Article - 35% of Millionaires won't be able to retire

[explanade]

Nope. I don't even know what the process was. My oncologist said they'd take care of it, and *poof* free drugs. Can't complain.

Most likely a clinical trial. DW takes a $500 pill every day (and will for as long as she lives) but being enrolled in a clinical trial means the manufacturer provides them at no cost.

I know two people that are getting some uber expensive (>100k yr) long term drugs for free.... Neither of them had to to provide any personal financial info. I understand there are a number of "charitable foundations" that work with some doctors, drug and insurance companies to greatly reduce or in some cases eliminate the cost of some of these crazy priced drugs... Makes me wonder if that's why some drugs cost so much.

Maybe for clinical trials you sign waivers absolving them of any liability?

Are these drugs FDA-approved or do they even have emergency approval?

Or maybe you agree to be guinea pig for getting them for free.

 

[Car-Guy]

Maybe for clinical trials you sign waivers absolving them of any liability?

Are these drugs FDA-approved or do they even have emergency approval?

Or maybe you agree to be guinea pig for getting them for free.

In the cases I know about, both are using FDA approved drugs.... Not sure if that makes them feel that much better about taking the drugs.

 

[PatrickA5]

Any time now, a Yorkshireman will drop in to say

"You guys went to university? Pfft... I worked as a janitor at the university during the day, and went to a community college at night"

I didn't work as a janitor, but I did work an 8-5 job every day and went to night school for 7 looong years.

I'd get off work at 5:00pm, go straight to school for 6:00pm class and get home around 10:00. Homework/study was normally after dinner around 10:30pm. Even did it during Summer. Have no idea how I ever graduated.

My kids tried to whine about "I don't have enough time" while they were going to college, but they knew what dad would say.

 

[Finance Dave]

I'm on two cancer meds. They work fabulously -- the otherwise-incurable cancer is in remission, no side effects -- but they don't come cheap. $1000 per DAY.

Medicare has about a $7000 "deductible" (not really but close enough) and after that part D pays 95%. But 5% of $30k per month is $1500 per month. Plus over $500 per month for the "deductible." So even though I have full coverage, it would be $25k out of pocket per year just for the meds.

Fortunately my doc got me into a program where the pharma cos provide the drugs for free. Don't ask me how that works, but I ain't complainin'.

Wow. Glad the pills are working, that's great!

Don't drop one of those puppies down the HVAC register though lol.

 

[Finance Dave]

I didn't work as a janitor, but I did work an 8-5 job every day and went to night school for 7 looong years.

I'd get off work at 5:00pm, go straight to school for 6:00pm class and get home around 10:00. Homework/study was normally after dinner around 10:30pm. Even did it during Summer. Have no idea how I ever graduated.

My kids tried to whine about "I don't have enough time" while they were going to college, but they knew what dad would say.

I hear you Patrick. I did 11 years of evening school while I worked full-time. That got me a B.S. in Engineering and an MBA in Finance both from top 20 schools...and my company paid for 95% of it! No student loans, but those were LONG HARD years of very little free time. I actually was doing an MBA assignment on the plane home from Spain after our honeymoon...yuk.

 

[beanctr88]

I was in college 1982-86. There was often a table set up in the campus center promoting a credit card. My friends and I would always fill out applications because you got a gift for doing so. We did the same thing at numerous stores when we went to the mall. Why did we do that? Because we knew there was no way we'd get approved. We had no job and no income. We just did it to get the free gifts: an umbrella, a 2-liter bottle of Coke, a tote bag, whatever.


Fast forward a few years and the banks loosened their lending policies considerably and suddenly credit card debt among college students became a huge problem. That's what happens when you start giving credit to anyone with a pulse even though they have zero means to repay any debt. Student loans are one thing but at least those payments are deferred until after graduation and the rates are reasonable. Credit card debt will bury you way faster, especially at 19-29% interest.

I was in college around the same time. Since technology wasn’t a thing back then we all filled out those offers with fake names, addresses and social security numbers. There was no way for them to check and we got our free goodies. I did dozens of them. I’m very glad I didn’t actually get any cards back then. I would have lived the high life and never paid off the cards.

 

[MRG]

I hear you Patrick. I did 11 years of evening school while I worked full-time. That got me a B.S. in Engineering and an MBA in Finance both from top 20 schools...and my company paid for 95% of it! No student loans, but those were LONG HARD years of very little free time. I actually was doing an MBA assignment on the plane home from Spain after our honeymoon...yuk.

11 years? I had one year in the sawmill during the day and 5 hours of school at night. Thought I'd die, but it was only a year. There was always study and assignments.

 

[scrabbler1]

I was in college around the same time. Since technology wasn’t a thing back then we all filled out those offers with fake names, addresses and social security numbers. There was no way for them to check and we got our free goodies. I did dozens of them. I’m very glad I didn’t actually get any cards back then. I would have lived the high life and never paid off the cards.

