Will you have enough to survive when you retire if Social Security is reduced?

[JDPriestly]

There are a lot of articles on the Internet about retirement savings plans.

Here is just one of them.

It is based on reports from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

"You don’t have to go far to find other scary retirement savings figures, like how the average working person in their 60s has only $144,000 in their 401(k). At a recommended 4 percent withdrawal rate, that’s enough to produce $5,760 per year in retirement income. Ouch.

. . . .

In math terms, the standard model goes something like this:

Your salary × 25 = Your retirement goal

You see this formula all the time. Here’s how the Motley Fool put it: “So if you’re planning to live comfortably on $50,000 a year in retirement, you’ll need to have $1.25 million saved by the time you get there.” Plenty of online retirement calculators make the same assumption."

http://www.mint.com/blog/planning/cheer-up-youre-not-as-far-behind-on-retirement-savings-as-you-think/

So, how long would it take the average American earning maybe $40,000 per year to save $1.25 million?

That is why people close to retirement and retired are absolutely horrified by Obama's betrayal.

If American can't afford Social Security and Medicare, we wonder, can it afford to keep seniors alive at all.

Rare is the person who retires with $1.25 million safely set aside.

[indurancevile]

1. since 2/3 of people rely on social security for 50% or more of their retirement income -- doubtful.

[kestrel91316]

2. No.

[eridani]

3. Survive, yes. Discretionary income, no. Kiss a lot of businesses--

--that depend on discretionary income goodbye.

[provis99]

4. Nope.

And I'm pretty sure the market for 65 year old male prostitutes just isn't there.

[bahrbearian]

5. No

[bahrbearian]

6. I'm going to have to keep working if I can ever find a Job

[FreakinDJ]

7. If they didn't allow Corps to RAID pension funds

default of Contractual Obligations of agreed compensation packages

claim bankruptcy on pension funds underfunded for years while providing obscene levels of CEO pay, Golden parachutes, bonuses

I don't think so many Americans would be in this predicament

[JDPriestly]

12. So true.

[scarletwoman]

8. I've only read your excerpt - does this article say anything about the millions of people

who will have NOTHING but SS for retirement?

[JDPriestly]

13. I think it is maybe kind of an infomercial piece.

I wanted to find something about how much the average American has saved by retirement, but that was the best article I could find that was fairly recent.

[backwoodsbob]

9. barring the unforseen..yes

that is still a ways away so crossing my fingers

[salin]

10. for many years my salary was too low to allow savings

for example 14,000 in DC in the mid eighties.

Only in this decade have I been able to earn a much better salary - and I try to live (expense wise) much as I did in the very lean years.

Now my savings *rate* is rather large (due to discipline of not increasing my spending up to my income). I save between 30% - 40% & of my post taxes income. I couldn't begin to do that until after 20 years of working (after high school). I have a long way to go (and will never hit the target mentioned.)

I consider myself very fortunate to be in a situation that I can save a decent amount a year. Probably enough that every 2-3 years I save is enough for 1 year of retirement. I just don't have enough working years left to save for a decent length retirement.

While I am concerned for my own retirement, I realize that I am better situated (and not that greatly situated) than a whole lot of other folks. Especially if medical costs continue to sky rocket in the same trajectory as the past 15 years, I doubt that retirement is something many may have as an option.

[FreakinDJ]

11. $5 per hour is my savings rate

additionally I make a double payment on the equity of my home loan

It only works if I don't have a house payment

[JDPriestly]

15. You are way ahead of the crowd.

Most people have a couple of kids and don't earn enough to do that no matter how careful they are.

[FreakinDJ]

17. 3 kids, Wife, 2 dogs and a house payment

mind you it hasn't been easy

No Harley, drive a "High Mileage/Low Cost Beater to work, got our 1st flat screen TV just this year, don't drink or go out very much other then trips to the mountains, fishing/hiking.

Screw perceived notions of what success is - we have a really nice back yard with lots of fruit trees and an inexpensive "Above Ground" pool

My friend who is an R&D engineer for Intel was arguing with his wife a couple years ago he needed a Hummer to drive to work to maintain his status quo

[JDPriestly]

19. Good for you!

On an individual level, we all need to try to save money.

Of course, if they decide to make Medicare and Social Security need-based, or determine the benefits based on income or assets, then people will be discouraged from saving.

