Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yes I know there are a lot of articles on this subject but this is a retirement forum and this is a retirement aticle by Timothy Sykes. He if you do not know the name is a self-made millionaire as he took 12k and turned it into 1.6m in a couple of years trading penny stocks. How does this make him an expert on retirement? Well you know he isn't looking at his wallet wondering where his next meal is coming from. Anyway these are just statistics and verifyable. As it is we know much of this but if an article like this can wake a thirty-something up to begin to save for retirement I am all for it.
Quote:
1 - Thirty-percent of workers in a 2012 study said their savings and investments amounted to less than $1,000. (Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute)
2 - One-third of U.S. households between the ages of 30 and 59 won’t have enough money for retirement, even if they work until they’re 70. (Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute)
3 - Medicare recipients spend an average of $38,688 in out-of-pocket costs during the last five years of their lives. (Source: Mount Sinai School of Medicine)
4 - 21% of employees whose employers offer 401(k) plans choose not to participate. (Source: Center for Retirement Research)
5 - Sixty percent of workers have less than $25,000 in assets (excluding their home and any defined benefit pension). (Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute)
6 - A couple retiring this year at the age of 65 should have $240,000 on hand to cover medical expenses throughout their retirement. (Source: Fidelity Investments)
7 - Just 30% of individuals are on track to save the 11 times their annual salary experts say they’ll need to maintain their standard of living after retiring at age 65. (Source: Aon Hewitt)
8 - The average American relying solely on defined contribution plans to save for retirement is on pace to accumulate just 6.7 times their annual salary. (Source: Aon Hewitt)
9 - Fifty-six percent of workers haven’t bothered to figure how much they’ll need to retire comfortably. (Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute)
10 - Only 14% of American workers believe they’ll have enough money to live out their later years comfortably. (Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute)
11 - About 50% of current retirees left the workforce before their anticipated retirement date due to health problems, disability or getting laid off — cutting the amount of time they had to save for
retirement short. (Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute)
12 - Sixty percent of households age 65 and older rely on Social Security benefits, which provide them with more income than any other source of retirement funding. (Source: Health and Retirement Study)
13 - The average monthly Social Security benefit for retired workers is $1,237. (Source: Social Security Administration)
14 - One-third of households end up completely dependent on Social Security. (Source: Center for Retirement Research)
15 - Women are significantly less prepared than men for retirement. For example, women with children have $61,000 less in retirement savings then men. And just 25% of women compared to 33% of men
have a formal investment plan to reach their retirement goals. (Source: ING Retirement Research Institute)
16 - Right now, there are almost 40 million senior citizens in the U.S. By 2050, that number will more than double to almost 90 million – and all of them will be taxing the systems, services and resources you use and, possibly more frightening, competing with you in the job market.
17 - A study conducted by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research has found that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably. Sure, there’s still time to make some of that difference up. But how?
18 - Between 1991 and 2007, the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy increased an astonishing 178%.
19 - Back in 1991, half of all American workers planned to retire before they reached the age of 65. Today, that number has plunged to just 23%.
20 - According to a survey by Americans for Secure Retirement, 88% of all Americans are worried about “maintaining a comfortable standard of living in retirement” – up from 73% in 2010.
21 - One out of every six elderly Americans is already living below the federal poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
22 - Over the next 20 years, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will be retiring every single day. And over the next five years, the health and medical insurance industry’s revenue is forecast to increase at an average annualized rate of 5% to more than $865.8 billion – putting even more pressure on most retiring Boomers’ underfunded retirement nest eggs, according to financial-planning.com.
23 - The median income for those age 65 and older was $27,707 for males and $15,362 for females in 2011. The average household headed by someone age 65 or older had a median income of $48,538. The median income increased by 2% between 2010 and 2011 after adjusting for inflation. Nearly 3.6 million elderly people (8.7%) lived below the poverty level in 2011, according to money.msn.com.
24 - In 2010, 24% of U.S. workers admit that they have postponed their planned retirement age at least once during the past year, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
25 - By 2080, debt and entitlement spending will eat up 50 percent of GDP, according to theeconomiccollapseblog.com.
Fascinating stats! I have no doubt this is an accurate snapshot . . . what is to be done about it?
Relying on government generated $$$ and government run programs is not the solution, even though that is what the majority of folks are/will be doing.
