More Than One-Third of Americans Have No Savings

[closeupready]

Source: US News and World Report

More than one-third of Americans haven’t started putting away money for retirement, but those who do are making the move a bit earlier than past generations.

About 70 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 to 29 have not started saving for retirement, compared with 33 percent of 30 to 49 year olds and 26 percent of 50 to 64 year olds, according to a report released Monday from Bankrate.com, a consumer financial services company. One out of every seven Americans 65 and older does not have retirement savings, which Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst, calls “truly problematic.”

But on the bright side, the most common decade for people to start saving is in their 20s. Twice as many 30 to 49 year olds said they started saving in their 20s instead of their 30s, while the 50 to 64 age group was “only slightly more likely” to have started saving in their 20s over their 30s, according to the report, which surveyed 1,003 adults living in the continental U.S.


Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/08/18/more-than-one-third-of-americans-have-no-savings

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I like Elizabeth Warren's ideas about making social security payments more generous - it's a real need.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. "Haven't started" or "lost what they had"? I think the latter is more likely. nt

[blur256]

2. In my case

it is definitely the latter. After I lost my good job, I lost everything. I now live off of payday loans trying to get by. I don't think about retirement because I am so beat down that most days I just assume I will die before I ever get there. It's a tragic cycle that has to stop.

[Ino]

18. Yep, savings gone...

My self-employment income was halved immediately after the 2008 crash, lost all the interest + $1500 principal off my paltry IRA. I cashed that out as soon as I turned 58.5, and have used it to pay my bills when I don't have the income. I will take early retirement at 62 so I can get social security. What a lifesaver... I have JUST enough savings left to last me until mid-November. Otherwise I would lose my house. I would lose everything.

The stress was HORRIBLE until I remembered I could get SS this year!

[Alkene]

21. Or, "never got far ahead enough to have."

But, hey, I guess one shouldn't have squandered it all on food, shelter, utilities, and health care.

[iscooterliberally]

3. I have 200 whole dollars in savings.

Of course that will probably be gone in the next week or so. I did have retirement savings about 10 years ago, but I was foolish with my money. I should have done the responsible thing and went down to the nearest casino and bet it all on 13 black.
But no, no, I had to want something frivolous like one of those house thingies that all my friends and relatives told me that I just had to have. It was the worst financial decision I have ever made. Now that I'm in my fifties I have decided to be a renter for the rest of my life. Things are getting better for me though. I am a retired nightclub bass player. So this is my retirement. I have a good day job that pays well. I get my weekends off, and I don't have to be up all night in bars. Yay me. I will save some more, but I doubt I'll end up doing as well as my mom did. She is turning 75 next month, and has about 3 more months left until all her retirement savings are used up. After that her only income will be SS and whatever my brother and sisters and I can afford to kick in for her. Since most of us have paid into SS based on 100% of our income, I think congress should lift the cap on SS payments. I think everyone should have to pay in based on 100% of their income no matter where it comes from.

[Abouttime]

4. I totally agree

100% of income should be subject to ss tax and ss should be means tested, if a person is lucky enough to have tax free money in retirement accounts they should not be collecting social security on top of drawing from their 401k.

[closeupready]

7. Disagree about means testing - the surest way to destroy SS

would be to make it a program that benefits the less affluent at the expense of the affluent. Sad testament to the kind of society we live in, but you need to make it available to all - you pay in, you get benefits.

[spooky3]

8. Those benefits are not tax free--if you have a 401k, you pay tax when money is distributed to you.

So for most 401ks, people pay ordinary income tax rates (not capital gains rates) when they retire and start drawing out the money.

If you have a Roth 401k, some of the distribution could be tax free, but most of it you pay tax on when you contribute the money.

[Skittles]

9. Huh?

I have contributed to ss for 40 years but because I have a 401K I shouldn't get both?

[Demobrat]

17. I'm in the same boat.

Your response is a lot nicer than the one I wrote and chose not to post.

