I won't be retiring. Not particularly good with money, plus a divorce, I'm 60, and have about 200K in retirement. It's my own fault, I could have been far smarter. Now was always far more important than then.
this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2024
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It’s my own fault, I could have been far smarter.
No. No it isn't. It's the country's fault for not giving you enough to retire on even though you didn't make the best financial decisions over the years. People should not be punished in their old age because they didn't follow all the right rules of capitalism (which keep changing anyway).
It might be your fault that you're not as comfortable or as well-off as you would like to be, but it is not your fault that you can't retire.
Remember that time they moved retirement to 67 in 2015?
I don't because I was too busy working 50 hrs a week @$14-19$/hr paycheck to paycheck.
And now I have fibromyalgia at 38 and hope I die at 50.
Thanks America.
The law that changed full retirement age to 67 was passed in 1983 (during the Reagan era, no surprise there!) https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/full-retirement-age/ :
"In 1983, Congress increased the full retirement age (FRA) from 65 to 67, a change phased in over the course of 33 years. This phase-in just ended, with the FRA now static at age 67 for individuals reaching age 62 in 2022 or later." (those born in 1960 or later).
What I always thought was unfair is that those who make the least amount of money get the least amount of Soc Sec, when they are the ones who need it the most. Those who make the most money get the max amount even though they need it the least. Seems backwards.
But I guess it's at least better than how things were before Social Security when you either had to make enough money to save enough for retirement and/or get a pension from your employer, or else work until you died, not to mention no Soc Sec if you became disabled. It was originally designed as part of the New Deal to help widows and seniors (poverty rate for seniors was over 50%).
It doesn't even matter if they did follow the right rules. Plenty of people did are still losing now because the rules have rapidly changed over the last 10-20 years, especially since the pandemic with inflation exploding out of control. Property taxes, insurance, medical costs, housing supplies, food are all skyrocketing. The SSA did up the Social Security payout slightly, but that doesn't help 401k/IRA/pension output one bit.
It also points out another flaw in America. Why does every individual have to be a doctor, tax man, investor, banker? Rather than having people compartmentalized in skill-sets and enabling each other, we're expected to know 100% of how many jobs work. It's a waste of collective brain power, and I really believe it stifles creativity and innovation as we all try to just survive. Even with all this knowledge, if one is in the retirement phase when a 2020-2024 happens, one can't really go back in time to correct for that.
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I'm 60, and have about 200K in retirement
Sadly, I think that puts you way ahead of most Americans.
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I think that people don’t really understand what it means when they claim they have no plans to retire. My in-laws are always saying things like “I’ll work until I die” while they take out debt to go on vacations but they recently brought up that we should make sure to get an extra bedroom for them if/when we buy a house. The disconnect is infuriating.
There are reason for them asking about an extra bedroom. And that is at some point, something will happen and they can no longer work at anything. For example, as much as I would still like to do something to do, I can no longer physically work. Even though I can still do things, ain't no one going to hire me to even be a greeter at Walmart.....
Nor do people want to survive and die in a nursing home. It's not a good place to die. We recently went through this 4 years ago with my Wife's Father. Fortunately, we have/had the skills to care for someone at end of life. And we gave up our lives to do so. And he was able to die peacefully at home.
Whether or not you choose to do something similar is completely up to you and your family.
Seems low.
Doesn't mean they will, just that 3/4s think they will
So you're saying a good 50% of Americans have no idea how they could possibly retire, they just think they will anyway.
Anecdotal, but I've actually been saving for retirement since I was in my twenties (forty now) and I doubt I'll actually be able to retire. Most models say I need to put in more than ten percent of my salary and I can't afford that.
I have never made enough to save for retirement and I've been told right here on Lemmy that I shouldn't be buying my kid Taco Bell and myself a chai latte a couple of times a month to make our lives a little bit more bearable because I should be saving for retirement and providing for her when I'm old so she doesn't have to take care of me.
Because, you know, $400 a year or whatever that is would definitely be enough to retire on.
Just yesterday, someone actually said to me here, "do you not have a 401k?" as if that were a rarity like leprosy. But then it's my fault for not being rich enough I guess.
Yeah people really do like to pretend putting pocket change into savings will somehow add up to a 7 figure nest egg.
For context: $400 per year for 35 years (making some assumptions about your age) with 8% average market return (probably optimistic tbh) and you wind up with a whopping $84k to retire on
So yeah, shits fucked
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Welcome to America
I really think that some time should be given to personal finance in school curriculum.
When I went through, we learned to write a check and balance a checkbook. That was it.
Yeah, schools should be teaching more about financial literacy, but it's impossible to teach kids about good habits for retirement 40+ years down the road when the laws that govern their retirement haven't been written yet.
Heck, I'm old enough that my first job out of college actually had a pension plan. I never expected to work long enough there to take advantage of it, though. And I was correct -- even if I didn't leave when I did, the place eventually went bankrupt. Any advice they would have given me in high school about retirement savings would be obsolete now.
