5 things you should worry about in 2014

Maybe this won't be such a happy new year, after all

Colorado River
(Image credit: (James Leynse/Corbis))

1. The retirement crisis. Talk about a ticking time bomb: Some 38 million working-age households have next to nothing saved for their so-called "golden years": just $3,000, says the National Institute on Retirement Security. It used to be that retirement — a goal of every working American — was sort of like a three-legged stool: One leg was a pension, one was Social Security, and the third was your own savings. But pensions are vanishing, and Social Security is likely to be trimmed in the future. If there are 38 million households who haven't done anything about the third leg — their own savings — then let's be honest: Tens of millions of Americans will never be able to retire. I haven't even mentioned something that few Americans are aware of: The $65 trillion in unfunded entitlement liabilities. The bulk of it — about $58 trillion — is in unfunded Medicare and Medicaid liabilities. Hope you don't get sick.

2. Climate change. CINCPAC — America's commander-in-chief of all Pacific forces worries daily about China, North Korea, and cyber attacks. But the biggest long-term threat to U.S. national security? Climate change, says Admiral Samuel Locklear III.

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Paul Brandus

An award-winning member of the White House press corps, Paul Brandus founded WestWingReports.com (@WestWingReport) and provides reports for media outlets around the United States and overseas. His career spans network television, Wall Street, and several years as a foreign correspondent based in Moscow, where he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union for NBC Radio and the award-winning business and economics program Marketplace. He has traveled to 53 countries on five continents and has reported from, among other places, Iraq, Chechnya, China, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.