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How to Salvage Your Retirement
WSJ on-line ^ | Brett Arends

Posted on 03/12/2010 2:18:46 PM PST by Pontiac

Is it too late to save your retirement?

For many, the answer is surely yes. News out this week shows that 29% of those who have already retired have saved nothing at all to support themselves, while only a third have saved at least $50,000.

To put this in context: A retirement account of $50,000 will provide a 65-year-old man with an annuity of just $4,000 a year.

Yet according to the latest annual retirement survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, two-thirds of those in retirement don't even have that much set aside.

It's true that many will still be okay. That's because they will have a good benefit pension, or a lot of equity in their home, or both. Neither is counted in the survey, and both can be very important.

But neither pensions nor home values are what they once were. And many won't even have them.

Overall, this is a pitiful state of affairs at the tail end of the biggest financial boom in history. Today's retirees lived through the incredible bull market that began in 1982. Bonds as well as shares skyrocketed. Most of them should be rolling in money.

Instead they were relying on ... what? Santa Claus?

The picture is no better for those still working, either—including millions of baby boomers nearing retirement. According to EBRI, just a third of workers have saved $50,000 or more, and nearly a third haven't saved a dime. The numbers got worse, not better, in the last year. Forty percent of workers aren't saving at the moment.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: retirement; saving; socialsecurity
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Overall, this is a pitiful state of affairs at the tail end of the biggest financial boom in history. Today's retirees lived through the incredible bull market that began in 1982. Bonds as well as shares skyrocketed. Most of them should be rolling in money.

Instead they were relying on ... what? Santa Claus?

Well if you are a liberal Dimocrat; yes.

Or as some would say “Other People’s Money”.

1 posted on 03/12/2010 2:18:46 PM PST by Pontiac
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To: GOP_Lady

WSJ ping


2 posted on 03/12/2010 2:22:07 PM PST by Pontiac
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To: Pontiac
Do you believe these numbers? I find it hard to believe that many people did not take any action to prepare for their retirement.

Maybe I'm naive but I don't think that many people did nothing to plan for their futures.

What do you think?

3 posted on 03/12/2010 2:26:57 PM PST by A Cyrenian
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To: Pontiac

Most people in my generation (late boomers) will have to work until they die.

They have no assets. They have liabilities. Social Security will be broke. They have already spent more than they will ever earn.

Their debts will expire with them, is probably the best they can hope for.

Oh, and stealing my money.


4 posted on 03/12/2010 2:27:36 PM PST by Uncle Miltie (Democrats prioritize Death over Enslavement!)
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To: A Cyrenian

But everyone has a big screen and cable.


5 posted on 03/12/2010 2:28:07 PM PST by Uncle Miltie (Democrats prioritize Death over Enslavement!)
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To: Pontiac
It isn't really true that $1,000 saved is just $1,000 earned. If you're in the top income-tax bracket, it's $1,500 earned. And salted away for 30 years in a tax-deferred account, $1,000 saved is nearly $9,000 towards your retirement. That's some return.

The power of compounded earnings.

6 posted on 03/12/2010 2:28:59 PM PST by Pontiac
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To: Pontiac
I swear I saw an 80 year old woman working the drive up window at Burger King the other day. My mom on the other hand is playing bridge and going to the beach. Obama is not going to save these people. They better figure it out.
7 posted on 03/12/2010 2:32:26 PM PST by throwback (o)
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To: A Cyrenian
Do you believe these numbers?

Yep.

With my own family I think it is worse.

I am from a family of eight. Of those eight I think only two of us put away more than just an employer retirement.

Our consumer culture seems to encourage instant gratification and little saving.

My step children despite my efforts never keep a dime in their pocket let alone in a savings account.

8 posted on 03/12/2010 2:33:57 PM PST by Pontiac
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To: Pontiac

I believe these numbers completely. And, I think the numbers in my generation (I’m 39) are worse yet. Somewhere along the way, we became a credit addicted society...and saving just hasn’t happened for alot of people.


9 posted on 03/12/2010 2:36:48 PM PST by lacrew (Barack Obama is always the least experienced most condescending guy in the room. (Rush))
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To: A Cyrenian

I find it sad, but not hard at all to believe.

Look, the vast majority of Americans have been on a 20-30 year binge of overspending, over-consuming, and virtually no saving. The party has been fun, all the goodies, trips, SUVs, toys, clothes, big screens, wine, jewelry, and of course, that (must-have-better-than-the-relatives) “dream house” that they’re now upside-down on. And China Inc. has been the chief pimp, bartender, and caterer of all this overconsumption, which has enabled hundreds of millions of rural Chinese workers to achieve a level of income they never could have under communism.

