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I certainly don't want to discuss politics. There is a separate forum for that. I am concerned about the results of the next election on those of us who are retired or already retired.
As a retiree, I have certain needs and expectations from government. I need to see social security remain viable. I need to see Medicare/Medicaid remain intact. Even with the current programs I have concerns about healthcare costs. My supplement and out of pocket costs are very high. The future need for skilled nursing care is always a possible concern. In addition to social security and healthcare costs, many of us are also dependent on withdrawals and returns on our investments. Also I live in a very high cost area. To some extent my income matches those costs but I am also at risk for seeing some of my costs increase and for seeing additional taxation.
Again, I do not want to discuss who should be the next President, but I do want to predict and potentially adjust to the likely outcomes. As I see it there are some likely trends.
If Bernie is elected we can expect he will push for added benefits. Unfortunately those benefits seem to involve things like free college tuition which does not help us seniors. Taxes are likely to increase. In addition Bernie talks about "going after Wall Street." I am not sure what that means except he wants to increase capital gains taxes. In addition to more taxes when we try to withdraw from our investments, the stock market is likely to slide severely. I am not sure what Hillary want to do. She is perhaps more moderate on spending but she for sure wants to increase capital gains taxes.
On the Republican side, I have an even harder time understanding the platform. Trump seems to enjoy making outrageous statements to gain attention and he also makes lots of promises but beyond those I am lost. Cruz and Rubio don't seem to have much of a chance for being elected, but they seem more interested in evangelistic ideals such as killing gay marriage and eliminating abortions. The Republicans seem to want to spend much more on the military so costs and taxes are not likely to remain constant with them either.
What do you think of the likely outcomes and -- beyond the useless act of voting -- what can we do to adapt?
What do you think of the likely outcomes and -- beyond the useless act of voting -- what can we do to adapt?
Doesn't matter who lives in the White House the next cycle. Taxes will go up and services will go down. The unwillingness of the two major political parties to work with each other crafting reasonable legislation will continue. Best way to 'adapt' is to minimize personal debt and think twice about frivolous spending.
Neither a Sanders nor Trump presidency are likely to be friendly to investors. Sanders is going to come down on Wall Street and the financial industry hard, causing fear in the market. Trump may very well do the same thing, and he could also end up "shaking the world tree" enough to cause other sorts of negatives for investors. Hillary is likely to continue the largesse upon the financial industry we've seen over the Obama administration, so she'd likely be friendly on that front, but much of the goosing of the markets has just come from direct stimulus into financial institutions. The average man on the street hasn't seen much benefit from all this stimulus - aside from their portfolios rising, if they didn't liquidate during the last bust or were fortunate enough to have the disposable funds to buy at the lows.
Bernie's support is not among seniors. There will be substantial tax increases under a Sanders administration, but I don't necessarily think he'd "leave seniors behind." I'd assume there will be substantial increases in benefits as well - for specifics, review his policy platform.
I would plan as well as you can and assume no to minimal government assistance. There is absolutely nothing you can do to influence the government on a macro level. If Sanders or Trump get in and your investments or government assistance start taking a pounding, you said yourself you're in a high cost area - cashing out the equity and moving to a low cost area would help offset some of these losses.
For those of us who are already retired and over 65, I don't think we'll be affected very much by who wins. The most effect some of the candidates would have is that they would be sickening to watch and it would be upsetting to see what they do to the country and the unfortunate legacy that they will leave.
I don't think Hillary would change medicare or ss. I think it would be business as usual, no change. With Sanders, he might try to get free college for all, but that's not going to happen. He's old enough to understand that people need their medicare and ss so he's not going to change that.
If it's Trump, that's a wild card. I don't think he really cares; he's just in it for the sake of it, just to see if he can win. I would be concerned if he wins because he doesn't know what he is doing. Who would he chose for advisers and cabinet members? He might chose other clueless people like himself. We could be in for a chaotic mess.
The Evangelicals--I don't think they can win as there are too many other religions in this country. They will win the vote of people of their own religion but that's all.
So my main concern would be Trump. He's inconsistent and unpredictable. Hopefully we would have a congress that would stop him from doing anything too drastic.
Nothing good is going to happen no matter who gets in ! The number of freeloaders will continue to grow (including older folks), the number of good paying jobs will decrease, immigrants will keep demanding more free assistance, cost of health care will continue to rise and politicians will get richer ! If you believe any of those self promoting fools running then you deserve what ever happens. Rome is burning !
Obama's 2016 budget cuts Medicare--again, in 2008 and 2112, the voters rejected Republican candidates' changes to Medicare and SS that would only have impacted young, future retirees, and today's Fed has picked seniors' pockets to the tune of thousands of dollars via near-zero interest rates and the ensuing artificially robbust stock market.
I think we need to get employment up before we can expect improvement. That means goverment rules and regulations have to encourage business to grow in the US. The business also need employees that can do the jobs. I think this means a better educational outcome. Since this will take years to accomplish I would not look for any improvements for seniors. The only improvement I can see is if corporations become more profitable and pass more money on to the stockholders through dividends.
If you're already retired or retiring soon it won't matter one tiny little bit. Don't lose sleep over it.
By soon, you mean????
I'm a late-stage baby boomer, turning 56 in June, and hoping to retire at 65.
That's NOT soon enough for me psychologically, and MAY not be soon enough to BE RETIRED before any 'big' changes.
I pray every day I get old enough to make it in under the wire.
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