By John Reeves | More Articles October 15, 2012 |

Investing great John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group and champion of the index fund, believes our nation's retirement system is headed for a serious train wreck. Anyone who looks objectively at the evidence would have to agree with him.

I recently examined several outstanding research studies on the state of retirement savings in America, and here are some of the alarming facts that I discovered:

These are just some of the facts that are included in the studies referenced above. For more detail, I'd encourage you to read the studies in their entirety.

One big takeaway is that many Americans are saving far too little for their retirement. And many of those individuals who are saving are making costly errors that result in poor investing returns. Bogle believes that our society tends to be wired for short-term thinking when it's long-term strategies that are most needed right now in tackling this retirement crisis.

In order to better understand this crisis, we've put together series of articles that take a deeper look at the important challenges facing our retirement system. In "5 Huge Myths About Social Security," Ilan Moscovitz examines our widely misunderstood Social Security system. In another commentary, Sara Murphy explores the question of whether 401(k) plans are a failed experiment. Finally, in a concluding commentary, I put forward some ideas for possibly improving our overall retirement system. We hope you enjoy the series!

To read all of the articles in this series, click on the following links:

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17 Frightening Facts About Retirement Savings in America