The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning Read Free Page A

forum and the greater investing community at large by creating the Bogleheads Wiki site.
    Off-line, the Bogleheads have expanded to include regular local chapter gatherings and a national reunion. There are now 38 local chapters throughout the United States and Europe. Local chapter members meet periodically to discuss investing topics of interest with other members from their area. Each year, a local chapter volunteers to host the Bogleheads reunion, which Jack Bogle traditionally attends. The 2009 conference visits the Lone Star state with a meeting in Dallas/Fort Worth. Information on all these activities can be found on the web site.
    Our family of Bogleheads is vast and growing, but you do not need to register to consider yourself a follower. Being a Boglehead is a state a mind, not a web site. Anyone who believes in Jack Bogle’s philosophy on good business ethics and low-cost investing principles is already a member. Chapter 20 is dedicated to the hard work and countless hours all Bogleheads have volunteered to promote this message.

THE COMING RETIREMENT BOOM OR BUST
    This book addresses the enormous issue of retirement in America. Each year for the next 25 years, more people will reach retirement age but will find fewer resources for them to draw from. The senior population has grown by 50 percent since 1980, from 25 million to nearly 40 million in 2009. Retirees are living longer and are healthier. In 1985, more than a quarter of the 85-plus population lived in nursing homes. By 2008, that proportion had fallen to only 13 percent of people this age because of advances in health care and better fitness.
    With so many people entering retirement over the next couple of decades and retirees living longer, where are the resources going to come from? In 1980, many people retired with a defined benefit pension paid by their employers. Today, traditional pensions paid by employers are disappearing, and personal savings and employee-funded retirement plans must make up the difference. But are we saving enough? How much is enough? This book teaches people how to come up with those answers.
Changes Coming in the Social Network
    Some people still believe that Social Security and Medicare will provide adequate income and health benefits after age 65. Unless you are already well into your retirement years, it is probably a good idea to make other plans. Our social services networks are woefully underfunded and cannot deliver the level of economic welfare that many people expect.
    Some prognosticators suggest that all we have to do is rearrange our economic activities to spur greater economic growth to address the shortfall in Social Security and Medicare. The reality is that economic growth becomes stifled with growing government entitlements and a smaller workforce to draw from. Unless we change the work behavior patterns of the adult population, our demographic structure will mean that labor force growth rates will drop to near zero in the 2010s. Even if we can achieve higher levels of productivity, much of this expected productivity improvement is already committed to support the higher need for services related to our aging population. Increasing costs of health services worsen the situation.
    These facts cannot be dismissed, nor can a future retiree ignore the inevitable changes in benefits that are coming. It is likely that eligibility ages under Social Security and Medicare will have to be raised again. Raising the retirement age will give workers a longer time to contribute to their retirement plans and reduce the rate at which they have to contribute. In turn, it will simultaneously reduce the number of years a person is in retirement and the amount of resources needed to sustain a lifestyle that is acceptable after the work career has ended. Simply put, most people should plan to work longer.
The Saving Status of Americans
    Just two or three decades ago, saving for retirement in the United States was based heavily on