Posted on 02/12/2008 7:37:17 PM PST by MotleyGirl70
Finish those 6 classes. Your earning power will be greatly enhanced compared to others without the paper on the wall. My condolences on the loss of your father. Income is replaceable. The camaraderie and counsel of a parent is hard to replace.
This is interesting:
While 1945-1955 reflect the post-WWII demographic boom in births, there is a growing consensus among generational experts that two distinct cultural generations occupy these years. The conceptualization that has gained the most public acceptance is that of a 1942-1953 Baby Boom Generation, followed by a 1954-1965 Generation Jones. Boomers and Jonesers had dramatically different formative experiences which gave rise to dramatically different collective personalities. Other monikers have been sometimes used to describe the younger cohort, like “Trailing Edge Boomers”, “Late Boomers”, and “Shadow Boomers”, but the moniker “Generation Jones” has achieved far more popularity than any of these other terms, and is the only moniker for this cohort that is commonly used in the media.
I’m Gen X and I don’t know anyone of my generation who expects a dime back on SS. It may be 30 years until I retire, and there’s no way in the world this system is holding on until then. It’s got 10 years left at the current rate without radical restructuring.
Regarding the life insurance, he had a very small bit through his employer, but I’m sure he saw the whole thing as unnecessary: he was 72 (would have been 73 on the 7th) and saw himself as being around another 10-15 years. Thus, he planned for that scenario, rather than the event of an accident or any unplanned occurrence. He was stubborn like that.
I indeed plan to finish the classes up, but I won’t be able to head back to school until spring 2009. It ticks me off to no end: I graduated high school in spring 2002, for crying out loud. But at least the end is somewhere on the horizon.
the govt also gives benefits to the new wives of elderly men on SS....my husbands’ great uncle was well over 65, married a tart with children....she was from another country btw....and I know the children were collecting....IIRC....I always wondered why she could buy lots of expensive stuff even though she didn’t work and it was because the kids were getting money.....at least, that’s what I remember...
I am part of the boom, yet the latter. My Brother is within 5 years of the first. We have different views yet the same ethic. I think the entire process of identifying generations is marketing of product, and giving people a way to identify themselves.
just think about building a house nowadays....the permits only were unheard of 40-50 yrs ago....
“Kinda changes things a bit when you realize that all that money that got paid in has already been spent on other government programs, and all that is left in the bank is an empty promise.
On the bright side, euthanasia seems to be more politically popular these days.”
LOL! I love dark humor....
I think its because the first two...a son and dtr...were treated pretty special but when number 3, 4, 5, and 6 come along...the money is not there nor the time....you pretty much had to make your own way...
I graduated from high school in June 1973. I graduated from UCSD in June 1976 at age 19. My dad said I had to finish before he retired from the Navy, thus I was facing a hard deadline. It really wasn't fun, but I finished a year before he retired. In the end, it was worth all the hard work.
My #2 son graduated in 2001. The following month, he went to USMC boot camp. The WTC was destroyed while he was in boot camp. Suffice to say, going to Iraq delayed his college as well. When he returned, he put himself through the University of Phoenix to earn a BS in Business Administration. He paid for it by earning a CA real estate license and running a real estate office during the day. It paid much better than his prior job flipping burgers at In-and-Out.
Hang in and stay the course. It will be worth the effort.
Supposedly 2042 is d-day for SS if nothing changes. But it will, they will reduce benefits, raise the age, etc etc. It doesn't take much of an individual reduction in benefits multiplied a gazillion times over to make a big difference.
I felt the same way when I was your age looking at 30+ years of work ahead of me before collecting SS. It was the right attitude though because I prepared for retirement believing SS would not be there. Likely I will receive it now and so it will be icing on the cake.
April of ‘09 for me too.1947 was a very good year.I have been paying into SS for 45 years and I intend to live to be a hundred and draw ten times what I paid in.
“work for the gummit in some way...cop, teacher, military, firemen, dams, etc etc....
you will have a guarentee pension.....SS will not be as necessary as for those without pensions...”
That’s what happened to me, by default. While my ex was going through grad school many moons ago, I worked for the University he was attending for about 5 years. Many years later of having worked in positions under SS, I then took a position at a major public university in my State. I was then on the university’s pension system rather than SS, and it was the same system I had been under years ago when I worked while my ex went through grad school. The good news is that the pension system was a good one, and I am one of those who doesn’t have to depend solely on SS, thank goodness.
The second fortuitous thing was that I was able to “buy back” those 5 years I worked when young at a sister university to the one I worked for later. So, I was able to retire at age 58 after I accumulated all my university working years (25) and I will still get 40% of SS for all of the previous years I worked under it. I am a lucky duck in this regard. The chips all fell into place for me, although with some planning on my part.
So, now I have a new job, sitting on this recliner, with my shawl around me (it’s freezing here in IL), my cup of hot tea on the side table next to me, and my cat on my lap, right below my laptop computer, chattering away on FR. Not such a bad life right now (except for the damnable frigid weather we have been experiencing here in the Midwest). But I have my three lapwarmers, my fleece throw, my warm laptop, and my furry black cat.
I do want to hammer home the necessity though of starting to think retirement and how you can best plan for it as soon as you can. I should have started earlier. I started to seriously think about it when I hit 40, and from that point on, I thought of literally everything as to how it would benefit and impact me when I got older. For instance, I made sure to lock in my healthcare so that I had the prerequisite number of years in, so as to make sure I didn’t need to pay my premium anymore when retired (by staying 20 years at the same workplace); making sure I was in a viable and good HMO after studying all of the options, buying furniture I knew would last a lifetime (I would buy it one piece at a time as I could afford it until I had the whole set, and always waited for when it was on sale). I used coupons all the time when shopping, used credit cards that had givebacks of one sort or the other, bought gadgets and gizmos with an eye to ease of use when older (I knew arthritis runs rampant in my family, and sure enough it has set in). I still make my purchases with one eye to ease of use and/or ability to move things around easily. I also took a 20 year mortgage out on my condo rather than a 30 year one, so as to have it paid off completely just about the time they will shove me into an old folks home. That will give me the extra money (if I need to sell the paid-off condo) to stay in that retirement home until I pass on to my final resting place.
Also, luckily for me, I am reasonably proficient at use of the computer because of my working days spent on them. This has been such a plus by allowing me the option of doing my business on my computer. Banking, purchases, paying bills, I do it all on-line now, and have been doing so for about the last 5 years. I have never yet had one problem with any of my transactions. The Web is such a boon as you get older, as well as a source of pleasure (freeping), researching, reading in general, a giant encyclopedia at one’s fingertips. My head is so full of extraneous knowledge now, it’s ready to explode. Ok, so this is some of my advice to the younger generation as to what to consider as you age to prepare for that inevitable fact. Start thinking now about this. Life can always throw curve balls though, and the best of plans can go astray. I therefore wish you all good luck.
That makes them the greatest generation!
ping
62? Somethings not right about this.
Not to worry. I’m sure Gen X will up and volunteer to give up their SS when the time comes so Gen Y doesn’t have to pay the tax.
AARP it is. Twice the circulation of TV Guide.
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