What Happened to the Three-Legged Stool?
Once upon a time, we talked about retirement as having three legs [i] : Social Security, workplace savings/pensions, and personal savings. But to a number of vocal pundits, the full burden has been put …on the 401(k). But before there was a 401(k)—and even before the advent of ERISA—there was Social Security, a program designed to provide retirement income to working Americans. It remains absolutely integral to even the most rudimentary retirement planning calculation, and with good reason. That said, despite a looming financing shortfall—and a fairly widespread notion that those benefits aren't "enough" for a full retirement income replacement, you don't see headlines in the New York Times—or folks going on book tours—proclaiming that program was a "mistake" the way some do about the 401(k). The reality is that Social Security—like the 401(k)—has undergone significant changes in scope, funding, and mission since its 1935 inception. People are often c...