Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short .

[Deleted]

I appreciate all the responses. I just hope that it is not too late when some people wake up and realize they haven't save nothing because guess what will happen if they are in the majority?

The government will try to find a way to get them some extra $$$ by coming after us that saved.

[comom1]

"Besides, she put on a ton of weight."

Uh huh. And you're the same weight as when you got married?

Just bustin' your chops. I've been away for a while and I have to catch up.

[achelois]

Here I keep trying to get the young'uns to start thinking about retirement and saving--but they "just can't afford to."

But they can afford to take the kids to Disney and rent beachhouses on summer vacations and drive two new SUVs...

[MN-Investor]

"Here I keep trying to get the young'uns to start thinking about retirement and saving--but they "just can't afford to."

But they can afford to take the kids to Disney and rent beachhouses on summer vacations and drive two new SUVs..."

Ah, but this is planning on the young'uns part! They are making the children so grateful to them for taking them to Disneyland, that they'll gladly allow the parents to live with them once they retire. Or, if that doesn't work, they have two SUVs - his and hers - to live out of when they have to sell their house. Isn't that planning?

[achelois]

I guess you could call it planning. I am glad, though, that these are not MY young'uns...they are some of the younger people at work.

[Plain Old Petunia]

Feb 23, 2011 15:05:21 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

Gee, SF, I'll bet your ex-wife feels exactly the same way.....


I am worth more than her and I am employed.
At the funeral home(back in Sept 2009) when we were with the director, she did not even have money to pay 1/2 the cost. I whipped out my check book are wrote a check for 1/2 the fee without blinking an eye.
Besides, she put on a ton of weight.

Maybe she genuinely doesn't care about her finances? That is the conclusion I have reached about my ex-husband.

[Nazgul Girl]

Quote: The best thing I ever did in my life is get divorced. I've controlled my own life for 22 years, and not had to deal with constant complaining, pissing and moaning, and whining about everyting and anything. I set my own goals, and stuck to my plan. No philosophizing, no BS, no hand wringing, etc.



More quote:I so agree I've been controlling my life for 29 yrs. Feels good.



Although I don't have the bitterness I used to have toward my ex-husband (thank goodness), I realize that him divorcing ME was a great favor to me. I just didn't believe in "throwing someone out", but it was really good that he threw me out of our marriage. It freed me from a toxic situation. I just don't give a crap anymore these 13 years later. It's great to be without his egotistical attitude, bull-headedness, and whatever. Plus, I don't have to listen to all of his assertions about being a surgery god, a mage, and a master of the kabbala. Yes, there were some issues. I'm much less depressed, if ever, able to save for my old age the way I want to, don't have to worry about moving every 2.5 years because he lost another job, and all of the fun that goes with living with the unstable. Freedom is wonderful.

Yes, I did remarry, but it was after six years of dating a wonderful man, and seven years later, we're still going strong. He's more basic, more loving, more ordinary ( not a mageborn to be found around here ), and we enjoy being together. We save for our old age, have as much planned as we can, and worry about our savings lasting, of course. That being said, we've cut out a lot of the unnecessary, have changed our fun and travel habits, have gotten rid of our timeshare ( yay ), and know that with some careful planning, will most likely be fine financially. I realized a long time ago that saving the good old six percent wasn't going to cut it. I don't know why my contemporaries didn't get it. I suppose that having a business fail and then paying off all of the debts over eleven years' time instead of going bankrupt gave me "perspective". BUT, we also don't live in a 6500 sq. ft. house with a million-dollar mortgage on it, either. I got tired of being made fun of by dummies for driving a ten-year old car, but I was able to put the savings from the payment on a new one into my retirement accounts, so nyah, nyah, nyah. It's cool.

[Deleted]

Feb 25, 2011 17:04:14 GMT -5 MN-Investor said:

"Here I keep trying to get the young'uns to start thinking about retirement and saving--but they "just can't afford to."

But they can afford to take the kids to Disney and rent beachhouses on summer vacations and drive two new SUVs..."

Ah, but this is planning on the young'uns part! They are making the children so grateful to them for taking them to Disneyland, that they'll gladly allow the parents to live with them once they retire. Or, if that doesn't work, they have two SUVs - his and hers - to live out of when they have to sell their house. Isn't that planning?

I think this will be a big culture chock to my parent's generation that are used to the idea that their kids are their retirement plan.

But while my parents are from that same school of thought (currently taking care of my step dad father and took care of my mom father) ... my generation is not so kin on the idea of taking care of their parents. We are more selfish.

So I can see it happening when my parents generation are getting ready to retire and their kids rebelling at the idea that they are supposed to be taking care of them.

[pappyjohn99]

I am saving. My concern is that Washington is eyeballing our 401(K) money and talking about a "national pension" or some other nonsense. I have decided to buy a couple of silver coins a week rather then risk having congress snatch my saving in order to share it with those that couldn't be bothered with saving on their own.

[Deleted]

Feb 26, 2011 1:30:29 GMT -5 pappyjohn99 said:

I am saving. My concern is that Washington is eyeballing our 401(K) money and talking about a "national pension" or some other nonsense. I have decided to buy a couple of silver coins a week rather then risk having congress snatch my saving in order to share it with those that couldn't be bothered with saving on their own.

I think that is what alot of savors are somewhat worried about... and the same thing applies for ROTH IRA!

With pensions disappearing and people not saving like they should... will they come after 401k's and ROTH IRA's?

[pappyjohn99]

With pensions disappearing and people not saving like they should... will they come after 401k's and ROTH IRA's?

Count on it.

[midjd]

Feb 24, 2011 18:01:27 GMT -5 emma1420 said:

Feb 24, 2011 12:04:18 GMT -5 The J said:

I think our generation will be helped by seeing our parents, aunts and uncles struggle.

