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Thread: It's not working

  1. 06-23-2018, 08:36 AM #1
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    It's not working

    In a series of articles this week the WSJ has been exposing a cautionary tail of our declining financial preparedness for retirement.

    Only 9% of workers today have a pension from their employers, down from about 25% 20 years ago. A full 46% have neither a 401k or employer provided pension plan.

    The noble idea that we can manage our retirement funding better than anyone else seems to be unreasonable optimistic---and at some point we will all have to deal with the short fall.

    Americans are reaching retirement age in worse financial shape than the prior generation, for the first time since Harry Truman was president.

    This cohort should be on the cusp of their golden years. Instead, their median incomes including Social Security and retirement-fund receipts haven’t risen in years, after having increased steadily from the 1950s.

    They have high average debt, are often paying off children’s educations and are dipping into savings to care for aging parents. Their paltry 401(k) retirement funds will bring in a median income of under $8,000 a year for a household of two.

    The decline of pensions and increase in 401(k) and similar plans is one reason many seniors aren’t as ready for retirement as the previous generation.

    In total, more than 40% of households headed by people aged 55 through 70 lack sufficient resources to maintain their living standard in retirement, a Wall Street Journal analysis concluded. That is around 15 million American households.

    Things are likely to get worse for a broader swath of America. New census data released this week shows the surge of aging boomers is leaving the country with fewer young workers to support the elderly.
    This begs for an effective educational program---along with other obvious issues that will come to bear.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
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  2. 06-23-2018, 01:59 PM #2
    Dork
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    Down from 20 years ago eh........and Obama was around for how much of that.....and now Trump is pulling it back up after Obama worked so hard to destroy the middle class while pumping people lile you up.....

    Keep reading the WSJ, it's reputation is right there with the huffington post....
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  3. 06-23-2018, 04:42 PM #3
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    Good RE Dork, yes Trump had a big pull to dig us back out.
    Old redneck hillbilly borned and raised on a redwood stump.
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  4. 06-24-2018, 09:21 AM #4
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    I posted this in hopes of reducing the almost exclusive postings of political subjects in Current Events---there was NO partisan political intent---ZERO.

    Amazing it was immediately "converted".

    If anyone is interested in a reasonable discussion on this subject, I will let it stay--if not it is going to be deleted.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
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  5. 06-24-2018, 10:43 AM #5
    Wannabe
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    If the majority of the masses cannot manage their own retirement, then what is the answer? A portion of the population do not plan for next year much less retirement.
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  6. 06-24-2018, 11:32 AM #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wannabe View Post
    If the majority of the masses cannot manage their own retirement, then what is the answer? A portion of the population do not plan for next year much less retirement.
    Like many similar things, a big part of the answer lies in education. In the absence of knowledge, it is easy to make poor choices.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
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  7. 06-24-2018, 11:50 AM #7
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    As much as I hate government interference in my life, it likely will have to be forced savings of some sort. Too many people just live for today and never give a thought about the future.
    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke
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  8. 06-24-2018, 01:20 PM #8
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    I hate to say it but I don't see an effective educational initiative coming about without government intervention.

    The collection of articles points out numerous ways that people derail their own plans. One common way is to "raid" their own accounts and never recovering from that loss. Taken as a whole the series raised numerous doubts (in my mind--but not mentioned in the articles) about the advisability of self managed plans in-lieu of SS.

    I have mentioned in the past that building a 401k for me seemed clearly the thing to do 40 years ago when the plan began. Today, in hind sight---not so much. I would be better off had I invested the same amount of after tax funds---a thought I never heard anyone mention.

    One of the most onerous aspects of the 401k plans (to me) is that both my wife and I are required to take an annual minimum disbursement. The amount is based on age and account value. The system is designed to take you to a zero balance at the expected end of life--which is interesting. The problem for me is that I don't need any income from the 401k but am forced to take it and pay the highest income tax rate on those funds because of my ongoing income. But that is an entirely different matter.

    The reality of our current state is that we have an increasing number of people who will find themselves unable to maintain their life style and in some cases these people will become wards of the state---much of which could have been avoided with better management.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
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  9. 06-24-2018, 02:37 PM #9
    Dork
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    Why does that matter, let them live how they want.....then when they are broke, oh well, you lived the life you wanted....nobody has to force you to save money, nobody has to force you to live a certain way or force you to invest your money...

    When your old and broke, you die on the streets, that's what you wanted with your life style.....

    Hell, you don't even have a living 101 kinds of mandatory classes in school, how to balance a budget, how to invest, how to cook, clean, live within your means.....why not force the schools to actually teach and educate people instead of blowing smoke....


    Quote Originally Posted by Mike View Post
    As much as I hate government interference in my life, it likely will have to be forced savings of some sort. Too many people just live for today and never give a thought about the future.
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  10. 06-24-2018, 07:19 PM #10
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    I made a lot of bad choices in the first half of my life, getting married twice in the second half finished me off. I'm renting a room from a woman that lived the same way as I except that she is getting her ex husbands social security. Had I not run into her I'd still be on the street and she wouldn't be far behind. Hell I didn't expect to live to fifty much less 65 now here I am disabled and drawing 746.00 a month in SS. A friend from here loaned me a thousand dollars about ?? eight- ten years ago to get back on my feet after loosing everything! in a divorce. That kept me with a place to live and since then I'd saved 10,000.00 until I woke up in a hospital and got out basically in a wheel chair. My son has got most of that in school and transportation etc... but he hasn't finished anything and still lives with his mother who doesn't like an empty nest. Shoot I never had a chance out of pure ignorance I suppose. The road I was on at forty would have got me rich right about now but greedy woman and hospitals have left me screwed. Thank God for SS!! I had savings, two mutual funds etc... they went in the divorce. All of this to say there ain't no way me saving for retirement would have worked, I was doing that, the judge decided my ex needed it more than me. We need to revamp SS and keep the greedy politicians hands out of it. There's a whole lot of people out there like me. Some/a lot didn't put themselves in the situation their in, SS is their only hope.
    This is your mind on drugs!
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  11. 06-24-2018, 08:23 PM #11
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    What is the "its" that's not working
    OPINION....a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
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