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Message
re: A quarter of Americans have no retirement savings. Zero.
Posted on 5/27/26 at 9:30 pm to andwesway
Posted on 5/27/26 at 9:30 pm to andwesway
quote:Had a white collar professional who worked for me did exactly this; left his kids with a rental house full of cheap furniture, a pickup truck worth what he still owed on it and no funeral plan.
For some, the retirement plan is to enjoy shite while they're here and able to, and die not too long after actually retiring.
63 years old. Zero plan for tomorrow. Stupefying.
2
Posted on 5/27/26 at 9:46 pm to Slippy
quote:
What are these millions upon millions of people going to do to support themselves when they get old?
1. Get a job
2. Live with family
3. Die in miserable living conditions
We have a society where you can plan your future if you commit to education and hard work. For someone aged 65 to have no savings (or just $200k), they either didn’t plan, didn’t get an education, or didn’t work hard.
Posted on 5/27/26 at 9:59 pm to Deplorableinohio
Home equity doesn’t produce income to pay for living expenses.
Posted on 5/27/26 at 10:52 pm to Sun God
quote:
Must be nice
Honestly, I think the 401(k)/IRA is a better system. With a pension plan you eventually become a "slave" to the company because you can't "afford" to give up the pension to pursue better opportunities.
My first 5 years in the workforce I was legally only allowed to put $2,000 (IRA limits back then) a year towards retirement. My employer, Uncle Sam, was pension only so when I left service there wasn't a 401(K) account with company matching funds that I could take with me to my next job.
Posted on 5/27/26 at 10:56 pm to Hangover Haven
quote:
Well, I'm under that age group and my median retirement is much higher than those numbers, so that's good to know...
Took about three posts before a brag
Posted on 5/27/26 at 10:57 pm to Swamp Frog x
quote:
SS will never go belly up.
True….
But the Dems have already floated the concept of reduced or phase out benefits for the “rich” by means testing based on asset value and/or 401k and investments.
When faced with budgetary headwinds, don’t think for a second that they won’t try something to help their constituents at the expense of those who sacrificed and saved (aka the “rich”)
Posted on 5/27/26 at 11:07 pm to hillrosetiger
quote:
Home equity doesn’t produce income to pay for living expenses.
It can if you do a reverse mortgage. Not saying that's sound financial planning but beggars can't be chosers.
Posted on 5/28/26 at 12:49 am to brmark70816
quote:
I don't think I will ever stop working. Even if I step down in my current career, to more of a part time consulting position. I just think men are meant to have a purpose. There is only so much traveling you can do and golf you can play.
The utterances of a crazy man
Posted on 5/28/26 at 6:19 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
quote:
They think Social Security is their retirement.
If it was privatized like Dubya wanted, then social security could be their sole retirement. But that didn’t happen and they will never get a fair return on their wage garnishment.
Posted on 5/28/26 at 6:23 am to chew4219
quote:
if it was privatized like Dubya wanted
He was fricking crucified for it
Posted on 5/28/26 at 6:28 am to brmark70816
quote:
There is only so much traveling you can do and golf you can play.
Bollocks.
Posted on 5/28/26 at 6:39 am to Auburn80
It’s a federal program. It’s can run a deficit just like every other federal program.
Technically, not true; SSI supplemental funding would need to be appropriated by Congress once the trust fund is exhausted.
While I don’t think either party will face the chaos of letting the fund go insolvent, they’re will be real interest rate consequences for the future amount of borrowing needed by the Federal government
Technically, not true; SSI supplemental funding would need to be appropriated by Congress once the trust fund is exhausted.
While I don’t think either party will face the chaos of letting the fund go insolvent, they’re will be real interest rate consequences for the future amount of borrowing needed by the Federal government
Posted on 5/28/26 at 6:45 am to Fun Bunch
quote:
Every time I think maybe I'm not doing enough I look at stuff like this and it puts it into perspective that I am doing fine
Personal finance stuff has been a huge niche interest for me for a long time.
Now I'm way behind (Starting over 2x financially will do that, and currently I'm worried Google may force #3 in the next 2-3 years) optimal retirement status, admittedly, but I'm WAY ahead of so many people overall who just make my mind melt. I have $0 CC debt. No car debt. A very minimal amount of SL debt left. etc.
I wonder what the net becomes if we take the debt of these households and remove it from retirement savings. I bet these numbers get a LOT more dire. If you have $100k in a retirement account but $30k in credit card debt and $50k in car debt (at 5%+ interest rates), how close to retirement are you really?
Posted on 5/28/26 at 6:48 am to LouisianaLady
quote:
I could somewhat understand being lax on retirement savings if you're someone with a nice inheritance down the line (although it is dumb, anything can happen), but I highly doubt those are the people being lax of saving and investing.
If you are the type of person not to save and were banking on the inheritance, odds are you'll blow the inheritance due to lifestyle creep.
Posted on 5/28/26 at 6:51 am to chew4219
Delayed gratification is a concept that Americans struggle with.
Being forced to participate in Social Security is actually the best way forward. If people were allowed to opt-out, then they will not participate in anything and save zero dollars. They will have nothing, and the country would be in a much worse position with a huge percentage of the elderly population being homeless. At least the current system gives them some amount of money to live in. It was never meant to be the only source of income in retirement.
To those that say “I could have done so much better if the government would have let me invest the social security dollars myself,” you are correct. I am part of this group but this isn’t an option. I think it was GWB that wanted to privatize Social Security and his plan was shot down as too risky. If that would have passed, combined with the stock market gains of the last 20 years, the situation would be so different today.
Being forced to participate in Social Security is actually the best way forward. If people were allowed to opt-out, then they will not participate in anything and save zero dollars. They will have nothing, and the country would be in a much worse position with a huge percentage of the elderly population being homeless. At least the current system gives them some amount of money to live in. It was never meant to be the only source of income in retirement.
To those that say “I could have done so much better if the government would have let me invest the social security dollars myself,” you are correct. I am part of this group but this isn’t an option. I think it was GWB that wanted to privatize Social Security and his plan was shot down as too risky. If that would have passed, combined with the stock market gains of the last 20 years, the situation would be so different today.
Posted on 5/28/26 at 7:18 am to soccerfüt
quote:
A quarter of Americans have no retirement savings. Zero.
I think of this every time I go to a store and see an elderly white haired widow working . I am confident that will not be my widow and thank the Lord that the steps I took years ago are the reason.
Posted on 5/28/26 at 7:25 am to WWII Collector
quote:
Being that my money was taken by the government for 45 years of my life, with the promise that I would have it. I think a lot of bad stuff might happen.
Yep
Posted on 5/28/26 at 7:29 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
This board loves to blame the system, but at some point you have to acknowledge that individuals are at least partly at fault, assuming there wasnt a catastrophic event in their life that wiped out all their savings.
Uh isn’t this board overwhelmingly conservative individualists? I hear mostly on here about personal choices. And I agree with that FYI
Posted on 5/28/26 at 7:35 am to NC_Tigah
quote:
These numbers are based on surveys, which in turn are highly biased based on questioning and targets.
E.g., Juxtapose the 4.7% contention with that which, according to the Federal Reserve's 2022 survey, insists nearly 20% of US households are worth at least $1 Million.
You're just talking about 2 different things.
Retirement savings =/= household worth (which includes outliers like RE equity)
Posted on 5/28/26 at 8:09 am to brmark70816
quote:
There is only so much traveling you can do
I could travel for 8-10 months annually until I died or couldn’t do it anymore. There are so many great places to go.
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