[jeff47]

12. Means testing is the fastest way to destroy Social Security

Make it a program "for the poor" and it will be fought just as viciously as Welfare.

Just give the same amount to everyone. Paying it to the 1% isn't going to cost much.

[Adrahil]

23. Bad idea....

Don't eliminate SS payments just because someone saved in a 401k... Unless you REALLY wanna alienate folks in the meaty middle that have planned on both SS and their savings to maintain income. I know that would piss me off to no end. If you wanna make SS just another public assistance program, then I think that's a terrible idea. The idea behind SS was as a publicly managed, guaranteed retirement system. It should be an AND, not an OR.

OTOH, I support 100% taxability of income... and that comes from someone who have to pay more because of it.

[closeupready]

5. "everyone should have to pay in based on 100%" - +1000.

Totally agree - eliminate the cap, SS 'problem' solved, voila.

[jtuck004]

14. That's how it is supposed to be. If you watch this interview, with

Timothy McVeigh...I mean Geithner (I get my killers mixed up) you will read that this is the plan, to save bankers at our expense. Sure, it would have helped for a little while, he says, but you are far better off not having a decent job and living on payday loans that people with millions of dollars can tap for the fees you pay. And because of that we are facing an increase of millions upon millions of people about to find out what it is like to live the last 10, 20, 40 years of their life in poverty after having worked and paid bills and done what they are supposed to their whole lives.

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/extended-interviews/z9b8f1/timothy-geithner-extended-interview


The audience of voters laughed in his face, Stewart just pointed out what BS he was spouting. They are kinder than I would be.

[Iamthetruth]

19. That sucks

Did you lose a job or was it one of those variable rates? I was losing my house but was able to do a short sale and made it out okay. I bout much smaller than I needed so thankfully I'm setting pretty now but still don't want to buy for a while.

[iscooterliberally]

20. It wasn't because of my job. It was because of the house, but it's not what you might be thinking.

I bought my house 10 years ago. I started looking for a single family home, but by the time I got my act together I settled for a townhouse. The market was heating up and in the course of about 6 months I could no longer afford a single family home. I bought a 3/2.5 on an end unit. The building I was in had 5 units. The inspector passed the place and we plunked our money down and moved in. What I did not know at the time was that the house was built with something called Dupont Gray Pipe. It was this flimsy plumbing that was worse than having a green garden hose in your wall. I poured all kinds of money into the house after buying it. I put a new roof on it. Right after that we got hit with hurricane Wilma. My kitchen was destroyed so I had to put all new cabinets. I still had no idea about the plumbing and no one warned me about it. I had to buy a new A/C unit and all new appliances too. Everything was way old and breaking down. After I did all this work, water started seeping under the base boards. I thought it was my dishwasher, and it was, but it was also coming through the walls. There were all these little pin hole leaks in the incoming plumbing. Over the coarse of a couple of years, my new kitchen absorbed all the water and toxic mold grew behind it. I worked really hard to try to save my home after that. I even flew my brother the plumber down to help me change out all the bad plumbing, but it was too late. We went to work one of the bathrooms and opened up a wall. It was like a Steven King movie with all the bugs that came flying out. The whole building was infested with termites. You can no longer sell your home in Florida if you have that Dupont Gray pipe plumbing. I tried to file a homeowners insurance claim. They told me to get bent. I hired a lawyer to see if I could sue anyone. Unfortunately the class action lawsuit against Dupont ended in 2009. I didn't know about it until 2011. One of the worst parts was watching my custom cabinets get removed and tossed into a dumpster. In the end I had to move out because the house was going to make me physically ill. The banks wanted me to do a deed in lieu. I had to explain that no one could live in my house. I had to walk away and file Chapter 7. It's all over now. My house goes up for auction on the 21st. I could make my mortgage payments, but not make them and rent another place too. I don't miss being a homeowner. It really sucked. I'm much happier renting as long as I have a cool landlord, and I do now.

