rescueme
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
My response to the article...
“What we’re getting isn’t enough to live on,” said Dwayne Humphries, a 54-year-old G.M. retiree in Arlington, Tex., who completed his 30 years last year…
For me, this indicates that he started work at G.M. in 1978. 401k plans were not put into place until Jan 1, 1980 when the law was put into place.
As for private IRA’s? Although those not covered by a private pension, or business owners could establish an IRA back in 1974, those who had a pension program (aka defined benefit) could not start saving until 1981.
Essentially, Humphries started employment under the “old system” – the one that my parents (and many of us old enough to remember) were the only retirement income program, beyond SS and personal savings (e.g. the old “3 legged stool”).
I know many folks on this forum are well educated, and may have families that saved/invested regardless of any government or employee benefit program. However, going back just a few generations would probably uncover “the common man”, which looked for a meager pension to help them in their old age.
As an example I will just talk about my (and my DW’s) grandparents. All eight immigrated to this country after WWI from both Eastern and Western Europe. All had educations only up through the primary grades, if they were lucky.
Our parents? Out of four, only one went/graduated from high school. The other three left school early to help support their family.
My wife/me? While HS graduates, we did not have the opportunity for higher education beyond that level. Our respective parents did not think of extended education to be a ticket to anything. In fact, at an early age, I was constantly told that when I graduated from HS, to obtain a “union job”; I “would have a good life” due to the union. I would say that the early industrialization of this country led many young folk (and their parents) to feel the same way.
Anyway, my wife/I did go to a 1-year technical school, where we did receive additional vocational training to get a job (this was the time before community colleges).
BTW, our son (3rd gen American) does have his BS/CIS, so there is a constant improvement as we go on.
Not to ridicule the folks mentioned in the article, but I can understand where “their time in life” greatly affected the outcome of their work, and their retirement.
“What we’re getting isn’t enough to live on,” said Dwayne Humphries, a 54-year-old G.M. retiree in Arlington, Tex., who completed his 30 years last year…
For me, this indicates that he started work at G.M. in 1978. 401k plans were not put into place until Jan 1, 1980 when the law was put into place.
As for private IRA’s? Although those not covered by a private pension, or business owners could establish an IRA back in 1974, those who had a pension program (aka defined benefit) could not start saving until 1981.
Essentially, Humphries started employment under the “old system” – the one that my parents (and many of us old enough to remember) were the only retirement income program, beyond SS and personal savings (e.g. the old “3 legged stool”).
I know many folks on this forum are well educated, and may have families that saved/invested regardless of any government or employee benefit program. However, going back just a few generations would probably uncover “the common man”, which looked for a meager pension to help them in their old age.
As an example I will just talk about my (and my DW’s) grandparents. All eight immigrated to this country after WWI from both Eastern and Western Europe. All had educations only up through the primary grades, if they were lucky.
Our parents? Out of four, only one went/graduated from high school. The other three left school early to help support their family.
My wife/me? While HS graduates, we did not have the opportunity for higher education beyond that level. Our respective parents did not think of extended education to be a ticket to anything. In fact, at an early age, I was constantly told that when I graduated from HS, to obtain a “union job”; I “would have a good life” due to the union. I would say that the early industrialization of this country led many young folk (and their parents) to feel the same way.
Anyway, my wife/I did go to a 1-year technical school, where we did receive additional vocational training to get a job (this was the time before community colleges).
BTW, our son (3rd gen American) does have his BS/CIS, so there is a constant improvement as we go on.
Not to ridicule the folks mentioned in the article, but I can understand where “their time in life” greatly affected the outcome of their work, and their retirement.
