The first generation to be fully reliant on 401(k) plans is now starting to retire. As that happens, it is becoming clear just how broken the system is. Michael Steinberger, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, explains.
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From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barro.
This is the daily over the past few weeks, the us stock market has been on a tear, soaring to record levels and delivering a shot in the arm to retirement accounts.
The trouble is, millions of Americans dont have such accounts, and even if they do have little or no money inside of them.
My colleague Michael Steinberger has been trying to figure out why Americans are retiring so poorly and traces much of it back to our growing reliance on the 401k.
Monday, May 20.
Michael, we are going to talk to you today about what doesn't look on paper like the world's sexiest subject, but I think actually is a very sexy subject, which is retirement in the United States.
And you began your journalistic inquiry into the subject of retirement in America with a very provocative question.
You asked was the mistake?
Has this vast system of personal retirement plans that we now all rely on pretty much.
Has it failed us?
And I wonder why exactly you decided to ask that provocative question right now.
I asked that question right now because we are having an unprecedented number of Americans reaching retirement age.
This year alone, it's estimated that 4.1 million Americans will turn 65.