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Half of Americans have NOTHING for retirement
Rack Ops
Member Posts: 18,597 ✭✭✭
This is why our Republic is doomed. Half of our adult population expects someone else to foot the bill for their retirement. You cannot have a free people that is dependent on others for their survival.
https://www.plansponsor.com/one-third-americans-say-lack-tools-resources-save-retirement/
Only 11% of Americans say they have excellent financial health, a survey by Morning Consult found. Another 32% said good, 32% said fair, 14% said poor, and 7% said bad.
While 49% of Americans are saving for retirement, only 16% are very confident that they will have enough saved for retirement. Another 29% are somewhat confident, 23% are not too confident, and 21% are not confident at all.
Only 49% said they have sufficient tools or resources to save for retirement; 33% said they are lacking such tools and resources.
Sixty percent do not know how much money they need to save to retire comfortably. This is particularly high among Gen Z (69%), Millennials (64%) and Gen X (66%). Only Baby Boomers fall below the national average (54%).
Asked whether they have funds set aside for various scenarios, 44% each said they do not have enough saved in the event of unemployment, in the event of a health emergency or should they want to take a vacation.
Seventy-one percent of Americans know their credit score. Among Boomers, this jumps to 80%, and among Millennials, it falls to 67%. Asked how often they check their credit score, 15% said never, 10% said once a year or less, 9% said once a year, 22% said a few times a year, 27% monthly, 9% weekly, and 3% daily.
https://www.plansponsor.com/one-third-americans-say-lack-tools-resources-save-retirement/
Only 11% of Americans say they have excellent financial health, a survey by Morning Consult found. Another 32% said good, 32% said fair, 14% said poor, and 7% said bad.
While 49% of Americans are saving for retirement, only 16% are very confident that they will have enough saved for retirement. Another 29% are somewhat confident, 23% are not too confident, and 21% are not confident at all.
Only 49% said they have sufficient tools or resources to save for retirement; 33% said they are lacking such tools and resources.
Sixty percent do not know how much money they need to save to retire comfortably. This is particularly high among Gen Z (69%), Millennials (64%) and Gen X (66%). Only Baby Boomers fall below the national average (54%).
Asked whether they have funds set aside for various scenarios, 44% each said they do not have enough saved in the event of unemployment, in the event of a health emergency or should they want to take a vacation.
Seventy-one percent of Americans know their credit score. Among Boomers, this jumps to 80%, and among Millennials, it falls to 67%. Asked how often they check their credit score, 15% said never, 10% said once a year or less, 9% said once a year, 22% said a few times a year, 27% monthly, 9% weekly, and 3% daily.
Comments
Those who worked in Government or large corporate jobs and retired after twenty or thirty years with sweet pensions and medical for life didn't put that kind of money away either.
Sometimes you also have to consider that those who don't live above their means may still have a hard time saving a significant amount of money. (I know their are examples of people who have saved a significant amount on small incomes but they are the exception not the rule)
That said I know people who have worked all their lives and simply were not higher earners, they may have struggled to get by much less amass a large amount for retirement.
On the other hand they have learned to live on a small income so retirement won't mean needing a million dollars either.
Then i got stage 4 cancer and over 120,000 dollars later i will never have the money like i want.[:(]
I may have to mow his yard all summer after the Denver show.
I saved all my life, didn't take fancy vacations and bought used cars and took care of them.
I am good to go now and at 58 I don't have to work anymore(25 years in the Army and 10 years as a contractor)
So I really don't give a crap about those who have not saved and prepared.
Pensions = Dependence
Investments = Freedom
I've been a dilegent saver my whole life, and I do not believe people can't save money, at any income level, if they only apply some self discipline.
As an example: If a 20 year old puts back 50 bucks a month consistantly...and that is the only thing they ever save, if that money returns the average of 8% a year...at 60 they will have $155,000. If they keep doing it for another 5 years.....$231,000.
$50 a month. That's 12 bucks a week. If someone is working full time at minimum wage that is 3% of their income. Hell....the Federal goverment even has a "saver's credit" that will GIVE YOU BACK HALF if you make less than $38,000 a year.
$6 a week, with the tax credit factored in.
I'll never believe that can't be afforded.
Social Security/Pension plans.
Merely illusions.
Smoke and mirrors.
Gone with one stroke or crisis.
Debt = Slavery
Pensions = Dependence
Investments = Freedom
I've been a dilegent saver my whole life, and I do not believe people can't save money, at any income level, if they only apply some self discipline.
As an example: If a 20 year old puts back 50 bucks a month consistantly...and that is the only thing they ever save, if that money returns the average of 8% a year...at 60 they will have $155,000. If they keep doing it for another 5 years.....$231,000.
