Here is something every non-rich American family should know: The odds are that you will run out of money in retirement.
On average, a typical working family in the anteroom of retirement — headed by somebody 55 to 64 years old — has only about $104,000 in retirement savings, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
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The standard prescription is that Americans should put more money aside in investments. The recommendation, however, glosses over a critical driver of unpreparedness: Wall Street is bleeding savers dry.
“Everybody’s big focus is that we have to save more,” said John C. Bogle, founder and former chief executive of Vanguard, the investment management colossus. “A greater part of the problem is the failure of investors to earn their fair share of market returns.”
Not to mention the several recessions (including the recent Great Financial Crisis) that wiped out the average US citizen's savings because of fraudulent investments sold to them by the big banks (often through small, local banks).