Posted on 06/09/2019 7:33:10 PM PDT by vannrox
Baby Boomers are retiring. Most are now starting to take their pensions and Social Security. The more fortunate are beginning to dip into their IRAs and 401Ks.
As we reach this milestone, our views tend to harden. We are growing less tolerant. Some may call it cranky. We don’t buy a lot of the nonsense that is shoved down our throats by so many of the so called experts on television. We frequently find ourselves yelling back at them.
We are even less tolerant of all the politically correct BS. As our circulation slows, we look forward to spending more time in warmer climates. So, the Global Warming ruse doesn’t scare us a bit. We are oblivious to the snickers of our kids or our comfortable clothing choices.
The cat calls from the Left have little effect either. We acknowledge that we are mostly white, middle class and have faith in God. We worked hard, sacrificed to pay for braces and tuition. Along the way, we paid off the mortgage. So, call us any name you want. We are not homophobic haters and are quite comfortable in our now sagging skin. We are not easily cowed. More than some Americans, we relate to people like Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump and William Barr.
If there is one thing that makes our thinning hair stand on end, it is the growing sense that we have been lied to. We’ve started to figure a few things out. And we are getting crankier.
For decades we were told by experts that we had to make “investments” in one government program after the next. Oh, they never said that they really just wanted to grow government. No, we were making investments in people or in children. If we had a dollar for every time we were told that our investment in public education was the best investment we could make, we could all retire more comfortably. Here in Minnesota, the per pupil investment in our public schools has increased by 23 percent over the last ten years. This while Social Security COLA’s have increased by only 15.6 percent. Do test scores reflect a very good return on that additional investment? CARTOONS | Bob Gorrell View Cartoon
Against our better judgment, we have allowed our taxes to go up and up. With only a few exceptions, spending (and thus taxes) at all levels of government has grown at rates that far outpaced inflation. The property taxes on our home here in Rochester have gone up 41.3 percent in just the last five years. We could have invested that money ourselves and received a nice return. We’ve been forced to reduce our standard of living to subsidize others. We were promised that if we would just allow the enlightened to build bigger and better safety nets, everyone would be better off. The welfare state grew. Our national well-being did not.
Higher education was said to be the best investment of all. A college education, we were told, was the key to a better future. So, we dug a little deeper to subsidize the denizens of Leftist indoctrination. First, through our taxes and state support. Second, through ever-increasing tuitions. Kids were forced to run up mountains of debt to pay for diplomas, many of which are worth only slightly more than the sheepskin they are written on. Recommended Something Is Fishy Here: Two Former GOP State Senators Found Dead Days Apart Beth Baumann
The same voices lied to us about immigration. How many times have we been told that illegal immigrants and refugees “contribute so much to our economy?” Poppycock! If you still believe that, just drive through the large sections of Minneapolis that now resemble a third world country. Taxpayer subsidies have ballooned. The promised contribution hasn’t found its way back to those of us who have been pulling the wagon and paying the bills.
The day for payback has come. Baby boomers are expecting real dividends from their IRAs and other investments. We want dividends on those decades of public investments as well. No excuses. We demand tax cuts and we want them now! President Trump has delivered. Now it’s time for state and local officials to follow suit.
A national tax revolt is brewing among cranky baby boomers. And we vote.
The more fortunateforward thinking are beginning to dip into their IRAs and 401Ks.
There was never anything stopping anyone from investing in a 401K or IRA or other tax deferred retirement investment funds.
If you didn’t invest for retirement it wasn’t bad luck. It was your own fault. Most anyone can afford $10 a week. If you can afford beer, cigarettes or an expensive cellphone you can afford to invest for the future.
‘LUCKY’ is a word the Left uses to sell tax hikes on those that plan ahead to those weak minded individuals who don’t.
Unfortunately, those who prefer to safely “save” at interest rather than “invest” in equities at risk are now left out in the cold. A whole dimension of the economy is gone. That ain’t good in the long run.
Kind of like complaining the blindfold itches while the command to ready, aim, fire is being delivered.
“If you didn’t invest for retirement it wasn’t bad luck. It was your own fault. Most anyone can afford $10 a week. If you can afford beer, cigarettes or an expensive cellphone you can afford to invest for the future.”
You are standing on my soap box. I beat that horse regularly to hopefully serve as a wake up call to someone out there that might not be thinking about retirement yet and saving enough money.
I did not save much in my early working years. But as I got into my career I began to wake up and I began saving larger and larger percentages each year by diverting much of my raises to savings. My savings rate each year increased. At retirement I was saving over 25% a year. This took some sacrifice. I kept my small house instead of getting a larger one, lived modestly, bought clothes at thrift shops, kept cars for 15 years, etc.
It takes a lot of money saved over 40 working years to last possibly another 25-30 years (if you’re lucky).
I want reparations for having to put up with stinking HIPPIES for all these years!
“If you can afford beer, cigarettes or an expensive cellphone you can afford to invest for the future.”
______________________________________________
I constantly explained to women I worked with the actual cost of the blouse that they felt they, “just had to have,” over the cost of several years.
It was like talking to a wall. And once their children control the spending in the house it’s a losing race.