$50 a month. That's 12 bucks a week. If someone is working full time at minimum wage that is 3% of their income. Hell....the Federal goverment even has a "saver's credit" that will GIVE YOU BACK HALF if you make less than $38,000 a year.
$6 a week, with the tax credit factored in.
I'll never believe that can't be afforded.
Just because someone has earned a pension does not mean they have not saved money or are dependent.
Just because someone has earned a pension does not mean they have not saved money or are dependent.
Yes, it does. (at least the 2nd statement)
I don't say that as a knock on people who receive a pension. In fact, I hope I will be able to receive a pension when I retire.
But pensions do equal dependency....no way around it. Let me put it this way: A pension is a line item on someone else's budget.
Here in Kentucky, there's a big row going on over teachers pensions. In short, they've been promised far more in benefits than the state can afford to pay.....so now the benefits are being cut because they can be. And now people are (rightly or wrongly) panicking because their future is now a political football.
I can't tell you how many factory and coal workers I have met who lost their pensions when the company went tits up.
When you depend on a pension, you depend on someone else to keep doing the right thing...and that doesn't always happen.
As I said...my current job promises a pension, and I hope to receive it. If I had the choice, I'd opt out in exchange for a pay raise that I could invest as I saw fit.....honestly, I treat it as just another investment I have made in my working life.....and if I lost it, I hope and expect that I will have saved enough on my own to be just fine.
While Americans in general have poor financial habits, the demise of defined benefit pension plans has greatly impacted retirement and medical benefits or the lack there of for a large portion of this and future generations.
Those who worked in Government or large corporate jobs and retired after twenty or thirty years with sweet pensions and medical for life didn't put that kind of money away either.
Sometimes you also have to consider that those who don't live above their means may still have a hard time saving a significant amount of money. (I know their are examples of people who have saved a significant amount on small incomes but they are the exception not the rule)
That said I know people who have worked all their lives and simply were not higher earners, they may have struggled to get by much less amass a large amount for retirement.
On the other hand they have learned to live on a small income so retirement won't mean needing a million dollars either.
I'm one of the fortunate few who will get a pension when I retire. I won't get any medical, and during my employment I live frugally and pay check to pay check so to speak. I've averaged 25-40% of my wage going into a retirement fund, and haven't taken home a raise in over 20 years. So not all of us haven't saved the amount needed to retire.[;)]
Besides are we "supposed" to live to 100?
Only way wundudnee and I can afford to go to gun shows is to go together. One of us usually has to loan the other a few bucks to buy something.
I may have to mow his yard all summer after the Denver show.
Uhhh.....I did tell you I just had to replace my roof didn't I? [:0]
This trip might be a struggle.[:D]
This is sad and probably going to get worse. A lot of it is not totally their fault. Pretty hard to save working a factory job with low pay and very little benefits.
Yep - In 1977 my rent was 1 weeks pay.
Now for most it's 2 weks pay.
I wonder how many geezers will make an "undocumented" withdrawl at the local bank?
1- Ya get away- WOO HOO Like the guy said "hokers and cocaine"[}:)]
2- Ya don't. 3 hots and a cot. Maybe take out a child molester or 3 before the ghetto gangsters kill ya in the shower.
If you can't resist the toys and the mansion, you have no chance at a financed retirement. That's the truth.
Circumstance can really come into play, just sayin.
For far too many it's "I'll start next month." And then suddenly, they're 65.
If you can't resist the toys and the mansion, you have no chance at a financed retirement. That's the truth.
I live in one of the poorest parts of the country and you wouldn't believe how many people I see driving around new $50,000 pickups.
I talked to a woman the other day who was paying $822 a month for her minivan. Why? Because she bought herself a brand new car...then decided a year later she needed a minivan to haul all of her kids....so they rolled the balance on the old loan into a new loan. She will be paying on that loan for 6 years.
Saving isn't an earning problem. It's a spending problem.
Maybe that is a good plan...
I'm WAY ahead of my peers and my adviser says I'm in great shape, but still get uneasy when I think about what I'll have/need in 30 years.
As a teenager, I figured that SS wasn't going to be around when I was ready to retire, so I diversified my knowledge base.
I learned to do every job on a house construction, wrenched on various types of vehicles, became a well digger's *igger, wrote articles for several magazines, became adept at Geodesy while specializing in GPS, worked a hundred different jobs in 40 years while dumping my pockets into a water carboy every night.
I've paid off every obligation I ever incurred, and with luck; my final check to the IRS will bounce!
If you haven't taken a hard look down the road you chose; don't act surprised when it goes over a cliff.
