I think by now we all realize that most Americans have very little put away for retirement. The figures are quite staggering about how ill prepared folks really are.
And of course the last 10 years of stock market returns haven't helped. Throw in a few million divorces where folks have to split up what little money they have and quadruple health care costs and you can see that we are heading for a train wreck.
When people are asked how they are going to afford to retire they shrug and say they believe it will all work out. So really, most of America has faith they will have money in their old age, but really have no action or reality to back up their faith. Hmmmm......
That data starkly backs up Ghilarducci’s contention. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, for instance, only 22 percent of workers 55 or older have more than $250,000 put away for retirement. Stunningly, 60 percent of workers in that same age bracket have less than $100,000 in a retirement account. Ghilarducci told me that the average savings for someone near retirement in America right now is $100,000. Even buttressed by Social Security, that’s not going to last very long.
What, then, will people do when they retire? I asked Ghilarducci. “Their retirement plan is faith based,” she replied. “They have faith that it will somehow work out.”
I laughed, but it’s not funny. “The 401(k),” she concluded, “is a failed experiment. It is time to rethink it.”
In truth, I’m one of the lucky ones. I do work that I love, which requires no heavy lifting and has no mandatory retirement age. If I become incapacitated, I will have assisted-living insurance. Otherwise, I can keep writing till I drop.
But, for the millions of others who have discovered, as I have, that their original enthusiasm for investing was unwarranted, their faith-based retirement plan is all they’ve got left.
Jesus said to have faith in Him and Him alone. Sadly, America has been taken over by the worship of the false god of Mammon and almost all of us have succumbed to the desire to worship wealth and material things. False gods ALWAYS get torn down by the Living God. So it should come as no surprise that most Americans have nothing left but faith in Mammon. They watch for signs from him in the daily ups and downs of the financial markets.
How tragic that many of these folks will be bankrupted by Mammon and then it will be too late to turn to Living God.
A friend saw a bumper sticker yesterday that was pretty clever. It said, "Many people turn to God in the eleventh hour. Sadly lots of people die at 10:30."
Today is the day of salvation.
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