US. Who killed retirement security? If you look closely, it wasn’t the 401(k)
“America’s retirement savings system has failed,” famed financial planning author Jane Bryant Quinn has said — and she isn’t short of company.
Media articles regularly recount the ways in which Americans, burdened with the responsibility of saving for retirement through 401(k)s, fail to put enough aside for old age. In response, 84 percent of House Democrats have co-sponsored legislation to expand Social Security benefits, while states are hoping to establish their own retirement plans for private sector workers.
But here’s the reality: private retirement savings are at record levels, and the uptick in saving began at precisely the time when 401(k)s began to replace traditional pensions. Yes, some Americans are undersaving. But by far the biggest risk to retirement security is underfunded government retirement plans, which have promised vastly greater benefits than they can pay.
Full Content: Z News
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