Women were the harder of the two sexes to get to start saving because they just had this insane craving for newer and newer products.
Sigh.
My little blue car is about 12 and is really starting to show wear and tear. Sitting in the Texas sun is a nightmare of cars.
Since we are retired purchasing a new car is out of the question (more because I hate the newest garbage in them). I simply cannot bring myself to purchase ANYTHING that now costs more than what I paid for my house!
Purchasing an older car for most folks is really the best way to go, provided they actually look at the vehicle with a good eye and listen to it with a sound ear.
Every now and then I check out the cost of cigarettes (former smoker, here) and am SO glad I quit decades ago!
I started investing in my companies 401K the day I qualified (was no longer a probationary employee) at age 23. I opened my IRA account about 10 years later.
I started out at 6% of my earnings so as to get the maximum company matching and gradually increased my savings rate over the years.
I started investing in the 401K mainly because I have always read the news voraciously. As early as 1980 I came to understand that Social Security eventually had to fail and that it was unlikely to be around when I retired.
The forecasts were true and SS has already failed and is on life support. Its income is exceeded by its expenditures and this shortfall will only increase overtime unless congress does something to remedy this imbalance. Any remedy will be a political battle and likely a nightmare for those of us that planned for our retirement.
“Every now and then I check out the cost of cigarettes (former smoker, here) and am SO glad I quit decades ago!”
Yes me too. Working offshore in my 20s cured that. I was so busy I would forget to light up and before you know it I wasn’t smoking.
You chose — wisely. :-)
I don’t see SS going under. It has the support of Congress and every recent President we’ve had. The politicians will do whatever they need to do to keep it going.
I now get my check and every bit helps.
They assume someone will care for them. Someone else has always come through for them.
Or, they simply refuse to look at the future.
It takes a desire to be independent to look to the future and prepare.
Large numbers of people simply float through life without any concern for consequences.
The entire socialist movement is based on removing consequences for people's poor choices.
I know a woman who made mostly bad choices, because bad choices were the default position. Even when counseled and explained, when the talk came to money, she simply said "numbers, I don't do numbers".
A hundred years ago, those who refused to save and be thrifty suffered enormous bad consequences in the first year, mostly.
Now it goes for decades, and even then, many do not suffer much in consequences.
It has already gone under. It went under the day that paid benefits exceeded ‘contributions’. That was never supposed to happen.
In the 1930s when the system was designed taxpayer contributions were supposed to exceed (very nicely) paid benefits. Congress made sure of this by not citizens not being eligible for benefits until age 62 ½. Most men died by age 45 and most women by age 60.
As people started living longer adjustments were made the tax rate was raised. The span of the people in the program was expanded (added farmers and the self-employed. Hey let’s rip off more people).
But the main point is that once the SS Administration started redeeming their SS Bonds the game was up. They were broke. The bonds are redeemable only to the US Treasury. That means that SS checks are being paid out of the US General Funds (in reality they always were). Now this off budget program is being paid out of funds that are supposed to be only paying for budgeted programs.
As designed SS was supposed to be supplier of funds to the Federal Budget now it is a drain on that budget.
You’re correct to say that Congress will do whatever is necessary to ensure that SS survives. SS is one of those third rail programs that no one dare touch.
Part of the appeal of ‘Dreamers’ is that they pay into SS. Illegal aliens, especially those that use stolen SS numbers are a net positive to SS because they pay in but don’t collect benefits.
Demographics of the US are killing SS. Young people are having way to few children and the Babyboomers are retiring way too soon and living way to long.
So, if you ever wonder why both Dims and Republicrats are not ranting and raving about deporting illegals, it because they really don’t want to do anything about the very dire problems with SS.
All this really tells you is that letting government calculate inflation is like letting the fox guard the hens.
My personal inflation rate has vastly exceeded the government figures, and so has that of everyone around me.
I am pushing 70; I just bought MY first NEW truck this last December.
The wife had several new cars over the years, but I always drove my repairable junk.
“very dire problems with SS”
SS is just one of many problems. The country is $22T in debt and running $1T deficits ... and that’s with Trump. Once Trump is gone the country goes harder left. No one cares. They will keep SS going no matter what.
True
SS is a minor problem compared to Medicare.
“There was never anything stopping anyone from investing in a 401K or IRA - - “
Absolutely correct. I see many in their late 60’s on up into their early 80’s still trying to work. Some obviously never saved.
But there’s another group out there, according to my financial adviser, that feel they owed themselves a good lifestyle and blew through their IRA’s in just a few years and had to go back to work. I personally know of one that planned to spend his IRA in 10 years and blew through it in 2. He acted like a spoiled trust fund baby.
We manage our money in retirement and live and eat good without the stupid spending binges. We’ve been retired since 2011 and have bought 2 new cars, a new pickup, new boat and new camper and have money to spare.
It’s all about early investment and money management.
“Kind of like complaining the blindfold itches while the command to ready, aim, fire is being delivered.”
LOL! Brings to mind the video of Saddam where they wrapped his neck with a cloth so he would not get rope burn as they hung him. I could never figure that one out.
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