Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I can't afford to go to school, plus I'm a baby boomer, so I do not have a lot of potential to increase my income.
Says the guy who's wanted to design websites and has ideas for them for almost a decade but has somehow been unable to motivate himself enough to make the effort to actually learn one of the few things that is absolutely free to learn.
If you put half the effort into learning the fundamentals of web design as you did whining about how much things are unfair and you don't make enough money you'd be sitting in a home right now, but hey that is how life works there are people who take the initiative to improve their lot and others who just throw up their hands and cry unfair.
Well, many of us enjoy our working years while we save, as well as we want to enjoy our retirement years. So you save now, enjoy now, and enjoy later.
If you save & die, then you get to designate the cause (spouse, children, charity) that benefits from your thrift.
If you save & live, then you get to enjoy your thrift.
If you do not save, you are at the mercy of a (increasingly) merciless society.
The notion that people who work for 35 years might not save at all for retirement would indicate that they have knowingly locked themselves into a poor outcome. The next few years will see a lot of hand-wringing about these people with no savings. "Forced" to live in slums and among the drugs and criminals, etc. But they are out there in the millions, I've met several recently. Years of opportunities to save, and zero net assets. The 'government' is not going to help, as it's also out of cash.
Well said. It scares the heck out of me that so many people have saved so little for old age. I'm afraid there are going to be riots in the streets when people find out the government is not going to be there to make up the difference.
I think some people assume they are going to get an inheritance or other huge cash windfall someday to help out. That isn't how life always works, though.
I think some people assume they are going to get an inheritance or other huge cash windfall someday to help out. That isn't how life always works, though.
No matter what people think, they are likely to find out that that isn't how life always works. Invested money shrinks, small businesses fail, employers downsize, spouses run off with somebody else, kids go to jail, your pre-existing condition become life-threatening, there is no safety net.
Just read a story on CNN Money website with this title. Unfortunately, my wife and I are now part of that 49%. We used to save a bit, but it just hasn't been possible the past 3 years. It seems with the cost of just about everything going up it is getting more difficult to save anything and maintain any quality of life. We're going to downsize soon, and hope the lower housing cost will help. Time will tell...
It is VERY difficult.
Our mortgage and car payments are smaller than most people's but we've always been a lower-income duo. At least I was lucky enough to have health insurance through my employer. But I'll be laid off end of this month after 21 years (as the poster above wrote, there is NO safety-net), and with the new budgeting from unemployment there is no cubby-hole available to set aside some money for insurance or retirement. The tax return we get is saved aside to pay for property taxes.
High taxes and increasing gas costs aside, we pay incredible amounts of money for communications ~ fancy-ass phones / ipods we don't need, cable that needn't cost what they do, and all the regulations on automobiles have made prices soar into the stratosphere.
I don't have the answer either, and I think it's all going to get worse.
No matter what people think, they are likely to find out that that isn't how life always works. Invested money shrinks, small businesses fail, employers downsize, spouses run off with somebody else, kids go to jail, your pre-existing condition become life-threatening, there is no safety net.
Excellent point. I would add that large businesses fail too. Enron would be one example.
A lot of people did do the "right" things, and had illness, or spouse illness, or divorce. I know more than a few people in their late 50s/early 60s who did the right stuff and have had to go through their assets due to long unemployment or repeated layoffs. One guy I know has been working seven days a week for years (sales jobs during the week with layoffs, hospital job on weekend for benefits) wife became disabled. Went through his retirement fund and a lot of home equity supporting wife and two kids (one now launched, one "failure to launch."
I don't think everyone who doesn't have a fat retirement ready is the stereotypical person or couple with a McMansion and leased cars and stuff. Things happen.
I currently have nose to grindstone at age 59, having not done right stuff for a long time (the rightest thing I did was get a very marketable credential at age 28) but didn't dig down and use it and save money, etc. until mid-40s. I am on track now, but no room for error. Oh, and I followed my presumed bliss and stuff and paid big each time.
A lot of people did do the "right" things, and had illness, or spouse illness, or divorce. I know more than a few people in their late 50s/early 60s who did the right stuff and have had to go through their assets due to long unemployment or repeated layoffs. One guy I know has been working seven days a week for years (sales jobs during the week with layoffs, hospital job on weekend for benefits) wife became disabled. Went through his retirement fund and a lot of home equity supporting wife and two kids (one now launched, one "failure to launch."
I don't think everyone who doesn't have a fat retirement ready is the stereotypical person or couple with a McMansion and leased cars and stuff. Things happen.
I currently have nose to grindstone at age 59, having not done right stuff for a long time (the rightest thing I did was get a very marketable credential at age 28) but didn't dig down and use it and save money, etc. until mid-40s. I am on track now, but no room for error. Oh, and I followed my presumed bliss and stuff and paid big each time.
Congratulations on getting it together -- as they say, better late than never.
Regarding people who encountered lifechanging events in their 50s, just before retirement -- the only recommendation I can make is that everyone should stock up on insurance in those last working years -- insure against medical disaster, against a casualty loss, and against death. As for late-life unemployment, the fact that someone used up all retirement funding before retirement implies to me that (1) the funds were inadequate and (2) the retirement expense model was too low.
If you lose your job at say 55, the best approach might be to start your retirement lifestyle immediately -- downscale the expenses from the 100k per year working lifestyle to the 30k per year retirement lifestyle. No need to have a 500k house in a suburb in New Jersey with high taxes and expensive COL if your long-term plan is for a cheap place in the mountains somewhere.
As for divorce, the retirement funding should have been adequate for two. If one person has all of the assets, an equitable distribution should still leave enough for a thrifty retirement for one.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
