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First off, it wasn't me it was my husband that had the 401K. And I don't think you read my post very well. I listed the reasons why it was difficult to contribute to it. Sure he could of put money into it but then bills and responsibilities would suffer. Sometimes there isn't enough to manage both *today* and putting aside for tomorrow. That may not be your reality but that is reality for a lot of people. He took almost no vacations in all the years he worked there. Vacation days were for emergencies only primarily. Years of no vacations or vacations days at all. Tons of overtime (unpaid). His company didn't offer a pension. When he retires they won't have to pay much at all.
I apologize, no desrespect meant. I guess it was drilled into me, that no one is taking care of me but myself, and that started with paying (investing)myself first. I just can't phathom being in a situation like that. We Americans pay a hefty price on car insurance, life insurance, homeowners insurance,federal taxes, school taxes. All these entities demanding we pay them. Why wouldn't one pay themselves first? Chances are people take the jobs whether it pays X amount or 10% less than X. It makes things easier when you look at it that way.
Unfortunately that is the norm for many. Not enough is just that not enough. Many of the reports that get translated into articles by someone other than those who write the report are trying to make that point. Obviously they know when they say that in order to have x amount saved in retirement and to do so you need to save Y amount monthly is beyond the ability of millions.
I respectfully disagree. I had a few really nasty jobs, didn't pay all that well, but still managed to pay myself first. Like I mentioned, we pay taxes and insurance, CC interest on sooooo much. Why wouldn't you pay yourself first? Choices...
Again, I am wagering most people would have taken their current job if it payed 10% less starting out. My point is, start out small, (1%) and have a goal to work your way up.
The billboards might just be true. " People spend more time planning their vacations than their retirement "
Unfortunately that is the norm for many. Not enough is just that not enough. Many of the reports that get translated into articles by someone other than those who write the report are trying to make that point. Obviously they know when they say that in order to have x amount saved in retirement and to do so you need to save Y amount monthly is beyond the ability of millions.
My son is 28 and living in Colorado. A high COL while still working your way up the ladder gave him little extra to sock away. He does those food delivery services..Doordash I think on the weekends and gets $200+ extra now a week which he puts right into his Fidelity account. He likes living in Colorado too much to want to leave so he took on the extra weekend stuff to make up the difference.
I apologize, no desrespect meant. I guess it was drilled into me, that no one is taking care of me but myself, and that started with paying (investing)myself first. I just can't phathom being in a situation like that. We Americans pay a hefty price on car insurance, life insurance, homeowners insurance,federal taxes, school taxes. All these entities demanding we pay them. Why wouldn't one pay themselves first? Chances are people take the jobs whether it pays X amount or 10% less than X. It makes things easier when you look at it that way.
I had the same thing drilled into me growing up. Unfortunately my husband didn't, and he always believed his company would take care of him, like his father believed before him (which btw didn't work out for him either). He could of gone somewhere else to work but he loves it there. No amount of explaining these realities to him did any good. But he retires next year. I'll be dancing then when he is done with that place We'll be ok, I have what we'll need to make sure we're alright. I only posted because there are very hard working people out there. Reading sometimes here that people who won't have enough were irresponsible and spend thrifts or something, thats just not really true. Lot of hard working people struggling just to get by every day, not using government welfare or anything, doing the best they can and its rough out there.
Many, many facilities would close if everything was paid at the Medicare level. Small town and rural hospitals are often cashflow negative as it is. Many patients at these hospitals have no insurance and simply show up at the ED. Nursing homes chock full of patients on Medicaid provide bare minimum services, but they're also operating on string and duct tape themselves.
In my local area, the hospital system is making changes to some of the rural hospitals, and the public is raising absolute hell over it. The fact of the matter is that there are three hospitals in Wise County, VA, a declining community of less than 40,000 in the coal country part of Virginia. You don't need three hospitals there. One ED has been averaging less than four patients daily for over a year. That's huge overhead for a facility that is serving relatively few people.
I have a 2500sf commercial office space that I rent out for $500/month.
For a couple of years, I had a tenant who specialized in Home Health Aids. they had 30 employees that go into clients homes to care for them. In my building, they had set up three offices and a mock kitchen where they could train new employees. All of their clients are on MaineCare, so they were billing the state for each client.
Then last year, the state had a glitch in their budget and the MaineCare checks stopped flowing for one month. The tenant went out of business.
It turned out to be a 6-week delay in checks going out, that was enough that it caused this business to close.
Hhhmmmm.... I joined the workforce in 1985 and my wife just happened to go to work for the same company around 2003. The company ended traditional pensions and I think employees hired after around 2010 receive a larger match to their 401k savings.