But the party’s over. We’re broke and because China kept it’s currency cheap to encourage us to keep buying, we don’t even have millions of jobs in the US for people to work at if they wanted to.

And we did it to ourselves.


10 posted on 03/12/2010 2:37:54 PM PST by bigbob
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To: throwback
I swear I saw an 80 year old woman working the drive up window at Burger King the other day. My mom on the other hand is playing bridge and going to the beach. Obama is not going to save these people. They better figure it out.

I know several retirees who gambled and lost on the Dot Com bubble.

I know one in particular that took a cash option on his retirement and lost when the bubble burst. He now works land scaping in the summers and his wife works at a quickie mart kind of place.

11 posted on 03/12/2010 2:37:58 PM PST by Pontiac
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To: Pontiac

Bump


12 posted on 03/12/2010 2:38:17 PM PST by WashingtonSource
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To: A Cyrenian

Do you believe these numbers? I find it hard to believe that many people did not take any action to prepare for their retirement.
Maybe I’m naive but I don’t think that many people did nothing to plan for their futures.

What do you think?

3 posted on Friday, March 12, 2010 5:26:57 PM by A Cyrenian


They thought they did save for their retirement. They were told that’s what Social Security was for....but the government didn’t put it in a lockbox for them, they spent it instead. But they(the government) have to blame the citizenry, they won’t admit their guilt in screwing America...


13 posted on 03/12/2010 2:38:40 PM PST by Freddd (CNN is down to Three Hundred Thousand viewers. But they worked for it.)
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To: Uncle Miltie
Most people in my generation (late boomers) will have to work until they die.

I'm somewhat younger than this, and I want to work and be productive until I die. Retiring, from what I can see, is the fastest path to boredom, lost purpose and an early death.

But I'm putting money in a 401K just in case I change my mind.
14 posted on 03/12/2010 2:40:18 PM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Pontiac

It would be interesting to know the breakdown between conservatives and liberals, voters and non-voters.

I cannot even imagine a conservative not planning for retirement, setting aside as much as possible for a raining day.


15 posted on 03/12/2010 2:42:55 PM PST by unique
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To: Uncle Miltie
Most people in my generation (late boomers) will have to work until they die.

Maybe all of us.

The Dims are working on a plan to confiscate our 401Ks and use them to shore up Social Security.

If return we will get some kind of defined annuity.

If anything would light the fires of insurrection in me it would be that.

16 posted on 03/12/2010 2:43:09 PM PST by Pontiac
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To: Uncle Miltie

>>But everyone has a big screen and cable.<<

Not the smart ones. I have a 15 year old tube type TV. I keep a “fund” that I contribute to every paycheck and pay cash for everything. The only debt I have is my mortgage and I will pay that off this coming year (after 13 years).

I am taking advantage of the 401K catch-up and the like and I project I should be OK by the time I hit 70 or so, assuming that SSI is nothing by the time I retire.


17 posted on 03/12/2010 2:43:31 PM PST by freedumb2003 ( Tagline lost -- anyone seen it?)
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To: A Cyrenian

RE: “Maybe I’m naive but I don’t think that many people did nothing to plan for their futures.

What do you think?”

***********

I don’t know where you live, but I know several near-or-in-retirement boomers living in (or from) CA who have saved little or nothing.

A few have worked a long time at jobs in companies still providing good pensions (OR govt. jobs, with the richest benefits) but the rest are screwed, or planning to live on other peoples’ money. They’d best not count on mine.

Social security cannot be counted on to support anyone, if it even continues to exist. That alone is not enough. Lots of people left jobs for various reasons and took their 401K money and spent it or invested it unwisely in risky schemes.

I WISH I knew a lot of people who had prepared or are preparing appropriately for retirement. CA is now a disgusting welfare state and getting worse every year.


18 posted on 03/12/2010 2:47:29 PM PST by CaliforniaCon
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To: Uncle Miltie

I hear you, Uncle Miltie — I believe I know all the same people you do; or there sure is a whole host of them out there!!!


19 posted on 03/12/2010 2:48:34 PM PST by CaliforniaCon
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To: freedumb2003

You have the right idea.. I was laid off at 29 years 9 months.. at 54.. that was 2.5 years ago.. My investments have actually done quite well..

I don’t plan on SSI, if it pays off, bonus!


20 posted on 03/12/2010 2:48:37 PM PST by tje
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