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Have you been impacted?
bpost
Member Posts: 32,669 ✭✭✭✭
By the economic downturn? When I retire next year I will be a dirt poor, white trash, Meigs Co. Ohio resident. The biggest difference in Meigs County Ohio is I still have my own teeth. The downturn has hurt my ability to survive retirement to the point I am postponing it for at least six months.
Question, for you retired folks, (GOD Bless you all) has the downturn impacted your ability to survive, or maintain the retirement you enjoyed two short years ago?
If you are impacted how have you had to adjust?
Comments
The retired folks I talked to before mostly said one can get along for a lot less than you thought. I've found that to be true.
At my age, there's more meanings to the word "impacted".
YES. Thanks Joe! Im NOT retired, but I am feeling the hurt! I have no "extra" money now! I make 3.5 times what i did 15 years ago, but I am now living like i did 15 years ago. We have enough to survive, but we should be thriving! FJB and his commie friends!
Anyone who is not feeling the pain was probably NOT in the middle or lower class to begin with! They are trying (and successfully so) to do away with the middle class!
The affect the down turn has on your retirement depends directly on how well you were able to plan your retirement.
I'm middle class, but it hasn't really affected the wife and I much. Before we retired 3 years ago, I worked two jobs to make sure that every thing was paid off except our home. We recently moved to Montana from Oregon which greatly reduced our taxes. With the move from a city to a more rural area, and the fact that we are so busy with the new house has really slowed down our splurge purchases. A freezer full of dead elk sure has eased some of the grocery store pain though. I feel for those who have been really impacted, hopefully they will remember that come election time, but I doubt it..
My wife and I have always lived below our means and saving, it's paying off now, no debts or payments other than all our collective yearly taxable incomes. People who wait until their 60's to worry about retiring are in for a rude awakening.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Yes it has. Plans have changed course that happens as you age. No, not broke but it does hurt in Illinois due to Pricksters and Joey's new EPA regs that now we have about a 40% increase in electric charges. It's insane what Illinois has become, even worse since JB and his hand picked stooges. Charge an electric car in Illinois it will cost you a lot!
Maybe send that message to Pete Buttewedge and see if he has.
It has pushed my retirement plans back the 401 has taken a major hit
Before I retired, I made sure we had no debt of any kind, and I had funds invested for retirement.
Impacted? Returns on investments have gone from +13% a year to -12% a year. Cost of things I buy (like groceries) is up 20-40%. Gas and ammo we all know has been thru the roof.
How to deal with it? Don't be stupid. I do not need to go vacation in Cancun. I do not need to buy a new convertible so I can ride down the road and feel the wind blow thru what used to be my hair.
Do I still have fun? Yep. Instead of Cancun it may be a 6 pack of Corona and a day at the lake annoying the fish. Instead of the convertible and the wind, it may be camping in a National Park and listening to the wind in the trees (free for Veterans).
Look around. If where you live is hostile to retirees- MOVE. If you are empty nesters and have more house than you can use or maintain- MOVE,
When I look at my middle class neighbors yard I see a 13k zero turn lawnmower, a 15K 4 wheeler hunting buggy, a 25K bass boat and a 70K pickup I feel good knowing I can buy the popcycle of my choosing in my retirement 😊. Do I feel sorry for him and his situation ?.....Nope.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Doing o.k. so far. Between my social insecurity and Judys pension we haven't had to tap into any savings or investments ... yet. We are debt free and that is why we have been able to leave our nest eggs alone. No major purchases on the horizon so unless geriatric Joe turns us into Venezuela, we should be able to weather this storm. If the economy had been in this shape when I quit working, I may have held on and not retired for a couple of more years or at least worked part time. Bob
A friend of mine, now deceased, once told me " I want the last check I write to bounce".
I've been trying to come up with something about Pete B. getting impacted. Butt, can't clean it up enough. Just a lot of double in-endos.
I can say all our pets did put a dent in out monthly budget that was not a issue before pet food has more than doubled same with the chicken feed for my wifes pet flock
we have 3 dogs 13 cats about twenty some chickens and assorted feathered friends like the ducks turkey goose and so on .
and we have 8 democrats freeloader skunks and one freeloading racoon that help eat the cat food . and its hands if I talk about thinning them down per my wife she like to watch them . and honest other than the cat food bill they cause no problems but live traps will help slowly reduce my cat food bill LO
when wego grocery shopping since our great new leader took over I try not to focus on the the total bill each week to avoid getting more upset at him
oh then add in electric bills getting higher , propane going up fuel surcharges by the trash haulers and propane Companys and 5.00 a gallon gas but at least its dropped some .
all that hurts but still I am above ground thats 99% of doing good . I use to tell my co workers I grew up eating bologna and will die eating it only difference I can eat more than one sandwich when I get hungry ,now compared to as a kid 😲
oh well were only promised taxes and death 😁
Gas prices have cut down on my wanderings considerably
Just hope the people that voted for the idiot suffer as well. Even worse, the Senate just passed a corporate tax hike.
The 'dempanic' impacted my income from my part time job-a reduction of 75%. This is just beginning to turn around but now the price of fuel has similarly impacted my cost of operation.
The past 2 years have been a total disaster for a retired person who was just barely 'in the comfort zone' living wise.
