Reply #28: Will boomers cash in? (The real reason for piratization?) [View All]

[54anickel]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0314/p14s01-wmgn.htm

Baby boomers have triggered social change at each stage in their lives - from expanding school rolls to inventing the yuppie. Now, they're reaching a milestone that has some experts worried.

The first boomers turn 59-1/2 this year. That's old enough to pull money out of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) without tax penalty. And while no one expects a huge drawdown immediately, some financial analysts are concerned about what boomer retirement will do to the stock market.

Call it the cash-in crisis of the early 21st century. If the nation's 80 million boomers fund their golden years by pulling their trillions of dollars out of stocks and bonds, markets could tumble, some experts say. Others counter that the threat is overblown because markets are far too complex to judge using generational shifts alone.

This debate is heating up as boomer retirements loom. In just three more years, the first boomers will be eligible for early Social Security payments. Three years after that, they'll reach the classic retirement age of 65.

"There's a lot of evidence that people do take Social Security benefits at age 62 when they're first eligible" and leave the workforce, says John Gist, associate director of the Public Policy Institute at AARP, a seniors' lobby. There's also a strong tendency for people to take lump-sum distributions from IRAs and pension plans, he says, "and there's a danger that they'll spend a lot of it and won't have enough left for their retirement needs." :eyes:

:wtf: Do they think everyone is an idiot? Are we to believe that gubbermint knows what's best for us and our wealth?

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