I had to check the date of the article.

This should have been written in 2009.

Actually, it was. I've seen articles saying the exact same thing for the last couple of years. Saw them after the internet bust too. We're all living beyond our means due to easy credit.

Yes it is because Obama is THAT bad!

Were you born in January of 2009?

Obama has presided over a 1,000,000 jobs a MONTH turn around, from losing almost 800,000 a month in December 2008 to creating an average of 200,000 jobs a month for 26 straight months...

Do you dispute that Wall street and corporate greed caused the financial meltdown?

And do you dispute that Mittens represents Wall St?

I wonder where do you get that information? from Obama's propaganda?

Reality is where I get my information from. You should try it...

I REFUSE to allow stupid people to vote in Romney and MY DEMISE. How I can prevent this?...., only by REMINDING people of FACTS and telling them that the rumor mill is not a source of accurate information.

We

Here are the numbers of EMPLOYED PEOPLE by month from Jan.2002 to June 2012. Now show me ANY MONTH where 1 million more people were EMPLOYED that the previous month.

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls
Click on Civilian Employment (Seasonally Adjusted) - LNS12000000
Scroll to bottom and click Retrieve Data for the Chart

I lost $6,000 in my 401K's in 2008, which probably went to some Wall Street Execs annual bonus. I'm hoping bad karma followed every dollar they stole. Bank Execs selling dirivetives and pork barreled stock options to people they know don't understand what they are buying and expect them to fail, should be sent to prison on felony charges. I see that as no different than white collar embezzeling. We are paying for their actions as they enjoy the profit.

Your blaming private individuals and the free market for the sins of the state.

It is the GOVERNMENT that ruined the economy, not CEO's, speculators, investors, etc.

The government is to blame for all this mess. So long as people continue to vote Democrat and Republican, things will only get worse.

Vote LIBERTARIAN. Let your children have a future

Obama has presided over a 1,000,000 jobs a MONTH turn around, from losing almost 800,000 a month in December 2008 to creating an average of 200,000 jobs a month for 26 straight months...

Unemployment remains above 8%. Obama can't do a thing, because he's anti-business and INCOMPETENT.

Do you dispute that Wall street and corporate greed caused the financial meltdown?

Yup. $4.00 a gallon gas, combined with forcing the banks to make risky loans led the way into recession.

Who ever heard of borrowing 105% of a home's value?

It used to be that you had to put 20-30% down, and the bank you got the mortgage from was the bank you paid.

Now, are there greedy folk in Wall St? You betcha!

Worse for us, we have a corrupt Federal Government, where people making $175k a year in "Public Service" somehow become multimillionaires in 4 years, pols who get automatic raises no matter what's happening.

"...corporations" is using Obama-math. Height of the recession we were losing 800,000 jobs, best month for Obama "recovery" has been around 250k jobs, so you get 1,000,000 job "turnaround". (first recovery ever called the jobless recovery)

Remember, in the Reagan actual recovery, with nearly 100,000,000 fewer citizens, that recovery generated 450,000 jobs per month, did not see record numbers joining the "disability" ranks.

In this jobless recovery, the middle class has lost $40K per household in net worth, the Canadians are now richer than Americans by 40k per household, we have record numbers on foodstamps, the government is advertising the foodstamp program in 2 languages, the average income is down $4,000 annually, and we have cities declaring bankruptcy while the housing market has a record number of empty homes, and the auto industry is producing just over 50% of the autos that they were building 6 years ago.

Oh, and we have nearly $6 TRILLION in new debt, annual deficits of over $1 trillion, and no plan to turn this debt-spree around other than the liars who think $85 billion from the 1% is going to fix everything.

This is why us old geezer's are fighting to keep the SS/Medicare system in place and not raided by privatization or outright defunding.

NiteOwlett

You "OLD GEEZER'S" are fighting to ensure that the SS checks keep coming so long as you are alive.

It is you OLD PEOPLE who have systematically voted out any politician who ever dared to speak the truth about the insolvency of SS and Medicare thus preventing reforms that might have saved the programs for your children. When AARP twisted George Bush's arm into adding the prescription drug package to SS benefits, that sealed the deal that the generations are in fact at war and the Senior Citizens have bled the young to death.