I learned a long time ago not to work for the man. You either sink or swim to survive. Fortunately the economic downturn has not hurt at all. In fact just the opposite. Real Estate went crazy and I got out of the rental business. By the end of the month I will only have 1 rental. That rental is going to be sold to the tenant who has been with me around 6 yrs. That will produce a lifetime income as payment or at least a payoff in a 3 yr balloon. Now the end of the story will be buying foreclosures within a yr or so when folks lose their homes, repairing a few and making a profit selling them when the economy turns around. It will be rocky going for some when everything goes haywire... foreclosures and credit card debt in the near future. CC debt will occur because it is at its all time high now and getting worse. Folks just adding to the CC with no intention to pay them off. We live very comfortable with only the basic expenses. Looking and preparing ahead for what is about to happen.
Donkey Pox has upset (reduced) my ammo reloading and working up loads when tinkering with rifles.
I'm having to save existing ammo for hard times.
(so if the Donkey Pox people and vandals come after my guns and stuff I can give them my bullets first)
If you are unaware of the Donkey Pox plague check this out
Yup. — GunBroker.com Member Forums
Impacted? Yes. Painfully? No.
The White House plan is working. Get more people to turn to the government for help, and then become reliant on the government, this way they are assured of staying in power. This is how socialism survives.
As far as being impacted. Anytime you devalue the dollar in your own country with high inflation, everyone is effected eventually one way or another.
As far as being impacted. Anytime you devalue the dollar in your own country with high inflation, everyone is effected eventually one way or another.
It hasn't affected the way we live
How can people in Congress be so stupid as to not realize that corporations do not pay taxes? Increasing the corporate tax rate just increases the price that a corporation's customers pay for their products. That in turn increases inflation. What a bunch of idiots.
We were doing great until June died. Not that money matters anymore but paying 20 percent of $2,000,000 what the insurance don't pay can make the old bank account fit into a small piggy bank. I do OK though. I hardly spend anything anymore. I've only bought 3 full tanks of gas since last October. I only go to the doctor, dentist and hospital and the rest of the time I set around in my drawers doing nothing. If I ever run out of money at least they can't eat me...at least not at this time. That might change before the democrats are run out of town though.
They do that to make the poor masses think they are doing something for them. They're not stupid but they know the majority of the voters are so they know exactly what they're doing.
This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Truthful, that is the problem, people in congress do understand that corporations pass the tax onto the consumer, they are hoping that the consumer doesn’t understand. Anytime you hear them start saying people have to pay their fair share, in essence that’s their political way of saying, we are raising taxes on everyone.
I’m fortunate in that I have a really good pension plan, I can’t collect social security as we payed into are pension plan. What we would have payed into social security went to social security but I can’t collect. I collect RailRoad Retirement. I was paying over a thousand dollars a month into it when I retired.
Hush-hush now....don't you know the corporations are the biggest re-election donors on the planet, not the average taxpayers. That so called "democrat conservative" West Virginia senator (Manchin or whatever his name is) list of donors just came out yesterday...Shocking 😮, he along with lying/crooked politicians should be all castrated live on TV when caught.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Not feeling it because we have always been savers and not spenders.
Where we are feeling is in the income from out concession business. The last two events we did revenue was down 40%. We are coming into our big fair season, if all the events are down by 40% we will not be happy.
It is definitely the economy. Both of our recent events were in big tourist areas where last year there was not a single vacancy sign and there was 1-2 hour waits to get into a restaurant.
This year saw many a vacancy sign and you could walk right into a restaurant.
Entitlements of housing, food, will never go away for the poor. Folks that take govt funding to house those folks are legally operating within the law. Just because some choose to live in poverty is the govt. problem. Those loop holes the politicians created work and will continue to make folks wealthy. Donald Trump is a prime example. His Father gave him money to start low income housing , he did and sold the property when it had no vacancy. In a business world you must and I mean must use all govt programs to your advantage.. even free grant money that can start business and create tax revenue . Freebies are govt created one must know how to use them.
My plan is to retire next July at 65 years 4 months old. If I need extra income I will do what is needed to make ends meet and not dip into savings. I have a pretty well stocked wood shop now with good tools, insulated and heated. I even have A/C installed. I can make all sorts of "stuff" from local wood that is almost free for me to get. All it will take is time and patience. With the tools I have and the love of working with my hands I should be fine until the Lord calls me home.
I appreciate all of your input and wisdom.
mine too
Impacted? Not sure. Affected? Heck yea. Prices have gone up significantly on things I use while my income has not kept pace. I’ve sacrificed net worth to maintain the life style I want…and budgeted for to get me through my remaining years. Long term this means little to me (my heirs might be disappointed!), but I spent decades preparing. What sucks is that so many good folks are being crushed and those in power don’t care.
On paper yeah with the stock market drop, but it will rebound, otherwise we are saving for more travel.
Congress realizes that, they fixed it that way.
I'm not affected in a direct daily sense, but (being a cheap-*) I find myself greedily shopping for bargains. I just hate paying double what I did a couple of years ago for identical items. Ive always been sort of a miser, and it pays off in retirement because I haven't even had to touch my Social Security money although I've been having it direct-deposited for five years. (I waited to start collecting until age 70 to get the max benefit.) I feel so sorry for people who genuinely have been caught in the inflation mess through no fault of their own. With milk doubling in price and eggs tripling, little kids still have to be fed. It's not those kids' fault -- they didn't get to vote for their parents or their politicians.