40% of Americans Fear Retirement more than death

[scrabbler1]

Even when I was working part-time in the last 7 years of my 23-year career, my biggest fear was having to commute on the dang trains a few days a week for many more years.

 

[SJ1_]

Just saw this. Guess, this is why us dreamers are preparing well for it.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/40-americans-fear-retirement-more-210049829.html

Exactly a lot of us over prepare for it

 

[Boose]

I fear i'm gonna work too long and die before I retire and have fun.

I got breast cancer at 44 while I was working toward FIRE, and my first thought was "Sh!t, this is gonna slow everything down!" Luckily it was stage 0 and my insurance covered all but $3K of copays. I saw the writing on the wall. Instead of waiting until 55 (pension availability), DH and I retired the minute the numbers worked and we knew health insurance was secure.

 

[Dean56]

...I read a retirement book years ago that pointed out that a large percentage of people have lived their entire working life with other people telling them what to do and scheduling their day for them.

These are the people who have the hardest time in retirement. There's nobody left to boss around.

 

[teej1985]

I got breast cancer at 44 while I was working toward FIRE, and my first thought was "Sh!t, this is gonna slow everything down!" Luckily it was stage 0 and my insurance covered all but $3K of copays. I saw the writing on the wall. Instead of waiting until 55 (pension availability), DH and I retired the minute the numbers worked and we knew health insurance was secure.

What type of health insurance are you using?

 

[ModestNestEgg]

I fear i'm gonna work too long and die before I retire and have fun.

That's exactly what I was going to say. Either that or having something happen to my health that makes retirement less enjoyable than it otherwise would be. But retirement itself? Heck no!

 

[ModestNestEgg]

These are the people who have the hardest time in retirement. There's nobody left to boss around.

Those are the folks who sometimes thrive in quasi-boss roles, such as HOA presidents (the ones that give the residents a hard time...I know there are some okay ones too).

 

[ModestNestEgg]

I don’t hear laughing, because it’s the younger, w*rking generations who pay the entitlements consumed by the older ones. It’s your Social Security and Medicare that all those tax-paying Millenials, Gen X and pre-Boomers are funding. These are money-in/money-out programs, so there is no piggy bank that older people have created that younger ones are somehow robbing. Perhaps the younger folks even deserve some appreciation.

Personally, I’m of the relatively tiny Gen X and I appreciate the hordes of brilliant, competent, tax-paying Millennials maturing behind me.

I'm glad that you brought that up (especially regarding the last sentence), because I can't quite get my head around how having a much larger Millennial generation isn't discussed as more of a stabilizing factor for the solvency of Social Security.

I realize that the sheer number of Baby Boomers (as a group--no personal offense to them individually) puts a strain on the system, but doesn't having more Millennials paying into the system and advancing in their careers (thus paying even more) as they get older help stabilize that?

 

[corn18]

GenX is not tiny:

Born Ages
Gen Z 1997 – 2012 9 – 24
Millennials 1981 – 1996 25 – 40
Gen X 1965 – 1980 41 – 56
Boomers II 1955 – 1964 57 – 66
Boomers I 1946 – 1954 67 – 75
Post War 1928 – 1945 76 – 93
WW II 1922 – 1927 94 – 99