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It’s a pretty terrible sign of the times when a record number of Americans are forced to plunder their 401(k)s. “A record share of 401(k) account holders took early withdrawals from their accounts last year for financial emergencies,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Overall, 3.6% of its plan participants did so last year, up from 2.8% in 2022 and a pre-pandemic average of about 2%.” The whole point of a 401(k) is to keep that money out of reach until you reach age 59 ½ or above. Removing that money earlier is about the worst financial move anyone can make....

When academics are ready to fix a problem, hold onto your wallets. “America’s middle class faces a growing retirement crisis,” Christian Weller and Teresa Ghilarducci write in an issue brief for the Center for American Progress (CAP). “More than half of all working-age households are expected to be at risk of having to cut back their standard of living—often making painful adjustments—when they retire. “ “There are several reasons for the ever-larger looming crisis, but people’s inability to save enough money is a key obstacle to achieving more retirement security. On average, Americans need to save between 10 percent and...

Another of history’s many lessons is that governments under pressure become thieves. And today’s governments are under a lot of pressure. Before we look at the coming wave of asset confiscations, let’s stroll through some notable episodes of the past, just to make the point that government theft of private wealth is actually pretty common... Will more countries introduce capital controls or asset confiscations in the next few years? Duh, of course. Debt levels are unmanageable, so they have to be lowered. And there are only three ways to do it: deflationary collapse that wipes out the debt through default,...

Quietly, behind the scenes, the groundwork is being laid for federal government confiscation of tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs. Slowly, the cat is being let out of the bag. Last January 18th, in a little noticed interview of Richard Cordray, acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Bloomberg reported "[t]he U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency's first foray into consumer investments." That thought generates some skepticism, as aptly expressed...

The Obama Economy: Americans are drawing down their 401(k)s for nonretirement needs in record numbers, just as Social Security goes bust. This portends poverty for millions as the White House fiddles. Cat food, anyone? One out of four U.S. workers with 401(k) retirement savings accounts has been forced to cash them out or borrow from them at high costs just to stay solvent. The Washington Post, citing a report from financial advisory firm HelloWallet, said the withdrawals have drained $70 billion, or an astonishing near-quarter of the total $293 billion, in America's retirement accounts "undermining already shaky retirement security for...

A recent hearing sponsored by the Treasury and Labor Departments marked the beginning of the Obama Administration’s effort to nationalize the nation’s pension system and to eliminate private retirement accounts including IRA’s and 401k plans, NSC is warning. The hearing, held in the Labor Department’s main auditorium, was monitored by NSC staff and featured a line up of left-wing activists including one representative of the AFL-CIO who advocated for more government regulation over private retirement accounts and even the establishment of government-sponsored annuities that would take the place of 401k plans. “This hearing was set up to explore why Americans...

America is heading into a retirement crisis, an economist says. Most retirees haven't saved enough money to retire and Teresa Ghilarducci blames America's entire system for retiring. It’s been 30 years since the Individual Retirement Account model became the standard way for Americans to save for retirement. But many people who saved for three decades watched a lot of that money disappear during the financial crisis. And now, more than half of American workers have saved less than $25,000 for their golden years, and about 30 percent have saved less than a thousand dollars. Overall, the system is failing, says...

Now, Social Security is sucking money out of the Treasury. This year, it will add a projected $46 billion to the nation’s budget problems, according to projections by system trustees. Replacing cash lost to a one-year payroll tax holiday will require an additional $105 billion. If the payroll tax break is expanded next year, as President Obama has proposed, Social Security will need an extra $267 billion to pay promised benefits.

The great faith of Americans in their 401ks as retirement funding is misplaced. When push comes to shove and you retire, if you are like most Americans, you will find that social security provides more income for you than drawing down on your 401k balance. Now, don’t get me wrong. I urge everyone to invest the maximum in their 401k. It is a great source of comfort and eventually a key part of retirement. But it is no substitute for social security. Those who would sacrifice social security so that you could put more into 401ks or other private savings...

The news of Hungary effectively seizing private pension fund assets to pay for the debt obligations of the state last week should come as yet another reminder of the urgent need to get tax-sheltered retirement savings away from the clutches of the state before it's too late. Hungary is just the latest country to decide that it's citizens retirement savings are the property of the state. The last major country to use similar tactics was Argentina who confiscated about $3.2 billion of pension savings in 2001 before the country stopped servicing its debt and then nationalized the $24 billion industry...

