The item on NN tonight was presented as being how to catch up on your retirement savings. If you are 50 plus and your company RIFed you you must now catch up because you tried to save your home now under water and on its way to a short sale, still looking for work but only 6 months on. What we saw was 1 woman who isn't doing so well, her retirement portfolio is lacking. and will have to take in a room mate to make a difference in her life.

I have 1 question

How many retirement portfolio managers are having to take in boarders to stay above water? How many are only invested in the portfolio that they manage? Maybe that's the way to reign in the point one percent!!!

Your calculations on what is needed for retirement left my wife quite upset. It appears to me that when you say you need $750,00 in savings, you do not calculate the cash value of an earned retirement. If, for example, a person has a retirement that pays them $2600 a month or a couple has retirements that bring home over $6000 a month, with social security to be added, they would probably need considerably less cash in savings, or am I wrong.

Anne Thompson and Jean Chatzky give this story the usual superficial treatment: we should all be saving for our retirements. I wish the media would deal with this story from this angle: what about people who HAVE saved for their retirements but have lost most of it on Wall Street? I consolidated a couple of 401k's and turned them over to a New York Life financial manager who has lost half of the value of that account twice now in two economic downturns. Only now is the account almost back to what I started with about 10 years ago. How are we supposed to save for retirement? Wall Street can't be trusted with our 401k's, a retirement vehicle we're forced to use since most employers don't offer pensions anymore. Interest rates offered on savings accounts are ridiculously low. How exactly are we supposed to save for retirement?

How exactly are we supposed to plan? We've been saving the max for tax deductible contributions since our early 20's. My husband & I have disparate incomes. Over a third of mine goes to retirement; I work for an NFP and my work is valuable to our community. He makes a good living. A small fraction of his income is eligible for 401k. We live cautiously, but there isn't much left over and with todays job world it makes sense to have some liquid savings. I ask again, where are retirement funds supposed to come from? I assume we are part of the 99%. Are they the answer?

"This first thing people need to do is know what they have coming to them in terms of retirement and know what it costs them to live. And half of adult Americans haven't even run those calcuations," she said. "Downsize your lifestyle. Everything from the amount of money you're spending on your cars to the amount of money you're spending on your housing." People often don't look at the numbers, she added, but it's important to know where you stand.

Stories like this are good in that they do get people who wouldn't ordinarily think about the future beyond next week to consider their position in retirement planning. However, as the story points out, MOST people are way behind the power curve when it comes to planning. So really all this does is make the average American temporarily realize that they're behind and that realistically, in this volatile market and with historically low interest rates and stagnant incomes there's very little chance of 'catching up'. I'm sorry, but if you're 50+ and only have $25k saved for retirement, it is too late. Barring some miracle like you investing that $25k in a stock that nets you 1000% in the next 10 years you will be working until you drop or living off the government's meager scraps when you can no longer function in the workplace. That's reality folks.
I'm teaching my kids about that painful reality. The baby boomer generation FAILED to recognize where America was heading and squandered the opportunity to build a generation after them who took responsibility for its own wealth. I challenge everyone in my age group to take responsibility and to teach themselves AND those who follow how to do this. It isn't hard. There are plenty of ways to build streams of income and exponentially growing segments of a nest egg. The key is not hoping the government will get its stuff together and take care of us. The key is not hoping Wall street and big business will behave ethically. The key is starting EARLY with small amounts, and incrementally growing those investments over the years. I am 36 and now save nearly 50% of my income. But when I was 21, I only saved 10%. It does not have to be painful...but if you don't start early, it will be very painful in the end.

And stop trusting 'financial advisors'. Most of them are just as broke as you are.