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All you have to do is any form of Google search and you can see the figures. They are shockingly low and not even close to a million. Which was the opening poster's point. Again the investment firms market very well by telling you how far behind you are and how they can help you make up for lost ground.
The thing is you can go back 15 years and dig up data and it was just as gloomy; over half the retirees were certain to be in poverty. Yet it has remained steady at about 10% for the over 65 population:
10% doesn't seem like a "crisis" to me. It's rather silly to think you can get that down to 0%.
10% doesn't seem like a "crisis" to me. It's rather silly to think you can get that down to 0%.
I think there are more that are not far above it than there used to be though. I do think we need to help more people prepare better. But I also think expectations are a bit high as far as standard of living below which is "substandard". I am a liberal and I do want to help the people that fall below the threshold. I think everyone should have access to medical care, a safe place to live and food to eat.
But you through in an interesting wrench - income. Lets say you are able to get 5% return on that million and you can live on $50,000 total income. Then they are both the same, right? Except it cost a lot more during your working years to accumulate the Roth money. I could be wrong though. Isn't Roth appreciation taxed on withdrawal?
You have to consider though, if you are getting a 5% return, you really shouldn't be withdrawing more than
2 1/2% these days. The other half goes to future inflation and if your lucky some growth. So realistically today if you read all the current number crunching from the experts, withdrawals today are in the 2.5% category. The days of the safe 4% withdrawal are long gone. Too many changes in economic factors.
I think there are more that are not far above it than there used to be though. I do think we need to help more people prepare better. But I also think expectations are a bit high as far as standard of living below which is "substandard". I am a liberal and I do want to help the people that fall below the threshold. I think everyone should have access to medical care, a safe place to live and food to eat.
So who make places unsafe? People who want something that is someone else's without having to work for it, they'd rather take it.
I imagine that for many, most of that household net worth is home equity. Most people
Unless you're public sector, a defined benefit pension is an extinct dinosaur. A huge chunk of late-boomers and Gen-X are looking at a Social Security check and nothing else.
I'll retire with my house plus other assets worth more than $1 million 8 years from now but I won't have a million in tax deferred retirement savings.
So who make places unsafe? People who want something that is someone else's without having to work for it, they'd rather take it.
and being weatherproof and wired properly and not infested; possibly also handicap accessible. I wasn't just talking about crime; some low end housing is unsafe for other reasons.
But that is just their Fidelity accounts which is a lot different than how much folks have in 401Ks.
For instance we use Fidelity at work like a lot of places. I hired a women 15 years out of college recently. She left her 401K at old job and enrolled at Fidelity in her new 401K.
So now it shows a 36 year old with barely a two or three thousand saved for retirement because Fidelity does not have access to her big 401k info the one she had for 15 years.
And some 401Ks that are really big are at places like JPMorgan and Merrill they have tons and tons of folks making over 200K who max out 401k and those companies manage own 401K. In fact large Investment banks and places like that where folks can max out 401ks from day one often do it themselves so maybe Fidelity attracts smaller balances.
My question is there any real data base that shows what the average person has in all his 401ks combined? if not the numbers thrown around are misleading
I doubt if such a data base exists. One of the things about Fidelity is they have a very strong workplace footprint. Many of those workplaces are in the public sector. That marriage of average pension benefit and retirement account balance is probably not in many if any data bases. That average fidelity on top of a pension creates a different picture.
And also folks don't even tap 401ks for retirement. Pretty much I plan to eventually get it moved to IRAs, then in my estate move it to IRAs in grandkids names. That sets up the IRA to be distributed over that kids life time.
ReachTheBeach;[/b]41819499]I think for many of us this may be because the recommendations are too high. I think the million dollar mantra is crap. It is a great goal to have and enough to be pretty confident that you are set for retirement, but if you are getting SS or a pension that pays over $2k per month and you don't insist on living the high life, you can get by with a lot less. Yes, there are a lot of people unprepared. But I don't think it is as bad as they make it out to be.
Hi, I really appreciate what you have written here and in some other posts on this thread.
Sometimes I think it's a comparison game here on this thread, who's got the most and some don't mind telling it. When I was a lot younger, I compared stuff too, but as I've gotten older I believe it is all about being happy with what you have. It's not about your neighbor having a million bucks. Big deal. I'm not terribly impressed. Does it make that person a good person? Do they deserve more respect than those of us with a lot less? I don't think so. And, God forbid, what happens to that millionaire if they have the misfortune of coming down with a deadly disease and end up spending that million in the hopes of being cured.
One of your other posts talked about how spoiled we are. Boy, have you got that right.
Money is not the cure for everything. Old saying..... money is the root of all evil.
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