USA Today Comments

[cyber888]

Where do they get these examples? I make more money than 95% of Americans. My wife and I have pensions and SS that are greater than our combined expenses. We also have almost 2 million in savings, which alone is more than we need for the rest of our lives. Can I retire?

Advice: Yes, but since you cannot understand that you have more than double what you really need, you better give a significant percentage of your savings to a financial adviser who will skim a generous percentage for himself.

nicely put ... they could retire whenever they want with pension , ss and lots of savings .. no need for financial advisor.

 

[Amethyst]

Many of his generation believe in an elaborate mythology (google "Old Economy Steve") whose central tenet is that anyone who graduated during the Carter administration was able to land a great job on their first interview and immediately buy a house. It's pretty funny that they chose to glorify such an awful time period.

My millennial son recently sent me a link to an article about how the average young adult today is having a much harder time than those of previous generations. Rather than argue the point my reply was simply that it was all the more reason reason to strive to not be average.

 

[growing_older]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaMan
My millennial son recently sent me a link to an article about how the average young adult today is having a much harder time than those of previous generations. Rather than argue the point my reply was simply that it was all the more reason reason to strive to not be average.

Didn't previous generations need to fight for civil rights, experience wars in Vietnam, Korea, WW2 and surmount a host of other economic problems, like the Great Depression for example. I don't buy for a minute that my generation (or current ones) have it harder than previous generations.

 

[Katsmeow]

I daresay the mass media wants what you want: moderated comments. After all, we wouldn't want the gross idiocy or flat-out denial of street-level reality present among the reportorial class to be exposed, now would we? Plus it distracts the [-]gullible[/-] readers from the ads...

Oh! That isn't what I want. I wanted them moderated for things that are attacks on other posters that are extreme. I don't want to moderate someone because they have a different opinion from the writer. I don't even mean that each post should be reviewed before being posted, just that really offensive stuff be reined in.

(I don't see any ads, since I use an Ad Blocker).

 

[photoguy]

For most newspaper sites the comments are pure drivel or straight up name calling. However I have found the nytimes to be actually quite good - not sure exactly how they moderate but more papers could follow their lead.


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[Mulligan]

I confess that I like comment sections...in some places. Yes, some of them are terrible and even the best have some idiots and trolls. But, it is often in the comments that you get a different perspective and often valuable information that the article itself left out. There are some articles where I eagerly read the comments to see what the author has failed to mention. For me, the best comment section is probably those at the New York Times. They recently had an article about some of the frequent commenters that I found really interesting. I enjoy reading Vox, but think it is the poorer for not having comments. I guess I want a comments section but want it moderated.

Same here, especially on stock research comments in SA.... There are always some people smarter than the author that offer more incite, or contrarian info. Many of my final decisions to buy or not, come from the commenters, not the author.


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[samclem]

. . ., but it's a good reminder that this forum is the 1% and most people have a far harder time financially......and usually not because of stupidity.

I wouldn't use the word "stupidity", but there is no reason that the average American can't retire very comfortably at the regular retirement age, or earlier. It does not require an above-mean income, it does not require tremendous luck, it does not require some sort of special talent. While exceptionally bad luck or misfortune can put it out of reach, that's not the norm. If the people on this forum are some sort of 1%, it's not due to anything that the average American family couldn't accomplish on their own. The "harder time" that they have is largely due to the priorities that they have chosen, whether they chose them deliberately or not.

 

[heyyou]

we stopped watching national news 5 years ago, and completely stopped local news 3 years ago.

And your life has not changed, other than fewer aggravations.

 

[ls99]

....... but it's a good reminder that this forum is the 1% and most people have a far harder time financially......and usually not because of stupidity.

I was totally unaware that I am a 1 percenter. If true, it is most likely that am in the bottom .001% of the such elite group.

By the way, what is the definition of this 1% ?

 

[stepford]

By the way, what is the definition of this 1% ?

A group that nobody but the top 0.1% is willing to admit they belong to?

 

[Tadpole]

Am I hanging out in the wrong place? I don't qualify for the 1% in my age range. Woe is me. Will the moderators let me stay?

 

[Closet_Gamer]

The people on ER.org often have pensions, good pay, megacorp or Govt/military benefits and have also probably been prudent with their money. They are out of the ordinary and most people cannot hope to save the sorts of figures many of us have here. The comments often show a lack of knowledge or envy, but it's a good reminder that this forum is the 1% and most people have a far harder time financially......and usually not because of stupidity.