Perhaps it has something to do with boats, ATVs, snow mobiles, cabins in the mountains and gun collections
Surely not. [:D]
As Janis Joplin famously sang:
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose
And nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free.
They may have nothin' but at least they are free?
Bob Dylan said in his song "A rolling stone":
If you ain't got nothin' you got nothin' to lose.
There are the lucky ones who always knew they'd die before they could spend their money.
or conversely, knew they'd be "wiped out" by some calamity or panic so why worry, live for today. Tomorrow never comes.
If you have a lot and are lucky enough to make it to old age, you get the chance to give all of your hard earned savings to the medical people.
When they finally suck you dry, you get some Gov't help to finish paying those medical people.
If you have nothing and are lucky enough to make it to old age, you get Gov't help right away to pay the medical people.
That sinareo has been my observation. I learned a long time ago to live each day as it comes and try to learn a little bit and also enjoy each one as if it may be your last.
It seems many here do not know how our system works.
If you have a lot and are lucky enough to make it to old age, you get the chance to give all of your hard earned savings to the medical people.
When they finally suck you dry, you get some Gov't help to finish paying those medical people.
If you have nothing and are lucky enough to make it to old age, you get Gov't help right away to pay the medical people.
That sinareo has been my observation. I learned a long time ago to live each day as it comes and try to learn a little bit and also enjoy each one as if it may be your last.
If I would have lived like this I'd been dead 30 years ago. Would NOT have had the insurance or done routine checkups and absolutely would have been dead no later than 41. Folks would have said: WoW he was healthy and BAM,, dead, well, at least he lived his life to the fullest, right up until he suddenly died.
All of my siblings are well off.
I have NO tolerance for dnc deadbeat scumbags after sweeping up after their filth for decades.
Now, Years after they thought they were well-provided for retirement, they are getting less than 40% of what they thought they would be getting!
Pension DOES EQUAL DEPENDENCE!
So, I "Bought My Pension" out from under My Union's governance. Surprise, Surprise, I was forced to leave behind about One-Third of MY Pension monies @the Union!!! An IRS Rule (Section 415) dictates such!
I did it anyways, because 2/3 of the Monies are Now entirely MINE, Inheritable, and not subject to Union Mismanagement or outright theft.
The Funds I have could STILL be taken, as I am forced to keep them in a 401(k) account, again, because of IRS (PTUI!) rules.
The only Retirement Monies You Own are things You keep out of the Clutches of Our Government. Monies in Offshore Accounts? Precious Metals? Gems? Guns? Art?
I retired @51YO, more than Fifteen Years ago. What remains may not be Enough to See Me and My Wife to our Graves!
I eat Breakfast with a bunch of Ex Military Pilots, who went on to Airline Pilot Careers. Several of them had Magnificent Pensions. Then the Airlines went Bankrupt/Reorganized. Poof went Their Pensions, taken in by the Pension Benefits Trust Guarantee Corporation, a Government entity!
Now, Years after they thought they were well-provided for retirement, they are getting less than 40% of what they thought they would be getting!
Pension DOES EQUAL DEPENDENCE!
Again...yes, it does and the example you provided is a perfect example of such.
Again, I am not taking a shot at the work ethic of people who have worked for a pension.
My point is that if you are counting on a pension you are DEPENDING on someone else to provide your income. That's the definition of "dependence".
In your friends case, the airline went bankrupt and they lost most of what they were expecting to receive.
quote:Originally posted by HandLoad
I eat Breakfast with a bunch of Ex Military Pilots, who went on to Airline Pilot Careers. Several of them had Magnificent Pensions. Then the Airlines went Bankrupt/Reorganized. Poof went Their Pensions, taken in by the Pension Benefits Trust Guarantee Corporation, a Government entity!
Now, Years after they thought they were well-provided for retirement, they are getting less than 40% of what they thought they would be getting!
Pension DOES EQUAL DEPENDENCE!
Again...yes, it does and the example you provided is a perfect example of such.
Again, I am not taking a shot at the work ethic of people who have worked for a pension.
My point is that if you are counting on a pension you are DEPENDING on someone else to provide your income. That's the definition of "dependence".
In your friends case, the airline went bankrupt and they lost most of what they were expecting to receive.
A lot more of this will be happening soon,City governments are tremendously over extended on pensions financing yet if the 10-year bond rates creep up to 4% than inflation will just steal it back from the retiree while funding the same result to the pension holder working. While making the government raise taxes to manage their 22 trillion in public debt.
It's all a con job from The political spectrum of the old pea under the shell game.
What is that old saying one bird in hand is better than two in the bush. [:D]
serf