Retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion AP

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

As someone who is retired, and loving it, I really feel for the folks who have to put off theirs because Boobya and the genius financiers decided to fund a war to "save us".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_retirement_11

WASHINGTON - Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday.

The upheaval that has engulfed the financial industry and sent the stock market plummeting is devastating workers' savings, forcing people to hold off on major purchases and consider delaying their retirement, said Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office.

As Congress investigates the causes and effects of the financial meltdown, the House Education and Labor Committee was hearing from retirement savings and budget analysts on how the housing, credit and other financial troubles have battered pensions and other retirement funds, which are among the most common forms of savings in the United States.

"Some people will delay their retirement. In particular, those on the verge of retirement may decide they can no longer afford to retire and will continue working," Orszag said.

A new AARP study found that because of the economic downturn, one in five workers 45 and older has stopped putting money into a 401(k), IRA or other retirement savings account during the past year, and nearly one in four has increased the number of hours he works.

[htuttle]

1. I'm 45, and my best case scenario now is that I will be able to work until I die

The worst case scenario is that my wife and I will end up having to warm ourselves over a barrel of burning trash in a shantytown.

[anarch]

5. selfishly speaking, my best case scenario is that I die young

but my dependents wouldn't like that all too much, I suppose.

[leftofcool]

2. No shit!

[4 t 4]

3. Wow those poor people

that were just about to retire and now if they can't. Think how much that would suck if you older and exhausted from working prob. 12- 14 hour days and for some up to 6 or maybe even 7 days a week for years and years and now this? Our Country has really let us down-Big Time!

[LaPera]

4. And the asshole republicans were trying to get us behind corporate privatized Social Security....

Let's hear from those same assholes who were saying "it's our money" let us invest it in Wall Street, the way we want....Stupid fucks always listening and believing republican corporate bullshit and ideology...to privatize everything, as if business knows best...only best for the greedy CEOs!

[TahitiNut]

6. I'm not really overflowing with pity for folks who've put their 401K's in stock since 2000.

The 2000 bubble was a CLEAR warning that bubble-and-bust (pump and dump) had become the rule in the Greater-Fool-ruled equities market. The financial system has clearly been corrupted and gamed, and only the most foolhardy (and greedy) stayed in a rigged game.

I told my closest friends and family to get out in 2000 ... and those who listened have thanked me. (Just like those who listened when I said Microsoft in the 80s and Cisco in the 90s have thanked me.)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. I pulled our IRA's out of stocks about 4 months ago.

The handwriting on the wall was flashing in neon by that time. My nice "safe" investment in a balanced mutual fund - 60% bonds/35% stocks/5% moneymarket has gone south since then.

[depakid]

8. People with pensions, on the other hand don't have much choice

and that's in adition to the effect on state pension funds, which will eventually hit everyone one way or another.

[MANative]

9. Just got my 401K statement today and it's lost 8% in the last

6 months - 70% of that total in the last quarter. The only tiny silver lining is that we aren't planning to retire (probably ever, now!) for about 18 years. Enough time to let some Dem control build it back up again.