“And they will cash that in as soon as possible because “an emergency”.”
Yup. I was planning to retire. Bought a place down in Texas, got my fishing gear refreshed and was going to contract for a couple of years until my wife’s business took off.
I was let go in October 2008. My 401k was over 500k. It went down to under 200k. In early 2009, my cash on hand dwindled and I could no longer afford COBRA. Two days after my COBRA expired and I was waiting on a new policy, my daughter gets sick. In a facility for a year, wipes out the remainder of my 401k.
Over time I built it back up, but it isn’t a tenth what it was. Instead of retiring at 55, I won’t be able to retire for another 15 years. I am hoping between that, my Disability VA benefit and Social Security, with my wife’s income, we could winter in Texas, summer in Jersey. I prefer Costa Rica, but the wife is against it.
Sounds similar to my situation. I had a pretty good plan. The wife and I both had pretty good retirement accounts and I had my AF retirement. The economy took a nose dive. The ex took out a bunch of loans on her retirement to pay of credit cards that she just ran back up again. She and I both got laid off and she took out more loans that she defaulted on and then we got divorced. I had planned on being retired by now, but it will be at least another two or three years. It might be even longer than that if my truck keeps breaking down and I need a new one.
My husband and I were both let go in August of 2008. We were out of work for 2 years. 401ks are gone. I *hope* to be able to retire when I’m 70 (about 9 years from now) but if I can’t, I hope I can still work.