31% Of Americans Have No Retirement Savings At All (support, single, family)

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by freemkt

So if a driver carries only the state-mandated coverage, and not comprehensive, how is their credit score relevant to the insurance premium they pay?

it isn't , until they add comprehensive insurance. it is comprehensive where your premiums go up as well as home insurance. those claims where there are no witnesses are the issue .

i don't know if any link has actually been made between credit score and job performance and honesty in the work place but in the insurance world the link has been well established.

according to fico commercial services 47% of every s&p 500 company uses credit score information from them in judging applicants as well as many many smaller businesses. i know the company i work for does too.

our employer is big on the fact that if you make poor decisions and choices with your own money what are you going to do with his and company resources.

whether true or not whio cares , the fact is a poor score won't help you be selected.

it really doesn't matter if there is a link or not to job performance. as long as that is one of the filters today it will hurt you regardless of whether a link exists or not.

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by Frydazechild

Not necessarily true. the same thing happened to me because I paid into the Deferred Compensation Plan
through work. It was managed by CitiBank. When the market tanked I was left w/a 6th of my account.
About what I had paid in. In order to recoupe that loss I would have had to come up w/around $600K to put back in to stop the bleeding. I didn't have it then & you know what I still don't have it. When you
invest make sure you pute you $ into CDs, bonds, savings pools, etc unless you can afford to lose the money.

Also the middle class is $25K-$99,999,999, & median net is $48K so I think minimum wage is never is never going to make it; especially since most of those jobs are not full time so the employer doesn't have to provide benefits.

huh ? what was it invested in when all diversified funds recovered every penny and more? was it citi bank stock? if it was not something diversified then a speculation was made again in only one investment and one outcome, human error again if that is the case.

[Joliefille]

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

I bought a four pack of Ziplock gallon freezer bags about 6 years ago. 152 bags -- they lasted until last year -- and I bought another four pack at Costco. I did notice there was a big change in quality. Gone down of course. These bags won't make 5 years. Which is fine -- I am developing arthritis in my thumbs and I need the ones with sliders. The motions to hold the bag and to close the bag HURTS like the dickens.

I use ziplocks all the time -- mainly to corral things. I get family pack chicken breasts, cut them up, wrap them in freezer paper and freeze singly till solid. Then I gather them up and stick them in a zip lock. No more stray mystery meats....with freezer burn.

Small ziplocks are best for chopped nuts which I buy in bulk at Costco. I chop all the nuts and portion them out in one cup portions, seal them up, taking out as much air as possible, and corral them in the large zip locks which stayed sealed until I need a nut bag.
Which sounds rude.... But double bagging does keep the nuts fresher tasting.

I turn my underwear inside out to get double the use and save 1000% of percent on laundry detergent.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

this isn't a debate about emotions or feelings. it is what it is

Yet you saw fit to talk about "excuses" and "blame". Seems to me that you want to include discussion of subjective aspects only when they are your prejudicial aspersions. The reality is that, when people are involved, there are no conversations that are legitimately devoid of aspects of humanity. Considering and factoring in the impact of things on other people's lives is an essential aspect of maturity.

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

I think a lot of us are compassioned out.

Yet we do nothing as a society to reduce the need for compassion. It is a quandary.

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

I didn't work miracles. This isn't magic. It's taking the bull by the horns and taking control.

No, sorry - it isn't. It's the variable probability of success that makes the difference.

Originally Posted by jghorton

"time and chance happen to us all" (Eccl. 9:11)

People who put the same amount of "taking the bull by the horns" into their lives end up with radically different results, because of chance. There are even people who don't apply themselves that fastidiously who do quite well. It's simply not a matter of how much work you put into life.

Originally Posted by TuborgP

Debt often increases as a result of divorce, job loss, illness and many other life slamming events.

These are really important points. I know of many cases where each of these three examples you mentioned occurred due to no fault of the person they happened to, and despite what appear to be the very best efforts a reasonable person could expect, many of those folks have been "slammed" as a result - typically not from one event but often from a second, when they're kicked when they're down. The reason why many people have such little saved for retirement is because the opportunity to save more eluded them despite their best efforts.

Originally Posted by anifani821

My objection is to people feeling someone "owes" them a middle class lifestyle

I agree that people aren't owed commodities and amenities just because they're a part of our society. What they're owed as part of our society is an unimpeded path to earning what they need to make ends meet and pay their own way. In the absence of that, and as the path gets more and more treacherous and impossible to travel, it is unreasonable to expect that there won't be people who cannot pay their own way. I think we all agree that the answer is not to cull people who aren't fortunate to have the success the rest of us capitalized on to make ends meet.

Originally Posted by KYBob

Personal Responsibility I think this is an issue that is critical not only to one's financial success but also to life in general.

No question, but personal responsibility goes hand-in-glove with civic responsibility and social consciousness. We live in community with others, rather than as an array of personal, sovereign kingdoms.

