2006 retirement confidence survey

[lazygood4nothinbum]

by the employee benefit research institute is in. you can view it at:

http://tinyurl.com/gcxw6

Modest savings: More than half of workers saving for retirement report total savings and investments (not including the value of their primary residence or any defined benefit plans) of less than $50,000 (52 percent). However, the large majority of workers who have not put money aside for retirement have little in savings at all: Three-quarters of these workers say their assets total less than $10,000 (75 percent).

 

[Dreamer]

How scary! I would not be able to sleep at night if that was all that I had and I did not have a pension. I do not have the large savings amount of a lot of people on this board, but I certainly have more than the people in that article along with my pension and health insurance. I do feel very blessed. I am afraid that the sh#t is going to hit the fan for many people in the next 10-20 years. What a shame. Some people could have done a much better job handling their money, but some people are basically living from paycheck to paycheck due to their low paying jobs. I feel that if an adult is being productive and working 40 hours per week, he should be able to participate in the American Dream. Some people are doing this and are not able to pay their basic bills. Wages are not keeping up in this country for the lower paying jobs. I really do not know how some people that have families are able to survive on such low wages. When you compare their earnings, with what high paying CEOs make, I think it is obscene!



Dreamer

 

[Cool Dood]

It's not low paying jobs, I'm a college drop-out and I'm only 24 -- my salary isn't even very big in Canadian $$ -- but I've got way more saved than most of those people, and a lot of them are on two salaries!

And as I've said before, I'm not doing any kind of "possum living" or anything, I feel like I'm never deprived and can satisfy pretty much all my desires. It's just that most people have no understanding of their financial situation, and spend like Jesus is visible on the horizon and he's got his finger on the apocalypse button...

 

[maddythebeagle]

I dont nec. agree with some of these studies not including residence equity. Sure people should have investments, but I have one coworker that has a lakeshore primary residence worth between 1/2 million-million. They know that they can downsize and take some of the equity but continue to work because they want to stay... :

 

[Jarhead*]

How scary!  I would not be able to sleep at night if that was all that I had and I did not have a pension. 



Dreamer

Dreamer:  My parents had only Soc. Sec. when
my father (due to a bad back) quit work at age 70.  They never bought a home, never even had a savings account.  But they raised 8 of us, and we made sure that they got what they needed to get by for the rest of their lives.

Different time and circumstances of course.

Regarding the current state of affairs with some of the boomers that haven't saved much, I can't help but think a lot of them are counting on an inheritence to bail them out.

I've read a number of articles, and news reports, and they seem to point that there is a tremendous amount of generational funds coming down the pipe-line for that generation.

But you're right.  To get by on Soc. Sec. alone would be a bitter pill to swallow after a life-time of work.

 

[newyorklady]

how scary. what will these people do? yikes.

 

[Nords]

how scary.  what will these people do? yikes. 

They'll have to keep working. Or reduce their spending to their SS income... or possibly both.

 

[astromeria]

Someone making a good income for 35 years will get about $20,000/year in SS payments. If there's a couple, multiply by 2 or even 1.5: $30-40,000 is a reasonable annual income, not much less than the average American household income. If the couple has no debt (the Big IF), no kids at home, owns their home or has a cheap rental, and is accustomed to living at or below their means, they're in excellent shape. Too many if's?

 

[Nords]

and is accustomed to living at or below their means, they're in excellent shape. Too many if's? 

You were on a roll until that last one!!

 

[astromeria]

hee--it's that P in the INTP...always thinkin' there's more data out there 

 

[SteveR]

They'll have to keep working.  Or reduce their spending to their SS income... or possibly both.

Or..........move in with their kids.

 

[Martha]

The real tough one is if you make a low wage. I looked not too long ago for a person I know who makes about $20,000 a year and likely will only get moderate raises for unskilled work. She will get about $10,000 a year (today's dollars) in SS if she retires at full retirement age.

Not very easy to live on $10,000 a year. The upside is that she has a home she should have paid off before she retires. So a reverse mortgage, if they still exist, is an option.

I think that the low skilled poorly paid deserve a retirement too, even if it is not early.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Considering that your friend will have only paid in around one fourth or one fifth of what I have. And considering that on a percentage basis she'll get two to three time what I get...

I'd say your friend is getting a very sweet deal.

Most of the world lives on a lot less than your friends projected budget. It's only when you add in the American lifestyle that she looks poor.

 

[roadkill]

I have posted this link previously, but it may add to this discussion as well.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060404/nytu064.html?.v=44

 

[astromeria]

The real tough one is if you make a low wage. ...
Not very easy to live on $10,000 a year.  ...
I think that the low skilled poorly paid deserve a retirement too, even if it is not early. 

Indeed. My grandfather retired at 65 after a lifetime of low-wage work (starting out driving a horse-drawn milk wagon, ending up as a laborer at the old Brooklyn Navy Yard and finally odd jobs in his 60s & 70s). He lived to 93, as did my grandmother--the max SS they collected was ~$500/month. They lived in "the projects" in Brooklyn with lots of other ethnic (mostly Polish, Italian, poor Jews from Eastern Europe)/immigrant/minority folks. When my mother's salary was getting up there, she moved them into a small middle class 1-BR, 1-BA apartment in Queens and had all their bills sent to her. Nana & Gramps thought they'd died & gone to heaven.  Anyhow, they lived way low on the food chain their entire lives--lucky for them they enjoyed excellent health until the last few years. The slow deaths in a Medicare nursing home...not very nice. I suspect it's harder to be that poor now--people seem more demanding and envious--and that goes for the wealthy and middle class as well as the poor. My grandparents seemed content with a b&w TV as their only luxury. Of course, they died before the huge increase in medical expenses, and Nana could make a decent meal out of small packages of vegetable & meat trimmings to be discarded at the grocer & butcher, let alone quality ingredients. Social Security saved their elder years--they couldn't have saved anything from Gramps's inconsistent, minimum-wage labor.