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Some ad on the radio says more than 50% of americans have less than $10,000 in retirement at retirement. That's scary. One of the biggest issues to me seem to be cars. Too often I see people making $20,000-$30,000 year driving $50-$60,000 cars....tough to buy a house or save for retirement at those prices.
Maybe Uber or Self Driving cars will reduce this burden and give them more money to save.
Some ad on the radio says more than 50% of americans have less than $10,000 in retirement at retirement. That's scary. One of the biggest issues to me seem to be cars. Too often I see people making $20,000-$30,000 year driving $50-$60,000 cars....tough to buy a house or save for retirement at those prices.
Maybe Uber or Self Driving cars will reduce this burden and give them more money to save.
What I find ironic about this thread is how many times have we sn threads in here about the coming retirement crisis? They are often greeted with a comment about here we go again
Jane Street isn't Goldman Sachs. Go look on Glassdoor. They pay their entry level traders chump change by Wall Street standards. Enormous turnover since only a few make it.
I thought it's much easier to get into Goldman Sachs according to kids on the Internet. Jane Street interview questions are really hard. This is not analyst positions, it's tech jobs.
In fact, CS kids nowaday don't want to work at financial firms unless you are humanities major. The hours are better in high tech and you make more money. Plus after Wall Street problem, there bad connotations with Wall Street Jobs.
What I find ironic about this thread is how many times have we sn threads in here about the coming retirement crisis? They are often greeted with a comment about here we go again
I think it's because there's only so much to discuss. After so long, all that there is to discuss has been discussed.
Most reasonable people can agree there are "storm clouds" on the horizon with regard to retirement savings. When the "first wave" hits, who it impacts, and how severe these problems are can be debated.
My opinion is that the "crisis" is already here, but masked somewhat. My father was laid off in 2008 and had to take a lower paying call center job, and still isn't making what he was in 2000. There were probably 300-400 employed at this plant. Many liquidated at least some of their retirement savings in an attempt to maintain a lifestyle they can no longer afford, so they don't appear to have gone backward much...yet. Of those who were laid off, most have never made what they once did - some of his former coworkers dropped out of the labor force completely, especially if they were a woman with a still working husband. Others have ended up in call centers, retail stores, etc.
At least around here, SSI payments are masking a lot of deeper problems. Many folks in their 50s or 60s who were laid off when the recession here got on SSI, and it is not uncommon around here to have entire families on SSI for multiple generations - households where no one works or only minimally. These people are also likely getting SNAP, going to food banks and other private charities, so they have multiple little income streams or are having some of their living costs subsidized by charity, family, whatever. Some may have small pensions and some savings to augment their income.
I think the key is going to be able to keep your monthly nut as small as possible to be able to live on less.
For my generation, it's really impossible to know but early indicators don't look great.
It's not a coming storm. When I was in college, 1977, there was already a storm coming bad then, that's why Reagan made change to SS, I know my FRA went from 65 to 67. The difference is I had plenty of time to prepare. I worked at 3 large companies that offered pension but I got nothing from them because I was younger than 25, not qualify.
But looking back, 2000 was also our peak earning years, we have never recovered since, salary wise, we plodded along at best we could, sometimes at jobs we loath because we want to make sure we can put more money into retirement like 401k and IRA.
So this crisis has been going for years, if you can, I know some can't, make retirement a priority, a line in a budget, as I told my kids, not an after thought, starting from day one of their working years.
Last edited by NewbieHere; 01-09-2017 at 10:28 AM..
It's not a coming storm. When I was in college, 1977, there was already a storm coming bad then, that's why Reagan made change to SS, I know my FRA went from 65 to 67. The difference is I had plenty of time to prepare. I worked at 3 large companies that offered pension but I got nothing from them because I was younger than 25, not qualify.
But looking back, 2000 was also our peak earning years, we have never recovered since, salary wise, we plodded along at best we could, sometimes me at jobs we loath because we ant to make sure we can put more money into retirement like 401k and IRA.
So this crisis has been going for years, if you can, I know some can't, make retirement a priority, a line in a budget, as I told my kids, not an after thought, starting from day one of their working years.
At the end of the day, people end up making whatever they have work, often supplemented by government assistance, family helping each other out, and private charity.
That's why I'm not much on the "hard numbers" threads. What is essential or viewed as a minimum standard by most people on this board hasn't been my experience in dealing with the elderly I know at all. Almost every senior I know probably has far less than the retirement talking heads say is a minimum, and while they're not jet-setting the world in their retirement, they have food, medical care, a car, and a paid for home.
At the end of the day, people end up making whatever they have work, often supplemented by government assistance, family helping each other out, and private charity.
That's why I'm not much on the "hard numbers" threads. What is essential or viewed as a minimum standard by most people on this board hasn't been my experience in dealing with the elderly I know at all. Almost every senior I know probably has far less than the retirement talking heads say is a minimum, and while they're not jet-setting the world in their retirement, they have food, medical care, a car, and a paid for home.
You must live in area with less job opportunities. I'm in an area with low unemployment rate for years until 2008-2009. But I practically know nobody with balance less than what's report. Even my ex- secretary, who I spent time helping her with her finance, she has a house paid off, she has pension that she could net $30-$40k per year, she has something from her teacher's day, I don't know exactly how much. She also has about $125k. She is the poorest I know and I often pay for her lunch when I take her out to eat. And she has never been married.
You must live in area with less job opportunities. I'm in an area with low unemployment rate for years until 2008-2009. But I practically know nobody with balance less than what's report. Even my ex- secretary, who I spent time helping her with her finance, she has a house paid off, she has pension that she could net $30-$40k per year, she has something from her teacher's day, I don't know exactly how much. She also has about $125k. She is the poorest I know and I often pay for her lunch when I take her out to eat. And she has never been married.
Pensions are all but gone in the private sector. You can't count on that.
The town I'm from has historically been dominated by a Fortune 500. Growing up in the 1990s, I'd say the majority of my high school class had at least one person working at this company in some capacity, and this share was probably larger in decades past. Company town through and through.
My grandfather worked at this company for about thirty years. He retired in 1993 and took a lump sum on his pension, figuring he wouldn't live that long due to heart problems. But the bottom line is that he had a pension.
My father started working there in the early 1980s. Pensions for new employees were not offered at the time. Still, the company hit its highest employment locally in the early 1990s.
I got a job as an IT contractor for the client F500 in 2013. Direct hires had been trimmed to less than half of what they were locally twenty years previously. There were probably a similar number of people working at the facility, but what were formally good paying, middle class jobs with benefits had been outsourced to various labor vendors that paid less and had few if any benefits.
Being able to get $30k-$40k income guaranteed would be like much purchasing a million dollar annuity on the high side. She's very fortunate to have that.
You must live in area with less job opportunities. I'm in an area with low unemployment rate for years until 2008-2009. But I practically know nobody with balance less than what's report. Even my ex- secretary, who I spent time helping her with her finance, she has a house paid off, she has pension that she could net $30-$40k per year, she has something from her teacher's day, I don't know exactly how much. She also has about $125k. She is the poorest I know and I often pay for her lunch when I take her out to eat. And she has never been married.
If she is the poorest you know, then you're living in a bubble....I mean a really isolated bubble.
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