Page 156 - Ready Set Retire

Stephen J. Kelley

They really never related to the pool of money funding it; they
were more concerned about the ongoing security they received.
For them, a SPIA would have been just dandy. My father had
one. He happily spent the insurance company’s money until
the ripe old age of 91, secure in the knowledge it would be
there every month, 100% of the time, with an iron-clad
contractual guarantee.

In contrast, our generation was brought up on the modern
401(k) which began in 1980 and shifted the risk, and burden of
management, onto the retiree (that be you!). Instead of
watching the end game...or the benefits, we were taught to
keep our eye on the pool of money being accumulated.

If you think about it, this is entirely backwards and counter-
productive to our best interests. What are you putting the
money aside for? Is it so you can admire the size of your nest
egg, or is it to provide the best, most abundant and secure
retirement you might have? So whose interests were served by
this new paradigm? Who wins in this scenario? You, who are
put in a positon of counting pennies your entire life, even after
amassing more than you could have ever imagined? Or Wall
Street and its agents who get to manage the over $14 trillion in
retirement money and skim 3% or more off the top, for
decades and decades? You tell me?

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