Posted on 04/15/2008 4:30:15 AM PDT by Lusis
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Baby boomers say they are worried about achieving a comfortable retirement, but a new study suggests Generation X is even more pessimistic.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
a whole generation flushed its newborns down the high school toilet?
Not to worry, something will come up after they are done paying for the boomers Social Security.
Oh great, another boomer bashing thread.
I'd like for these people to define: a comfortable retirement
I suspect it differs greatly from mine.
Read the article.
It’s a Gen-X bashing thread, apparently.
Just as idiotic, but that’s what it is.
I think what the article is saying is that the so-called Gen-X generation is not optimistic about its retirement prospects, due, to some extent, to the ideals of the great society.
They don’t expect (and I believe rightly) that Social Security in its current form is viable. All the taxes they pay will be spent on the care of their parents’ generation. I don’t see that as a negative view of their parents, but as a simple statement of fact. They know the government cannot continue these programs. Their retirement funds are eaten up, to some extent, by a tax that they cannot invest and which will not be used for their benefit.
Since it is not politically viable to address the issue by cutting benefits or by raising taxes, at least one of which *will* occur, they expect the none-responsive government to be useless at their retirement and expect nothing from the government.
I suspect that, as they age, this will directly affect where their money goes.
I guess I don’t get the anger the article evoked.
Lusis, I don’t see the correlation to the other two topics mentioned. I would certainly expect a statement that seems so far off topic to be tied in with some sort of evidence, not an “everybody knows that” statement.
If my research is correct, I came right at the beginning of the Gen-X wave. I would be a fool to depend on Socialist Security for my retirement. And yes, I can think of a lot better uses for my taxes than taking care of someone who was not far-sighted enough to plan properly for their own retirement.
Yea, I read the article. The point I was making is that every generational themed article turns into boomer bashing. Let this tread go long enough and you will see.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Uh, which generation are you thinking of again?
“Generation-X” ended with those born around 1980.
It’s the most pro-life of any generation, the last remnants were in College during the Columbine massacre, and they were firmly entrenched in the workplace by the time cheap digital cameras were available for trading homemade porn videos with their “friends”.
When 9/11 happened, Gen X-ers were those who flooded the recruiting stations (21 to 36 year olds). It doesn’t sound like the generation you are describing.
A million stashed away in a mattress, perhaps. An interest-bearing bank account at 2% would throw off 20K a year, alone. Nevermind if it was wisely invested.
I would say that is a very valid fear, since no one in Congress is in any hurry to scale back these entitlement programs... but seems to be in every hurry to expand them, especially in the last 7 years.
I have two words for them: Save and save.
I have two words for them: Save and invest.
It's about a safe withdrawal rate, not your best possible ROI. The older you get, the more risky you can be with your withdrawal rate (increasing the percentage of withdrawal) but a commonly quoted withdrawal rate is ~4% This allows your investment to continue to grow to offset inflation.
You can do a search yourself or start here for some more information.
Probably because you are from a different generation.
My husband had a business for a while. If he had not been self employed, he would have gotten banck $1000 in a refund. Because he was self employed, he owed $7000 (after all deductions). All of the self employment taxes were FICA and Medicare. So, knowing we won’t see that does piss us off.
My retirement plan: “Welcome to Walmart...”
A comfortable retirement means becoming a Wal-Mart greeter because you want to. Not because you have to.
Only way to make it while self-employed is to drive a small car that has good gas mileage a lot. Then you write off your miles.
Yup, I get it. I suppose that I should have made my point clearer. The author assumed that the million would stay static - which it certainly will not. Even hyper-conservatively invested and with a correction for inflation, a million dollars will throw off a sizeable chunk of the desired 50K a year. At the end of the stated 20 year timeframe, there still will be a pretty good piece left.
And, I've read about the 4% withdrawal rate - 'tis a sensible plan. But if that's what the author was thinking about, then he would have stated a 25-year timeframe, or a 40K/year withdrawal rate. Of course, any 'journalist' that would write a story this bad, may not have math as their strongest point.
This article is terribly written..."Of the 1,000 respondents 18 and older polled in early January, 40 percent said they had saved less than $25,000 for retirement." ...a startling quote to be sure, but how old? 19? 48? How many 19-year-olds are saving 25 grand for retirement - at that age, I'm not sure that I'd even seen that much money, total. Without any context, it's a completely worthless fact.
About the only thing that I agree with the author on is that Social Security will be insolvent by the time I retire (BTW, I'm one of these slack, lazy, goodfornothing GenX'ers). I'm figuring on some sort of a buyout, eventually - dunno how else the gov't will make it work. However, I'm planning not to see a dime of my contributions. The "Black Hole" comment in the article was fairly apt, I thought.
I think they should just call them what they are: welfare.
Why save when you know the government will confiscate them from you anyways?
I'm a member of Generation Y, and I'm even more pessimistic. I just wrote a check for several hundred dollars in additional taxes today, on top of my withholdings. (And I'm just a college student on loans!) I know that I will not get a penny back, but the government will come looking for more and more to take from me to give to dumb Boomers who were too busy smoking drugs and aborting their children to save.
No, that’s generation Y.
Generation X were those latch-key kids that the news used to write about. The internet didn’t really hit until they were either in college or just out of college.
Well, that’s because the boomer’s WERE the worst generation in history...
:-P
Are you in a small town ... clinging to guns and religion?
What's that supposed to mean?
i guess the stuff I wrote about never happened. Whew! It was only a really bad dream.
It did, but gen-xers were already in the workforce and not in high school when it did. Whew!
I know, I know......
Just kidding FRiend.
It was an Obama referenced.
Just kidding FRiend.
It was an Obama referenced.
You are confused. X-ers are between their upper 20s and mid 40s in age. We are now going bald and grey (well, at least we men are). You must be confusing us with the younger Gen Y or the Millenneal generations.
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