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It is that indeed and is not helpful in my estimation. Scare tactics rarely are.
Yeah, poor me.
My wife and I are getting over 70% of our retirement income from ss alone, boo hoo!
My benefit is estimated to be $3,050 while my wife's is etimated to be $1,125 for a combined ss benefit of $4,175 TAX FREE. Boo hoo!
If social security was 100% of our income when you figure we would not pay any federal or state taxes that's equivalent to having a full time job paying $67,000 per year here in Georgia. Boo hoo!
there may or may not be a retirement crisis, as discussed many times on this forum. Each person/couple's situation is unique. I know people on each end of the spectrum. However, there is a health care crisis, IMO, which will eat up a large chunk of money for a lot of people.
I went and looked up some statistics from the USG sites (posted in the thread about what society needs to do) and the numbers just don't jive with the media "crisis".
Tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.
Example: 36,000 die from the flu each year is NOT a fact.
It is statistically impossible to get a static 36000 each and every year. And besides that, flu is not listed as cause of death.
The stats don't lie! The retirement crisis may not feel real to people who have already retired or very close to retirement. All the trends (income growth, widening gap income inequality with the least # of people owns the most, reduction/disappearing of private pension plan, retirement saving, 401K participation rate) all point out a not rosy or even very bleak future for future retirees.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
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"Crisis" or not, no one seems to have anticipated the "convergence" of so many factors, and so soon… including increasing life spans, the emerging global economy, changing social trends, hi-tech, and the cascading impact of such large 'demographic groups' (Boomers, Gen-X, Millennials, etc.).
But the basic fact is that all the old notions of 'aging' and "retirement" (and the length to reach 'maturity'.. among others) are all "in transition", and no one's really figured out yet where it's headed in this country (let alone in the fast developing rest of the World)!
Groceries and the gas bill aren't the worry.
Remove the costs risks of medical & nursing care and most won't have much to worry about
Those who know (viscerally if not objectively) that they can't **CAN NOT** provide for
themselves or their family if/when the feared event arrives... aren't chicken littles.
This is what Medicare was supposed to address.
Based on 1964 technology and standards of care it still does it pretty well.
But it isn't 1964 anymore ... is it?
The stats don't lie! The retirement crisis may not feel real to people who have already retired or very close to retirement. All the trends (income growth, widening gap income inequality with the least # of people owns the most, reduction/disappearing of private pension plan, retirement saving, 401K participation rate) all point out a not rosy or even very bleak future for future retirees.
Take that second link and look at income by age bracket and people are better off today and earning more than they did. This chart shows an upward trend for the lower brackets.
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