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Bad analogy. In this case, it's one or the other. If I keep the money, they don't get an education. So it would be like me putting on my mask and just letting them die because there will be nothing for them because I kept it.
How is leaving my kids without an education so I can retire helping them in the slightest? How is it helping society to shove my uneducated kids off on society?
Sorry, I owe it to my kids and to society to educate them....so let's hope I'm healthy enough, long enough to take care of my retirement after that.
You worked hard for your own money....just to pass it on to your kids? Sure if your 95 on your death bed, but in your 50's or 60's and might be alive for 25-30 years I don't see why you should have to live a meager retirement and hope that your kids make it even through college and can provide for you.
There are more than 1 way to pay for college. The one and only way isn't: have your parents pay your full college ride. Grants, loans, scholarhips.
Yes they may have to pay back a loan. Being in debt isn't end of the world. Paying back the debt is what matters. Teach them to be a productive citizen (you don't need college to be one by any means...more money, but it doesn't make you any better than the steel workers or a plumber) and that if you owe someone money (college loan) you need to pay them back. Teach them basic morales and that can go quite far.
Also I question what you mean by "shove my uneducated kid off on society". I never graduated from college....am I inferior to your future kids who will go to college? If I become a electrician I'm below your "educated children"?
I have an obligation to both society and the children I brought into society here. I owe both that my kids get the best education possible. And I cannot secure my own future at the expense of my children's future. What kind of mom would I be if I did that?
One who wasn't planning (By lack of planning) on being a burden on her kids as they were trying to plan for THEIR retirement... and they end up having to take care of you.
My Parents gave me $50/Week my first year of College.
Yes, my start date was 11 years from my graduation date (Spent 8 years in the military in there)
But I graduated with no debt (of any kind) There are ways they can pay for school, or pay it off.
You can't get a student loan or grant for retirement.
What about your obligation to society or your children not to be a burden?
One who wasn't planning (By lack of planning) on being a burden on her kids as they were trying to plan for THEIR retirement... and they end up having to take care of you.
My Parents gave me $50/Week my first year of College.
Yes, my start date was 11 years from my graduation date (Spent 8 years in the military in there)
But I graduated with no debt (of any kind) There are ways they can pay for school, or pay it off.
You can't get a student loan or grant for retirement.
What about your obligation to society or your children not to be a burden?
That's a good point. What about YOUR obligation to society. Will they have to raise SS to 20% because you didn't save for retirement? That doesn't sound like something beneficial to society.
I find these people extremely frustrating. There is another thread about this that talks about mandating retirement savings. As much as I hate this, I do think retirement savings should be mandated (beyond just SS). Very few people save adequately for old age. This issue has affected me personally because I have an older friend in his early 60s who simply would not save...despite my begging, cajoling, threatening, and warning, him to do so for over 20 years. He's now in poor health, living like a college student, collecting a small SS check and still working to bring in income. It could be worse for him, but it's still pretty sad. It's extremely frustrating because you can talk to some people until you're blue in the face but it will make no difference.
As far as the crisis goes....The crisis was "coming" 20 years ago. Now it's here, and it will get worse before it gets better.
If your friend is collecting a small SS check, he didn't make much money all those decades, so what do you expect? Does he own his home? That would put him way ahead of many low earners who find themselves paying half their small SS check just to pay the rent. Its a whole lot easier getting by on a small SS check when you don't have to pay rent or a mortgage than it is when you're paying half your income to keep a roof over your head.
As packer43064 implied, failing to save for retirement is a choice. Similarly, securing a low income is a choice. There's a lot of options for an individuals who haven't saved (such as reverse mortgage).
??? The home ownership rate for minimum wage workers is very close to zero, so reverse mortgages are not an option for them. But, I am happy to say that this is yet one more reason low-wage workers need a free market in which homes they can afford to buy become available.
Stupid as hell, and I have no sympathy for them. These are Baby Boomers we are talking about here right? If you couldn't save enough money to secure a decent retirement while working during the greatest economic expansion in WORLD history, then you deserve your fate.
That greatest economic expansion cut both ways. Because most people had a lot of money, rents necessarily skyrocketed. As a low earner, I was never able to buy a house, so I've always had to pay those skyrocketing rents. Over my lifetime I will have paid more for housing than probably most homeowners, with nothing to show for it. So the money I didn't save for retirement paid for my landlord's retirement.
