Comments on: Responsible Retirement

By: D. C.

D. C. — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:39:40 +0000

D. C., since the legal changes in the last decade, the funding situation is changing. In order for private pension plans to stay open, they have to maintain a fairly high level of funding.Which still leaves you with the problem so many of us discovered in the 70s: that the present value of your pension when you're laid off at 50 is close to zero, along with your chances of building up anything like a reasonable retirement income after starting over.

By: Stephanie Zvan

Stephanie Zvan — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:25:00 +0000

D. C., since the legal changes in the last decade, the funding situation is changing. In order for private pension plans to stay open, they have to maintain a fairly high level of funding.Heather, that illustrates one of the very nice things about Social Security. When retirement funding is across the board like that, and there's no option to not pay for it, it becomes invisible in the setting of wages. We think of wages in terms of take-home pay, so companies have to work around that in what they offer, rather than setting take-home pay and having individual decide whether they can afford to save out of that.

By: D. C.

D. C. — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:26:35 +0000

But legacy expenses like pensions bankrupted GM!!!!11! Indeed — thus demonstrating what happens when you spend sixty years handing out IOUs to make the current quarter look better.401(k) plans are far from ideal in too many ways to count — but they beat defined benefit plans when you can't count on staying at one employer for forty years. At least they're funded with more than a note at the bottom of the jar.

By: Ben Zvan

Ben Zvan — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:24:12 +0000

But legacy expenses like pensions bankrupted GM!!!!11!

By: Heather M. Rosa

Heather M. Rosa — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:17:08 +0000

Another reason for not being ready to retire is divorce. Hard to save when half or less of the previous income is available to run a household. When savings don't start until after the kids graduate, you can't take advantage of the miracle of compounded interest.

By: Silver Fox

Silver Fox — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:03:49 +0000

I'm hoping to be able to afford to retire; if not, I hope to be able to continue working (and maybe training the rising Gens, mostly younger than X). Very few of my generation have retired yet, but we're mostly not of that age quite yet. But then again, geologists are known for hanging on and not retiring on time.