been financial: Employers don’t want the exposure to unfunded liabilities if capital markets perform poorly. At the same time, until recently, employees generally hadn’t expressed a preference for traditional pension plans and, in fact, have largely embraced 401(k) and other defined contribution plans.
But this trend has its consequences in the workplace, as large numbers of baby boomers have 401(k) balances that are inadequate to fund a traditional retirement. To make matters worse, most retiring workers don’t know how to turn their nest eggs into reliable retirement income. Employers also haven’t provided much help by offering retirement income options in their defined contribution plans. Read more here…
The Retirement Myth
The writing has been on the wall. We have been told that if we work hard all our lives, we will be taken care of in our golden years. But here we are, and after all those years of hard work, we are still having to work even more until you are forced out with a retirement party and a nice gold-plated pen for all your “years of dedicated service and hard work”.
I am here to scream at the top of my lungs that this plan DOES NOT WORK! Today’s retirement is a myth. Things are only getting harder for retirees. Social security is crap and not keeping up with the true costs of living. Government figures are a sham while they deliberately work against you so that you don’t get what you are entitled. Oh, and by the way, your taxes are going up too!
Luckily, there is another way. You can finally say, “Enough is enough. I don’t want to look forward to a future of asking if you want fries with that!”
What you need to do is to get the three “E”s (Education, Experience, Excessive Cash) so you don’t have to rely on the three “F”s (Friends, Family, and the Federal Government).
Your financial future is literally at stake. Are you going to let the “system” leave you penniless in retirement or are you going to stand up and take control of your own financial future?
UPDATE: Though this article was originally written in 2012, absolutely nothing has changed. The things written about in this article are actually even more relevant today! Whats your financial future look like?
Mike J Anthony
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