Here's the invitation going out, which is sure to be early stage plotting for more government control of private retirement accounts as a prelude to a bailout of bankrupt pension funds. Demos, the Economic Policy Institute, the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School and the Pension Rights Center invite you to: The Failure of the 401(k): Reinventing Retirement Savings Plans For a More Secure Future November 10th, 2010 4:30 - 5:30 PM Capitol Visitors Center, SVC 203-02 Washington, DC Light snacks will be served. RSVP is required by Monday, November 8th. Join Demos, the Economic Policy...

In the wake of news about a spike in new applications for unemployment benefits comes another potentially troubling sign: A record number of workers made hardship withdrawals from their retirement accounts in the second quarter. What's more, the number of workers borrowing from their accounts reached a 10-year high, according to a report issued Friday by Fidelity Investments. The trends reflect the financial stress many workers find themselves in as the economy struggles to find sure footing, said Beth McHugh, Fidelity's vice president of marketing insight. High unemployment and companies cutting back on overtime or overall hours have reduced the...

Is anyone talking about waiving the 10% penalty for early withdrawal, and possibly some help on the tax liability? I've heard no discussion of this, and I'm not sure of the possible unintended consequences, but it's personal now, since I'm going to need to do it soon to keep paying my bills. I've already borrowed the max amount, so that's not an option. My business is home construction related, so no banks are interested in loaning me money, and I don't want more debt anyway. Anyone?

Rush Limbaugh's plot to keep us from fixing retirementPosted by Justin Fox Friday, November 14, 2008 at 1:18 pm The American system of retirement saving is in big trouble. Not so much Social Security: That has some long-term funding issues, but they are--actuarily, if not politically--easily fixable. The big problems are with workplace pensions and retirement accounts. As everybody knows, the corporate pension system that evolved after World War II is on its last legs. Its replacement, the 401(k), just isn't very good. It has improved some over the past couple of years, as many companies have taken the lessons...

Sen. John McCain on Monday labeled his Democratic presidential opponent "the redistributor," saying a newly revealed Chicago radio interview from 2001 exposes Mr. Obama's plan for the nation. In the WBEZ interview, Mr. Obama, discussing the courts, social issues and economic wealth, talked about the missed opportunities during the civil rights movement for "redistributive change." "He believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs," Mr. McCain told supporters in Dayton, Ohio, quoting a chunk of Mr. Obama's interview to the audience.

Monica Showalter is the South America expert on the editorial staff of Investor's Business Daily. Yesterday I wrote her asking for her thoughts the proposed expropriation of private pension funds by the government of Argentina. Tomorrow's paper will carry her editorial, which she has kindly authorized us to excerpt: ...U.S. Democrats in Congress are mulling like-minded moves to scrap 401(k)s and transfer them into government-managed "guaranteed retirement accounts" with a 3% return, according to James Pethokoukis of U.S. News & World Report (full disclosure: Pethokoukis is a former IBD reporter). Before they charge ahead, they should look what happened since...

Would Obama, Dems Kill 401(k) Plans? October 23, 2008 10:47 AM ET | James Pethokoukis | I hate to use the "S" word, but the American government would never do something as, well, socialist as seize private pension funds, right? This is exactly what cash-strapped Argentina just did in the name of protecting workers' retirement accounts (Efharisto, Fausta's Blog). Now, even Uncle Sam isn't that stupid, but some Democrats might try something almost as loopy: kill 401(k) plans. House Democrats recently invited Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School of Social Research, to testify before a subcommittee on her...

At his press conference last Thursday, President Bush added a new “progressive indexing” proposal to his Social Security reform plan that not only largely resolves the program’s imminent insolvency without raising payroll taxes, but also exposes an almost unconscionable hypocrisy in the Democrats’ position on this issue. At odds for months in this debate has been how future payments to recipients are calculated. Currently, increases are tied to annual wage gains of the workforce. However, it has been argued that if they were indexed to the growth of inflation, or “prices” -- which have typically been much lower than changes...

I am 54 years old, so I may be grandfathered into today's Social Security. Darn. Just return every penny I paid into it – and I keep what I contribute for the rest of my working life – and call it even. I won't ask for the interest. I know how much my employers and I put in. I figured out how long I must live to get that back, get it back with low interest, and when I start freeloading on younger workers. Change the law so I have what I paid into it – right now in a...

http://personal.fidelity.com/myfidelity/daily/index.shtml Legislative Outlook: Reforms May Let You Save More A Look at What's Ahead in Washington for 2004 Published: January 02, 2004 By Doug Fisher, senior vice president of Fidelity Government Relations Later this month, President Bush will present the State of the Union and follow with a budget highlighting his priorities for 2004. Among his possible agenda items are simplified savings laws allowing taxpayers to put aside more tax-free savings to pay for retirement, health care, education, and even home purchases. The president unveiled these concepts in last year's budget, but he and Congress focused instead on cutting the...