The only advice that is eternal is to save money, and live below your means. That seems difficult these days, though, especially for young kids just starting out.
My wife has a pension through her employer, it is going to be her last employer until retirement. Hey at least the golden handcuffs are golden.
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My oldest did have to take a personal finance class in high school (last year) and did cover things like retirement saving and different methods of. I think some places are trying.
Edit: I, on the other hand, had your experience.
Doesn't matter how many classes you take when there's multiple Financial collapses in your lifetime
I think we need to bring back pensions. There is plenty of money around.
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My high school had a mandatory senior class that taught things like budgeting, investing, filing (very simple) taxes, and balancing a check book. It also required you to do some form of community service. The investing portion was bad as it was basically stock picking with fun money.
It’s hard to say how much the class impacted me as I don’t have a control, and I then proceeded through four years of college not really exercising those skills. I suspect it’s not a silver bullet, but still a positive inclusion in the curriculum.
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Managing your finances can only do so much when you barely bring in enough to cover rent.
It definitely isn't the case that a quarter of the country can't afford to save anything though their whole working life.
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Only 1 in 4? 🤔 I've NEVER been under the illusion I would retire.
I've got literal $0 for retirement and my bank account is in the red. It's not going to be too good when I'm old.
I would like to see a long term study on how people feel about it because I understand people in their 20s feel like it's hopeless but it would be nice to know how their opinion evolves as they move through their career.
My late 20s saw the delcine in health of my grandparents who I lived with. Seeing how elder care goes Im more frightened now than ever before. I have more to my name than ever before but seeing how it took a loud fight from the whole family to get the care centers just to take basic care of an elder, knowing I don't have a spouse and dont plan on having kids, Im terrfied I'm going to die neglected unbathed in the corner of some place that may as well be a mental institution.
The 'lonelines crisis' were seeing now is going to lead to many people who become disabled by aging have no family or other support structures to lean on and I wouldn't be surprised to see sick elderly people dying on the streets in mass in a few decades time.
Tldr: once you're old enough to start forgetting things, no amount of money can protect you from neglect. You need family to go to bat for you and less and less people are making families. I didn't used to believe in human euthanasia but now Im praying its legal by the time I get that old.
I am hoping they have Carousel when I turn 70.
Renew! Renew!
I've got retirement funds scattered across a half-dozen different companies and honestly I have no idea how to find it. Probably doesn't amount to more than $150k anyway. Could be half that - I really have no way of knowing. I was planning on never retiring, but the job market says otherwise. I might already be retired. Six weeks into my job search with 25 years of experience and not even an interview much less an offer. It hasn't been this bad since 2010.
That money is yours no matter how far it is scattered. Try to get in contact with those companies and check in on the accounts. You are allowed to move those funds into a single rollover IRA account with no tax hit if they send the check to the Rollover IRA provider directly.
You might be surprised at what you have. You might remember putting in $150k but it's possible it has grown quite a bit since then.
You might be surprised at what you have. You might remember putting in $150k but it’s possible it has grown quite a bit since then.
It's also possible something dumb might have happened, like it ending up in a cash-equivalent sweep account or something, which only makes it more urgent that he get it all rolled over into an IRA that's set up and paid attention to properly.
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At 40 and with $8k in my retirement fund (cashed it out on a business venture right before COVID...live and learn) I'm anticipating to do this as well.
Ah, life.
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"...even as economists and policymakers say the U.S. economy has all but achieved a soft landing after two years of record inflation."
disconnected much?
Perhaps the inflation is under control, but the constant price increases certainly aren't no matter what they say
Prices only drop of deflation.
Economists only mean prices have increased less this last year for the selection of things they looked at.
They say deflation is terrible, but there are still Japanese in Japan. (Japan has had decades of deflation.)
Economists only mean prices have increased less this last year for the selection of things they looked at.
That bolded part is crucial. A year or two ago, someone in the Biden administration released a report proudly announcing that there's no longer significant inflation when eliminating housing, groceries and fuel from the calculations 🤦
Well I’ll retire (sorta). I’ll just get another job making 50% what I was making and earning 75% of my original salary through retirement. I’ll work till I’m dead but at least I’ll make more money for a bit … until inflation eats it.
My dad did this for a while. Had a nice white collar job my entire childhood. He loved boating and owned one for 40+ years. A year or so after he retired from that he got a part time job as a cashier at a marine supply store. He loved the interactions with other boaters. He did that for probably 10 years before retiring fully.
I'm in MI and I'm pretty sure half the staff of any hardware store are retired Big 3 engineers. I've talked with them before, and most of them are more than comfortable financially, but just like having a routine, getting out of the house, and the employee discounts.
A part time job after retirement basically keeps people alive. Just sitting on a couch all day watching TV kills you pretty fast.
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That's probably low.
I'm 40 and I will work until the day I die.
I just hope that will be in my 60's rather than my 80's...
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I have had conversations with evangelicals who believe retiring is morally wrong, based entirely on this one passage:
For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. 2 Thessalonians 3:10
I can't begin to wrap my head around this.
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