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Old 02-23-2014, 10:07 AM   #41
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Reading this thread reminded me of some coworkers and former coworkers I left behind when I ERed in 2008. One retired in 2003 a few months shy of turning 61. He died 6 years later at age 66. Another retired in 2007 at age 62. She died in early 2013 at age 67. I am glad they both enjoyed 5 or 6 years of retirement instead of working the whole time.

A man replaced the woman I mentioned above, transferring in from another area while I was still working there. He died suddenly in the lobby of the office building in 2010, a week before his 55th birthday. I do not know if he had planned an early retirement. He worked until he dropped, sadly.
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Old 02-23-2014, 10:08 AM   #42
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Reading this thread reminded me of some coworkers and former coworkers I left behind when I ERed in 2008. One retired in 2003 a few months shy of turning 61. He died 6 years later at age 66. Another retired in 2007 at age 62. She died in early 2013 at age 67. I am glad they both enjoyed 5 or 6 years of retirement instead of working the whole time.

A man replaced the woman I mentioned above, transferring in from another area while I was still working there. He died suddenly in the lobby of the office building in 2010, a week before his 55th birthday. I do not know if he had planned an early retirement. He worked until he dropped, sadly.
My goodness, that sounds like a really unlucky place to work. No wonder you couldn't wait to get out!
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Old 02-23-2014, 10:23 AM   #43
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Reading this thread reminded me of some coworkers and former coworkers I left behind when I ERed in 2008. One retired in 2003 a few months shy of turning 61. He died 6 years later at age 66. Another retired in 2007 at age 62. She died in early 2013 at age 67. I am glad they both enjoyed 5 or 6 years of retirement instead of working the whole time.

A man replaced the woman I mentioned above, transferring in from another area while I was still working there. He died suddenly in the lobby of the office building in 2010, a week before his 55th birthday. I do not know if he had planned an early retirement. He worked until he dropped, sadly.
Maybe they had medical issues. Illness that forces a retirement is fairly common, and the illness takes its toll.
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Old 02-23-2014, 10:32 AM   #44
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With the 2003 retiree, he had some health issues in the 1990s but he died of other health issues. With the woman, she developed serious health issues in 2010 but I do not know for sure if those caused her death (probably did). With the second man who died at the office, I did not know him well enough but he was rather overweight (he died of a heart attack).
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Old 02-23-2014, 12:33 PM   #45
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It's not hard to find people out there who make really bad decisions, as the woman who financed a $200K education at 60 years old did.

Unfortunately, my sister is in a similar situation. She has never held a job for very long, and has no money saved at 50 years old, and has never earned enough to pay her bills. My parents still pay her expenses. And I'm afraid that some day I'm going to be faced with the decision of whether to take over for my parents when they are no longer around. I really don't want to, but I have a feeling it's going to be a decision I have to face whether I like it or not.
This is exactly the problem that every one of us will be dealing with - on a National scale. Just because YOU have saved enough for comfortable retirement won't make you immune to this national crisis.

We as a Society will not tolerate old folks not having the basics for housing, food and medicine. You will become a provider for many unprepared takers ... one way or another, even kicking and screaming.

Sorry but that's how I see the future playing out.
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Old 02-23-2014, 12:47 PM   #46
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This is exactly the problem that every one of us will be dealing with - on a National scale. Just because YOU have saved enough for comfortable retirement won't make you immune to this national crisis.
As A Nation it will be a lot easier to afford this crap on an across-the-board scale than it will be for me to prop up some derelict relatives directly. I can kick and scream a little or a lot. Which shall it be... hmmm....? I'll practice some self defence.

Ya know the old saying when referring to men, women, children, bosses, workers, lawyers et al depending on the situation? Ya' can't live with 'em and ya can't shoot 'em! It's true. So let's do this as easily as possible. I am not carrying a cross for any particular economic nostrum. I am a realist. A few bucks from everybody (who has bucks) won't hurt. Letting these people maraud across the landscape will break all but the luckiest and wealthiest.
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Old 02-23-2014, 12:50 PM   #47
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We as a Society will not tolerate old folks not having the basics for housing, food and medicine. You will become a provider for many unprepared takers ... one way or another, even kicking and screaming.
That is what Social Security and medicare were intended to do. Keep those fully funded and you won't have be so alarmed about it.
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Old 02-23-2014, 01:59 PM   #48
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Never Retiring?

