Ron Chernow Quotes

I am very concerned about the millions of baby boomers who are counting on the stock market to deliver them a safe, sound, long retirement. I am afraid the baby boomers who are counting on the stock market are in trouble.

In other words, Social Security is every bit as insecure as the stock market.

'Returnless risk' is not how you prepare for a decent retirement.

Do I want to see people take their Social Security payments and put them into private accounts, open up an eTrade account and go into the stock market? Absolutely not.

A lot of the money in the stock market is really our national retirement plan, for better or worse.

As you know President Bush has been traveling around the country trying to sell his new Social Security plan. He wants to take our retirement money and invest it in the stock market. He says nothing can go wrong. I'll mention that to Martha Stewart the next time I see her.

Our seniors' retirement should never rely on the bull of political promises or the bear of the market.

What we should be trying to do is to encourage people to establish private retirement accounts and help them take pressure off the Social Security system.

Since Social Security faces a large gap between what it promises younger workers and what it can afford to pay them, private savings will likely need to play a larger role in retirement planning for younger workers.

There is a kind of fear, approaching a panic, that's spreading through the Baby Boom Generation, which has suddenly discovered that it will have to provide for its own retirement.

I was a stock broker once. I think there is an absolute place for market investments. But they should never be the basis of one's retirement. They should be an additional piece on top of a basic, secure, guaranteed retirement benefit.

Knowing where you stand in your quest to accumulate enough money for retirement is an incredibly important part of the planning process.

Retirement security is often compared to a three-legged stool supported by Social Security, employer-provided pension funds, and private savings.

I'm dubious about having Social Security put into the stock market. I think that we have gotten very far away from the idea that there's something sacrosanct about retirement investments.

Employees did not only have their money in their 401k’s. They had their lives in those 401k’s ... today most people have most of their money in public stocks ... and the government regulates very little of this.

I'm not sure that too many Americans would choose the president to manage their retirement accounts.

People just haven't saved enough for retirement. And they're going to outlive their money.

Throughout the Great Recession of 2008, the average 401(k) balance lost anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of value. Nobody was more harmed than baby boomers or recent retirees, who, unlike younger workers, didn't have the time for the market to rebound or were no longer contributing and therefore unable to invest when stocks were cheap.

You could lose hundreds or thousands one day on paper and gain it all back the next, and it has literally no effect on your immediate future, provided the money you have in the market is money you're investing for the long haul (meaning at least three to five years).

Many people focus on the 4 percent rule, which essentially says that as long as you withdraw no more than 4 percent from your retirement accounts each year, the money should last you 30 years.

People don't place their trust in government or company pension plans; they have to be self-reliant.

A whole generation of Americans will retire in poverty instead of prosperity, because they simply are not preparing for retirement now.

Money isn't everything, but it is when you start thinking about putting money away for your retirement days.

Well, today people have to be self-reliant if they want a secure retirement income.

I look back on it, yeah, I'm in a much worse financial position than I was eight years ago. I'm going to have to go out at age 62 and kind of readdress some of that.