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Anyone who wastes their life not preparing for this is to blame. Oh well...
True, they they may be to blame but sometimes their kids suffer the consequence especially if the parent(s) get sick. Ask anyone who's part of the sandwich generation taking care of their own kids and their parents because their parents only source of income is a small SS and pension and they can't afford to pay for help. Either the kids help physically and while their trying to put money aside for their own retirement are also helping the parents financially or even both.
Majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and that is by design
Every job being done right now by someone needs to be done and is not being done for make busy work.
If there are 100 million jobs filled and they were ranked by pay, someone has to do each one of those jobs so if everyone had more skills and moved up in rank, who is going to do the jobs below them?
Having everyone move up in rank would just decrease the wages higher up since there are more people at higher ranks (supply and demand)
The system is run with this in mind where the majority of the people no matter how many skills they have, will be paid what they are being paid now and the top ranks will reap the benefits from this.
A person at the low ranks today has more technical skills than a simple factory worker was in 1980 and is paid less than they were in 1980.
This is how the system is designed, where the top ranks take the lions share of the wealth and everyone below them take less
Our schools (who don't encourage individuality) teach the people how to work for someone else instead of working for yourself or how to run a business.
I've long known about the smattering of 60+ people who still have to work and who resent those who have successfully retired at the same age. What's new to me is the Grasshopper-syndrome millennials. Younger people in their 20s and 30s, resentful of those of us who scrimped and saved for decades and are now comfortably well-to-do.
I hear it all the time: some 20-something guy complaining that he cannot afford a house in {Austin, Boulder, San Francisco, Boston}, and further that he resents his elders who are retired and self-funded.
Sorry buttercups. Every American should expect to work and save for 40+ years. Your elders all commuted from far-flung locales for years. We worked overtime and watched our pennies. There is no right to live in an expensive hipster neighborhood fiddling with overpriced Apple gadgets nor any reason for someone under 50 to feed at the public trough.
Really? so the result of all of these elders toiling away and saving is most of you living off of Social Security which is currently being subsidized by the working 20-something year old "entitled" hipsters? FOH. Such a lack of gratitude.
Maybe this is because children have somehow forgotten their duty to their parents that people used to understand before the fictional collective ideology took over. Knowing this, it is necessary to continually invest about 30% of one's income into the market so that one can retire and receive the same dividends that their average salary produced while working in inflation adjusted dollars. This is if you want to "earn" as much in retirement in real purchasing power as you had while working If you can't save that much, then your retirement will need to cut your living expenses drastically. (Assuming a 6% average return and 3% average inflation over your lifetime.)
Certainly not a new topic, but the latest article on the sobering reality facing many older Americans and those about to join that demographic in the future.
Our country doesn't value old age, instead it considers them washed up and left to fend for themselves in favor of youth.
My husband turned 60 this year and is still working. We've had this discussion so many times. How do Americans retire?
Our Canadian peers -- some have been retired for a few years. They have their primary residence, a cottage in Canada and enjoy winters in sunny places -- either because they own another home or just rent for a few months. They travel to far off places and don't seem to be concerned about their health care costs, etc.
We all are of similar economic status -- family size, etc....but retirement in the USA is scary.
My husband turned 60 this year and is still working. We've had this discussion so many times. How do Americans retire?
Our Canadian peers -- some have been retired for a few years. They have their primary residence, a cottage in Canada and enjoy winters in sunny places -- either because they own another home or just rent for a few months. They travel to far off places and don't seem to be concerned about their health care costs, etc.
We all are of similar economic status -- family size, etc....but retirement in the USA is scary.
It is all by design the top 1 percenters and corporate America want a very small group of haves, and a very large group of have nots.
They want the masses locked into a paycheck to paycheck slave to the grind lifestyle... combined with a cost of living that is spiraling out of control.
It is all by design the top 1 percenters and corporate America want a very small group of haves, and a very large group of have nots.
They want the masses locked into a paycheck to paycheck slave to the grind lifestyle... combined with a cost of living that is spiraling out of control.
Your comment is more appealing to a therapist than anyone else.
There is no "they".
Our schools (who don't encourage individuality) teach the people how to work for someone else instead of working for yourself or how to run a business.
most folk don't do well being self employed.
It is not a US thing, it is a HUMAN thing. we can't all lead , we can't all be the person with a big idea or a work ethic bordering on a disorder.
if 100 poeple live in my tiny nation.. and i open a factory that needs 80 employees, i am screwed if 25% of the pop is self employed...
we need most people to work for others until bots are flexible , reliable and cheap.... so the schools are doing the right thing. We would have a lot of disappointed people if we trained kids to think about making their own jobs rather than training to get a good job working for someone or something else...
you can be creative, valuable and have a fulfilling career being an employee.
Unless this guy has less than 35 years of work under his belt (social security averages your 35 highest years of earnings, less than that is a 0 averaged in) or has unusually high expenses he now qualifies for enhanced social security payments as he is over 70 and can probably safely retire on that alone. A few extra years of reduced expenses and a 32% increased benefit go a long way.
If you delay SS till 70 and work a full career (or are married to someone who did), then under current law it really is sufficient to live on alone. I wouldn't suggest a 20-something do that because the program is unsustainable over the long term and assuming no cuts to future beneficiaries in the next 50 years is not safe, but for someone already 70+ they will be fine.
edit: formula here https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf if you are interested, 8% a year for going beyond full retirement age up to 70. Reading the article the person being discussed did not wait till 70 to claim despite the fact that they were working and didn't have sufficient savings, and then either he didn't work a full career or was just very unsuccessful throughout his entire working life to get so little ($22K) despite the 50% spousal bump. Self-inflicted harm and kind of cherry picked by the article writer to make a point.
Last edited by ALackOfCreativity; 11-19-2017 at 12:18 PM..
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If you can't save that much, then your retirement will need to cut your living expenses drastically. (Assuming a 6% average return and 3% average inflation over your lifetime.)
