Thursday, September 24, 2009

How Retirement Planning Has Changed



By Jorden Meltz

After the events of last year, many soon to be retirees were left asking how will I still be able to retire at the age that I previously planned on retiring at? The realization for some is that they won't and instead face several more years of working ahead of them. Since 1992 there has been a dramatic drop in company pensions, 40% to 17%, and a rise in 401k Plans, 32% to 80%. The reason why the change in the two has affected so many is that 401k Plans depend upon how successfully the employee has invested their money and unfortunately even prior investing success did not prevent many from losing large percentages of their retirement funds. It is estimated 401k Plans lost 40% as the country entered into a recession over the past year. With a much greater emphasis now on 401k Plans people will be forced to take a more active role in their investments and it is now recommended people look to bond indexes and stocks that pay dividends for better performing investments. The events of the past year has lead most people looking to retire towards reevaluating their plans and investments and has hopefully left many of those people more knowledgeable and prepared to deal with the market then before.

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