It’s all true, where the perfect storm of congress, big business, labor unions, and lobbyists will have created a huge financial crisis with the defined benefit side. Between the relaxing of accounting rules to the changes in the way that returns are projected and benefits calculated, it is already too late in many cases. I’m afraid that the hole has been dug too deep to fill up by the time payouts must begin, and as you said, the initial few will seem like petty cash compared to the bigger ones down the road.
As for the defined contribution side, don’t forget about allowing loans from 401K plans. Nothing like using your retirement as a christmas fund or new suv fund. You are also right on about 25 investments, with sometimes multiple funds of the exact same type (such as money market). Who can blame the average worker for being confused by all the choices offered when they log into the 401k website for the first time…
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