Retirement numbers by age

[imoldernu]

From Zero Hedge...
Statistics from a study about retirement plans that factors age, income and financial health.

The Dismal Retirement Picture For America's Older Generation | Zero Hedge

The results are not unexpected, but the quartiles give a picture of the financial position of those at the accepted retirement age.

[GrayHare]

The report suffers from the common problem of citing median retirement account balance without citing number of such accounts per person. I have several retirement accounts, including a tIRA with less than $1 because it facilitates backdoor Roth IRA contribs.

[jazz4cash]

The highest quartile by income has a median 401k balance of just over 200k and earns an average of 6300/mo in retirement account earnings? Doesn't sound right or I am missing something.


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[DrRoy]

Older workers certainly have more experience and I think are seen as more reliable in many cases. Also the state of retirement savings and declining pensions has meant that more older folk do not have the means to retire, and must keep working, reducing the openings for others.

[W2R]

There are jobs, and then there are jobs. I think that comparing overall employment for those over 65 with those younger, is comparing apples to oranges.

Some younger people turn up their noses at low paying jobs and wouldn't even apply for them. They'd rather live at home with mom 'n' pop than settle for minimum wage, and I can understand that.

Sometimes these low paying jobs are eventually taken by older people looking for low stress ways to make a little extra money and keep busy.

On the other hand, seniors applying for real career jobs that pay well sometimes encounter some pretty serious age discrimination from what I am told.

All in all, I am SO glad that I don't have to work, because I don't want to. They can take my job and.... well, like the song. I was thrilled to vacate my job so that a younger person could give it a shot.

[Options]

It's not just the retired, all classes, but the lower and middle classes in particular have taken a financial hit according to this excellent new study by Pew Research Center:

America’s Shrinking Middle Class: A Close Look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas | Pew Research Center

Quote:

The middle class lost ground in nearly nine-in-ten U.S. metropolitan areas examined

[gayl]

Nice link. Apparently middle income class has decreased in my area as they've moved to upper income class

[Markola]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Options It's not just the retired, all classes, but the lower and middle classes in particular have taken a financial hit according to this excellent new study by Pew Research Center: America’s Shrinking Middle Class: A Close Look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas | Pew Research Center

I wonder how much of the decline in numbers of families in the middle class can be attributed to the gigantic population bulge known as the Baby Boomer generation simply getting older and leaving paid work? Our parents all retired in the last decade and they all got poorer when they transitioned from salaries to mostly social security. If a country's largest generation starts getting older and poorer all at once, it could make the whole country older and poorer on average. I didn't see any of these figures adjusted for age but maybe I missed it.

[Options]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markola I wonder how much of the decline in numbers of families in the middle class can be attributed to the gigantic population bulge known as the Baby Boomer generation simply getting older and leaving paid work? Our parents all retired in the last decade and they all got poorer when they transitioned from salaries to mostly social security. If a country's largest generation starts getting older and poorer all at once, it could make the whole country older and poorer on average. I didn't see any of these figures adjusted for age but maybe I missed it.

The report defines middle income as a mere $24,042 for a one-person household and as $34K for a two-person household. IIRC, the average combined SS for a two-person household is somewhere in the neighborhood of $32K, so it's highly unlikely any retirement wave has any impact.

[gerntz]

I fail to see how the picture is dismal for older Americans. One, they apparently are choosing to work & can. That's good. Two, of course the percentage of older Americans ought to be rising given the baby boomers are a disproportionate share of the total population. Tell me again what the problem is.

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash The highest quartile by income has a median 401k balance of just over 200k and earns an average of 6300/mo in retirement account earnings? Doesn't sound right or I am missing something.

I had the same question, as that is a 38% withdrawal rate. I can only assume that it might have something to do with median for balance and mean for earnings. Or perhaps the mean earnings takes into account that many people have multiple 401k, 403b or 457 accounts, as GrayHare notes. As it stands, I find this report to be of limited utility.

[harley]

I particularly like the political spin on this statement -

Quote:

And of course, those with the highest funded retirement account receive the highest monthly returns - said otherwise, the wealthy grow disproportionately richer in retirement as well.

It sounds like it's a conspiracy as opposed to the inexorable math of compounding returns.

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare The report suffers from the common problem of citing median retirement account balance without citing number of such accounts per person. I have several retirement accounts, including a tIRA with less than $1 because it facilitates backdoor Roth IRA contribs.

I agree. The natural of the data makes it possible to draw any number of assumptions, some of those might be correct.

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[mathjak107]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare The report suffers from the common problem of citing median retirement account balance without citing number of such accounts per person. I have several retirement accounts, including a tIRA with less than $1 because it facilitates backdoor Roth IRA contribs.

i believe the answers are total per person as these are personal surveys and they just ask you how much you have in retirement accounts . they do not look at the brokerage side of things .

[Options]

Well there's this, too...

Poll: Two-thirds of US would struggle to cover $1,000 crisis - Chicago Tribune

Quote:

Two-thirds of Americans would have difficulty coming up with the money to cover a $1,000 emergency, according to an exclusive poll released Thursday, a signal that despite years of recovery from the Great Recession, Americans' financial conditions remain precarious as ever. These financial difficulties span all income levels, according to the poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Seventy-five percent of people in households making less than $50,000 a year would have difficulty coming up with $1,000 to cover an unexpected bill. But when income rose to between $50,000 and $100,000, the difficulty decreased only modestly to 67 percent. Even for the country's wealthiest 20 percent — households making more than $100,000 a year — 38 percent say they would have at least some difficulty coming up with $1,000.