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Young Gen-Xers and Millennials are starting decent paying careers much later in life, making much less than their parents, and are unable to save any money at all due to high cost of living and debt, and flattening investment gains.
Their retirement will arrive and they will have likely zero or negative net worth. On top of that, social security will likely be somewhat insolvent and unable to pay even the meager benefits it now provides. And medicare will hardly be in better shape.
The only way I see this crisis being handled is by the economy taking several enormous body blows, a plummeting housing market, along with plummeting cost of services, e.g. massive deflationary pressures, product/food shortages, etc.
Rich baby boomers make the political decisions in this country and the insane wealth of the baby boomer generation (and even their pension-fattened parents) is distorting the discussion here of what it means to be a retiree - even a modest retired couple of a mailman and a teacher are retiring filthy rich compared to how the young generations will.
Are there any think tanks studying what it will mean for a generation to retire with virtually no money, in a country that will likely not have today's safety net?
I am fairly certain there are think tanks studying every conceivable future scenario. From an endless oil-based-surplus economy to the super volcano of Yellowstone erupting and a nuclear winter (and end of American civilization).
However, what good will think tank policy pieces do if the elected officials of this country believe they have a mandate to whatever they want?
Electing officials who care about this issue is the start, not whether or not think tanks have it on their agenda..
Young Gen-Xers and Millennials are starting decent paying careers much later in life, making much less than their parents, and are unable to save any money at all due to high cost of living and debt, and flattening investment gains.
Their retirement will arrive and they will have likely zero or negative net worth. On top of that, social security will likely be somewhat insolvent and unable to pay even the meager benefits it now provides. And medicare will hardly be in better shape.
The only way I see this crisis being handled is by the economy taking several enormous body blows, a plummeting housing market, along with plummeting cost of services, e.g. massive deflationary pressures, product/food shortages, etc.
Rich baby boomers make the political decisions in this country and the insane wealth of the baby boomer generation (and even their pension-fattened parents) is distorting the discussion here of what it means to be a retiree - even a modest retired couple of a mailman and a teacher are retiring filthy rich compared to how the young generations will.
Are there any think tanks studying what it will mean for a generation to retire with virtually no money, in a country that will likely not have today's safety net?
In general Gen X outcomes are worse than Boomers and substantially worse than Silents (who are the richest retiree generation in US history). Nonetheless, there will be a range of Xer outcomes. Some of us will be OK due to extremely frugal living for most of our adult lives. Of course, I can say that, being child free by choice. Obviously, Xers who've insisted on the societal norm of 2.2 kids are at a disadvantage relatively speaking. If their Silent or Boomer parents were not among the more typically well retired of those generations, then a given Xer may be sandwiched.
A mailman and teacher are retiring filthy rich? I believe you have quite a skewed perspective.
They get decent pensions but that is not filthy rich. The older boomers that I see who have money have inherited it from their Greatest Generation parents. Usually the person is an only child.
Young Gen-Xers and Millennials are starting decent paying careers much later in life, making much less than their parents,...
Yes, it's called the Earnings Curve. I've commented on it quite often:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea
In theory, if your economy is not growing fast enough, meaning at least 5% GDP growth, then older workers bar younger workers from entering the work-force. The net result is that younger workers have a lower Earnings Curve. That means younger workers will not earn as much throughout their life-time as their parents did.
Quote:
Originally Posted by basehead617
... and are unable to save any money at all due to high cost of living and debt, and flattening investment gains.
As far as anyone knows, those are systemic features of an advanced 4th Level Economy.
Government can always levy a tax on technology to effect changes via social engineering and drive the US back to a 2nd or 3rd Level Economy, if you prefer.
Contact your local legislative representatives to get the ball rolling.
Quote:
Originally Posted by basehead617
Their retirement will arrive and they will have likely zero or negative net worth. On top of that, social security will likely be somewhat insolvent and unable to pay even the meager benefits it now provides. And medicare will hardly be in better shape.
Then they need to pay an higher tax rate to ensure those programs will be solvent for them.
The Silent Generation suffered a 520% tax increase to make sure Social Security was there for them.
The Boomers handled a 72% tax increase to make sure Social Security would be there for them.
The Millennials and Generation Y can pay an extra 2.1% FICA Payroll Tax. That would represent a minor 27% tax increase.
Quote:
Originally Posted by basehead617
The only way I see this crisis being handled is by the economy taking several enormous body blows, a plummeting housing market, along with plummeting cost of services, e.g. massive deflationary pressures, product/food shortages, etc.
