a little update on last year's retirement obsession

Almost a year ago now, I wrote a couple blog posts on retirement, because for some reason I was a little obsessed with it. Well I'm not that excited about it anymore.

Your retirement is FRAGILE! 

I did a lot of research and invested about $1750...now I have $1535, which is not that bad since we had a major downturn in the stock market about two months ago. But, still! I'm down $200...when I wanted to be making money. This really makes me question the whole system. I can't believe people rely on the this type of income to fund their retirement.  It seems absolutely crazy and risky.  Yet, it's the norm.

When I saw my account decrease I was sad, but I wasn't worried.  My retirement is many, many years away. This account is a good start, but if I loose most of my money I can always start from scratch again.  But, what about those individuals who are in their 50s. They only have a couple more years until they will need that money to live off of.  I cannot imagine what they are feeling watching the stock market crash the way it did this summer.

There's got to be a better way to save for retirement!

Social Security barely covers living expenses and it's complicated.  I tried calculating how much money I would get on their wesbite (http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/) and didn't get very far.

I say we bring pensions back for everybody! Why should government bureaucrats & public service people be the only ones who get them?