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The "American Dream" costs far more than most people will earn over their lifetime
(www.cbsnews.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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And this is why I likely won't be able to retire. At a recent retirement meeting my company gave, they said that people should be putting 15% of their income into retirement. However, I can't afford to do this. Not even close.
I live a pretty frugal life. I don't vacation. I rarely go out to eat or order food in. I plan my meals and only buy what we need. I drive a 14 year old car that's paid off. Still, my expenses, while less than my income, wouldn't let me reduce my pretax income by 15%.
I'm 48 and I doubt if I'll have 20% of the figure above when it comes time to retire.
And still 700K for retirement is still low since I'm sure they're using the US median salary and the old adage of saving 10 times your salary for retirement. So far every place I've worked and attended the financial seminar, my own retirement manager, and my sister who works in the industry have told me you really should be saving 15 - 20 time your salary if you want to live comfortably.
So to me what this article is saying is that you'll need that just so you can live pay check to pay check through retirement and still be stressed the fuck out and at risk for being homeless in your golden years.
How exactly is one supposed to store more than one makes?
Probably 15-20 your annual salary. So if you make 50k you should have $750k- 1 mil saved when you retire.
Sure thing I will get right on that.
I assume you're in the US? Because many other developed countries rely a lot less on private retirement savings and a lot more on public retirement programs in order to get everyone covered.
Of course, that means higher earners would have to pay more into programs similar to social security through taxes to cover lower earners, which many Americans are not willing to do.
I'm willing.
Are you me? Wow.
Now, I don't know where you live, but Canada at least has old age security (and a pension plan) that should offset a good chunk of your expenses when you retire.
That's in addition to whatever you do manage to put away.
However, it really helps if you own a home and are mortgage free by the time you hit retirement age.
I do own my house and hopefully will be mortgage free by the time I retire (or hit retirement age). I'm in New York State. Social Security would theoretically help, but who knows if it'll be around in 30 years. If it's not, I'll be working until I'm 90. If it is, I might be able to retire at 75. Assuming I don't have any large, unexpected expenses (which is a huge assumption).
Our future looks grim, friend. May the odds be ever in our favor. 🫰
US also has Social Security to help fund a basic retirement but it’s pretty minimal. It is enough to keep you from living on cat food
I also can’t finish paying off my mortgage before I should retire and given rampant ageism, I don’t know whether I’ll be able to find a job that long. And Social Security won’t cover my mortgage plus utilities
And even worse, Social Security needs adjustments to be able to continue meeting its commitments. The longer our political leaders avoid that, the more impact it will have when they are forced to do their jobs
Do you mind me asking, what do you do? Do you own or rent your residence?
I'm 41, and really striving to hit those numbers too and I feel like I'm doing pretty well with my position in life..... it's just life seems to be getting away from me as I look into the future and see my kids getting much more expensive.
I'm a web developer. I own my house, but am still paying the mortgage. (So I guess I don't technically fully own it yet.) I'm in a decent position financially at the moment - my income exceeds my expenses. Still, I've had some big financial hits recently ($3,600 for hearing aids for me, $1,000+ for tests to rule out cancer for my wife, $750 for a new dryer when our old one died, the potential new car that I might need to buy,...).
So while I'm able to keep my head above water, financially, I'm not able to put enough away to secure my retirement. Also, one big adverse event (medical crisis, job loss with unsuccessful job search, etc) and my current financial state could go from "decent in the short term" to "drowning in debt."
That's wild. Like 4k of that isn't anything I'd consider an expense due to universal health and insurance that covers the gaps.
I hope you are able to remain stable though.
Yeah, I think these rules (US) were made by people doing the math, without considering reality. It’s real easy to set aside a good amount to retire, as long as you set aside the recommended percentage throughout your career.
Of course the reality is that most of us will never do that. Many of us will get divorced and lose half what we put aside. Many of us will have financial emergencies such as medical emergencies, or being out of a job. Many of us will just be scraping by and can’t afford to set aside that much of our pay. Many of us just won’t have the perspective to be willing to set aside money for retirement many decades away. More importantly , most of us will hit those conditions sometime in our career and it’s just not realistic