Our ridiculous retirement approach

A colleague of mine shared this NYT story with me that outlays some known and daunting statistics on retirement.  Reading an article like this is precisely what causes what we at DWCM have termed "retirement paralysis".  Retirement paralysis can be caused by an array of negligent actions.

First and foremost is the shear fear that people experience when first attempting to begin an investment plan. Fear can come in many forms such as not knowing who to turn to.  Determining what your savings goals should be and realizing that you may have a significant shortfall.

Second, people can be overcome with data and statistics that suggest that there is no hope to them obtaining their retirement or investment goal.  We tell people if you read the statistics, make sure you don't become a statistic.

Our US retirement system may have its flaws, but I would argue that it is by no means hopeless.  I posted a story earlier this week about a couple that reduced their debt by $26k.  Did they have to take some aggressive and unorthodox steps in order to achieve their goal?  Yes.  But were they and their family better off for making the sacrifices?  Another resounding YES.

Achieving a goals usually requires some sort of sacrifice and saving for retirement is no different.  There are no free lunches.

Here is the NYT article and some of the stats that you do not want to become a part of.  Remember you have options to achieve the goals that you want.

• Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 hadless than $30,000
• To maintain living standards into old age we need roughly 20 times our annual income in financial wealth.
• Although humans may be bad at some behaviors, we are good at others, including coming together and finding common solutions that protect all of us from risk. Surely we can find a way to help people save — adequately and with little risk — for their old age.