KTC,
I know what you mean, when I look at the situation our 3 sons are in. Only our oldest (41) has a 401k and he's only putting enough in to get the maximum company matching. He does own a house (or at least he and the bank does and it's NOT one of those screwy loans so he should be OK, but he does have 4 daughters).
Our second son (40), while he has no formal pension accounts, he's single and debt free and manages to put money in the bank each week as he lives a very minimal life. Both he and his older brother are chefs which tend to be more recession-proof than many jobs, so we can only hope that will continue to be the case for them.
It's our youngest (33) we worry about, particularly now that he and his wife are going through this tragedy with their baby as one of these days the bills will come due. He has insurance and a good job and he also does IT work on the side for 4 different clients so he has good 'cash flow' but I'll bet he doesn't hardly have anything in savings. Part of the problem is that he has ALWAYS had good cash flow and that's the way he lives, from one check to another. The good news is that, at least until now, he's never had problems with credit cards but he does have 3 years left on his car loan, however, he is young enough that once they get past this heart rendering time, perhaps he will realize that he needs to start doing a better job of looking down the road to his future. I suspect that he and his wife will not try for any more kids since this is a genetic disorder that their daughter has which means that there's a 1 in 4 chance of it occurring again and when you see what's happening now, those look like really bad odds. Now while his job is technical in nature (he's an IT manager at a local law firm) lawyers always seem to do well no matter which way the economy is going and he always seems to manage to find these side clients who need 4 or 5 hours per week of IT support and at the hourly rate people like him can get for that sort of work, he should be able to do OK as well, but a parent never stops worrying.
So you're right, compared to the rest of world, we probably are blessed in many ways, although we still have some moments like we're going through now. My wife is just now leaving for the hospital but I have to pick her sister up at the airport (she's coming to help with their mother who lives with us and who needs at least 24/7 'watching') in a few hours and I've been asked to do the weekly shopping before she arrives so I won't see the baby until later. They took her off the ventilator yesterday and so far she breathing on her own, but she's down to only one working lung and the atrophy of the spinal column is continuing so it's just a matter of time. They are keeping her comfortable and between family and friends, we have a 24 hour schedule of people who will be there to support the parents and to relieve them when they need to take a break. The doctors say it could be days but not more than a week or so at best as this is a very aggressive form of the disorder when it manifests itself at this young of an age (baby Stella was just 6 weeks ago this past Monday).
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