Another day, another poll on retirement.

[bssc]

From Thurday's Washington Post The interesting number is that the percentage of people who thought they would have enough money to retire dropped from 27% to 18%. And this is normal retirement. Maybe they will continue working and save Social Security.

[DblDoc]

Quote: "From one perspective, it is disheartening but understandable that retirement confidence has gone down," Greenwald said. "However, it is my view that a lot of the confidence observed in previous years was false confidence, and perhaps people are now getting more realistic and this is a precursor to more effective financial preparation for retirement."

I suspect that if true it would only last as long as doom and gloom holds sway in the popular media. Once economic good times are back I think the american consumer will return to um.. consuming and retirement will take a back seat once again.

DD

[chris2008]

This certainly corresponds to the increasing number of people with high debt and mortgage over their heads.
If you know that you spend more than you earn while working, how could you ever feel confident about retirement? ---Only if you are expecting big money from parents, and these expectations might not materialize till you are in your 70s or not at all.

[Dawg52]

Just back from a golf trip with some buddies and boy, did I hear some stories. One guy(59) is still paying for daily expenses on his son who is a dentist. He is letting his son live in a condo he owns for free, pays for all the utilities, pays for his sons gas and cell phone. His reason for doing so is to help him get started in the real world. Oh yes, he paid for most of his son's college education and expenses. I know a lot of people help their children get through college, but how crazy is this? And this guy was complaining on how he will have to work until 65.

[hogwild]

Here's a relevant article from MarketWatch. I can believe the part about 12% of workers having saved over $250k, but retirees? Hard to believe this one.

Pay for retirement? Workers' and retirees' confidence plummets - MarketWatch

[Den26]

I'm lucky my grown kids are self-sufficient

[UncleHoney]

Last fall at my retirement party I was talking to a younger coworker, about 45, and he asked what percentage of my pay check did the company pension plan replace. When I told him 41% I thought we were going to have to call the squad. He said, Is that all? And I said that's it, plus your healthcare goes up about 2.5X and the pension was not adjusted for inflation. You could see his normal tanned complexion pale.

When he asked how we were going to survive on 41% I told him it was no problem when we added in our other sources of income like 2 SS checks and earnings only off our 401k and IRA's. All that added up would equal about 110% of my last paycheck. But I didn't tell him we could easily live on the pension check plus one SS check.

I think it was a wakeup call, after he pays for the new cherry cabinets and granite counter tops in the kitchen and the new master bath complete with diving pool and gets his two grade school aged kids through collage he's going to have to start saving.

[rs0460a]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleHoney what percentage of my pay check did the company pension plan replace.

What's a pension?

- Ron

[UncleHoney]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rs0460a What's a pension? - Ron

Pension?

That's all that extra money the company charged the customer over the last 35 years that they forgot to put in my paycheck.

Ron too.

[Goonie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleHoney Pension? That's all that extra money the company charged the customer over the last 35 years that they forgot to put in my paycheck.

I like that one Unc! Never heard it put that way.