Lifelong Labor Becomes New Normal

Eric Pfeiffer wealthydebates.com For a growing number of Americans, there may never be such a thing as real retirement. “The market is filled with people who are petrified of the idea of retiring because they might not have the funding to afford retirement,” Goalinvestor.com’s Melissa Doran Rayer, whose company provides financial planning services and created a data chart to show how retirement trends are shifting, told Yahoo News in a recent interview. From 1990 to 2010, the percentage of workers 65 and older staying in the job market rose for both women (from 28.2 to 43.8 percent) and men (52.5 to 65.3 percent). Interestingly, those trends have occurred in the 35-plus years since the Revenue Act of 1978 was passed, allowing workers to invest tax-deferred savings in 401(k) plans. There have also been broad cutbacks to pensions across the U.S. A recent analysis found that more than 20 million American workers could have their retirement threatened from pension mismanagement. The percentage of companies offering pension plans has also declined, as have the average retirement contributions in corporate 401(k) plans. In February, AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong faced wide criticism for his plans to both alter and scale back company 401(k) contributions. to read more: wealthydebates.com