I was in college in the early 1980s, too. The big flap at the time surrounding credit cards was the college's bookstore including credit card applications in the large plastic bags we got when we bought books (or anything else) from the bookstore. Both the college and the bookstore's management took heat for promoting access to credit cards by students who likely had little or no means to pay off the balances which included the high interest rates of the early 1980s.

My biggest financial move while in college was getting my first personal checking account between my 2nd and 3rd years. I didn't get my first credit card until 6 months after I graduated college and was working full-time.

 

[ncbill]

Don't worry about those credit card offers today...somebody really cracked down so all my kids couldn't get their own (even if they wanted) until they turned 21.

 

[PatrickA5]

I hear you Patrick. I did 11 years of evening school while I worked full-time. That got me a B.S. in Engineering and an MBA in Finance both from top 20 schools...and my company paid for 95% of it! No student loans, but those were LONG HARD years of very little free time. I actually was doing an MBA assignment on the plane home from Spain after our honeymoon...yuk.

My company (Big Oil) paid for 75% of my college (small expensive private school). I did it the hard way because I had no other choice.

 

[Koolau]

I hear you Patrick. I did 11 years of evening school while I worked full-time. That got me a B.S. in Engineering and an MBA in Finance both from top 20 schools...and my company paid for 95% of it! No student loans, but those were LONG HARD years of very little free time. I actually was doing an MBA assignment on the plane home from Spain after our honeymoon...yuk.

Yeah, I did a Masters (including being a TA) while w*rking full time. Took 4 years. Megacorp paid all the tuition. Once the Masters was secured, Megacorp had no interest in it. This was typical. I knew any number of people who earned degrees and then had to leave Megacorp to use it (and be rewarded for it.) I chose to stay put as I was established (home, family, etc.)

DW told me (in no uncertain terms) it would be divorce if I went for a PhD. YMMV

 

[GaryInCO]

Maybe for clinical trials you sign waivers absolving them of any liability?
Are these drugs FDA-approved or do they even have emergency approval?
Or maybe you agree to be guinea pig for getting them for free.

Nope. No trials or guinea pig, these have been standard treatment for the last 5+ years. I don't remember signing anything.

 

[Koolau]

Maybe for clinical trials you sign waivers absolving them of any liability?

Are these drugs FDA-approved or do they even have emergency approval?

Or maybe you agree to be guinea pig for getting them for free.

Actually, before any human trials are carried out, a number of studies are done in animals after a lot of "test tube" type studies. FDA signs off on each stage. Eventually a short trial is run in which humans are used (as guinea pigs) to look for immediate (and intermediate) "problems" before full-fledged efficacy trials are begun.

I do think this usual (prolonged) trial system was short circuited for Covid but I'm not privy to the details. I have no idea how much "waiver signing" there is for clinical trials. Probably at least some. In any case, participants are monitored very closely though there are no guarantees in life except that we're all gonna die.

 

[MarieIG]

We had a part time finance professor who was a CFO, and he hated the fact that colleges promoted credit cards. While we were taking an exam, he took a stack of credit card apps from the student center, filled them out with the college dean's name, and mailed them in.

I LIKE HIM!

 

[Timeisprecious]

I guess everyone is really scared of inflation now.

https://www.investopedia.com/millio...te-yahoo&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral

Don't we all just need a good, healthy pension?

 

[Koolau]

Don't we all just need a good, healthy pension?

Heh, heh, with no COLA, mine gets less healthy every month! Back in the day, megacorp used to occasionally adjust the non-cola'd pension for folks who had been retired for quite some time. It wasn't "promised" but megacorp probably thought it made them look better to the empl*yees - and it did. Now 17 years after I retired - megacorp has dropped any pretense of caring about retirees - or even empl*yees. I've NEVER had an increase. Pension is worth perhaps half what it was when I retired.

BUT, I kept some of the stock they "gave" me as a match in the 401(k) and in lieu of bonuses, etc. Half of those "gifts" of stock fell "out of the money" when vested. BUT, a couple of them hit BIG later. That has MORE than made up for my pension losses. When I retired, that stock was in the doldrums and most of my fellow retirees cashed it in as fast as they could. I figured "Megacorp is now a mean, spiteful, retched, money-grubbing, SOB of a company! NOT the 'family' we used to be. Their stock will probably go up eventually on the backs of the empl*yees that haven't been able to get out yet."

I was RIGHT!

My "little bit" of stock has grown to 10 years worth of pension. Something to be said for buying the stock of "evil" companies. YMMV

 

[cyber888]

Don't we all just need a good, healthy pension?

Right, but pensions are already dead, unless you work for the US government.
I have to convert part of my 401k into an annuity to get a pension-like income.