I don't understand the world I live in anymore. The harder I work, the less I have. Our politics are run by media, performers and politicians who want the country to be controlled completely by the government and ideology with everything we have being doled out by whatever govern ring section has been created that week. We spit on people who work themselves into the ground, make weeping noises for those who made poor choices and expect something for nothing. Big business has gone crazy and runs our country through providing Washington votes and greasing the palms of every politician who is in power (I don't care if they are Democrat or Republican they are all scavengers). The best part of it all is that we STILL have enough money to make sports figures, musicians and actors wealthy beyond anything morally acceptable and NO ONE IS BOTHERED BY IT.

I look at these posts and most of them are complaining about everyone else. Here are the facts. Not everyone is going to live the same. Not everyone is going to have success. A lot of what will determine the quality of your life should be  what you put into it, not what the government gives you. Baseball, Football, Concerts, Movies and the like are not a God Given Right. THEY ARE ENTERTAINMENT, Not a necessity. $8.00 Martinis, Corona and Moose Drool are not a necessity, they are expensive extras. When I see someone buy Lobster with food stamps it makes me REALLY ANGRY. When I see people patting themselves on the back because they bought a home without any real credit and now live there for free it REALLY MAKES ME ANGRY. The mess we baby boomers are experiencing is our own fault because we have raised spoiled little **** that think they are owed something for being born. Why don't you all start by fixing that.

All these stories are truely heart breaking.  The citizens in this country, especially senior citizens, are hurting and seeing their worlds fall apart around them.  The stories of unemployment running out or gone, people using their IRA's to make ends meet, seeing their homes forclosed on, etc. is truely sad in this the land of plenty.

In the meantime we see Wall Street being bailed out with Billions of our tax dollars and these thieves taking home bonus checks in the millions.  These are the same people who dont want to pay taxes and claim that if not for them we would be in worse shape.  Gives you that warm fuzzy feeling, doesn't it.

Over and above that, our Government is spending over a Billion dollars a day, giving it to countries like Iraq and Afganistan to educate and feed those people.  These are the same people who teach their children to kill us and our children.  Lets take care of our own for a while and stop trying to be the worlds policeman.

Lastly, how is it that our elected officials all become millionaires once they are elected to office.  Seems that there is not enough money for them to extend unemployment benifits but they can spend millions on reelection campaigns. I am in the same boat as many on this page and have recently had a stroke after being unemployed for an extended time (since Aug 2010). I now qualify for what they call disability insurance, a wopping $57.00 a week.  Try living on that Mr Congressman and Ms. Senator...

Remember in November.  No more incumbants.  Lets take back OUR AMERICAN DREAM. 

The money (6 figures) I invested at retirement 6 years ago had ZERO growth.  Taking the inflation rate, I lost money.  So what is the point of saving ?

The stock market is a joke unless you have inside info and  money that you can GAMBLE with. Set up your own retirement is the call.  The reason for getting people into the markets is  to suck fresh money in and screw them over while spouting all kinds of reasons why they lost their shirt. The markets cannot exist without fresh money. The market is down because the moon is out or the polar bears are drowning or the penguins  are unhappy!  or-- or-- or-- BS! The reasons given are so pathetically absurd.

 So where can I put my money to show at least some return-not the banks at .05% while the CEO's make millions ?  Canada?

 Few people have any Idea how much money- several hundred thousands- is needed to maintain  the same standard of living. I know people with 30 to 40 thousand thinking they are set. They still owe a mortgage and the car has to be replaced. Good luck with that.

I would assume a reasonable rate of return over many years and calculate with the time value of money just how much to save  to have adequate income. But what rate do I use? Minus 5%?

John,

I think you need to do some research.  There are 75 million boomers who will retire in the next 20 years.  If they owned every share of stock in the U.S., their savings would amount to less than $15 trillion dollars.  In round numbers, that's only $200,000 per boomer - hardly the kind of money that funds a decent retirement.

You say you're a retired teacher.  Good for you.  But understand, it is IMPOSSIBLE for everyone to retire like that.  There's just not enough wealth!

Right now, there are 3 people working for every one retiree.  In 20 years (barring an increase in the retirement age demographics), there will only be 2 workers for every retiree.  In round numbers, a country can only consume what it produces.  Either the young will have to become 50% more productive and give all the extra production to the retirees or else the retirees are going to suffer a serious decline in their living standards.

Notice that I've been overly optimistic and conservative in my numbers - I've assumed that retirees own the ENTIRE stock market.  Guess what's not going to happen - ever.  Half the boomers have essentially ZERO savings.  Do you think we're going to let them starve in the streets?  Hardly.  The young are going to subsidize the old if you like it or not.

As for your retirement fund, well, maybe they've invested well, but I've shown that it is impossible that everyone can do that.  Even if 40 years ago all the boomers decided to be frugal and save for investment, it could not possibly happen that they all could retire well.

Want some more numbers?  How about this.  The ENTIRE country is worth only about $60 trillion.  If we deeded everything to the boomers, that's still only about $800,000 per boomer - still not a great retirement.

Once again, the only way the boomers can possibly retire early and well is if they oppressively tax the young.

I to have retired at 55 after 20 years working for a major airline.

Sold the big house don't have a new car... don't need one I have lived within my

pay scale and I'm doing great. My house and land and 30x40 shop all for under 150k.

Moved to the country when I retired life is great and cheap.