Yahoo story - media has it all wrong as usual

[2035]

I hope that I posted this correctly...as I'm on my phone.

This lady was living on her hubby's SS plus a "healthy nest egg of $120k" in her 60s and had to back to work after the downturn...duh! I'm not leaving until I have at minimum 15x my ending salary.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/woman...FuY2V8cmV0aXJlbWVudARwdANzZWN0aW9ucw--;_ylv=3

 

[flyfishnevada]

1. That article is in the dictionary next to the word "bias"

2. She did the only thing she could because her SS and 401K "wasn't quite enough"? If that's accurate, did she try reducing spending slightly?

3. "I'm happy being out of retirement and back to work", The woman is lying to herself.

4. "Eighty-six percent of workers in their 60s say they will work past age 65." Duh! Gee, 64 year old overwhelming might work until they are 66. Ask 50 year olds the same question.

I could go on.

 

[Lakewood90712]

"With a healthy $120,000 in her retirement account, she decided it was time to ride out her savings and leave her desk job behind."

120k A healty ballance at retirement ? WTF? Well good. Another one to keep paying into the social security system!

 

[obgyn65]

I would not be so be so harsh. To those who earn the minimum wage, 120k is about 10 years of income. To them, 120k is very healthy.

"With a healthy $120,000 in her retirement account, she decided it was time to ride out her savings and leave her desk job behind."

120k A healty ballance at retirement ? WTF? Well good. Another one to keep paying into the social security system!

 

[bssc]

I liked

A recent study showed evidence that early retirement could actually harm workers' health more than plugging away at a desk all day. Researchers estimated early retirees shave an average two months off their lives for every year they're out of the workforce.

Don't retire early, its for your own good.

 

[Gumby]

I liked



Don't retire early, its for your own good.

What a bunch of courageous souls we are here.

 

[braumeister]

Apparently, the cited "recent study" found this to be the major factor:

changes in health-related behaviours associated with smoking, drinking, an unhealthy diet, and little physical exercise may cause premature death following early retirement. Our results strongly support this hypothesis.

Seems pretty much irrelevant to most posters here. The study looked at blue collar workers in Austria, and found the effect mainly for men, not women.

 

[veremchuka]

I would not be so be so harsh. To those who earn the minimum wage, 120k is about 10 years of income. To them, 120k is very healthy.

Well that may well be true but $120k is not an adequate nest egg unless that SS was pretty substantial or she has investments elsewhere or a nice pension, all of which seem unlikely from the tenor of the article.

For everyone the "number" varies but to me $120k is a pittance unless you are 85 and have 1 foot on a banana peel. Using the oft quoted 4% rule that gives you $4800 per year and I'm guessing she may have to pay taxes from a "retirement account" (401k or 403b) but even if there aren't taxes involved that's a tiny amount of money. I'm pretty frugal and I couldn't live off that but without knowing her SS amount or other sources of income it's hard to really say. Bottom line, I think she was not prepared to retire.