Are You Prepared For A Nasty Retirement?

Are You Prepared For A Nasty Retirement? I hate to spring bad news on you today, but someone has to warn you about the horrible retirement future that you and 80% of Americans are facing. If you are like most folks, you are anxiously awaiting the day when you can kiss your job goodbye, load up the RV, and head out to see the world. Your pension check, social security check, and your generous savings account funding the life of your dreams. What s that, you don t have a large savings account? Your company pension is underfunded by millions if not billions? Join the crowd. According to a 2005 Retirement Confidence Survey, over 50% of all Americans have less than $25,000 in retirement savings. Now, this number does not include Social Security amounts, but if you are under the age of 50, chances are Social Security will look a lot different when you get ready to retire. It may not even exist in 25 years. If you are relying on a big company pension to fund your life of leisure, you better think again. The pension plans of the largest U.S. companies are currently underfunded by billions of dollars. When United Airlines declared bankruptcy, they were able to get out from under a huge pension liability. Current retirees saw their monthly check drop by 40-60% when the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation took over the United pension plan. Maybe you are looking at your house as a source of retirement funds. While the housing boom of the 1990 s led to some spectacular gains, most Americans were busy cashing out the equity in their homes to purchase SUVs and other consumer goods. Now it appears that we are on the leading edge of a real estate bust and those amazing gains of the 90 s are going up in smoke. There is no way around the fact that if you want to retire in comfort, you are going to have to take charge of your finances and that means increasing your savings. The sooner you start the better off you will be. Do you want to learn more about investing and protecting what you have? I have just completed my brand new guide, Five Things You Must Do Now To Protect Your Investments Download it free here: Five Things You Must Do Now To Protect Your Investments