America's vast savings gap

**fiffer010** · 12-17-2005, 10:01 PM

Re: America's vast savings gap

Hmm.. only 800 people surveyed. Never the less, those stats can't be far from the truth. It is scary that so many people dont have any sort of market investment. Maybe some of these people owned investment property or even companies.

**seaar2000** · 12-18-2005, 01:33 AM

Re: America's vast savings gap

These will be the people who will moan and groan that they have nothing to retire on when they will be hitting retirement. There is no excuse for this. I only approxiamately $17,000 a year and I have a 401 (b). Yes it can be tight at times but I don't want to be moaning when I come to retirement age and say I have nothing saved up.

**BAGAGT1** · 12-18-2005, 07:18 AM

Re: America's vast savings gap

No mentioin in the article of how many respondents thought or knew if they might be covered by a traditional pension plan....

**PRICEPLUS** · 12-18-2005, 10:54 AM

Re: America's vast savings gap

The traditional pension plan is going the way of the Dodo bird. It would be good to know the number of private industry folks who have no pension per se!

**Firefly** · 12-18-2005, 01:56 PM

Re: America's vast savings gap

That's sad.

**BAGAGT1** · 12-18-2005, 06:28 PM

Re: America's vast savings gap

Originally posted by PRICEPLUS

The traditional pension plan is going the way of the Dodo bird. It would be good to know the number of private industry folks who have no pension per se!

Although the traditional pension plan is dying a slow death, there are still a lot of folks covered under one, I am, and my wife is covered under one as well. My point is, I don't think any survey about retirement planning is complete unless you ask about pension plans, for better or worse I know people whose retirement plan is solely the pension plan.

**jmjj215** · 12-19-2005, 08:39 AM

Re: America's vast savings gap

Originally posted by BAGAGT1

Although the traditional pension plan is dying a slow death, there are still a lot of folks covered under one, I am, and my wife is covered under one as well. My point is, I don't think any survey about retirement planning is complete unless you ask about pension plans, for better or worse I know people whose retirement plan is solely the pension plan.

Yes, but at any moment the rug can be taken out from underneath them. What they're counting on could vanish easily w/ company bankruptcy for instance. I know Kodak employees got the shaft in a big way - also think about Enron, Worldcom, Sunbeam, etc.

The safest way is to not depend on any third party (including the government) for your retirement. I ache for those people at Delta for instance.

**BAGAGT1** · 12-19-2005, 07:03 PM

Re: America's vast savings gap

Originally posted by jmjj215

Yes, but at any moment the rug can be taken out from underneath them. What they're counting on could vanish easily w/ company bankruptcy for instance. I know Kodak employees got the shaft in a big way - also think about Enron, Worldcom, Sunbeam, etc.

The safest way is to not depend on any third party (including the government) for your retirement. I ache for those people at Delta for instance.

I agree completely. I realize and understand the pitfalls of relying solely on a pension plan. Nevertheless, there is a portion of the population who are 'planning' to retire solely on their pension plan. Whether you and I agree with thier plan is irrelevant. My point is simply that without taking pension plans into consideration the survey is incomplete. I know a few teachers who are planning to retire on their pension, and in their case, there is a strong likelihood that they won't have to worry about the rug being pulled from under them. In their case they do have a plan, they believe that they can live quite comfortably on their pension, they don't feel they need to contribute to a 403b or a IRA, I just want to know if anyone who was surveyed falls into this group.

**StevenM** · 12-22-2005, 06:54 AM

Re: America's vast savings gap

The traditional pension plan may be disappearing, but there are a number of nontraditional retirement savings alternatives that have replaced it in some measure. In adition, many employees do not stay at any one firm for a great length of time, but rather switch employers for any number of reasons. In such a scenario, a traditional pension plan wouldn't apply anyway.

**jmjj215** · 12-24-2005, 08:51 AM

Re: America's vast savings gap

Originally posted by BAGAGT1

I agree completely. I realize and understand the pitfalls of relying solely on a pension plan. Nevertheless, there is a portion of the population who are 'planning' to retire solely on their pension plan. Whether you and I agree with thier plan is irrelevant. My point is simply that without taking pension plans into consideration the survey is incomplete. I know a few teachers who are planning to retire on their pension, and in their case, there is a strong likelihood that they won't have to worry about the rug being pulled from under them. In their case they do have a plan, they believe that they can live quite comfortably on their pension, they don't feel they need to contribute to a 403b or a IRA, I just want to know if anyone who was surveyed falls into this group.

Point taken.

**Snoopy2645** · 12-26-2005, 01:50 PM

Re: America's vast savings gap

WELL more & more senior citizens are having to take on pt jobs to make it. I see it all the time I am thankful my grandma is a TW because she only gets social security & its not much & she is still saving every month no one knows how though but she does.

I kinda have my own little plan in place its to have no debt in the next year & start putting that money into investments that I was using for any debts I owed I hope to retire safe & sound but I will also hope to work as long as I can work just to be safe!!

America's vast savings gap