Out to Steal Your Pension The 401(k) Could Prove a History-Making Fiasco

TheStreet.com ^ | 4/08/2002 | K. C. Swanson

[CJ Wolf]

You can't see the forest through the trees, bud. Let alone 30 years into the future.

[CJ Wolf]

I agree it is a bad deal. The 401s(k)am is pretty bad too if you take a good look at it.

[Lazamataz]

So what's your solution? Buy gold and hoard it?

[Dukie]

Appreciate the bump, Tauzero. The problem is that the 401k became the only savings of many and all they could see were those trees growing to the sky.

[CJ Wolf]

Nope gold is too controlled you're not going to get much of a return on that...

IMO, your best bet is to buy land and the key to ensuring you have a profit when you are ready to let go of it is to keep your property rights. There is only a finite amount of land on this earth. Get some.

[Lazamataz]

OOPS here comes the EPA, why there is a Wild Unfanged Blue Spotted Mango Worm on your property, the only one of its kind. So sorry, but you can never develop on this property. We, the government, will give you a crisp 100 dollar bill in exchange for our 'taking' of your property rights.

In a world with no guarantees, I will stay with liquidity and the long-term return record of the stock market. I will stay with my 401(k)s.

[.38sw]

I know at least two people whose parents purchase a few acres in the Lake Tahoe area, with the notion that they would build their retirement homes there. Well, the Tahoe planning board strictly regulates any building and development on "open space", and these folks, after paying property taxes on the land for years, ended up selling at a loss. I don't know what the answer is for savings, I'm doing the best I can to stash money in a variety of investment vehicles and hope I don't end up sitting in the dark and cold, and eating cat food. eeeuw.

[Lazamataz]

I eat cat food every day, and I LOVE IT!

[.38sw]

My cats won't let me eat their food - they can put up one heckuva fight! We have a deal - they don't eat my food, and I don't eat theirs.

[Gig]

See Post 20 and I'm NOT being sarcastic. Oh, better than that, what's your plan?

[hopespringseternal]

IMO, your best bet is to buy land and the key to ensuring you have a profit when you are ready to let go of it is to keep your property rights. There is only a finite amount of land on this earth. Get some.

Keep your property rights? For one thing, even absent EPA busybodies and property taxes, there is less chance you are going to turn a profit on real estate than stocks. Sure, you can pick specific time periods where real estate outperformed the market, but given the 30-40 year timespan of retirement planning real estate is pathetic compared to stocks.

When you throw in government busybodies zapping your property rights and greedy school districts taxing the fool out of you, real estate is nothing more than very expensive rent.

Property rights were lost the first time anyone had to pay a tax on property. And it has only gotten worse.

[CJ Wolf]

oh well, I guess I'll be there with my tin cup or maybe I'll move in with my kids. :-)

[Tauzero]

"See Post 20 and I'm NOT being sarcastic."

The fact that Pinochet's army and police were allowed to keep the old plan, in contrast to the Chilean peons, tells me all I need to know.

The only plan I would like would be one that permits me to invest my money where I want to, without much restriction, and without mandatory contributions. Simply lifting the limit on annual IRA contributions to something like $15k would suffice.

[bloodmeridian]

With my company's match I'm putting 20 percent of my pay into my 401K. I'm sticking it out too.

[CJ Wolf]

had to look this up in these uncertain times. lol

[CJ Wolf]

how’s things going in 2009 on your 401k? just curious.

[kvsdude]

Pretty good, actually. I started working in the corporate world in 2007, and created a 401k in June 2008. Even if there’s another crash, I got a pretty good start. As a computer programmer, I don’t plan on staying in any job for more than 3 years. 401k works.