I agree. My mom is a boomer and she will never ever be able to retire. She's in her late 50's now, she is in debt up to her eyeballs. She spent her entire life spending her way through as much money as she could get her hands on, and it's only now that she's five or six years away from retirement that she realizes that she won't be able to afford to.

That is all I need to see to know that I will do everything in my power to make sure that I don't end up in the same situation.

Same here. My mom is in her mid-fifties, didn't start a 401(k) until 2003 or so, and I'm pretty sure she raided it to help pay for my brother's college. She will freely admit that she'll never be able to retire, and seems to assume that she'll work until she drops dead. She should get some SS, but she is in so much debt that I doubt it will be enough.

Hence me socking away ~27% of my gross income for retirement.

[cronewitch]

Low income senior housing will be very popular. We give the low income seniors studio or one bedroom apartments usually studios for singles. They are small little kitchens, little living rooms with an alcove with a curtain hiding the bed. They usually provide the heat and lights and a ride to the store once a week. They cost either 1/3 of your income or nicer places are about 450 a month. So if you have income of 1200 and pay 400 for rent and heat you still have 800 for medical, spending and other things. You probably would get food stamps so could afford a phone. If you had a paid off car you might be able to afford to keep it.

They aren't bad just small and boring but clean halls and safety features like security entrys with monthly dinners in a day room of some kind. It is what happens to seniors who didn't plan and the kids if they have any don't want to support them. My SIL's mother ran off with another man leaving 7 kids then when she was old wanted her adult kids. The kids didn't care about her but she was their mother. They found her a low income place and the girls got her set up with some furniture. They would have someone bring her for holiday meals but other wise pretty much ignored her. Her grandson and I would go play cards with her and she was doing fine living there. She could still afford to smoke and got tickets to the casinos for gifts so she could gamble. She worked a little to afford trips to Reno.

We will build more of those kinds of places so nobody has to feel guilt over not letting elders move in and the elders don't need to beg.

[Deleted]

Crone, my grandmother lived in a place like you described. It was called "the Projects." The Projects aren't what they are today . . . filled with druggies, drive-by's, etc. She lived in the one-bedroom part, which was mostly filled with other old people on a fixed income. I will admit that she used the fact that she "had" to live in the Projects against her daughter who lived in the same city (my dad was dead, her son was in jail, and her other daughter sent $50 a month but this was back in the 1980s).

Anyway, it was fine assuming you don't have the problems usually associated with public housing projects such as crimes, gangs, drugs, etc. I would willingly live there if I lost my house . . . but again assuming the assumptions about crimes, gangs, drugs, etc.

I'd rather be a Golden Girl, though. I told my sister that if anything ever happened to my hubby, she should move back and into my house. (She is four years older.) She wants to move back, anyway.

[cronewitch]

Our projects are for welfare familes and have people I wouldn't want to live with. I lived in projects in the early 50s in a small town and it wasn't bad. The low income senior places only take elders or maybe single handicapped people. They are nice and all the people seem really nice, my dad used to go to his aunt's for the monthly pot luck dinner when he was about 65 so he was seen as a young man, all the ladies loved him. He would make homemade huckleberry pie. It was mostly older women she was there until she was about 94 and needed a nursing home.

Projects like in Chicago in the 60s are ghetto, messy, unemployed teens looking for trouble, gun shots, broken window beautiful buildings destroyed in no time.

[schildi]

Feb 26, 2011 1:50:55 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Feb 26, 2011 1:30:29 GMT -5 pappyjohn99 said:

I am saving. My concern is that Washington is eyeballing our 401(K) money and talking about a "national pension" or some other nonsense. I have decided to buy a couple of silver coins a week rather then risk having congress snatch my saving in order to share it with those that couldn't be bothered with saving on their own.

I think that is what alot of savors are somewhat worried about... and the same thing applies for ROTH IRA!

With pensions disappearing and people not saving like they should... will they come after 401k's and ROTH IRA's?

No, I don' think so. Taxes in general may go up (which will influence the decision 401k / Roth), but I don't think that "they will come after" 401(k)'s or Roth IRA's.
What would keep "them" from coming after regular savings, checking accounts or brokerage accounts? If that happens, "they" will also come after the gold and silver coins in the drawer. I don't think there is any reason to be too paranoid!

[pappyjohn99]

Why would they know I've got a coin in my drawer?

[schildi]

Feb 26, 2011 19:41:37 GMT -5 pappyjohn99 said:

Why would they know I've got a coin in my drawer?

They'll find out. After chasing you out of your house. Did we not mention that "they'll" take the house, too? ;D

[pappyjohn99]

Remember the Social Security lock box? How safe did that turn out to be? The Congress giveth, and Congress can take away. Americans have something like $4 trillion tucked away right under Washington's nose. I think that when they figure they need it worse then we do they will snatch it in a heartbeat. At least when they show up to steal my coins I can put up a fight.

[lynnerself]

The government is not going to "snatch" your Roth or 401K sitting in your account in your name (unlike SS which is in a general pool). What they can do is change all of the tax rules requiring you to pay taxes that you though you were avoiding or postponing.

[pappyjohn99]

We'll see Lynn. That cash is a mighty tempting apple IMHO. Social Security wasn't in the general pool until Lyndon Johnson felt he needed it. Once he dipped his finger in it has been fair game ever since. I invest in my profit sharing at work but I will still sock away some silver as insurance.

[DVM gone riding]

"they" did come and take houses in Cuba so don't say never. "they" demanded you house others and "they" confiscated most all private wealth. It could happen here especially since our government owes most of its debt to China, which is a communist country.

I believe in all contingencies, guns, ammo, and max the ret accts

[pappyjohn99]

DMV - Exalt for you