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Did anyone else watch the 60 minutes re-run tonight and feel glad that we're part of this forum?
The stories about how 'brutal' 401ks are, were from immediately after the market fall in 08. They showed 1 guy 60 years old who now had $140k in his 401k (after losing 50%ish) and was upset that he could no longer retire at 62. [As though he could retire early on $280k] He proceeded to claim that 'I'll probably never see it come back' [the market has made the majority of that back by now - only 3 years later]
Another woman, showed her account history - where they focused on the graph, but in the upper right hand corner, you see a balance of $4,914.83. Where she had been 'contributing for 4 years' And on the left, it shows how the account began at $7,483.13. [you can thank TiVo for those numbers] Was she contributing $2,000 a year a hoping to retire on that? At 54 she claims that her prior 401ks had about 88 and 40k prior to the fall. So with 11 years til retirement, and $120k so far, only $2000/year to make it?
Their highlight of the program was to bash the 401k account, and ignore the guy who said that it wasn't a problem with the account, it was a problem with the investment choices of the underlying investors. Which is completely true. [and those investments have largely recovered now]
I hope you are all as glad as I am to have a place like this to learn about your finances. Simple guidelines frequently posted here on the forums could have saved them some angst. How about JimOhio's 25x rule? You need 25x current expenses before you can retire. Sorry guy with $280,000 - unless you can live on $11,200/year, you probably couldn't have retired early anyways.
Or DisneySteve's 50/30/20 need/want/savings budget guideline? $2000/year won't make it to the 20% savings.
If you follow the advice given here on the forums you probably won't have to worry about winding up on TV. Follow a budget. Trim it down. Save what you can and hope to save 20% a year. Save early and often. Wait until you have 25x expenses to prepare to retire.
The program made me mad, honestly. It was a gross showing of financial ignorance. I expect more from what is supposed to be a credible news program.
The stories about how 'brutal' 401ks are, were from immediately after the market fall in 08. They showed 1 guy 60 years old who now had $140k in his 401k (after losing 50%ish) and was upset that he could no longer retire at 62. [As though he could retire early on $280k] He proceeded to claim that 'I'll probably never see it come back' [the market has made the majority of that back by now - only 3 years later]
Another woman, showed her account history - where they focused on the graph, but in the upper right hand corner, you see a balance of $4,914.83. Where she had been 'contributing for 4 years' And on the left, it shows how the account began at $7,483.13. [you can thank TiVo for those numbers] Was she contributing $2,000 a year a hoping to retire on that? At 54 she claims that her prior 401ks had about 88 and 40k prior to the fall. So with 11 years til retirement, and $120k so far, only $2000/year to make it?
Their highlight of the program was to bash the 401k account, and ignore the guy who said that it wasn't a problem with the account, it was a problem with the investment choices of the underlying investors. Which is completely true. [and those investments have largely recovered now]
I hope you are all as glad as I am to have a place like this to learn about your finances. Simple guidelines frequently posted here on the forums could have saved them some angst. How about JimOhio's 25x rule? You need 25x current expenses before you can retire. Sorry guy with $280,000 - unless you can live on $11,200/year, you probably couldn't have retired early anyways.
Or DisneySteve's 50/30/20 need/want/savings budget guideline? $2000/year won't make it to the 20% savings.
If you follow the advice given here on the forums you probably won't have to worry about winding up on TV. Follow a budget. Trim it down. Save what you can and hope to save 20% a year. Save early and often. Wait until you have 25x expenses to prepare to retire.
The program made me mad, honestly. It was a gross showing of financial ignorance. I expect more from what is supposed to be a credible news program.
well, it'd be kinda sad, but to have someone to explain why they hold them would be interesting to watch.
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