[LibDemAlways]

6. I predict a return to the days of multi-generations of

family members living together and/or older adults sharing living space with multiple roommates like college kids. It's the only way people are going to be able to survive now that they work for cheap companies that show them no loyalty, pay as little as they can get away with, and offer no pensions. It's not that people don't want to save. It's that they can't. After paying rent, utilities, food, insurance, transportation expenses, education expenses, loans, and on and on, there's simply nothing left over.

[jtuck004]

13. You could be our weatherperson <G> That's like predicting rain when there are

typhoons flooding your streets.

Not laughing at you. Not laughing at all, much.

[moonbatmax]

10. Before you can have a savings...

...you kinda gotta have something to save.

I love the way economists and the media talk about this stuff. It's like they don't have a clue. They just can't believe people don't understand the need to save for their future! Whaddya mean you don't make enough to save??? Just SAVE it, already!

Same thing with health insurance. To hear all the talking heads, you'd think young people believe they're IMMORTAL, or something. Hel-LOOOO!!! The reason most young people don't buy health insurance is, most of them CAN'T AFFORD IT, especially on the crap wages most of them have to settle for. Try paying them something better than subsistence wages, and see if at least a few more don't start thinking a little more of the future. It gets a little easier when you don't have to worry as much as the present.

At least, I think so.

[olddad56]

11. I agree, the headline should read "1/3 of Amercians are unable to put anything into savings"

[marew]

27. Exactly!

The Republicans fault people for not saving for retirement yet they won't raise the minimum wage- do not get it! People sometimes must take minimum wage jobs just to attempt to survive.

[geretogo]

15. The Chinese are holding the savings for that one third in their banks .

[PersonNumber503602]

16. I have $74,039 in savings...

I just have to figure out how to remove the minus sign that's in front of it....

[whereisjustice]

22. but the stock market is up! oh, right, nevermind...

The Pew data show that just 15 percent of people with a family income of less than $30,000 per year are invested in the stock market. As families earn more, their participation in the stock market increases. Fifty-five percent of those who earn between $30,000 and $75,000 per year are invested in the market, while 80 percent of those who earn $75,000 or more are.

What this means is that the rise in stock prices since the financial crisis has widened the distance between those at the top of the income scale and those at the bottom. This is reflected in various observations, such as the fact that CEO pay has ballooned in the past few years — largely thanks to increases in the value of stock awards — while median worker pay has remained flat.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/11/graph-of-the-day-who-actually-benefits-from-a-stock-market-boom/

[GOLGO 13]

24. My pop got us all to take Civil Service jobs in NY

Me, my little brothers & some cousins all got down with govt jobs and we're sitting patiently and counting down till retirement. Everybody also got down with state sponsored deferred compensation (401k) plans so saving was automatic & quite painless. I started in my 20's before W&K (wife/kids) showed up and other than the trauma of the Bush years I got few complaints.

Other family members that didn't get on CS are having a rough time of it. We tried & tried to let them in on it, but they didn't want to deal with drug tests so yeah, party on.

Now we keep the, 'told ya so" banter to ourselves.

[marew]

26. Ditto!

My father told me over and over and over from the time I was a little kid to get an education and a job with a pension. Fortunately, I listened. Best guidance I ever received. Also paid into SS for 32 years and put money away in a 403B. Now 68 and retired. Very, very fortunate! Thank you Dad!
In your 20's it is hard to believe you will ever get old but if you live that long...

[RobinA]

29. I Went CS/Union

in my late 40's when I had the opportunity and when I finally realized there WAS a way to stop worrying about spending retirement on a steam grate. I got in just in time - before they stopped hiring and before they upped the years it took to vest from 5 to 10. Starting that late won't get me super great benefits, but if I can keep the job until retirement age 4 years from now, I should be able to afford people food and a roof. If I can keep it until SS retirement age, all the better.

[cbdo2007]

25. meh....my wife and I will be happy with just Social Security.

We're budgeting wisely now so should have no problem in 30 more years getting by on much less than we are now.

[PasadenaTrudy]

28. You can count me in...n/t