Watch all and weep......like everyplace else if you're rich they are OK - otherwise forget it.....
FRONTLINE: can you afford to retire?: watch the full program online | PBS
To maintain their standard of living, experts say Americans will need to save ten times their annual pay in their 401(k)s by the time they retire.
That means saving 15-18 percent of their salaries, every year, over an entire career.
By this standard, most Americans are simply not saving enough. According to VanDerhei of the EBRI, the typical baby boomer is approaching retirement with only three times annual salary -- enough to last seven or eight years. But with life expectancies after age 65 approaching 18 years, many retirees may be living on nothing but Social Security for a decade or more.
"The nightmare I have," says pension expert Brooks Hamilton, "is the vision of people … outliving their retirement income and being down to Social Security." And the shock waves may reverberate through the entire economy. "What holds up our economy," says Hamilton, "is consumer spending. When retirees are 20 percent of the population and run out of money, then 'poof,' there goes the economy."
The change is already happening, as retirees find they are having to go back to work to make ends meet. Pat O'Neill, a retired United Airlines mechanic, is now driving a truck after his pension and benefits were cut. Winson Crabb and Gil Thibeau, two National Semiconductor retirees with widely different financial results from their company's 401(k) plan, are both still working in retirement.
"What is the meaning of retirement if the only way you can live is to work?" asks Notre Dame professor Teresa Ghilarducci "The answer is there is no meaning to retirement anymore. We are now shifting from lifetime pensions to lifetime work. It's the end of retirement."
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