October 8th, 2008 by Reed Allmand 
The current economic crisis is slowly whittling away at Americans’ retirement plans which have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months – about 20 percent of their value according Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office. Within the past year, o ne in five workers 45 years old and up are no longer investing in their 401(k), IRA or other retirement savings account and nearly one in four workers have increased the number of hours spent working according to a new AARP study. Also, the report states that more than one-third of these older workers are considering delaying their retirement plans and more than half face difficulty paying for basic necessities such as food, gas and medicine. As the cost of these basic needs rise many more Americans will be facing financial hardship in their golden years if they don’t have properly funded retirement savings.
The recent loss in retirement account value has fueled the debate on whether it is fair to shift the risk and responsibility of retirement totally to employees, who often have little or know understanding of investing.
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
View all posts by Reed AllmandSubscribe
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates.
