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Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

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Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#101

Post by jartelt »

guelo wrote: post #79

401k is such a scam, you get a handful of high fee funds to invest in. Wall Street thieves billions of dollars, all sanctioned by the government and encouraged by the financial advise industry. Employees should only contribute to a 401k up to any employer match. Beyond that put your money in an IRA.

A 401k plan can offer low fee Vanguard funds. If your employee has crappy 401k fund options, you should take the issue up with your employer. They likely chose a inexpensive 401k administrator to run the plan to cut costs and left the employees with expensive funds to pick from. Alternatively, if you are self-employed you can open your own i401k through Vanguard. IRAs are great, but the contribution limits are not very high.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#102

Post by hillz »

ProAm wrote: post #92

> because most individuals have virtually no influence on national outcomes. How can you say this after Trump was elected?

I mean... He did lose the popular vote. So 'most' people didn't have an influence on the election. Or at least, the plurality of people.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#103

Post by etjossem »

ProAm wrote: post #96
dawhizkid wrote: post #43

I'm counting on basic income being a thing when I retire.

What do you think Social Security is?

Not what we mean when we talk about basic income.

Basic income means "everyone gets a check for $1000 a month, regardless of how old or young they are, or whether or not they work."

Social Security means "everyone gets a check for $X a month, once they are old enough, variable based on how much they earned when they worked."

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#104

Post by timrosenblatt »

FWIW "Billions of dollars" should be considered in the context that 1 million people * $1,000 = $1 billion. The US is ~300m people. So, this headline is something like "1/3 of 1% of the US is putting an extra $1,000 in their 401k recently" (really more like 1-2% of the _workforce_ but the point remains)

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#105

Post by dlp211 »

Frondo wrote: post #86
leggomylibro wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the same boat; I view my social security "contributions" as a lifestyle tax from the last generation, and I'd opt out of them in a second if I could. Instead, I'm planning my retirement around Roth IRAs and 401k savings. I think this is definitely a common sentiment amongst us youngsters.

I thought that way in my early- to mid-20s. I read lots of thoughtful articles about how SS was broke, wouldn't last, etc. As I got a little older, I started reading more about the history of SS, how it's always needed various adjustments over time, how people have always said it's going broke, it's unsustainable, etc. I realized that, for most of its history, the people who have said those things are actually more l…

To pile on to this. Even is SS makes no changes whatsoever, they can still pay out ~75% of the benefits starting in the late 2020's or early 2030's and all the way through the 2080's or 2090's based on the SS Trustee report. SS is going to be around unless we choose to elect officials that dismantle it. The fear mongering and apathy needs to stop.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#106

Post by ASinclair »

guelo wrote: post #79

401k is such a scam, you get a handful of high fee funds to invest in. Wall Street thieves billions of dollars, all sanctioned by the government and encouraged by the financial advise industry. Employees should only contribute to a 401k up to any employer match. Beyond that put your money in an IRA.

Not all 401(k)s are created equal. If you work for a large company it's entirely possible you have access to funds with lower fees in your 401(k) than in an IRA.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#107

Post by ProAm »

hillz wrote: post #102
ProAm wrote: post #92

> because most individuals have virtually no influence on national outcomes. How can you say this after Trump was elected?

I mean... He did lose the popular vote. So 'most' people didn't have an influence on the election. Or at least, the plurality of people.

Popular vote has never meant anything in America in all it's existence. But the point is a person with zero political experience, completely outside the political echo chamber/insiders club just won the most powerful office on earth. Whether you are for him or against him I believe it does show that people can absolutely start a change.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#108

Post by snovv_crash »

jacalata wrote: post #78
fortytw2 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was actually your money, paying into it would be optional.

Not necessarily. The Australian superannuation program has compulsory contributions but the money goes into an account in your own name.

Do you get to choose the bank that the account is with?

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#109

Post by tzs »

thraway2016 wrote: post #49
pwthornton wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You buy shares in the stock market, not dollars, so a crash shouldn't hamper your ability to retire, unless you want to retire during the crash itself (although diversity of assets would help with this). The stock market recovered years ago from the Great Depression and is doing really well again.

I'm not sure if "crash" is the problem. Crashes happen in markets, it's part of the business cycle. OP is discussing a 30+ year time horizon, though. I can think of a few potential things that would precipitate not just a crash, but a long-term economic malaise: - Climate change - Political/social unrest (extrapolate Brexit, Trump, etc) - Mass unemployment caused by automation (you can't "retrain" 5MM 50yo truck driv…

> OP is discussing a 30+ year time horizon, though. I can think of a few potential things that would precipitate not just a crash, but a long-term economic malaise

...

> Climate change

The climate change consequences big enough to cause a long-term economic malaise are far enough out to not affect most of today's workers. We'll mostly just get things that cause short term disruption, like more large storms, more weather variability, more record high tides, and similar things.

The big things, like sufficient sea level rise to require abandoning significant parts of many major cities, long term changes in water availability that significantly change agriculture for whole regions, and so on are usually forecast to be in the 100+ year timeframe.

This is one of the frustrating things about climate change. Over the long term it likely has disastrous consequences for humanity, but it can be largely averted or at least limited if action is taken early enough. But "early enough" puts you a time when the consequences are still localized and intermittent, and so it is easy for people to overlook it (especially when they can make more money by doing so).

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#110

Post by ProAm »

etjossem wrote: post #103
ProAm wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think Social Security is?

Not what we mean when we talk about basic income. Basic income means "everyone gets a check for $1000 a month, regardless of how old or young they are, or whether or not they work." Social Security means "everyone gets a check for $X a month, once they are old enough, variable based on how much they earned when they worked."

The OP said, "I'm counting on basic income being a thing when I retire." -- He is counting on Social Security.
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