That raises a question: what's an average pension these days?
I began my career on subs in 1977. I took a four year break to attend college, then I went back to finish my career. I retired in 2001.
Try not paying taxes, car insurance etc., and see what happens. The negative effects are much more immediate than the effect of not saving enough for retirement. Of course this is entirely different from living smaller and saving the excess income. But we're talking about two different, if related things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by homestead123
I apologize, no desrespect meant. I guess it was drilled into me, that no one is taking care of me but myself, and that started with paying (investing)myself first. I just can't phathom being in a situation like that. We Americans pay a hefty price on car insurance, life insurance, homeowners insurance,federal taxes, school taxes. All these entities demanding we pay them. Why wouldn't one pay themselves first? Chances are people take the jobs whether it pays X amount or 10% less than X. It makes things easier when you look at it that way.
Very distressing story. Why did you have to self-pay for all your cancer treatment? Did you not have insurance?
Incidentally, PAs do not stand around handing the surgeon instruments (those are OR techs, who are paid very little), but actually do routine parts of surgery, ie, they do cut and stitch (in addition to helping the surgeon with the exposure), and therefore have to be fully proficient in anatomy and surgical technique. For a number of things that surgeons do, you need more than two hands at the same time, and surgeons cannot grow additional hands. PAs also do routine parts of preop workup and postop follow up, and generally in non-teaching hospitals function in various ways in which surgical residents (ie, surgeons in training) function in teaching hospitals. The only things they don't do is make critical treatment decisions, for which only a physician can be legally responsible (eg, in case of breast cancer they cannot decide where exactly to cut and how much to cut, but they surely can do the cutting under the surgeon's direction). That PA probably closed your skin incision, placed the drains and bandages, which took at least 30 min, while the surgeon was out of the OR, starting the next surgery on someone else with a different PA.
Correct; I did not have insurance. At that time the least expensive individual policy (I was not working, due to a complicated family situation) would have cost between $1400 and $1600 per month. Catastrophic/large deductible policies were never allowed in my state of residence. Also, because I had an IRA CD and some investments, I did not qualify for either the state-sponsored health plan or for Medicaid. And I was a couple years shy of 65, so no Medicare yet. I was the textbook example of the low-middle to middle-income person who was "not poor enough" for any governmental programs but not able to afford a commercial individual health insurance policy.
Thanks for the explanation of what OR PAs do; I had no idea. In a way I wish I didn't know this, because I chose my surgeon after a majorly-angst-inducing amount of research and realize that I did pay more because I wanted THAT particular doctor and nobody else. (She was only in-network for two providers and frankly if I had had insurance with anyone else I still would have paid out of pocket for her rather than use any other doctor.) Of course I assumed that she would be doing the entire surgical procedure "hands-on, from soup to nuts" as the saying goes, and am distressed to hear that that may not have been the case.
I do think that most patients assume, as I did, that when you select a surgeon it means that that person and no one else is going to be performing the entire surgery. (This was not done at a teaching hospital.)
I am curious now as to whether the person I was billed for was a PA or an OR tech. The bills I received simply gave the person's name. I believe it was someone in the billing company who described her as "an assistant." When I called my surgeon's office to find out what they knew about the bill, I was told that "the hospital assigns them on the day of the operation; the Doctor has no way of knowing who it will be ahead of time or choosing them." Does that sound more like a PA, or an OR tech? Though I don't know if an OR tech usually sends a separate bill to the patient.
Last edited by BBCjunkie; 08-20-2019 at 11:19 AM..
Did you see the WH is/isn't toying with the idea of a payroll tax reduction. Perhaps short term to help the economy if at all. There are reports they are considering and denials they are per CNBC.
Yep. I saw that.
The more you juice the economy to avoid a recession before the next election, the bigger the thud when it happens. Dubya did the exact same thing. The thud three years later was painful. This one is likely to be worse because interest rates are already at a historic low and the government is already doing massive fiscal stimulus with the giant budget deficits. There won't be any economic tools left in the toolbox.
First off, it wasn't me it was my husband that had the 401K. And I don't think you read my post very well. I listed the reasons why it was difficult to contribute to it. Sure he could of put money into it but then bills and responsibilities would suffer. Sometimes there isn't enough to manage both *today* and putting aside for tomorrow. That may not be your reality but that is reality for a lot of people.
Exactly.
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We'll be ok, I have what we'll need to make sure we're alright. I only posted because there are very hard working people out there. Reading sometimes here that people who won't have enough were irresponsible and spend thrifts or something, thats just not really true. Lot of hard working people struggling just to get by every day, not using government welfare or anything, doing the best they can and its rough out there.