[Historic NY]

14. Funny thing is no one even said they were reducing your payment....

lots of changes could be made but reduction wasn't one of them.

[JDPriestly]

16. The change to the COLA will reduce monthly payments to seniors

down the line.

We have not had COLA increases in two years although the packages have shrunk even at the 99 cents store and prices have gone up everywhere on the things seniors buy -- mostly food, practical clothing, underwear and very little electronic gear.

[Major Hogwash]

18. Yes, survival is not in doubt at all.

I may not take as many cruises when I retire as some of the people are taking nowadays, but I'll survive.

[TheKentuckian]

20. Seems unlikely now. The unemployment cycles have killed savings and fooling around with

COBRA killed the only "substantial" 401k that I had (the other went to crap in the last crash and was cashed out for a few hundred to get by on in another unemployment debacle) so I'm over 20 years in with no home or equity and not only no savings but a little in the red with no offsetting value.

I thought I was going to be retiring years early and burned the candle at both ends to build up to do so, now I'm tired, jaded, and busted. Resetting the clock and starting from square one too many times has been ugly.

I'm starting back up the hill again, I hope and believe but not in a fashion that will make up for lost time being well below my non-awe inspiring peak in real dollars. Inflation and loss of benefits cannot be seriously thought about and still maintain an even strain.

[safeinOhio]

21. Trying to avoid SS until 66.

So, working a minimum wage job 32 hrs a week. 3rd shift at a gas station. Think I may have to up it to 40hrs if they''ll give me the hrs. Or, get a 2nd job.

Kind of like working after 10 years of retirement and doing little. Plus, I now have a night life.

[Vinca]

22. Retirement? Who needs it? Keep telling yourself that.

[mmonk]

23. As long as voo doo economics controls the Washington bubble,

seniors in the future in general are looking at a generation in poverty.

[lunatica]

24. Nope either way

[hobbit709]

25. survive yes. Be worry free-NO

My SS check next year will cover basic expenses. I have 11K left in savings. At least the house is now paid for.

I haven't had a real job in 10 years. Nobody was hiring a 50+ year old with health problems. When Donna died two years ago that dropped household income about 70%. If it wasn't for my VA medical, I'd probably been long dead since I certainly don't have the $900/mo my meds would cost me instead of the $56/mo my VA copays are.

[JDPriestly]

28. I'm sorry it has been so tough for you.

I think that a lot of people who feel pretty confident should read your story. It is based on experience, not dreams.

Most of us have a crisis or two in life that set us back financially and put and end to our retirement plans. And very few Americans now can look forward to productive years after the age of 62.

It gets harder and harder to get a job that lets you pay the basic bills, put shoes on your feet, see the doctor when necessary and still save for retirement.

That's why Americans have asked the government to take their Social Security savings out of their paychecks and invest it in America.

Apparently the Bushes and Reagan and possibly Clinton just threw our money away. It is unbelievable. How is it possible that any member of Congress who voted for the war budgets can get re-elected in 2012?

None of them thought about the repercussions of what they were doing. They all made short-term decisions, panicked decisions, decisions based only on calculations concerning the likelihood they would make it through the next election.

They need to apologize for their poor judgment or simply resign.

[andlor]

26. NO.

[eilen]

27. No, I will work until I cannot move anymore

and then they will have to move me to the workhouse where I guess I will rot in my own urine.

[Blue_In_AK]

29. For a while,

but if my husband dies before I do, I'm going to be in trouble. We rely largely on his pension now. We have some money in IRAs (out of the stock market), but I don't know how long that would last.

ed. I should add that I won't get survivor's benefits on his pension since he was married to someone else when he retired and the union refuses to put me in as survivor even though his ex gave up all her rights to his pension. It doesn't make much sense, especially since they're still withdrawing that money from his check every month, but what're you going to do?

[amborin]

30. this is stealing from workers, to further fatten the elites

[Urban Prairie]

31. Those in DC who want to do away with SS and Medicare/Medicaid

are well aware of the consequences of doing so, after all, history has quite vividly demonstrated what happened to native "Americans" when they were deprived of their "income" and "property".

These social/fiscal Darwinist sociopaths in DC could not care less if likely more than a third of our nation's population was to suffer the same fate, even if much of their supporting constituency becomes "unfortunately" but "necessarily" included.