Seeking Guidance For Our Savings

It's been kind of a kick being on the leading edge of the baby boom. Wherever I went -- into the protests, into the workplace, into parenthood and into middle age -- millions followed.

And now, turning 60, I'm on the leading edge of a mass of workers hurtling toward retirement in an era in which we're expected to save and invest for our own futures -- whether we know anything about investing or not.

The truth is, despite 27 years as a business writer and editor, I don't know whether I have enough money or whether I'm doing the right things with my savings.

That makes me nervous -- not just for myself but also about whether I might be just one among millions of potential individual financial disasters that could add up to a national crisis.

Maybe I should have been paying closer attention. I did invest in an IRA decades ago, but having done so, I paid little heed thereafter. When I came to work at The Washington Post, it didn't occur to me to ask if the job came with a pension. I'd never held a job for more than a year, and it didn't seem relevant.

I can't remember when the 401(k) plans came along. But I put aside money each year up to the amount The Post would match rather than leave money lying on the ground. When I got divorced, my ex-husband and I fought over many things, but not retirement savings. We each kept our own.

A buyout offer from The Post this spring forced me to focus. I had 45 days to think things over -- 45 days to make decisions that I would have to live with for decades to come. I took the buyout, but only because I could start writing this column under contract. I'm hoping to learn on the job and to help readers get a jump-start on their financial futures.

When my parents approached retirement, they had a pretty clear picture of where they were headed. They both had pensions, so they knew how much income they would have, and they both had retiree health insurance to pay for their medical needs. Their mortgage was paid off, and their kids were on their own. That left them free to enjoy the savings they had.

Now 92, my mother lives quite comfortably on two pensions, two generous retiree health-care plans, Social Security, Medicare and the dividends from the Exxon stock my daddy bought over the years. He was a machinist at their Baytown, Tex., refinery. My mother was a high school English teacher.

In many ways, I've lived more comfortably than they did. When I was growing up, seven of us lived in a house with one bathroom and -- eventually -- one window-unit air conditioner to protect us from Houston's tropical heat. As an adult, I've had more means but few compunctions against living beyond them.

But I face a much more uncertain future in retirement. And I'm not alone in that. Most of us do, and the younger you are, the greater that uncertainty is. Your own savings and investments will probably be all you have in retirement. Monthly pension checks are a vanishing reality. Ditto retiree health insurance. And who knows what the future holds for Social Security and Medicare?

Unlike my parents' mortgage, not only is mine not paid off, I have decades of payments ahead of me from my most recent refinancing. And I borrowed heavily against my home equity line of credit, so I have that debt as well. I have a modest pension and limited retiree health insurance. My 30-year-old daughter is on her own, but I have friends who are in their sixties, contemplating retirement when their children are just beginning to apply for college.

And what about our children? On top of financial obligations, they will face the challenge of increased life expectancy. Turning 30? If you retire when you reach 63, you have a 17 percent chance of living 32 more years (to age 95) if you're male and a 24 percent chance of living that much longer if you're a woman, according to Ron Gebhardtsbauer of the American Academy of Actuaries. That's a long time to make the money last.

So what to do? I'm not going to simply tell you to save early and often. Theoretically, it's good advice. But then, so is consuming fewer calories than you burn and buying low and selling high. It's just that it's not as easy as it sounds. And besides, when the oldies stations are playing the songs your kids used to listen to, it may be a little late.

So that's why I'm writing this column. I'll be asking detailed questions -- including your questions (send them to hamiltonm@washpost.com ) -- that will help us get where we need to be. My goal is to slowly build a sense of mastery to substitute for the dread that usually attends trying to deal with something that seems overwhelming.

We're in it together.