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I read an article today that points out that the total assets in retirement plans in the U.S. is $24.7 trillion as of December 31. Sounds good, but -here's the breakdown:
$7.4 trillion was in IRAs. Of those accounts, about half were in mutual funds. Contribution plans held $6.8 trillion with $4.6 trillion in 401(k)s. $951 billion was in 403(b) plans. Over half of DC plans were in mutual funds. There was $5.2 trillion in government defined benefit plans, including federal, state and local government plans.
The numbers represent a 6% rise over the prior year, which was the biggest increase in a long time.
Then the scary part occurred to me. The national debt is now over $18 trillion. That is basically a doubling in 6 years compare to the modest rises in retirement accounts. How soon will it be before the national debt exceeds all of the combined retirement assets of every U.S. citizen? An awful lot of those retirement accounts, about half, are in mutual funds, which would help explain the rise last year. What happens to the value of those funds in another correction?
And what about the unfunded obligations? Those are around $95 trillion. U.S. total personal debt is up 113% from 2000 to a current balance of $16.8 trillion.
The current best thinking on seminars and selling to the retirement crowd is to avoid the gloom and doom since they are tired of hearing and worrying about it. But still, this debt scenario is a downright horrible nightmare and the current administration seems really down with it.
$7.4 trillion was in IRAs. Of those accounts, about half were in mutual funds. Contribution plans held $6.8 trillion with $4.6 trillion in 401(k)s. $951 billion was in 403(b) plans. Over half of DC plans were in mutual funds. There was $5.2 trillion in government defined benefit plans, including federal, state and local government plans.
The numbers represent a 6% rise over the prior year, which was the biggest increase in a long time.
Then the scary part occurred to me. The national debt is now over $18 trillion. That is basically a doubling in 6 years compare to the modest rises in retirement accounts. How soon will it be before the national debt exceeds all of the combined retirement assets of every U.S. citizen? An awful lot of those retirement accounts, about half, are in mutual funds, which would help explain the rise last year. What happens to the value of those funds in another correction?
And what about the unfunded obligations? Those are around $95 trillion. U.S. total personal debt is up 113% from 2000 to a current balance of $16.8 trillion.
The current best thinking on seminars and selling to the retirement crowd is to avoid the gloom and doom since they are tired of hearing and worrying about it. But still, this debt scenario is a downright horrible nightmare and the current administration seems really down with it.