You will not see Deflation, but you will see massive Inflation in about 8 years. Get ready for double-digit Social Security COLA increases, even with a chained CPI.
Quote:
Originally Posted by basehead617
Rich baby boomers make the political decisions in this country and the insane wealth of the baby boomer generation (and even their pension-fattened parents) is distorting the discussion here of what it means to be a retiree - even a modest retired couple of a mailman and a teacher are retiring filthy rich compared to how the young generations will.
In theory, the "insane wealth" of the Boomers will be passed onto the Millennials via inheritance.
Great wealth transfer will be $30 trillion—yes, that's trillion with a T
If the Millennials squander that Wealth, then that's on them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by basehead617
Are there any think tanks studying what it will mean for a generation to retire with virtually no money, in a country that will likely not have today's safety net?
I think it's a little premature to assume there will be no safety net, or that Generation Y will not inherit anything from Generation X.
Quote:
Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 21% of married couples and about 43% of unmarried persons rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.
You might want to look at the actual statistics as published by the Social Security Administration.
Young Gen-Xers and Millennials are starting decent paying careers much later in life, making much less than their parents, and are unable to save any money at all due to high cost of living and debt, and flattening investment gains.
Their retirement will arrive and they will have likely zero or negative net worth. On top of that, social security will likely be somewhat insolvent and unable to pay even the meager benefits it now provides. And medicare will hardly be in better shape.
The only way I see this crisis being handled is by the economy taking several enormous body blows, a plummeting housing market, along with plummeting cost of services, e.g. massive deflationary pressures, product/food shortages, etc.
Rich baby boomers make the political decisions in this country and the insane wealth of the baby boomer generation (and even their pension-fattened parents) is distorting the discussion here of what it means to be a retiree - even a modest retired couple of a mailman and a teacher are retiring filthy rich compared to how the young generations will.
Are there any think tanks studying what it will mean for a generation to retire with virtually no money, in a country that will likely not have today's safety net?
I don't know of too many people that frequent this retirement forum that have shared some info about their assets that are filthy rich, will retire filthy rich, or had parents that were filthy rich.
Being angered and envious towards another group of individuals is akin to you taking poison and waiting for them to die. You may want to consider dropping the anger because it will have no positive outcome for you, and instead invoke the expertise of those you so envy because they likely have a great wealth of knowledge and experience they could share with you in how they overcame their own financial challenges which may be prove to be very valuable to you towards having a brighter financial future.
The big problem in threads like this one is how to respond rationally and objectively to an original post which is full of wild exaggeration and emotional over-statement. Yes, apparently the gen Xers will have a more difficult time than their boomer parents, in the aggregate. The older boomers at least graduated from college debt-free, and perhaps many of the younger boomers too. (Although I'm not really sure about the younger boomers).
Let's take this statement by the OP:
"Their retirement will arrive and they will have likely zero or negative net worth," How are we to take that seriously? That would mean most of them would fail to pay off their college debt in time to save at all before retiring? I don't buy that.
Let's take another one: ".......... the insane wealth of the baby boomer generation (and even their pension-fattened parents) is distorting the discussion here of what it means to be a retiree." "Insane wealth"???? Perhaps the select few boomers who have made it into upper management and the small number who have become specialty surgeons and a few other similar categories can be said to have "insane wealth" but even then the statement is a bit of a stretch.
It is a shame that the wild, ranting nature of the original post renders a meaningful discussion of the topic so much more difficult, because it's a worthy topic.
My hope is that the conversation will devolve in a more reasonable direction.
We can argue about the exact degree, but generally, every generation starts out "poor" and accumulates wealth as they progress in their careers. And there are many poor individuals who are retired or close to it - so as short-sighted as our govt. is, they are barely thinking about THAT, much less the generation with 30 years to go. As is usually the case, everyone has to wait their turn. In the meantime, you can either be bitter or you can save ANYTHING you can now - when you're young the smallest amounts have many years to accrue - and don't be too conservative because you also have many years to make up any losses. Get busy!
Young Gen-Xers and Millennials are starting decent paying careers much later in life, making much less than their parents, and are unable to save any money at all due to high cost of living and debt, and flattening investment gains.
Even adjusted for inflation over the past 30 years, my nephews and nieces are making roughly TWICE what my wife and I were making in 1982 after we graduated from university.
And every one of those nephews and nieces came from parents who did NOT have a 4-year college education and graduated with under $10k in college debt. Of course, they worked and their parents saved up money in advance.
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