401k’s are a scam.  You can only go long in one.  You cannot get in or out intra day.  We pay these fund managers a huge expense fee to “manage” a fund.  The only managing they do is window dress at month’s end to show their clients that they were part of the rally.  These people are idiots.  My cat could trade better than 90% of these fools.  They are just salesmen and cheerleaders who want you in the market 100% of the time so they can trade the crap out of your stocks and rack up huge fees.  They are not paid on performance, only on keeping you in the market.SCAM

How can you mandate employee contributions when people don’t have money to save?  It takes a higher level of income to allow the luxury of saving for the future.  - not a case of human nature, a case of survival.  Those who haven’t been there, don’t understand.  By definition, the ruling class of this country do not “get it”.

The truth is 401(k)s are NOT designed to make you rich.  That is a con put forward by those who want to abolish pensions, which are in every way superior to junk “retirement” plans like the 401(k)s.  Companies have them to save money on pension costs, NOT to make workers rich.  Unless you are very highly paid to begin with, you can NEVER save enough money in a 401(k) to cover retirement.  Chances are, you will OUTLIVE your 401(k).  Not true with a pension, which stays with you as long as you live.

Companies cleverly marketed 401(k)s as a get rich scheme, but what they were and are doing is shifting costs to YOU, the employee.  To hell with rewarding loyalty, you are on your own.  Believe me, the 401(k) is a scam.

The 401k system would work a lot better if the companies that ended their defined benefit pensions were required to pay their contribution into the 401K accounts regardless of whether the employee contributed all or nothing.

My 401K made a whopping 1% this year and it’s been losing money in the past two months. I might as well stuff my money under my mattress.

Well, reading all these comments leave me with the opinion that we have bought into a corrupt, self serving government. That anything this country ever stood is swirling in a downward spiral and we are standing here watching the flush that occurs because those we have elected to grab the handle and hold on are if fact forcing the handle to flush mode.  It’s getting to where our retirement plan will have to be to go to Walmart, buy a 357 magnum and blow our own brains out. Be careful putting too much in your 401-k, this country is full of Haliburton’s seeking your treasure. If they don’t get it than the 110% fees or your tax man will.

And oh, Miguel, you can serve those burgers at McDonalds right up until the day “you” become the served in those delicious hamburgers! Please post a sign on your back, “Double catsup on me”

The real problem here is the government taxing interest earnings on savings accounts, money markets, etc.

The only place the government has given people the ability to save is in a 401k or Roth IRA. And even then, the taxes are horrendous (deferred taxes are still taxes). So people just spend their money away since it incurs a far lower tax rate.

The best solution would be to exempt interest earnings under $250,000 annually for a married couple.

The result would be Americans wouldn’t be forced to spend their money to avoid taxes (5% sales tax vs 15% income tax), and could actually built a nest egg.

I guess that’s just too much common sense for politicians on both sides of the aisle.

It’s quite obvious to anyone that the stock market is designed to enrich those that run it. How else to explain multi-million dollar salaries and larger bonuses? All that money is money that is not put to work for those that invested it. That is why a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan costs three quarters of a million dollars.
That is why Wall Street continues to bribe Republican politicos to abolish Social Security. It would mean billions more dollars in profits, and of course the politicos are guaranteed nice “consulting” gigs when they leave public service to “spend more time with their families” or “pursue other opportunities”.

Sorry, Jackpine, but retirement assets will shrink even more if the 401k funds are steered into “local intitiatives,” which tend to be run by either real estate developers or city hall & state assembly hacks.  Every mayor wants to build a sports arena, refurbish the clubhouse at the big-wig golf course, capo casino, air port fountain, give tax rebates to worthy campaign contributors, or fund “fact finding” junkets to Rio or Rome.  The funds earmarked to redevelop depressed inner city commercial zones with be allocaated to people who (surprise, surprise) happen to be partners with relatives of city council lords and ladies.  The poker chums at city hall will learn about the programs, buy up the run-down city blocks, and profit on the redevelopments.  Those involved may make 25% per annum returns.  The 401k fund holders (suckers) will not be assured any yield.

On the other hand, a 401k invested in an index fund is liquid and one knows day by day what the shares are worth.  They disclose the administration fees, and it is hard to disguise of obscure the net performance relative to other investments.

One thing that is really scary, though, is that the job market is likely to discard many people who still wish to work.  The severance terms will not carry them through to the time when they can draw on retirement savings.  The McJobs available to them will not provide insurance.  Then, when they do reach age 67, the government will discover a need to provide a “safety net” to folks who never had a 401k or spent it all.  Bright answer: a new tax and “means testing” to give help to the “needy.”  Everybody and his uncle will cook their books to qualify.  The system will reward the devious or spendthrift and punish the ones who followed the rules.  Of course, none of this matters to those at the top, who have much of their wealth salted away beyond the reach of the IRS.

I don’t think that the problem is entirely with 401(k)s.  I think that the problem is with human nature.

As a species, we think that “the way I am, right now, is how I will always be.”  It’s hard to imagine ourselves forty years from now.  We think that since I can, now, pay for everything through my hard work, I will always be able to pay for everything through my hard work.

It’s a lot easier to spend money now, than to put it away for some fellow forty years away… who may not exist.

Further, we have a problem: the current Social Security system is (mostly) being paid by current donations.  We can’t scrap that system; too many people donated to it, and rightly expect the benefits that were promised.

I don’t have solutions.  I appreciate my 401(k), which I’ve contributed to for seven years.  But I know that I’m very unusual.

Politicians began protecting Americans from predatory lenders in 1999. So much for the value of their labor. Without the pointless expense of ineffective and bloated government, Americans could work and retire just fine. Government is the biggest (undeserved-unearned) Entitlement Program on earth. And under Bu$hCo, our government is the sumo-antagonist to true Free Markets. Perverted politicians are the cause of destroyed retirements, overpriced healthcare, exported careers, frozen wages, and tripled prices.

“The answer to ‘1984’ is 1776!”

How old can you work until at McDonalds?