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By James W. Russell Huffington Post, April 7, 2015 With 401(k)-type plans, participants are supposed to build up savings through stock market investing during their working years that will then support them during their retirement years. Most people, as is well known by now, for multiple reasons including excessive financial service industry fees, have beenContinue reading “Nonprofit Annuities: A Fix for the 401(k)”

By James W. Russell Huffington Post, March 20, 2015 If you thought that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, completely solved the health insurance problem of the United States, then you will probably be happy with some of the types of reforms that are being crafted to address the retirement crisis. But if you findContinue reading “Obamacare and Retirement Reform”

Nancy J. Altman and James W. Russell Huffington Post, March 16, 2015 The nation is facing a looming retirement income crisis.  Average retirees today are not well off.  Tomorrow’s average senior is likely to be in worse shape. Instead of addressing this looming crisis, too many of the nation’s policymakers and elites propose to makeContinue reading “The Great Illusion of Retirement Savings”

TIAA-CREF, the retirement plan of many university professors and administrators as well as others, has escaped much of the increasing criticism of 401(k)-type plans. A number of academics with TIAA-CREF are even unaware that it is a 401(k)-type plan, thinking that the growing criticisms of 401(k)s don’t apply to their situation. TIAA-CREF has enjoyed relativeContinue reading “How Good Is TIAA-CREF?”

By James W. Russell Salon.com, May 10, 2014 On the eve of the Reagan presidency in 1980, Milton and Rose Friedman published “Free to Choose,” a proposal for gradually phasing out Social Security. The entitlements of retirees would be honored as would the accumulated credits of contributors who had not yet retired. But no newContinue reading “401(k)s are Retirement Robbery: How the Koch Brothers, Wall Street and politicians conspire to drain Social Security”

Two days after President Barack Obama announced the establishment of MyRA accounts to help Americans without workplace retirement plans other than Social Security save for retirement, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced Senate Bill 1979, to establish more ambitious USA Retirement Accounts for the same purpose. Harkin’s USA Retirement Accounts received endorsement from several liberal retirementContinue reading “The Harkin Plan and the Retirement Crisis”

In his 2014 State of the Union address President Obama announced that that he will direct the Department of Treasury to create a new retirement savings plan for workers who do not have 401(k)s. Called My Retirement Account or MyRA, it will allow them to purchase savings bonds with guaranteed rates of interest through automaticContinue reading “Obama’s MyRA: A New Plan That Will Benefit the Financial Services Industry More Than Retirees”

You may be excused if you failed to notice National Save for Retirement Week, October 22-28. Promoted by the financial services industry, which profits handsomely from each extra dollar placed in 401(k) and similar retirement savings accounts, the week does not exactly compete with Halloween and Thanksgiving for public attention. The financial services industry would likeContinue reading “National Save for Retirement Week”

U.S.News & World Report LP May 21, 2012 http://finance.yahoo.com/news/poverty-increasing-among-retirees-164453772.html (Editor’s note:  The following article contains good information about rising poverty among retirees.  This is a predictable result, among other causes, of the  inadequacies of 401(k) retirement plans. JWR) Growing numbers of older Americans are spending their retirement years in poverty, according to a recent Employee Benefit Research InstituteContinue reading “Poverty Increasing Among Retirees by Emily Brandon”