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Strategies & Market Trends : Technical analysis for shorts & longs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (40209)	9/7/2003 5:10:24 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69866

September 7, 2003 INVESTING DIARY Boomers Are Leaning on Retirement Plans The results of a new survey show that company-sponsored plans are crucial to the retirements envisioned by baby boomers. In a nationwide survey of 500 people aged 35 to 55, and with household annual incomes of $50,000 to $125,000, more than half said they expected their primary source of income in retirement to be their employer-sponsored plans. Other, less significant sources included personal savings, Social Security and inheritance. The survey was sponsored by ING Financial Advisers, which is based in Atlanta and is a subsidiary of the ING Group. It was carried out by KRC Research, a research firm based in Washington. Eighty-three percent of those questioned said they had an employer-sponsored plan. Nearly half of those said they had not made changes to it in the past year, while a third said that they had increased the percentage of income they invest. The difficult economy and stock-market losses in recent years have forced many of them to re-evaluate the age at which they will be ready to retire. The average age at which respondents would like to retire is 55, but a majority do not expect to be financially prepared to do so until they are nearly 62. In a similar survey in 2001, the respondents said they expected to be able to retire at an average age of 60, four years later than they would prefer. "Boomers are finally realizing that they will have to work longer than they ever thought," said Thomas J. McInerney, the chief executive of ING U.S. Financial Services. Younger workers, aged 35 to 44, were more likely than the older group to say their preparations for retirement were being hurt by the fact that they were living beyond their means. Some 32 percent of them admitted to that, versus 17 percent of the older group. One-third of the respondents expect to receive or have received money through inheritances. Two years ago, the expectation of wealth coming from the older generation was more optimistic; 45 percent said they had received or expected to receive an inheritance. [Harry: That is pretty standard. Most estimates seem to end up being 50 percent too high. The time frame over which the effect is supposed to play out is 1/2 of what is estimated also.] Yields on Funds Barely Rise Yields on taxable money market funds rose slightly in the week ended on Tuesday from record lows, according to a survey by iMoneyNet. The average seven-day yield reached 0.52 percent, up from 0.50 percent a week earlier. Money fund yields roughly track the Federal Reserve's federal funds rate, which is the rate banks charge each other on overnight loans. It is now at a 45-year low of 1 percent. Because the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee said last month that it could keep the rate low for a "considerable period," money market rates are not expected to jump much higher soon.