How can I save for retirement these days?

[Mark C]

I'm 33 yrs old. Social Security looks like it will be gone before I can ever use it. Home equity keeps falling, and 401k's are riskier than ever with the unpredictable stock market. I started saving silver but will that be enough?

[Ola a]

Don't look to just one vehicle for that purpose, do look at properties, both home and abroad, look at options, and best of all don't follow the joneses! Buy assets instead of liabilities.

[What]

I don't care if the home equity falls right now. But if you love your home, buy into that, get it paid off. Then "THEY" can never take it away, and you will have security. Next, the stock market is offering you incredible buys right now. You have to see that, and not be fear driven. In 33 years, you will look back, and your stocks will have gone way, WAY up from what it is now. This crunch is a godsend for people in your age group, you just can't see it now. Silver and gold may continue to go up for now. But in my gut feeling opinion, eventually it will crash as it is over priced and driven by fear right now. Finally, fully fund ($5000) a ROTH IRA. You will thank me 35 years from now.

[David M]

A few things, not necessarily in the order you posted them.

Home equity - Home equity is not retirement income. It is a place to live. When you say your home equity keeps falling, I assume you mean the value of your home. First of all, it will not go down forever. And secondly (and more importantly) even if it did, who cares? As long as you stay current on your mortgage and eventually pay off your debt you will eventually have a free place to live. Don't worry about your short term value of your place. It will eventually come back.

401K's - The stock market goes up, the stock market goes down. In the long run it goes up. Had you put all your money in stocks in 2009 in the depths of the market, you would have nearly doubled your money by now despite the recent drop. It takes patience and guts to make money in the stock market. Patience to ride through tough times like right now and guts to actually buy in when everybody else is selling. Over the next 30 years of your working career believe me, the stock market will go up.

Silver - Silver or gold are not long term investments. They are short term hedges against inflation, but do nothing to earn you money or income. It pays no dividend and actually costs money to insure and/or store. The only way to make make money investing in silver/gold over the long term is to trade them (buy them and sell them). That involves consistently buying at lows and selling at highs. Nobody is good enough to that, not even the experts. I doubt you can pull it off. Better off buy silver and gold stocks which actually have earnings.

Just keep putting money into your 401k and watch it grow over time. Dollar cost averaging. It means when the prices of stock go up, you buy less and when the prices of stock go down you buy more. It happens automatically when you invest the same amount every period of time like you do in a 401k. Keep it up.

And Social Security? It can be saved. It needs to be adjusted. The retirement age needs to be raised over time, it needs to be means tested, they need to adjust cost of living adjustments (especially for richer beneficiaries). But as long as the Nancy Pelosi's and Harry Reid's of the world demagogue the issue, the Democrats will destroy the very program they say the Republicans are trying to kill. Vote Republican in the next election and they will save your Social Security.

Work hard, make a decent living, live within your means, put put your savings in tax advantaged accounts and you will do much better than you believe. It takes time, patience and guts. You had have the first of those three. Do you have the last two?

[flower]

Get a Roth IRA. Your 401K is a bonus since your employer contributes to it. Stocks will always go up even if they lose value. I would still buy U.S. Treasury bonds since thats what big investors do because the U.S. still has a stable currency in the world. Just try to save money. Next time your home value shoots up you might sell it and hang onto the profit.

[sophieb]

Aside from the obvious, even if you're earning a great income you'd need to have two or three jobs to save adequately. There's a phrase Geico is using on the radio which is "love what you do and you won't work a day in your life". So have jobs that you love doing.

In years past families would pass down their home to their children and instead of selling it the children would live in it. Also years ago people would buy an inexpensive home calling it a starter home and then keep it for their retirement years later, and in-between times they would rent it out (like for family). It would be small enough to move on a tractor trailer or roll down the street on logs if the area turned bad. Of course that's only for if you live in an area where there are no tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods or sink holes. That retirement home used to also contain a dry safety basement that was underground. That home could be like 1 or 2 bedrooms or even the size of a cabin and should have two separate entrances (like so 2 families could live there).

[MACD]

In a Nutshell ... study price movement ... Trend following. The market will tell you when to be in and when to get out. Author Michael Covel has studied price movement for some years.

Clip of an introduction to a Documentary he made below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZsFEpumF...re=related

What's going on in the market today? We are in a Secular 20 year Bear Market that started in the year 2000. Danielle Park, Canadian author, financial analyst made the following video (below) on Feb 2008 ... note that this is before the 08 Crash. She wrote a book about Secular Bull and Bear Markets ... it's titled Juggling Dynamite. She also runs a free website Google Juggling Dynamite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBtqRi3nI_0

This information has helped me .. I hope it helps you .... Good luck.

[MrSilverAG]

Food, water, guns, ammo, gold and silver. You can also hoard pre1982 pennies and all nickels, which are worth more than face value.
Become as self-sufficient as possible.