I have saved and invested my whole life... now that I am getting closer to the retirement age I am asking myself what do I have to show for it... I have invested in Roths and outside of my original money I put into it.. it has not made me any money other than about 20 dollars over the original part in the Roths... my IRAs and 401Ks to me seem to have less than the original invested into it... I am the point in my life that I am questioning what we have been told... invest for your future... I did that and now wonder why... I feel that our great grandparents were right to save money in a jug and bury it in the yard it would not have earned anything but based on what I have watched over the last few years you would still have your starting investment... that is more than I can say for the rest of the investments like the IRAs and 401Ks and so forth... I retire in two years I started saving in my early 20's and putting money in I am lucky at this point in the game as they say to walk away with a little over 50 thousand when by everyone else I should have double or triple that amount already... Given the choice would not a jug or jar buried in the yard have been a better investment in the long run.:(

Dear rescue me -

I totally understand your frustration with 401ks and IRAs, etc. I studied finance in college and I have taken an interest in personal finance since I graduated.

What I have observed and personally experienced is the plethora of "advice" that I get from people of all walks of life regarding retirement accounts. Everyone tells you, you got to save: put as much as you can in your 401k as possible; diversify; blah blah blah.

What no one tells you is that investing in 401ks is no less risky than investing in stocks because stocks are what make up the mutual funds in your 401k. But not only that, if you are nearing retirement and you have a substantial amount of money sitting in your account, that 1/2% or 1% or more that you are being charged each year for being in a fund can cost you a lot of money towards the twilight of your career.

If I were you, I would take a long, hard look at the options that you have in your 401k and IRA in terms of investments. Since you are so close to retirement and given the current state of the markets in general, you have to seriously think about preserving what you do have in your accounts. As an example, some 401ks offer a Preservation fund that invests in Money Markets and very stable bonds. These types of funds are outperforming the market and can actually yield you anywhere from 1.5 - 3%. The maintenance fees tend to be under 1% usually so you won't be stuck paying a lot more money than you have to to be in the fund.

Rescue me, so much more can be said on this and it's extremely difficult to really address this issue in this forum so please follow up with me if you have more questions.

Keep heart - stay invested for the long term. See the following article:

Ask the Expert - Money Magazine Is retirement saving a fool's bet? «

Sounds like a total mismanagement of your investments.