Pension Question

[elessar78]

Agreed. In fact, in the past couple of years, there have been more and more articles about how the 401k system is broken. TIME did a great cover story on it a couple of years ago: Why It's Time to Retire the 401(k) - TIME.
There are absolutely issues with 401k plans and I agree that pensions are nearing extinction. Of course, you also have to keep in mind that only about half of all US workers have access to a 401k plan so as much as we hear about them, half of us don't even have one - I don't.

"Invented nearly 30 years ago as an executive perk — one more way to dodge Uncle Sam — the 401(k) was never meant to replace the employer-guaranteed pension fund, supplemented by Social Security, as the cornerstone of our nation's retirement system. But propelled by a combination of companies looking to cut costs and consumers who wanted control of their retirement destiny, that's exactly what happened."

Of course, Social Security was never intended to be the basis of people's retirement plans either. So now we've got a system where two aspects, the 401k and Social Security, are being used in ways they were never intended. With an aging population, we're starting to see the cracks in that system get larger and deeper.

Thanks for the article DS. Very eye opening. It makes me and my wife's situation feel old school as we have pensions, contribute to 401(k), and social security (hopefully, not counting on it though).

So how would you structure retirement savings if 2 prongs of the system are not being used as intended? Do you just try to overwhelm the system's flaws and out-save (save more than you think necessary)? Is there a more strategic way of funding retirment?