Thanks to the heartless greed of our senior citizens, nobody under 50 will ever benefit from SS or Medicare like current oldsters. At 48, I see no retirement for myself other than the grave.

You OLD PEOPLE could have spared your children the economic holocaust gripping the nation, but you valued the promises of Big Government more than your children's lives.

Please help turn this tragedy around.

Please vote LIBERTARIAN with me so you can have voted for LIBERTY at least once before you die.

Please vote LIBERTARIAN with me so you can have voted for LIBERTY at least once before you die.

And then die, so I can have mine.

Yeah, really JEM. Which "old people" are those? I've worked and paid into Social Security and Medicare my whole working life, which is essentially your entire lifetime, so don't tell me about valuing promises of government more than children's lives. That is such BS. And good luck with voting Libertarian--that's the party of me, me, me if I've ever seen one.

Just wait they already want to means test SS. The people who scrimp and save will be told they have too much in the bank and those that didn't save a dime will get a hand out.

Wait a minute. I am not THAT old, but old enough to have children who are in their early 30's and I want them to have this SOCIAL SECURITY net for their waning years. I was answering for the young, not for myself.

An easy fix would be to simply raise the earnings cap each year to keep up with inflation, the lengthening life expectancy, etc. Many have said this would be all it takes to shore up the system into the 40's.....

Being unemployed is an emergency.

So people are faced with the choice of starving now or starving later.

Well, if you starve now you don't need to worry about starving later, but you'll leave some money to your relatives. I'm sure they'd appreciate that.

I think what Auto 101 means is that emergency savings and retirement savings should be separate. This is a mistake many have made. Emergency savings needs to have quick liquidity and be somewhere safe--yes, in a bank or credit union--so that you can get it out when you need it. But many people have NO emergency savings at all.

Jay that is what I'm saying.

Walk a mile before you judge. In the past 5 years I have had my position eliminated in 3 separate companies. Add a divorce, 3 bouts of unemployment, the last of which lasted 8 months, no unemployment as I was self employed. I will be moving to a different state after more than 400 job applications taking a job at 1/3 the salary I was earning 6 years ago.

So please Auto 101, remember that there are many people in the world that rarely get a break, have no family, maybe few skills, and find the daily task of living a substantial challenge.

I am thankful for the new job, and feel lucky to have survived this past half-decade. I only hope things improve for those not as fortunate as me. Hardship has a way of teaching humility and understanding.

So please Auto 101, remember that there are many people in the world that rarely get a break, have no family, maybe few skills, and find the daily task of living a substantial challenge.

THat is their problem.

I work with some folks as old as 75, who can't retire because of losing over half of their 401K to the crooks on Wall Street.

Then tell me how a lot guard has a net worth of 500K? He has never earned more than 10 an hour and he has put all his kids through college with cash?

Auto-who are you kidding?

Same way other people do - live small, save big. Perhaps the guard has a working spouse. Many couples live on one salary and bank the other. Did he get an inheritance from HIS parents? Did the grandparents fund savings for the grandchildren? Is his/her job civil service and they have a defined benefit pension? How long has this guard worked at the job - 5 years or 40? Details matter. How often do we read of the school janitor who leaves a million dollars plus to the school or for kids' scholarships? I haven't had a job since 2008, a steady one since 2002 but my investments grew more than 37%, including through the 2007-2009 drop, over that period. We live on $26K after taxes, his pension only. In a few years we will qualify for Social Security and a small pension for me at age 65 - and have around $60K after taxes. Plus the aforementioned IRAs and liquid assets. We lived simply (but not like monks) and still do but do not feel deprived. We are at the stage of life where we are beginning to divest ourselves of "things" and simplifying.

Or auto101 is a troll

Auto 101 could be seventy five years old. He could have purchased homes to live in that needed "sweat equity" and then gotten busy fixing them up and selling them. He could have sent his children to local community colleges instead of state universities and had them live at home for first two years, then had their children work the last two years of college. His kids may have worked and studied hard and received grants (at $10 an hour they would have qualified for all sorts of college grants).

At $10 an hour Auto 101 would have always qualified for state-sponsored healthcare, thus never having to purchase health insurance. Same with childcare (state subsidized). On that $10 an hour, with children, he would have qualified for food stamps also.

