by Sandy » Wed Mar 05, 2014 10:09 am
Having been on the payroll of churches and Christian schools for all but about five of my working years, the retirement benefits that I've accrued privately over 35 years of working will be a drop in the bucket compared to our actual need for a couple of reasons. One, when I first began setting savings aside, the projections on the growth of interest rates was much higher than it has actually turned out to be, and the projected income, with full participation, was a lot higher. Deregulation (thank you Ronald Reagan) and the collapse of the savings and loan industry (thank you George H.W. Bush) led to my retirement investment being sold to several different firms over about a 15 year period, and with declining interest rates, and increased "fees" the growth was negligible. Ultimately, during the Bush recession, the company which had most of my retirement investment, called Western Investors, went into receivership. What I was sold was the promise that if I invested $30,000 over a lifetime of working, I would have a retirement fund with a balance of about $120,000 that would pay a nice monthly income off interest when I retired. After the assets of Western Investors were liquidated, I came out with an account of about $10,000, and at today's interest, the monthly dividend won't pay for dinner for two. That's not unusual, by the way. About half of my generation is in the same boat. A lot of people have become wealthy in the private pension and retirement business, off of my generation, and they couldn't care less if we are left holding the bag. They made their fortune off of us, and stuck us with the tab. Thank God Congress didn't let Dubya privatize Social Security, or we wouldn't have it to fall back on.