Retirement experts are underwhelmed. “It’s just a start. It is by no means a solution on its own,” says David Madland, a retirement expert at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank closely associated with the Obama administration. The program is voluntary for employers too. And the Obama administration acknowledges that it doesn’t yet have a commitment from any employers to offer the program.
Another problem: Most workers won’t save adequately for retirement, many retirement experts say, unless they are automatically enrolled in savings programs and forced to opt out if they don’t want to save. MyRa is completely voluntary. Others worry that savers can withdraw money freely. The possibility that savers will deplete the accounts before retirement makes MyRa a “woefully inadequate response to the retirement crisis,” says Teresa Ghilarducci, a retirement specialist at the New School for Social Research in New York.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/guide-obamas-plan-retirement-savings
The money will go into the same lock box as Social Security.
If I was playing dictator for a day, here is what I would do. I'd create a super IRA that allows both types of contributions and set the limit to the SEP limit that is currently somewhere around $50K. If your 401K plan sucks at work, you can direct them to make contributions directly to your accounts if you want the tax deferment.
“...says Teresa Ghilarducci, a retirement specialist at the New School for Social Research in New York.”
Isn’t she the one who floated the idea of the gov confiscating IRA’s and 401(k)’s and scheduling distributions after retirement?