Originally Posted by KYBob

Some people understand that they are responsible for their lives, and others go through life letting things happen.

"Some people understand that they are to love their neighbors as themselves, and others go through life fixated on what's good for themselves alone." It cuts both ways.

Originally Posted by KYBob

People need to realize that their lives are shaped by the decisions they make.

People need to realize that their lives are also shaped by the decisions others make, that the lives of others are shaped by the decisions that they make, and that everyone's lives are shaped to some extent by the random events that a person encounters.

Originally Posted by dysgenic

People today do not have the same opportunities that prior generations had. It is really sad.

It is sad, but let's be clear: People aren't better off today than people were in all prior generations. The decline is merely up against just the last generation or two. People today face the same kinds of probabilities of three or four generations ago. We've regressed - yes - but not back to the stone age.

Originally Posted by dysgenic

So many mistaken beliefs are evident in your post. In my opinion, here are some of them:

1. Good decisions don't necessarily translate into economic success, much less a fully funded retirement.
2. Corporations, banks, insurance companies, the currency, the Federal Reserve, etc etc are most certainly contributing to the drastically reduced standard of living that this generation is presently enduring. Put another way, it's perfectly logical to blame these entities, at least in part, for the the collective 'lot in life' of thousands (if not millions) of people.
3. You assume that people that don't earn enough money aren't doing what they can to make their lives better. In my opinion, you couldn't be more wrong. Very few people, especially those with families, are happy to make minimum wage and live a life of poverty.

Do you know what really bothers me? It's the attitude that poor people, need to "do whatever they can", or "look to make their lives better" or "go back to school", or (my favorite) "get vocational training" to change their circumstances. Of course, these solutions are always discussed in generalities and never examined closely for their practical real world application.

Precisely. This is the matter in a nutshell.

[MrWillys]

I graduated high school with my friend Frank who worked at a grocery store as a checker. I joined the Carpenters union, and he was in the retail clerks union. We both made about the same amount. My union continued to negotiate wage and benefit increases while his was taking a beating from the Walmart ideal, and the perception that less is somehow better. Eventually they were beaten to a two tier status with new employees starting with lower wages, and less benefits. This allowed the employer to force out the older employees in favor of lower wages. Frank managed to keep his Job, and is still working at half of current Carpenter wages.
This perception that people who perform certain tasks don't deserve a wage and benefit package is foolish, and will create generations who will live in poverty. This can already be seen in Southern states where labor is not respected, and will spread throughout the nation unless this trend is reversed. I consider myself lucky to have grown up in an area that respects labor.

[s1alker]

It don't help that pensions are becoming a thing of the past. 401ks are only good for those who make 100k+ a year or more and can funnel a lot of money into it. The biggest issue is that people are living longer than ever and could easily have a 30+ year retirement.

[Giesela]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

If you are 64, lost your job and plowed through your retirement savings then you surely didn't have enough saved to begin with.

It's no secret the Americans aren't great savers and this is just for short term savings.
Less than 5% I believe is what Americans save.

Retirement savings is probably on very few radars.

Now going into debt to get what you want now..that's what most people do today.

IDK, I'm a couple years away from retirement and my govt '401k' has done nothing but lose me money over the long haul.
Recently it was up, but the market is going to go down again. How can I plan on retiring when my 401k keeps going up and down? I put about 25% of my salary in there! and honestly? It makes me feel more stupid than just burying it in the back yard but I keep doing it because everyone says to. I think the market its for the rich, which I am not. Double stupid.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by dysgenic

False dichotomy. What about those that make more than the minimum wage, but not enough to support themselves? In the industry I worked in, an industry that was touted 20 years ago as being 'recession proof', a good worker is not paid about half what they were paid 20 years ago. And a good worker in my field is most certainly in short supply as well. So forget the supply/demand nonsense that we have all been fed as well.

Perhaps people shouldn't have kids they can't afford ...

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by Frydazechild

Not necessarily true. the same thing happened to me because I paid into the Deferred Compensation Plan
through work. It was managed by CitiBank. When the market tanked I was left w/a 6th of my account.
About what I had paid in. In order to recoupe that loss I would have had to come up w/around $600K to put back in to stop the bleeding. I didn't have it then & you know what I still don't have it. When you
invest make sure you pute you $ into CDs, bonds, savings pools, etc unless you can afford to lose the money.

Also the middle class is $25K-$99,999,999, & median net is $48K so I think minimum wage is never is never going to make it; especially since most of those jobs are not full time so the employer doesn't have to provide benefits.

$99,999,999 is middle class?

Please send me a sample of what you've been smoking by mail, preferably FedEx.

[MrWillys]

Originally Posted by ncole1

Perhaps people shouldn't have kids they can't afford ...

Is this an attempt at a credible argument about the thread topic? Please expound on why people shouldn't have a family? Are you saying people that work at Walmart shouldn't have kids?