Although the market has come back quite a bit in recent years,
many Americans remain woefully underprepared for retirement. In
fact, six out of 10 Americans
have less than $25,000 saved
, a far cry from the hundreds of thousands-if not millions-- that
most experts believe are necessary in order to have a retirement
that is comfortable.
It also doesn't help that most Americans no longer receive
robust defined-benefit plans from their workplace, while those in
the public sector seem likely to see a cut in the their benefits
as various government entities look to slash costs to stay
solvent. If that wasn't enough, many in younger generations have
little hope that social security will be there in any meaningful
respect when they need it, especially given the incredible
gridlock in D.C.
Given this, many people have proposed changes to our
admittedly broken system in order to hopefully prevent a
retirement crisis from hitting millions across the nation. After
all,
according to a recent study
that was highlighted
by the Motley Fool
, more than half of workers reported they haven't tried to
calculate their retirement needs, just 14% are very confident
that they will have enough saved, while 37% now expect to retire
after the age of 65.
If you were in charge, what would you do to fix this huge
problem? Do any of the following choices appeal to you in this
brewing crisis?
- Do nothing, other people's savings are none of my business.
If they don't want to save and prepare for retirement it is
their problem.
- Since defined benefit plans are probably never coming back,
we need to make it easier for investors to save. We should
expand incentives to get people to sock away more for
retirement, either in the form of tax credits or deductions, or
consider some sort of credit for firms who match employee
contributions to 401(k)s.
- Guaranteed retirement accounts-have everyone pay into a
government system that pays out like an annuity in old age.
Removes the guesswork but how do you decide how much everyone
gets, what happens in death, and can we trust the government to
manage this program better? (For those interested, a synopsis
of one of these
proposals can be found here
)
- Some other plan that you think would work and prevent a
brewing retirement disaster in this country (let us know in the
comments!!).
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