What I'm not getting is how all these people my age never thought to save for retirement. Also not understanding how people in their 50's, 60's, and 70's are able to find and maintain employment----I had the savvy to save and invest and my energy level at 60 has never been better...but that's because of early retirement and what it's enabled me to do mental and physical-health-wise. How are all these people able to cope with the demands of working and the stress of limited finances?

And the woman who is now studying social work so she can help counsel her peers---how in the world would she make a decision to add to her student debt from a previous master's degree in broadcast management that it seems she never used? $200,000 worth of student debt at age 60 and on a social worker's salary...if she is lucky enough to even get a job as a brand-new social worker in her 60's?

For our younger folks reading this, please learn from these people who thought aging and retirement wouldn't happen to them or weren't worth delaying gratification for.....
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Old 02-23-2014, 02:24 PM   #49
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I grew up in a house where saving was a central tenet. My dad, a banker, was of the position that saving any amount is better than not saving at all, and the principal is of first importance, and the rate of return secondary. Really, can't have the second with out the first. I think sometimes the degree of attention on rate of return and inflation makes some folk just glaze over, and miss the central tenet.

We're in the middle of a societal shift from a high degree of expected protection in the matters of life from our employers, to less. The gov't is struggling with how much of the protection to take up, witness the angst over ACA and SS solvency. One would argue that essentially, a US citizen who worked at a job that paid into SS and Medicare is insured against destitution and (minor) disease in retirement, given the current program. I lean conservative, but I don't think that's such a bad concept.

I've sat down with my kid and had the "you can't do retirement like I am" conversation. I think he gets it; he's matching his employer's 401k at the age of 22. More parents need to have that conversation, maybe, but not that many may understand the need.

My main worry is for the folks who worked jobs that abrogate SSA/Medicare for some other plan, usually folks who work for state and local governments. They may be exposed to a double whammy: a badly managed pension program, and no insurance to mitigate it.
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Old 02-23-2014, 03:48 PM   #50
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I've got an in-law living on the edge, too. My conclusion is that mental health is a continuum ranging from slightly eccentric to stark raving mad. It seems that a surprisingly large portion of the population lives somewhere in the middle, hanging on by their finger nails. Whether you label them as mentally ill or just bad, lazy people, there seems to be no real solution.
Agree. A lot of people have undiagnosed mental illness arising often from a rough childhood. I know that many people have had difficult childhoods and overcame but for others it's tough. I thank my luck stars that I had good role models as a child. They valued education, hard work and dignity. They taught me that no matter how poor you are, you must have dignity.
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Old 02-23-2014, 07:30 PM   #51
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I grew up poor, with alcoholic parents, but at least Dad worked and provided, although it was a meager existence. I saw all that poverty when I was 17 and decided to leave home and start out on my own. Dad passed soon after I graduated college with help from the G.I. Bill. Mom had to move in with sis in a house trailer in North Carolina. I never expected anyone to help me, nor did my sisters.

What's going on today is there seems to be the mindset that the government will "take care of you if you can't do it yourself". Well, hello folks, that ain't gonna happen when the millions of Boomers hit their 60's and can't pay their power bill.

Even the ACA is in for a surprise soon. All these policies with $6K out of pocket won't work for a lot of folks who signed on. Wait until the screaming starts about that.
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Old 02-23-2014, 08:09 PM   #52
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Just another Yahoo filler, slow news day I guess.
Here's another one from Yahoo!

'I’m never going to be able to retire.'

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At age 58 and less than a decade away from retirement, Nancie Eichengreen, found herself having to start over from scratch.

It was 2012 and she had been laid off for the second time in 10 years from her job as a legal secretary. She spent a few years collecting unemployment benefits and dipping into her meager 401(k) savings to fill in the gaps.

“It’s kind of scary because I don’t envision a retirement for myself,” Eichengreen told Yahoo Finance. “I’m just going to have to keep working.” ...