How did our grandparents and great grandparents survive living into their 90s (as many of mine did?) They were farmers and had no social security, insurance, anything . . . yet they had food and medical care they paid for with cash.
Maybe this is a societal and lifestyle issue that has been transferred to the government because folks were taught that social security and Medicare would be there to "take care of them" - unlike our forefathers, who knew we were all essentially on our own.
Just speculating! I haven't seen anyone come up with the solution to all the impending poverty.
Fascinating stats! I have no doubt this is an accurate snapshot . . . what is to be done about it?
Relying on government generated $$$ and government run programs is not the solution, even though that is what the majority of folks are/will be doing.
How did our grandparents and great grandparents survive living into their 90s (as many of mine did?) They were farmers and had no social security, insurance, anything . . . yet they had food and medical care they paid for with cash.
Maybe this is a societal and lifestyle issue that has been transferred to the government because folks were taught that social security and Medicare would be there to "take care of them" - unlike our forefathers, who knew we were all essentially on our own.
Just speculating! I haven't seen anyone come up with the solution to all the impending poverty.
They didn't feel the need to run out to Best Buy to get the latest electronics equipment every other day.
Thanks. This, in the financial world, is akin to Martin Luther's 95 Theses!......;-)...It should be pasted on the doors of eevryone who makes a living!! Noting like that to get some fiscal attention. Probably sells mags and newspapers too since they haven't been doing well either.
while the media plays it up how bad our kids are doing a study published in barrones had a different outcome looking at the 25-34 group instead of lumping them together with the under 20 to 24 group.
Less than 15% of those between 25-34 live with their parents
many are working and saving for a house and invest in their 401k plans
most do not have school loan debt and those that do owe less than 25k as a median..
At todays rates that is less than the debt load we saw on our first new car as baby boomers..
Unemployment for those 20-24 is almost 14%
for those 25-34 it is only 7%.
25-34 are the most highly educated age group yet.
25-34 accounts for 21% of all consumer spending.
sounds like they are doing better than we did at that age.
Last edited by mathjak107; 08-06-2013 at 09:22 AM..
Fascinating stats! I have no doubt this is an accurate snapshot . . . what is to be done about it?
Relying on government generated $$$ and government run programs is not the solution, even though that is what the majority of folks are/will be doing.
How did our grandparents and great grandparents survive living into their 90s (as many of mine did?) They were farmers and had no social security, insurance, anything . . . yet they had food and medical care they paid for with cash.
Maybe this is a societal and lifestyle issue that has been transferred to the government because folks were taught that social security and Medicare would be there to "take care of them" - unlike our forefathers, who knew we were all essentially on our own.
Just speculating! I haven't seen anyone come up with the solution to all the impending poverty.
Maybe just maybe the solutions must first begin with the infividual
Maybe just maybe the solutions must first begin with the individual
Yes, that is the only answer I can come up with. But that is not the message folks have been given for the last 50 or so years. The message has been . . . don't worry . . . Uncle Sam will take care of you. Look at all the programs that are out here for you -- and all dependent on tax dollars, even if you are not contributing the tax dollars, lol.
Yes, that is the only answer I can come up with. But that is not the message folks have been given for the last 50 or so years. The message has been . . . don't worry . . . Uncle Sam will take care of you. Look at all the programs that are out here for you -- and all dependent on tax dollars, even if you are not contributing the tax dollars, lol.
Ideology aside many of the items in the OP are a result of individual decisions made or not made. Diffetent decisions and different outcomes probably result
Ideology aside many of the items in the OP are a result of individual decisions made or not made. Diffetent decisions and different outcomes probably result
And then there are the stats that we don't have . . . how many employers do not offer any sort of retirement savings program? How many don't match a penny? How many match a large %? How many have requirements that you work xx years b/f becoming vested? How many employees even stay at one job that long?
After all, not all employees have even had the opportunity to invest in employer driven plans -- especially if the employer doesn't offer them!
Yes I know there are a lot of articles on this subject but this is a retirement forum and this is a retirement aticle by Timothy Sykes. He if you do not know the name is a self-made millionaire as he took 12k and turned it into 1.6m in a couple of years trading penny stocks. How does this make him an expert on retirement? Well you know he isn't looking at his wallet wondering where his next meal is coming from. Anyway these are just statistics and verifyable. As it is we know much of this but if an article like this can wake a thirty-something up to begin to save for retirement I am all for it.
Food Away From Home Amount Americans Spent Per Household: $2,619
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
