Posted on 10/02/2015 6:30:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Aesop would have had a straightforward explanation for why some people just can’t manage to save up for retirement: Some people are born ants—industrious and in possession of great willpower—while others are grasshoppers, living only for today.
Millennia later, sorting workers into personality-specific boxes is still the preferred way of thinking about how to get people to put more money into savings. An otherwise thoughtful survey of over 1,000 individuals and interviews with 50 people by the MetLife Mature Markets Institute identifies no fewer than 10 different variations on the grasshopper: There are “Snoozers,” “Oversleepers,” “Stewers,” “Brewers.” And then there are “Preemptive Planners,” whose radar screens are populated with future risks. If people fit into these neat buckets, the conventional savings wisdom goes, then the solution is to educate the grasshoppers to start behaving more like ants.
MetLife isn’t wrong to dwell on personality types. Researchers such as Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, have found convincing links between personality traits and savings. Duckworth doesn’t talk about “oversleepers,” but about the Big Five personality traits: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extroversion. Conscientious types, she’s found, tend to save more money.
But while MetLife and Duckworth may have identified some traits associated with inadequate saving, telling people to buckle down is unlikely to do very much, because, by adulthood, personality traits are more or less fixed. A lack of discipline or joie de vivre are hardly the main reasons some people don’t put enough into their 401(k)s or IRAs; the blame lies not with individuals but with the nation’s savings institutions.
Even if someone has access to an IRA or a 401(k), it’s difficult to stash away money—there are always bills to pay or relatives in need of financial assistance.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I don't think so. I have heard talk of Civil War II often about this, but I doubt it. Most people will do nothing, as they did nothing over ObamaCare, taxation, abuse of Christian rights in the Constitution, etc.
Big talk, but nothing of substantiation......
I will transfer the funds and take the penalty the day congress passes it and before the president signs it.
Not sure where this idea that people are entitled to a period of leasure on this earth came from, but it absolutely wasn’t the God of the bible.
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I note that the God of the Bible made no mention of indoor plumbing either.
The Feds know exactly how much you have, that is why you have to declare it every tax year. Transfer to.....where in an economic emergency?
I think we all might have a shock coming...........
What a juvenile comment.
MrEdd's comment is actually based on Biblical and historic fact. The concept of modern "retirement" leisure whereby people go to Olive Garden every Thursday and play golf half the week is not based on any Scripture.
Neither are computers dmz - for your comment. Does that mean God does not exist today? Are you really this shallow?
I’m sorry you missed the point.
The progress mankind has made since Biblical times has changed much about the way our day to day lives are led. It provides both indoor plumbing AND the ability (theoretically) to save enough to spend some leisure years in retirement after long years of working.
I did not miss the point sir. I challenge you to point to the Biblical reference that guarantees you or anyone else years and years of leisure.
I'll save you the time: it isn't there.
You’ve completely missed the point. At no point have I challenged your Biblical interpretation.
Nobody guarantees years and years of leisure today either.
You know as well as I do that your day to day life is nothing like the day to day life lived by those living in Biblical times. Is that really that controversial a statement?
Is there a reason you are attributing statements to me that I never made?
But it is good that you and I are blessed by Him.
If you permit me, please allow this post to be a thanksgiving to Him, before it is completely outlawed:
"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:18
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