50% of the stock market is retirement money

[disneysteve]

did you even consider what I posted? doesnt sound like it

I read what you posted. I was asking why you doubt that half of stock market assets are held in retirement plans. I didn't see anything in your post that would explain why you feel otherwise.

[bigdaddybus]

I see your point, but what about pension plans?

60% of employees in the US had pensions at their peak, 10% of current employees have pension plans now. Over the next 20-30 years that is going to be a huge change.

I guess what I struggle with are retirement contibution limits.

Say I have a friend that makes 2.5 million per year after taxes. He spends 1.1 million and saves/investes 1.4 million per year. I dont know his contibution limits, but I "assume" he has alot more invested in non-retirement accounts vs retirement accounts.

Now apply that to the entire 1% bringing in 40+ percent of the money in our country. Then factor in that alot of americas dont have anything saved for retirement. My gut feel is that the wealthy have more "investments" than the retirement plans. Maybe its too diversified (precious metals, real estate, etc) to overcome the retirement plans.

I would like to see an article with the numbers.

[ua_guy]

That doesn't make any sense.

Vanguard's 2045 fund has a 1-year return of 15.58%, a 5-year of 16.35%, and a 10-year of 7.55%. If you are only getting 2%, something is wrong or you aren't actually in Vanguard's 2045 fund.

Q1 2014 only comes out to 1.7% return for the quarter. I'm looking at that figure calculated by Fidelity, and all my money in this particular account is invested in the Van 2045 fund, so I consider that to be accurate based on that fund alone. I realize Quarterly results are different than looking at an annual return. For retirement accounts, a longer term picture is probably more appropriate.

In other words, you're right. Longer-term performance calculated on the account is more indicative of the historical returns for the same fund.

[disneysteve]

Q1 2014 only comes out to 1.7% return for the quarter.

That's entirely different. Yes, year to date the fund is up 2.25% as of Friday. But that's only for just over 1/3 of a year. If it has a similar return the rest of the year (which we can't know of course) that would be an annual return of about 6.73% for the full year. We may or may not see that but it certainly isn't 2% for the year.

[bigdaddybus]

Half of the US stock market is held by retirement funds (401k, IRA, 403b and pensions).

What do you think of that?

Any supporting data for that claim?

[autoxer]

I guess what I struggle with are retirement contibution limits.

Say I have a friend that makes 2.5 million per year after taxes. He spends 1.1 million and saves/investes 1.4 million per year. I dont know his contibution limits, but I "assume" he has alot more invested in non-retirement accounts vs retirement accounts.

Look up Mitt Romneys IRA, he wasn't exactly saddled by contribution limits.

[corn18]

Look up Mitt Romneys IRA, he wasn't exactly saddled by contribution limits.

Not that having $105M in an IRA is bad, but paying 39.6% tax on it when he starts mandatory withdrawals in 3 years vs. 15% capital gains tax is pretty non-ideal.

[autoxer]

Not that having $105M in an IRA is bad, but paying 39.6% tax on it when he starts mandatory withdrawals in 3 years vs. 15% capital gains tax is pretty non-ideal.

Deferring the tax is still better than getting taxed twice. First realizing the income and then being subject to capital gains. His strategic tax planning has certainly enabled him to amass an obscene amount of money within that account, so the eventual income tax might not seem like much burden.

[jIM_Ohio]

Half of the US stock market is held by retirement funds (401k, IRA, 403b and pensions).

What do you think of that?

87.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot