"Are you saving too much for retirement?"

[GreenPartyVoter]

Forget the idea that you need millions to retire comfortably, as some would have you believe. One expert says you'll need less money than you thought.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Retirementandwills/Createaplan/Createaplan.asp

[stray cat]

1. My retirement plan may have to be working until I drop.

However, if I become unable to work dying on the street.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. Well, there you go. No need to save in that case.

I think you have the same retirement plan as many people. Think of the broker's fees you save!
:sarcasm:

[trotsky]

2. Well, I'm suuuure that...

our fine investment brokers and stock traders would never want to scare people into investing MORE money than they need to, would they? :sarcasm:

Interesting article. Thanks!

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yeah, my first thoughts were

1) Do I even know anyone who can retire?

2) This is one way to spin a scary economy into looking sweeter and safer.

[TriMetFan]

4. I plan on retiring at 58. 15 more years to go.

I plan on having enough cash to go have fun and party like a 21 year old and travel. I want to be the parent that calls home and tells their kid come get me out of jail for having to much fun. :evilgrin:

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. What line of work are you in?

[TriMetFan]

11. Believe it or not I'm a Transit Driver in Portland OR.

I have been doing it for over 12 years. My spouse is a public employee and works at 911. She can retire in 5 years, but she plans on working until she is 56, so we will retire at the same time. We have been investing our money in different things since we're 22/24 and had even started to put money a way for our kids collage funds way before they were even born.

[Ishoutandscream2]

8. Love your thinking. I'm shooting for 55 myself.

Will have my house paid off and a state pension. My mother will be paying for my kids' educations. I'm going to grow whatever hair I have left, and just hang out. I hope I make it!

[shanti]

14. i turn 50 in november

and plan to retire at age 55 - yay! my son is 15, so i'll just be working fulltime for a couple years after he's out of h.s.

thank god, i have a good retirement account, i just pray that it's not snatched away, as has been done to so many lately. actually tho, i will be "semi-retired", as i will have my backup little self-employed jobbie job AND the retirement money.

i really feel for the folks that have no retirement accounts:-(!

[TriMetFan]

17. But that is is just it. If we're to get the

government to help the people with some kind of retirement the Neo-Cons would call it Socialism. The Neo-Cons need to have the poor.

[MercutioATC]

19. I'm going at 48... only 10 years, 8 months, 30 days...

PLEASE let it go by quickly.

[bmbmd]

7. I saw a widowed lady in my office this morning.

Sixty five years old, retired as a cafeteria worker in the Texas public school system. Cute as a bug, well dressed. She lives in a mobile home in a community on the banks of Lake Texoma. Health insurance and prescription coverage through Texas Teacher Retirement. (as long as that remains solvent)
Family nearby. Modest income, modest lifestyle, very low stress.
She puts several hundred dollars a month into savings. She couaght an eighteen pound channel catfish on a rod and reel last week. Pretty comfortable retirement, I'd say.

[MadHound]

9. Oh my, we can't have people saving so much,

After all, we need them to spend, spend, spend now in order to keep our consumption numbers up. After all, consumer spending is one of the two props keeping this American economy going(along with the housing bubble). If too many people start saving for their retirement(or whatever), consumer spending goes down, and the economy tanks.

One of the top reasons against shifting out of the manufacturing economy we had before it was outsourced. And if the housing bubble bursts, which it will, then consumer spending will be all that more important.

Sorry, but this is BS. More propaganda to keep the working class from looking out for themselves, and instead prop up this robber baron economy that is slowly drifting south.

Word of advice, tried and true friends. As soon as you can, start investing ten percent of your pay check for retirement. It isn't guaranteed that Social Security will be around for much longer, and even if it is, you will need more retirement money in order to live in modest comfort and to pay your medical bills. The sooner you start saving and investing, the better.

[ultraist]

10. That article is total BS

The chart they use, shows the elderly spending less on housing---because they are FORCED TO DOWNSIZE! They also show less for transportation----because they can no longer afford to travel!

There is NO WAY the increase they show for health care is accurate. It's much higher than that and doesn't include things such as home health aids or nursing home costs, which are outrageous.

The poverty rate for the elderly is INCREASING under Bush. That article is filled with RW lies and offers a false sense of security while omitting the effects of cuts to Medicaire and SS.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5706.html

Poverty Among the Elderly

The elderly are people who are 65 years and older. The Census Bureau reports that the total population of elderly is 31,877,000 and 10.8% or 3,428,000 of the elderly are poor. Of the elderly poor population 6.8% or 912,000 are males and 13.6% or 2, 516,000 are females. The poverty rate for elderly women is approximately twice the poverty rate of elderly men and the poverty rate of elderly blacks and Hispanics are more than twice the poverty rate of elderly whites in the United States. The Census Bureau is reported in Table 1.

The poverty rate among the elderly has changed over time. In past decades the elderly were more likely to be poor and remain poor than any other age group because of limited income in their old age. In 1959 the elderly represented 35.2% of all people in poverty (Ropers, 1991). Since that time Social Security includes cost of living adjustments to recipients. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program supplements the income of the elderly, blind, and disabled. Medicare aids the elderly with financial benefits for their health care. Likewise, people have taken advantage of private pension plans to secure themselves in their old age. As a consequence of these government and private programs being established, the poverty rate of the elderly has dropped over the past three decades to 10.8% in 1996.

Even though the poverty rate for the elderly has been turned around, the financial future of the elderly is not necessary stable or secure. The elderly are living longer, medical costs are rising, and the prospects of the elderly needing long term medical care are threatening to their financial security. So, not only the elderly poor but the one-fifth of the elderly who are near poor (Ropers, 1991) and the middle class elderly are vulnerable to the financial strain of medical health care.

Women are a special subgroup within the population of the elderly poor. There are more elderly poor women than there are elderly poor men. Women tend to live longer than men and many elderly women are widows. Depending on her work life, elderly women are less likely to have a pension plan or the major pension plan between spouses in their retirement years. Many elderly women have had to deplete their pension and the pension of their husband in providing long term medical care for the husband

[LSK]

12. i agree

Part of the RNC plan is to get people into poverty so they can work cheaper and longer. If you read their propaganda and dont save enough, then you cant retire and you are forced to work longer and for potentially cheaper wages.

[On the Road]

13. There are Some Other Factors, Too

If you save 10% of your income for retirement, that's one cost that's eliminated. Saving for college is another,and for that matter, all childrens' expenses. A lot of other expenses such as food, travel, or auto are pretty flexible -- you can get by with less or more depending on how much you have. Housing can be decreased by moving -- if you don't mind being overseas, you can decrease your expenses a lot (check out International Living).

I actually hadn't thought about the financial industry trying to scare us into oversaving. I still think most people undersave. But it's nice to know there may be an element of scaremongering there.

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. There's scaremongering everywhere we turn these days

[ohio_liberal]

15. How many people lost too much to consider retiring?

My mother has had to replan her retirement because so much of it was lost in the stock market in 2001. She's gonna retire at 72 instead of 67.

[K-W]

16. Clearly the best plan is to cut corners saving for the unkown.

Obviously we can predict the future and know the economy wont change. :p

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Retirement isn't even something we talk about. We have to pay off old debt

get by now and send our kids to college. Then maybe we can talk about retirement.

[anarch]

21. "Are you working two or three jobs just so you can be broke?"

"Are you thousands of dollars in debt to usurious credit card companies who prey on the impoverished?"

"Have you been forced to subsist on pathetic, insultingly low pay in the face of a rising cost of living?"

"Do you wonder where your next meal is coming from?"

"Does the idea of 'retirement' make you laugh bitterly?"

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. All pertinent questions

[KansDem]

22. Two questions: (1) What is "saving" & (2) What the hell is "retirement?"

??
;(