Party Now, Pay Later

If America's negative savings rate, rising foreclsoures, and ballooning household credit card debt weren't enough reasons to worry about how we're going to pay for everything and everyone in the future, now comes the story on TheStreet.com about company issued 401(k) debit cards that allow people to borrow money against their retirement plan.

Wait, let me get this straight ... the idea of a 401(k) is to incentivize people to set money aside for retirement, but now we're going to let them borrow against their 401(k) to pay for vacations, iPhones and plasma TVs? Sounds like a great plan to me!

As expected, a few party poopers aren't that keen on the idea.

"By making it a debit card, you make it sound like the loan that you take on the 401(k) for everyday purchases," says Jean Setzfand, AARP's Director of Financial Security. "In our opinion, a 401(k) loan should only be taken as a loan of last resort, for a dire medical situation, or if there's no other way to get a home loan, not to go shopping."

Lighten up Jean! So what if we end up spending all of the money we had set aside for retirement? I'm sure social security will take care of all of us when we hit retirement age. For now, I say, "Party on!"