Part IV - The 401K Shortfall or Work Till You Die

The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account...

has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement…

according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve and analyzed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for The Wall Street Journal.

The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn't a pretty sight. Welcome to WalMart World, where “work till you die” is our motto.

In this WalMart World (outsourced, prison and child labor, minimum wage, no benefits, no vacation, no pension) that we live in…

the private sector has already weaseled out, now, the public sector follows, leaving the faithful employee standing alone...

holding a sack of what filled up the other hand, and where the wishes of “golden years” were not.

The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases.

This story is about what happens to most people who rely on 401k's. In general, people facing problems today got too little advice, or bad advice.

They didn't realize that a 6% annual contribution, with a 3% company match, might not be enough.

However, 401K’s have been a gold mine for money-management firms.

In 30 years, the 401(k) went from a small program to a multi-trillion-dollar industry supporting thousands of financial planners and money managers.

The Nattering One muses... The sad thing is, the people trying to take away pensions from today’s workers...

are the very people that have benefited from pensions in the first place, retired pensioners that have gone into public service.

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore… or constructive pension reform to put a halt to system abuses is one thing.

Destructive, hack and slash, wholesale abandonment, as in, we got ours, and screw you and yours, is not a solution.

I hope that there are still some smart people in the right places who realize the truth is out there. Maybe your reading this right now…

Click here for the full WALL STREET JOURNAL article.

More to come in Part V