I completely agree that this board skews to the well off. As I've acknowledged before, it's been years since I made a hard personal financial decision. I've made important ones and planned a lot, but I haven't made a hard trade-off in quite some time.

To your point, most people who fail to build wealth aren't stupid. Some are brutally unlucky at birth or in life (illness) while others are born on 3rd base and think they hit a grand slam. On a global basis, virtually anyone born into western society qualifies as having been born at least on 2nd base.

That said, we will always return to the chicken and the egg problem on this stuff terms of people who do build wealth and the ability of the average joe to build wealth if s/he simply makes decent decisions over the long haul.

Part of the reason I haven't made hard decisions lately is because I made many of them before. Whether big (major career risks), small (forgoing vacations to use same money to visit family) or daily (working past midnight for over a year to start a new business unit while I fixed up my own house to avoid debt). I apologize for none of it and have little patience for the many, many people I've worked with over the years who had a better launch trajectory and simply consumed themselves into a life of servitude or "cruised" at work and now wonder why they don't have money and some freedom.

I still remember quite vividly two lessons/decisions that have shaped my life:

At 14, I was caddying alongside another teen. As we marched thru some trees up a hill on a steamy summer day, he complained every step of the way. I recall thinking that life involved work and there were two ways to do it: grudgingly or with a smile on one's face. Though I've failed at times, I've always tried to do the latter.

At 24, my wife and I were buried under a mountain of student debt (at 8-10% rates) and I received my first pay raise. We sat at our crappy kitchen table in our tiny apartment and decided to break the raise into thirds: 1/3 to create some cash reserves, 1/3 to pay down debt and 1/3 to have a little spending money.

I would argue that these two decisions -- plus a willingness to take risks -- shaped the arc of our financial lives. Those decisions were made possible by good health and a safe starting point in life but they were decisions most people get to make at some point.

It's the interplay between circumstances and decisions that our society can't quite find a way to talk about responsibly.

(On re-reading this, it's a bit long...I wasn't trying to tee off on your post, which as noted I agreed with...just sharing some thoughts.)

Happy New Year!

 

[Closet_Gamer]

My millennial son recently sent me a link to an article about how the average young adult today is having a much harder time than those of previous generations. Rather than argue the point my reply was simply that it was all the more reason reason to strive to not be average.

Love it.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Didn't previous generations need to fight for civil rights, experience wars in Vietnam, Korea, WW2 and surmount a host of other economic problems, like the Great Depression for example. I don't buy for a minute that my generation (or current ones) have it harder than previous generations.

This.

 

[Tekward]

Am I hanging out in the wrong place? I don't qualify for the 1% in my age range. Woe is me. Will the moderators let me stay?

I'm a 1%er just30 years late

 

[GravitySucks]

Am I hanging out in the wrong place? I don't qualify for the 1% in my age range. Woe is me. Will the moderators let me stay?

So if I'm reading this chart right I'm now well under 40 years old! WOOHOOO!

 

[Mulligan]

I'm a 1%er just30 years late

The downward trend past 65 is very encouraging......With my COLA pension solidly in place, I am rejuvenated and not giving up hope. By age 105, I think I have a damn good shot at it!


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[Gumby]

My millennial son recently sent me a link to an article about how the average young adult today is having a much harder time than those of previous generations. Rather than argue the point my reply was simply that it was all the more reason reason to strive to not be average.

This reminds me of a recent conversation I had with my mother. She was lamenting the shrinking middle class in the US, saying "Soon there will only be rich and poor people in this country. What will we do then?" I replied, "I just plan to be one of the rich ones."

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

This reminds me of a recent conversation I had with my mother. She was lamenting the shrinking middle class in the US, saying "Soon there will only be rich and poor people in this country. What will we do then?" I replied, "I just plan to be one of the rich ones."

Sounds like she watches too much "news".

 

[Gumby]

Sounds like she watches too much "news".

Watching TV is pretty much her only activity these days.

 

[Katsmeow]

Same here, especially on stock research comments in SA.... There are always some people smarter than the author that offer more incite, or contrarian info. Many of my final decisions to buy or not, come from the commenters, not the author.

Yes, that is another good one. There have been some where the comments utterly demolished (in a good way, through facts and analysis) the entire original article.

 

[Zorba]

I'm a 1%er just30 years late

Ha and Ouch! I just snorted my rum and coke through my nose.

Zorba