How Is Your 401/Retirement Plan Doing? Because It Is Still The Largest Pool of $$ Left to Raid

The American dream is under attack; better paying jobs are being shipped overseas, our larger companies and universities are contracting out jobs to companies that import H-1B Visa holders that receive lower wages and fewer benefits, the cost of sending our children to university often requires taking out a second mortgage, a major illness can wipe out 40 years of work and saving and now our retirement funds are disappearing.

Craig M. Douglas and Tim McLaughlin penned an article about Boston’s mutual fund companies with major stakes in Citi Group. The largest holder of Citi stock, which have fallen 68% just this year, is Fidelity Investments which purchased an additional 100 million shares in the last quarter of 2008. As I read this article I thought of my previous employer that had their 401k through Fidelity and my son who also has his 401k with Fidelity. At the end of 2008 his fund had lost more than 50%.

It’s more than plausible that a majority of Americans have lost as much as 75% of their retirement. Already we have seen our steel workers retirement being taken over by the government. The auto workers who have worked 40 years building for their retirement are watching as Congress and the media demonizes them for bringing down the auto industry. Wasn’t this accomplished by an auto industry that made promises to workers then failed to provide the funding needed to fulfill those commitments?

The private sector isn’t the only part of our economy that is reeling from the obligations made to future retirees. Many communities offered lavish retirement programs to their leadership only to find themselves under a burden that they are no longer able to fund. Communities have a severe need to raise capital for human services, infrastructure repairs, police and fire services only to find that any increase in revenues are being eaten up by retirement liabilities.

Every week we pay 14% of our gross income to Social Security and Medicare; our esteemed politicians and economists have told us that both will be bankrupt in twenty years. That is if the Federal Government pays back what it has borrowed from it. There has been numerous papers written stating that the retirement age has to be moved up while benefits have to be cut if the Social Security Administration is to survive.

Even the last bastion of retirement security is being taken away from us. With property values dropping in most areas of the country, the equity that many had planned on using for their retirement has disappeared. The family home is the single largest retirement saving investment that Americans have used, that investment has also taken a 25% haircut.

All of this is happening while the government is the only part of the economy that is growing. The future demands for our tax dollars also has to grow which means that we will have less to work with. Even as our weekly checks will grow by a massive $13, the government seems to be on a consumption tax spree. Proposed increases in our taxes are in the pipeline for everything from a 50% increase in the fuel tax, a 150% increase in cigarette taxes, a massive carbine emissions tax will cause our electricity costs to increase (again), water and sewer fees will have to increase as new mandates come on line and the continuing need for school and education funding will affect our property tax.

The only answer I have is counter to the advice of our government; not to consume, not to spend and become even more conservative than I already am.