Not a lot of good news or positive views in these three, but certainly important considerations. I’d read them in the order provided. First Mish’s take on the banking system, then the eye-opening results of a survey of credit card companies that raise rates “just because”, and finally the worst idea of all … a firm that offers debit cards for 401k accounts … absolutely dumb.
It’s a study of the retirement prospects of people between the ages of 45 and 54 under three alternative scenarios. The first is that real house prices fall no lower than the March 2008 level, the second scenario assumes the 2009 average will will 10% lower and the third assumes a 20% fall for the 2009 average.
You can read the full report online, but the stand out for me is that so many people may have planned to use their house as a source of funds for retirement. Interestingly, renters seem to come out ahead in this paper. The authors project renters in the same group in 2004 will have more wealth in 2009 than homeowners in all three of the scenarios!
The takeaway: buying one’s home is not about investing. Home buying is probably done best when one is actually buying a house in which to make a home.
More than half of U.S. employees have less than $25,000 in savings and investments (this includes retirement savings but excludes homes). About 40% of people age 55 and older have less than $100,000 in retirement savings!
The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill which designates October 21 through 27 as National Save for Retirement Week in an effort to encourage employees to save more for retirement.
![[Ask]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/ask.png)
![[BlogBookmark]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/blogbookmark.png)
![[Bloglines]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Furl]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/furl.png)
![[Reddit]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[Squidoo]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/squidoo.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.wheatworks.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
Posts
