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years. The main objective in Protecting Your Wealth in Good Times and  Bad is to reach a point in life when you work only if you want to and,  if you stop working, when you do not fear outliving your money.

Retirees are living longer and healthier, traveling more, enjoy  better housing, better automobiles, better communications, and  generally spending more money than prior generations. As life  expectancy extends and lifestyles rise, future retirees will need more  income and will rely more on their personal savings for that income  than past generations. Traditional sources of retirement income—  Social Security and employer pension plans—are on the decline. As  a result, the nest egg people accumulate during their working years  will dictate their quality of life in retirement. That is why it is impor-  tant for you to protect your wealth from simple, yet costly mistakes.  Every penny counts. Through proper planning, prudence, and perse-  verance, you can accumulate the wealth you need to enjoy your  Golden Years.

The State of Retirement Savings

A secure retirement means having enough sources of income to  maintain your standard of living after a regular paycheck stops.  Unfortunately, traditional sources of retirement income from an  employer pension and Social Security have diminished and will con-  tinue to fall in the future. At the same time the cost of retirement will  continue to rise. This will be a dilemma for many people. Neither  employers nor the government are as generous as they used to be.  Most employers are cutting back benefits for retirees. The Social  Security system will not survive in its current form when 50 million  baby boomers retire over the next 25 years.

Several large companies have already dropped employer-funded  defined benefit pension plans (DB plans) in favor of employee-  funded 401(k) and other types of defined contribution plans (DC  plans). (See Figure 1-1 for details.) By shifting the responsibility for  retirement savings to an employee-funded plan, employers can save  a significant amount of money and reduce their incredibly large reg-  ulatory burden. Several large employers continue to fund retirement  plans, but have shifted to the more liberal cash balance plans, in

43%

35%

28%

12%

0%

1983  1989  1998  2003 (est.)

Figure 1-1. Percent of households in a company plan

Source: Study by Edward Wolff, New York University, from Federal Reserve  Survey of Consumer Finances

which retirement benefits vary with market conditions and there is  no liability on the employer to make up the difference. In addition  to changes at large firms, hundreds of thousands of small business-  es offer no retirement plan at all to their employees. Consequently,  millions of workers must set up their own individual retirement  accounts and fund them on a regular basis.

The reduction in the number of employer-funded DB plans is  occurring for several reasons. First, since a DB plan guarantees  monthly retirement checks for all eligible employees and since the  rate of return on the investments in a pension account is uncertain,  the plan can become very expensive to the company in the years  ahead if there is not enough money in the fund to pay benefits.  Second, DB plans are expensive to administer and maintain. The  record-keeping cost and regulatory burden increase as the plan  grows. Third, DB plans do not work well for employees in today’s  dynamic business environment, where people shift jobs and careers  more frequently than in the past.

Due to legal uncertainties and escalating costs, several compa-  nies have converted defined benefit plans into cash balance plans. A  cash balance plan is a hybrid of a defined benefit and a defined con-  tribution plan (such as a 401(k) plan). Like DB plans, employers

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43%

35%

28%

12%

0%

1983  1989  1998  2003 (est.)

Figure 1-1. Percent of households in a company plan

Source: Study by Edward Wolff, New York University, from Federal Reserve  Survey of Consumer Finances

which retirement benefits vary with market conditions and there is  no liability on the employer to make up the difference. In addition  to changes at large firms, hundreds of thousands of small business-  es offer no retirement plan at all to their employees. Consequently,  millions of workers must set up their own individual retirement  accounts and fund them on a regular basis.

The reduction in the number of employer-funded DB plans is  occurring for several reasons. First, since a DB plan guarantees  monthly retirement checks for all eligible employees and since the  rate of return on the investments in a pension account is uncertain,  the plan can become very expensive to the company in the years  ahead if there is not enough money in the fund to pay benefits.  Second, DB plans are expensive to administer and maintain. The  record-keeping cost and regulatory burden increase as the plan  grows. Third, DB plans do not work well for employees in today’s  dynamic business environment, where people shift jobs and careers  more frequently than in the past.

Due to legal uncertainties and escalating costs, several compa-  nies have converted defined benefit plans into cash balance plans. A  cash balance plan is a hybrid of a defined benefit and a defined con-  tribution plan (such as a 401(k) plan). Like DB plans, employers

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