Joe Nocera, op-edding in the New York Times about turning 60 and not being able to foresee retiring:
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, for instance, only 22 percent of workers 55 or older have more than $250,000 put away for retirement. Stunningly, 60 percent of workers in that same age bracket have less than $100,000 in a retirement account. Ghilarducci told me that the average savings for someone near retirement in America right now is $100,000. Even buttressed by Social Security, that’s not going to last very long.
And even MORE stunning: Some people have no retirement account, and less than $1,000 $500 $50 $10 in their checking account! And have to pay all monthly expenses out of a Social Security check! Even though a month is only 31 days long at the longest, that check’s often not going to last even that long!
Social Security & pensions are all that are preventing mass starvation amongst the elderly. I’m extremely lucky to have max SocSec and a decent pension and good medical via my wife’s pension setup.
I’m 74 and still working (until my job goes away in a few months). Five kids, four BAs, two prep schools (when our public school went bad), major medical bills (even with decent insurance), loss of expected income due to medical problems. Kinda scrambled the nest egg and the housing crash didn’t help. Now we’re in the process of downsizing, both to simplify life and reduce expenses.
We will survive, but a lot of folks I know will have major problems. Of the retirement age people I know, most have one or both partners working. Some years ago the issue of grown kids moving back in with their parents was in the news. Now it’s happening the other way. The multi-generation households of the past were an economic necessity that’s being revisited. At least the grandparents can babysit while the parents are both out working two or three jobs.
It is worth remembering that the Founding Fathers were all traitors.
They can move into their kids’ basements I suppose. Roll out on weekends to protest with/against OWS?!?
We’ve been told for decades, put your money away, Social Security is just covers a gap, don’t rely on it. When I started working, I actually had a pension in the first two jobs I worked, and I was not union. I never fully vested, and even if I had, I would have had to cash out in favor of the 401k.
There used to be loyalty between employer and employee, and sadly, both sides have completely abandoned that, altho it was the employer who left us at the altar first.
And this isn’t just a working class issue. This is a white-collar issue, as well. People put money into their houses thinking those would be their retirement funds, but guess what? 2008 destroyed many hopes for that as well, along with 401k accounts. A double whammy to people who hoped not to have to flip burgers at age 80.
On the bright side, perhaps this new generation, the 99%ers, see what we’ve done to ourselves and will be more careful. I’d like to think so. They certainly seem girded to make do with less than we did.