boomers cannot afford to retire

they will be hanging onto their jobs, and hanging onto their houses...
associates had intended to retire last year, but his superfund that was over $300k in 2007 is less than $200k now, so he has stayed on at the job, now contracting...

his wife works part time, she had intended to sell 2 houses to wipe out the mortgages on the other 4...
but in light of the big losses on spouses super, they will hold all the houses now...
they aimed to earn $100,000 between them on retirement...

He is rather angry, an executive, he piled salary sacrifce money into that superfund, and estimated it should have been worth closer to 400-500ks on retirement...earning 5%

the funny thing is, he had super before it was compulsory in 1986....
his wife had been buying houses from the same time, she has amassed about 2 million in the same period...

another one, had grown her stock portfolio in her superfund to $2 million, its now down to 1 mill, but the two houses, with no borrowings, cost 1 mill, are now worth 3 mill...she figures she has lost 1 million...there is no way she will sell the houses in the current environment..
so she too intends to work another year or two...

all 3 are in good health....are active vibrant people...
all can run their own business....they are a bit miffed that their retirement is delayed...
others I speak to have similar attitudes...the stock market has delayed their plans, but none will sell the houses...the rentals will be their retirement pension plans, and form the bulk of their income

not everyone is like these 3, some cannot wait to get onto an old age pension...god forbid...living out your days in poverty, is really not a goal for most people....
some will be forced to retire....and becuase all the fund managers invested heavily in the stock market....those people will have no choice...
I suspect some will sell their city houses, do a sea or tree change, and use the excess cash for retirement...
if they are on the east coast...they will be fine