Posted on 01/17/2017 4:56:59 AM PST by BradtotheBone
Experts, including some pioneers of the 401(k) savings plans , worry that the current retirement system is not working for many Americans.
More than half of workers — roughly 55 million — don't have access to a retirement plan on the job and 29 percent of households with members age 55 and older don't have a nest egg or a traditional pension plan.
Perhaps a guaranteed mandate would work better, according to an odd couple of retirement system reformers.
Teresa Ghilarducci, director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School, and Hamilton "Tony" James, president and chief operating officer of asset manager Blackstone Group, have proposed replacing 401(k) plans with a guaranteed retirement account run by the federal government and managed by investment firms.
Ghilarducci said she has shared their proposal with officials from President-elect Donald Trump's transaction team and said she thinks the plan offers a public-private solution that could gain bipartisan support.
"The number one priority for many of Trump's voters is retirement security," Ghilarducci said. "This could be a Nixon-goes-to-China moment for Trump."
In guaranteed retirement accounts, every employee would contribute a mandatory 2.5 percent of their salary and employers would pay another 2.5 percent of a worker's earnings. (This is on top of the combined 15.3 percent of wages workers and their employers contribute to payroll taxes to fund Social Security and Medicare.)
The accounts, which would guarantee at least a 2 percent annual return regardless of market conditions, would be controlled by the Social Security Administration and the contributions would be invested by managers selected by the federal government.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Most workers don’t want to take a second job nights & weekends and invest the money. A succinct study of what is going on can be found here: http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/36.html
I just retired, and rolled over my 401k to an IRA.
I have been told by my Leftist friends/relatives that ‘some people don’t make enough money to put any into retirement and you do’. So of course, they want to take some of my money to give to the people who do not bother to live within their means. All the problems in this country are attributable to ‘the rich’ (not always rich, but frugal so they will be covered on their ‘rainy days’). Anyone who has more money than they ‘need’ (read ‘people who budget to be able to put some money away’) should be happy to give away their ‘extra money’ so ‘we all have enough’. Thank the Lord Trump will soon be in charge! I am fed up with being called names because I believe differently from my Leftist friends/relatives!
“public-private solution that could gain bipartisan support”
Translation: authoritarian corporatism
No need. We have a mandated system called Social Security. It is generally adequate; if you managed to pay off your house before you retire, you’ll live comfortably.
And we have a voluntary system matched by your employer, which can make your retirement more than comfortable, as well as provide a reserve for unexpected catastrophes; it is called the 401k. It works pretty well too. Not everyone has it, but its out there widely available.
The best retirement is to get your house paid off before you retire. Do that and you’ll be fine; fail to do that and it will be tough I admit. Another key thing is to build a family that sticks together. Hard to do these days with an entire culture arrayed against you. But its how people got through before government took over.
” The Dims had the plan in a drawer somewhere waiting for the right time to get it pass.”
Exactly. Remember: Obama specifically campaigned against health insurance mandates. Mandates were part of the Clinton plan, which he opposed.
It's not just liberals. Remember when GWB got into office? One of his fist attempts was to put Social Security into IRAs. Then there was the talk of transferring retirement savings into federally guaranteed annuities. Starting with GWB (yeah, it has been sixteen years! now) interest rates on savings tanked so there's been no safe way to compound savings.
My generation is getting by in retirement. But what is happening is retirement savings are being depleted. Assets are being turned over for reverse mortgages and annuities. Not much wealth will be transferred to younger generations, and many people who would in earlier times be middle class or well off will NEVER get out of debt. It's a future of subservience and acceptance of the status quo. I can already see it in so many generation Xers and millennials. They don't even know what's been lost compared to the promise of the 1950s and 1960s. We see it on the local level....people with the education and background in gov positions have no contact with the realities that keep their communities safe and prosperous.
Can DJT turn enough of it around? I don't think it's impossible. He has done well beyond imagination getting US citizens to pay attention.
When Obamacare began, I was forced to accept a part-time role, as they deleted my full-time position.
The part-time role didn’t have health care, of course. That wasn’t an issue, as I have Tricare Prime (military health care). I tried to convince them that they didn’t have to worry about my health care costs as I was independently covered, but the bean counters said it was too risky, as later I could complain they weren’t covering me, and Obamacare would force them to. I even said I’d waive all that. No go.
The much bigger issue was my halved paycheck.
So I started an LLC and started doing gigs. Sometime these can pay a lot, other times they’re hard to find.
In the gig economy, people like myself have to pay BOTH sides of the Social Security tax. It sucks. Half my hard-earned money is grabbed by the government.
So now they want ANOTHER plan where if you work for yourself, you have to pay BOTH the employee AND employer part.
NO THANKS!
yeah right. this is the priority that put him over the top
LOL. ROTHFLLMAO. I wannabe an expert who gets paid to manage funds that are guaranteed by the US government. So the experts want to add 5 points onto SS and then pay them to manage it. Unlimited chutzpah, give them credit for that.
“O-H-...”! Any government program that forcibly extracts money from one person and gives it to another is welfare. Our politicians have been adept at lying about it but the lies do not make it any less a welfare program. The SC has ruled as such more than once. Their are no laws re. SS beyond the reach of the current Congress. Here today gone tomorrow if they had the votes.
Remember those multimillion dollar bonuses Jamie Gorelick and Franklin Raines paid themselves to mismanage Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Were those two clowns investment experts? Hell no, they were Clinton toadies and lawyers.
You don’t suppose there is a long line of wannabes drooling over the possibilities, do you?
And you don’t suppose there would be another long list of applicants for their little carve outs - like bike lanes sneaked into a road project or “art” for a public building?
The ultimate slush fund.
Roth?
Exhibit A for the opponents: CalPers.
What they said to pass Obungocare= no thanks
Not only NO but HELL NO!!!
A 5% “contribution” at 2% managed by the gubment and a wall street contractor might be enough to bury you when you die but not enough to retire on.
Just another slush fund for the gubment to give gifts and wall street to get rich on.
What really needs to be done is to deregulate and allow the sale of private pension insurance in a competitive market place. It would provide a new and potentially viable choice for retirement.
401s have just become a mechanism to fleece an ignorant public.
I would favor converting Social Security to this plan. If the Democrats would sign on in the interests of bipartisan cooperation, let’s go for it.
This woman's name continues to pop up whenever a proposal comes along to steal existing 401(k) plan assets. This is pure evil. They're already mismanaging Social Security, and this is just another proposal to "enhance" it, while justifying a higher tax on employees and employers.
No thanks is right. Libs are pro choice only when it comes to killing a baby, everything else they want to run. My 401K is doing quite nicely split 1/2 and 1/2 between high tech and defense. Websites have all the info and tools I need to manage it myself.
That’s ok, Obama’s “recovery” already killed my 401K with a layoff
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