@ mean girl - anyone who lost over half their 401K has no one to blame but themselves. They were a) clearly making poor or high risk investment choices, or b) they cashed out when the market was low. Huge mistakes.

Huge mistake to ever have gotten caught up in the 401K crapshoot. I should have put my $ in a MMA. At least I could get my money out today more easily and without being raped on penalties/taxes. And I would not have taken a raping in the 1999 downfall.

Auto-who are you kidding?

Why would I be kidding?

Auto 101 could be seventy five years old.

This is not me. The man is 70 years old.

He could have purchased homes to live in that needed "sweat equity" and then gotten busy fixing them up and selling them.

He didn't do that.

He could have sent his children to local community colleges instead of state universities and had them live at home for first two years, then had their children work the last two years of college.

Both have 4 year degrees.

At $10 an hour Auto 101 would have always qualified for state-sponsored healthcare,

I was not refuring about me. The news story did not cover his health care information.

On that $10 an hour, with children, he would have qualified for food stamps also.

He never took welfare.

Did the grandparents fund savings for the grandchildren?

nope he was raised in the ghetto.

Perhaps the guard has a working spouse.

Nope he was the only one working.

How long has this guard worked at the job - 5 years or 40?

About 40+ years.

Did he get an inheritance from HIS parents?

Nope he grew up in the ghetto.

When he was 5 years in the job some one gave him a Christmas gift of a 100 stock and told him not to sell it and the man offered him some advice in investing. after that he started investing a little at a time. He studied how investing works like some people study what happened on Jersey shore or the NFL. He still works doing the same job for 10 an hour and offers investment advice to people that make 8X more than he does.

Or auto101 is a troll

Nope. Some people think I am Because I don't buy an American car or don't believe democrats are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Huge mistake to ever have gotten caught up in the 401K crapshoot. I should have put my $ in a MMA.

So lests see You make .5% on your MMA and I make 5-8% (over the fees) on my 401K Yes your right your have the best investment idea of the world.

for all of you talking about wall street robbing your 401k, you should have never invested in the first place as you don't understand how the market works.

As long as you hold those shares and they are not some fly by night scheme to get rich quick, you've lost nothing. Your mistake was bailing out of the market when it went down. IT WILL ALWAYS GO DOWN AND UP. And for most of us who stayed invested we've gotten back everything and more under the current economy.

Cause=>Effect

This is a concept that seems to be lost in modern culture. Instead we have

Cause=>Cause=>Cause=>

Get a clue. Think things through before you run around like a loon.

It is the Government with its regulations that CAUSED our current tragedy.

Keep in mind that when the banks made all those toxic loans they were doing what the regulators wanted them to do.

Capitalism is our only hope.

No Jem, it was the repeal of Glass-Steigel that destroyed our economy.

Their retirement savings are so low because they lost their careers. Not many people have the financial expertise to handle suddenly becoming "economically nonviable".

WallStreet started the culture of greed and gambling. I kept more than half of my money in safer investments, but I still do not feel safe. My 401K took a big hit when everything was going to hell, and I think it will take a bit hit again in the future. I have stocks that pay me around $1000 per year dividend (I didn't do the reinvestment plan, and I am glad I did not.) I toy with the idea that I should sell those stocks and pay off my house. But, I guess I am gambling by hanging on to them and my 401k. I am told that my net worth should be at least one million when I retire, I have a long way to go. I figure that my net worth is only about 250,000. What is sick is that I put more money into insurance than I do into my 401K.

Maybe now we can make laws that say a person MUST buy some form of retirement product because they are too stupid if they are not forced.

They just ruled you can be forced to buy health care.

Understood. It does not matter how much you have in an emergency fund. Once it is gone then it is gone. Good luck OceanRiver. You will need it in finding a job whether it covers the bills or not.

Have another one, Boozer, if you think the alternative moron will do any better.

And I hope, Boozer, that the same happens to you no matter who the president is.

Pick. You GOP supporters either say it's Obama's fault, or people are too lazy. It's ridiculous. Try blaming the RIGHT people for once. The economy was headed for disaster well before Obama was elected. I knew it when I saw the stock market fluctuating as t did before the crash of 1929. I warned everybody I could about it, and it was the morons that didn't believe me that got the short end of the stick, then stupidly blamed Obama.