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“To be or not to be, that is the question;” said Shakespere in his famous Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act III, scene I.

 But I guess in relation to the current situation, we can slightly modify this question in this way. “To rely or not to rely on government help in retirement, that is the question”. This probably is a question on many future retiree’s minds. As we read in the news about the underfunding of retirement benefits such as pension, retiree insurance, social security, etc by both private corporations and local, state or federal governments. It is natural for one to wonder what would happen to his or her retirement if these legacy promises cannot be kept for some reason, as people discovered to their shocking at United Airlines during its bankruptcy proceedings, for example .

This story about the worry on some local and state government officials’ faces regarding their respective government’s ability to shoulder, this seemingly huge, responsibility for paying for their retiree’s insurance premiums might be a clue of things to come. Or may be not. Only time will tell.

Naturally one begins to wonder if ever that were to happen to my company, my employer; then would my personal retirement accounts (including 401 (k), SEP, etc accounts) be large enough to cover my retirement living expenses? The answer in many cases is a seemingly uncomfortable “No”. But so be it. If we at least know where we stand; where we are headed and if we care enough to change it, may be we can change the course of a few things and get us closer to having a decent amount in retirement. Don’t you agree? The earlier we learn what the truth is, isn’t it better to help us take action to secure our future? Because, afterall, we learn in investing basics that time is your ally if you have it on your side and it is your enemy if you don’t have time on your side, as far as the growth of your investments is concerned. So the sooner we know the truth, the more time we have on our side and a better chance we have to use it to our advantage.