...well...go ahead and make your own joke.
You're right, that does sound Looney!
...well...go ahead and make your own joke.
What's 10% of diddli?
Dang...I just lost a dollar bet that nobody was gonna go there...
My bet is that he made the comment about saving for 40 years and it still wasnt enough as some part of a statement about the costs of retirement and in particular the health care issue. AARP has been pushing hard for medicare reform and a nationalized health care program.
It's just the quote at the end that rubbed me wrong. 40 years savings, yeah, right. More articles like this, and then nobody will save. After all, if he can't do it after 40 years, then what chance do I have...
Sounds like the old story about the cobbler's children have no shoes. Or for a medical example, see http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061116.wdayinthelife8/BNStory/cancer/home.I'm guessing he was probably making some decent money...and to not have invested enough or well enough when working a senior job for an organization that has a primary focus on advising people on how to prepare for and live well in retirement...well...go ahead and make your own joke.
I have some ideas from the stories I've heard/seen:I agree about the gist of the article but I took OP's question to be: why can a person save for 40 years and still not have enough?
50 cents a mile with gas at $4.50/gallon would imply that the volunteers are driving cars that get less than nine miles per gallon, right?In Honolulu, where Meals on Wheels delivers to 700 elderly people a day, the number of volunteer drivers is down about 20 percent, because drivers can’t afford the gas for their trips. The agency’s 50-cent-a-mile reimbursement doesn’t begin to cover expenses; as a result, the agency estimates, drivers now spend more than $300 a year out of their own pocket.
He retired around 1989-91, right? A friend of mine retired at my rank/YOS in 1989 and his COLAs have generally kept up with my 2002 retirement pay. So as a very rough estimate, without doing the correct calculation and applying nearly two decades of COLAs to his original E-6>20 Final Pay retirement amount, it'd be about $1600/month or a tad over $19K/year. With $460/year family TRICARE.Dad put 20 into the air force, it was either sign up for the AF or get drafted by the army. Retired E-6.
If they could have kept putting away a solid 10% with no big employment gaps then they would have been able to replicate what they're getting with that pension (someone can fill you in on how much dough a retired E-6 pulls down).
because their volunteers haven't been growing as fast as their customer list.
Ron, great that you are donating your time ... but if they don't pay mileage, perhaps they can give you a tax receipt for donating the gas? Seems only fair.I don't get any reimbursement (even though I am a driver; a "visitor" goes with me to actually go into the home to deliver/set-up the meals). My time/expense is just "payback" for the good life I have
Ron, great that you are donating your time ... but if they don't pay mileage, perhaps they can give you a tax receipt for donating the gas? Seems only fair.
I don't think that most people would necessarily consider this person to be a role model for their own future.After all, if he can't do it after 40 years, then what chance do I have...
If you itemize your deductions then it's probably easiest to track your own volunteer mileage (perhaps with a paper log or a spreadsheet) and report the deduction on your tax return. No tax receipts or organization's paperwork necessary. We've been reporting our own deductible Reserve, volunteer, and landlording mileage on our taxes for well over a decade.IRS mileage for volunteers is much less than allowed for a "business expense". While I could ask for it (and some folks do) it's just more work (mileage/schedule tracking) for the organization, which is mostly staffed by volunteers, anyway.
They don't do any tax receipt for fuel used. That would be quite difficult to measure (how many fractional gallons did I use this month?)
A few $$$ saved on taxes? That's OK.
If you itemize your deductions then it's probably easiest to track your own volunteer mileage (perhaps with a paper log or a spreadsheet) and report the deduction on your tax return. No tax receipts or organization's paperwork necessary. We've been reporting our own deductible Reserve, volunteer, and landlording mileage on our taxes for well over a decade.
I don't think that most people would necessarily consider this person to be a role model for their own future.
But it does bring up an interesting issue, which is that many people seem to consider retirement to be an entitlement. Is it a constitutional right?
No, but I think there is an implied right to pursue it and not have the government block it with some sort of "mandatory work" laws.But it does bring up an interesting issue, which is that many people seem to consider retirement to be an entitlement. Is it a constitutional right?
No, but I think there is an implied right to pursue it and not have the government block it with some sort of "mandatory work" laws.
In other words, it's more or less tied into the right to "pursue happiness" as enumerated in the Declaration. But not specifically a Constitutional right.
That's why they call Boomers the "Sandwich Generation". Around here we call it "ohana housing".Funny, the big media play a few months ago was kids moving back in with their parents.
Pursuit of property? In any case, sounds like you are describing a privelege still.
No. Constitutional rights do not include privacy (in many circumstances), home ownership and retirement. It does not mean that we should not strive or attempt to attain all of these for all Americans, it just means that (I feel) people should not feel entitled to these things.
No. Constitutional rights do not include privacy (in many circumstances), home ownership and retirement. It does not mean that we should not strive or attempt to attain all of these for all Americans, it just means that (I feel) people should not feel entitled to these things.
No, but I think there is an implied right to pursue it and not have the government block it with some sort of "mandatory work" laws.
In other words, it's more or less tied into the right to "pursue happiness" as enumerated in the Declaration. But not specifically a Constitutional right.