I don't draw near that much as a female and I don't know many people that do....who are these people that can draw $1,200 and more.....a fortune in my book.
From the Social Security Administration website:
The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker was about $1,230 at the beginning of 2012. This amount changes monthly based upon the total amount of all benefits paid and the total number of people receiving benefits.
I don't know who those people are, but there are several variables at work, including the age at which we begin to draw the benefits. Did you start yours at 62? If so, then they are reduced. Some people waited until 70, so they are getting higher monthly amounts. Did you have 35 years of earnings under SS? If not, that would also lower the amount.
I guess a post like yours was inevitable. We are not talking about people like you, who saved consistently in 401ks for many years and had the money literally ripped off. What happened to you was horrible . You have my sympathy. (I know, it won't do much good).
We're talking about the people who simply did not save, or who only saved minimal amounts, and who are now angry and resentful at everyone and everything but themselves now that they have to take (or will be taking) a major lifestyle downgrade in old age. Those people are much, much, more common than people in your situation.
Yes and I had to point it out because of those who see everything in black and white and always assume that people like me who find themselves depending on Social Security for the majority of their incomes is due to the fact that they did not save when they had the chance.
No one has the capacity to judge until they themselves have reached retirement age and then and only then will they really know if they have been successful because they too can find themselves without the savings they thought they had so carefully built up. My story is a cautionary tale that although seems unlikely, can happen in a number of variations to anyone.
While my situation of my funds being stolen is uncommon, there are so many other reasons why people may not have enough to support themselves when they reach the age of retirement such as savings eaten up by catastrophic medical expenses, investments going bad, layoffs, companies firing them just before pensions are due, homes being foreclosed on, family emergencies, or that people simply often did not earn enough to put something aside due to present living expenses as others have also mentioned.
I realize there are those who did not save and could have, and of course they were foolish. But there will always be people like that. Still, to put everyone who finds themselves without retirement funds in that category is not accurate. And maybe those are the angry people you are seeing because they played by the rules, did everything right, but it came out wrong.
I bet some people here who are assuming those without retirement funds never tried to save rather than considering the possibility they saved but lost their savings would be angry people if they lost it all before their own retirement.
In Australia when you work your employer must put 9% into Superannuation (mandatory like Social Security) and it's going up to 12% of your wage. As an employee you are also required to put into Superannuation (401k) which you can decide how much and can vary from 2-10% which has numerous tax advantages. So the minimum forced saving is 11% towards retirement.
When you reach preservation age, ie 57 and if you were going to leave the workforce permanently you can draw on superannuation, ie weekly rate. But you can not work more then a few hours a week, ie 5? (it's not much anyway).
When you reach age pension age (67) you can then take your superannuation out in a lump sum or part lump sum, part weekly pay. The government are thinking about raising pension age to 70 years old.
Now the government is changing the taxation laws in 2014 so the advantages before to save more for retirement is going.
Also if you change jobs and don't roll over your existing fund into the new one it gets eaten up by fees.
I had appx $3000 in one fund which I forgot about for a number of years. No contact from the fund until the tax office stated as the superannuation was under $200 it was passed onto the tax office. In 12 years the money was eaten up by the administration fees, ridiculous! $250 year for absolutely nothing done to the fund. Won't do that again.
With the global financial crisis in the last few years our self funded retirees lost up to 50%. Alot of those have now had to also get the Social Security type of Aged pension.
There is something to be said for saving and to keep on top of your financial affairs, you should be doing an audit every year I reckon. I don't want to end up homeless, so putting away 20% of my wages is worth it for my retirement through the superannuation (401 K). And then investing another 20% should have me set into my old age, I hope.
I bet some people here who are assuming those without retirement funds never tried to save rather than considering the possibility they saved but lost their savings would be angry people if they lost it all before their own retirement.
Which is basically the conclusion of the previous two or three threads regarding this report: A large number of people make inane and prejudicial assumptions about those less fortunate, probably for no real reason other than to stroke their own egos, and use those assumptions to rationalize all manner of callous and inconsiderate intentions toward those folks who have not been treated as well by our economic system as most of us have.
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that this is yet one more reason low-wage workers need a free market in which homes they can afford to buy become available.
Average Social Security monthly benefit
. You have my sympathy. (I know, it won't do much good). 
