Ugliness Awaits Many Boomers Nearing Retirement: Not only have they been lied to, but they also have to deal with rigged markets, corruption, and incompetent advisors

Advancing Time ^ | 02/11/2023 | Bruce Wilds

[Owen]

Man plans. God laughs.

[lurked_for_a_decade]

True.

[Clemenza]

My daddy took good care of my mommy so she is in good shape, but I feel awful about those others in the boomer generation that are less fortunate.

[SamAdams76]

You made a good post at #50.

Americans are being sold an unrealistic picture of what retirement is actually like. For example, a photo like that below shows up in virtually every retirement ad: A carefree retired couple with nothing else to do but walk sandy beaches together, hand in hand, for the rest of their now-happy lives. They are led to believe that this is what retirement should look like.

They are being setup for disappointment.

The reality is that within a few weeks of retirement, couples usually end up getting on each other's nerves unless each spouse finds hobbies and other things to do with their time. As you pointed out, sunny beaches all the time gets old pretty quick.

The irony is, working couples can have the beach scene below anytime they want. This is what vacations and long summer weekends are for! You don't need to wait until retirement to build those kind of memories together.

In retirement, even couples that have saved a lot of money now get nervous about spending it. They are no longer in the "acquisition" phase of life so they suddenly become misers, trying to make every penny stretch, lest they run out some day. The end result is that they deny themselves in their prime years only to have their nest egg sucked away later for nursing homes or end-of-life care. Or they end up leaving windfalls for their grown children that get spent on sports cars, boats and other nonsense.

So work as long as you can and take a lot of vacations while you have money still coming in. Of course, you want to still save for when you can no longer work but money is easier to spend when you still have it coming in.

Get to the beaches now, not later.

[Nervous Tick]

>> The only way YOU get paid SS and Medicare is by taking the money, at gunpoint, from people who are working. It’s an evil cycle of armed robbery, and the American people are too soft, cowardly, and addicted to Big Government to address it.

I can’t in good faith argue with that. I’d add “selfish and nearsighted” to the list of bad character traits.

So what does “righteously deal[ing] with the problem” look like to you?

[Nervous Tick]

>> Trust me, I don’t know any of these. Who do you hang around with?

I know them through church activities.

[NorthMountain]

What we SHOULD do is end the program. Kill the payroll tax, pay off the current beneficiaries at full rate, and prorated for the people who paid some. Pay it out of the general revenue (which we do anyway). Let people currently working save/invest on their own responsibility. This makes for a bounded problem which will eventually disappear.

We should have done this back in the 1980s.

[Nervous Tick]

>> pay off the current beneficiaries at full rate

What exactly does that mean?

[NorthMountain]

They get whatever Socialist Insecurity currently pays them, with COLA etc until they die.

It will take a generation or so to properly end this damnable mess.

[Nervous Tick]

Fair enough.

What about folks like me, SS eligible but still working and not taking SS? Would your plan incentivize me to wait, or to sign up NOW “or lose out”?

I suppose you’re aware, someone (W. Bush?) tried to “privatize” SS back when it was “third rail” and all that. It did not happen. Or, depending on exactly which generation you hail from, maybe you don’t know that.

So what’s your plan for Medicare/Medicaid?

I am aware that the demographics argue against the continuation of the Ponzi scheme(s) Boomers not exactly being the “greatest generation”, there is significant generational animosity towards the current recipients.

But IMHO we won’t rationally decide as a nation to transition away from it. I am afraid that serious upheaval (economic collapse, war, return of Jesus) will bring a “sudden” change. Kinda like a thirty year old athlete dying of “suddenly”. ;-)

[NorthMountain]

First, I'm well aware of the history of this, having lived it. I'd suggest that people who have paid social security taxes get benefits, when they reach "retirement age" based on how much they paid. Nobody "loses out", but people newly entering the workforce aren't shoveled into the system.

There's really no clean way to do this, therefore it will never happen.

But IMHO we won’t rationally decide as a nation to transition away from it.

I agree. It could have been done in the 1970s or even the 1980s. Now? Hah!

I am afraid that serious upheaval (economic collapse, war, return of Jesus) will bring a “sudden” change.

Pretty much.

[Steve Van Doorn]

"thanks to COVID-19 destroying my lungs"

Thiamine Vit B1 you can't take to much of it. it produces 7-Dehydrocholesterol which carries oxygen in the blood in a dissolved form.

High dose Melatonin may stimulated with epidermal growth. Melatonin: Regulation of Viral Phase Separation and Epitranscriptomics in Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/15/8122

[gitmo]

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