Posted on 05/13/2009 11:12:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
"HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD" always seemed to be the retirement-planning credo of Baby Boomers.
It seems like ages ago, but just back in October 2007, Kiplinger's was featuring a cover story shouting, "Retire Rich," a theme favored by finance-magazine editors nearly as often then as "New Sex Secrets" or the like got plastered on the front of the likes of Cosmopolitan. Both are probably equally fictional, though I have not researched the latter.
Most likely, it's doubtful there are any revelations on either score. Retiring rich requires the discipline to save along with discipline, diversified asset allocation with a keen eye on expenses. Simple, but not easy.
And certainly not a course to which we Boomers have been inclined to hew. We were quite aware that we could not count on a defined-benefit retirement plan -- the traditional pension -- to provide for retirement. That's been supplanted by the defined-contribution plan -- the 401(k) or the equivalent -- though there might be some form of matching by employers, a perk that's getting cut back in hard times.
Even if they couldn't count on a pension, Boomers had thought they could emulate their parents by cashing in on the appreciation of their homes. Mom and dad might have plunked down $40,000 for a house 40 years ago -- an expensive home back then -- —that might have sold for 20 times as much a few years ago.
If they did sell out, there probably would be little if any mortgage left by that point, so they could clear virtually the whole sales price. And they could pocket a cool half million in gains tax free. Just for having lived in a house during the greatest property inflation ever, subsidized by incredible tax breaks.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.barrons.com ...
Stand by for plenty of boomer-trashing.
Lot of us boomers took our retirement up front.
Thanks, now I'll have to pay for it.
Hurry up and retire, all you boomers, so i can snag my piece of the pie.
If there was a greater generational canard ever promoted I don't know what it is; the "greatest" voted themselves unlimited retirement and health care they never had to pay for and the boomers get the blame.
No, I'm a "greatest", not a boomer.
We will retire and eat your pie. ;-)
And with the population explosion, I’ll get to fund the boomers retirement as part of a much smaller pool.
I can just hear you practicing it now. “Stay off the grass, sonny!”
:)
Instead of greatest I think it should be called the commie generation.
I am a late boomer closer to genX really than boomer. On thing I’ve been confused about, I keep seeing retirement savings gone? If it was savings where did it go? I can see investments being evaporated in the markets but those are risky always but why do they keep calling those “savings”?
Some of us figured out early that retirement was a scam. We have a government that controls the value of our money and investment advisors who line their own pockets. If we do retire, we live on a fixed income and watch the government devalue our money. No thanks. Being a retired person with nothing productive to do doesn’t look like fun either.
Every time I see a Scooter Store commercial I tell my husband, “There goes my Social Security check.”
This whole problem will be solved when the Supreme Court finds in the Constitution that society has a right to choose to abort the elderly if they become inconvenient.
Hope they do so soon! I want to be turned into Soylent Green before it would be Soylent Brown!
/sarc
As a late-boomer, I just always figured there wouldn't be any money for my retirement. So, I've switched gears and selected a second career that I can work at until dropping over.
I'm grateful that my Dad has both a pension and Medicare. His pension pays for 90% of his medical care, and Medicare picks up the rest. Thanks to everyone who contributes today. He's a great guy.
Not this crap again! (Where is the Freeper who has that picture?)
Boomers are funding all the goodies for greedy geezers, many of whom are rich, who want all their expenses paid by the taxpayers. Anybody see John Stossel interview the group of wealthy retirees asking them if they thought it fair that other people are paying their bills? One woman said, “Well, life is not fair.” Some of them go to see their doctors just to visit and talk, and we get the shaft. Boomers are not going to be able to retire, and there will be no SS or Medicare, at least not the generous system that exists today. The politicians will probably raise the retirement age to 95, and then say they fixed everything.
If Boomers were not being taxed to death, perhaps they could save something. And I hope the AARP disappears!
I’m a late boomer. Own my own business. My plan: last kid out of college in 2015, house paid off in 2017, I’ll be 60 in 2019. I won’t “retire” but I will start slowing down; cutting back on clients, reducing some contracts, taking more time off. God willing with good health and mental faculties, I will not close up shop completely until 2029 at age 70. I should have enough money to last 10 or 15 more years. After that I don’t really much care.
Why retire? As long as you are healthy, you ought to be productive in some capacity. I can’t see myself just sitting around. I’d die of boredom.
“Sheesh, some boomers are foolish but most are broke from funding the retirement of the “greatest generation”. “
Yep.
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.
I’m a late boomer myself and I have a similar “slowing down” plan. Hopefully the private sector won’t be completely destroyed.
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