Her situation is unfortunate but not unique. Thirty-four percent of workers have nothing set aside for retirement, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration. A study by the National Institute on Retirement Security found 40 percent of workers 55-65 years old do not own assets in a retirement account...
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Old 02-23-2014, 08:26 PM   #53
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...We're in the middle of a societal shift from a high degree of expected protection in the matters of life from our employers, to less....
So true.
There was a time, starting a bit before and during World War II, that employers would finance your health care insurance, as an incentive, and reward you for some 30+ years of work with them with a lifetime pension.

But the times are a changing--especially due to the recent "Great Recession." Employees these days are more and more expected to assume personal responsibility for their health care and retirement expenses.
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Old 02-23-2014, 09:11 PM   #54
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So true.
But the times are a changing--especially due to the recent "Great Recession." Employees these days are more and more expected to assume personal responsibility for their health care and retirement expenses.
So what do you do with people caught in the transition? All transitions leave some people behind. For example, in the early 90's I worked as a mapmaker, and the entire operation was changed from hand work to digital work. We had some people that could not adapt to the new. IMO we can't just leave our fellow citizens out in the cold. (But they are not moving in with me either. ) To keep the peace, our society will have to do something supportive if Social Security and Medicare are not going to be enough.
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Old 02-23-2014, 10:18 PM   #55
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This is exactly the problem that every one of us will be dealing with - on a National scale. Just because YOU have saved enough for comfortable retirement won't make you immune to this national crisis.

We as a Society will not tolerate old folks not having the basics for housing, food and medicine. You will become a provider for many unprepared takers ... one way or another, even kicking and screaming.

Sorry but that's how I see the future playing out.
I have no problem contributing to a prudent safety net to ensure basic living for retirees, even if some percentage of those needing the help could have made better decisions. I built higher taxes into my plan.

Surely you did too?
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Old 02-23-2014, 10:26 PM   #56
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My main worry is for the folks who worked jobs that abrogate SSA/Medicare for some other plan, usually folks who work for state and local governments. They may be exposed to a double whammy: a badly managed pension program, and no insurance to mitigate it.
+1
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Old 02-23-2014, 11:00 PM   #57
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I have no problem contributing to a prudent safety net to ensure basic living for retirees, even if some percentage of those needing the help could have made better decisions. I built higher taxes into my plan.

Surely you did too?

Good for you, but you are in the rare minority. Better double what you plan to pay others through higher taxes or retiree support charities.

This ain't gonna be pretty.
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Old 02-23-2014, 11:23 PM   #58
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Good for you, but you are in the rare minority. Better double what you plan to pay others through higher taxes or retiree support charities.

This ain't gonna be pretty.
If we have to take some means tested SS cuts or face some sensible increases in taxes to keep everyone fed then so be it. Many on this board already plan for these possibilities. If you haven't better go back to the drawing board. ER is about enjoying life not fretting every minor bump in the road.
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Old 02-24-2014, 05:07 AM   #59
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Well, as usual with these "many don't have much (or any) personal retirement savings" is that they don't factor in whether or not they have pensions and such. People who are 60, been at the same job for 35+ years and have a pension of 75-90% of their working salary (or more) with a COLA and retiree health coverage waiting for them at the end of the rainbow may not *need* much, if any, personal savings (especially in addition to Social Security). That's not to say they shouldn't be saving -- they should be, rather than assuming these things they've earned will go unchanged and honored for their entire life -- but that makes their situation a LOT less dire and apocalyptic.
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Old 02-24-2014, 05:10 AM   #60
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We as a Society will not tolerate old folks not having the basics for housing, food and medicine. You will become a provider for many unprepared takers ... one way or another, even kicking and screaming.

Sorry but that's how I see the future playing out.
I hate to tell you this but I know irresponsible people that retire with just SS. Guess what? They are still irresponsible. If they happen to have equity in a house they get a reverse mortgage. They are eventually broke and in debt. We all see regular stories with "Granny not able to eat and afford her meds." With any luck they have a heart attack and die quickly. In the end, many end up in Medicaid nursing homes.

My in laws blew money like crazy. He was a VP of a significant division of a significant company (not quite S&P500). He made a bundle during his life and had decent pensions. When DW and I took over their finances after my MIL's broken hip and my FIL's Alzheimer's diagnosis, they had an almost zero net worth except for their house. It was build in 1963 and was starting to fall down. Fortunately, they land was in what had become a fashionable area in Houston. That and the pensions allowed us to clear their debts and pay for many years in decent aged care facilities.
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