JHZR2
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I think the median household income is north of $70k now? Not a lot of money if you have high property taxes, kids, need to drive a lot, etc. But your cost of living is likely lower to begin with.
Can I live on a 10 million retirement?
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It doesn't matter what or who I think should pay. I can tell you who is going to pay..... You and I, along with everyone else. The exact same way we pay now, and have been paying all along. That, along with the governments indiscriminate printing of money.
Who do you think pays when someone goes into the emergency room with no health insurance? Who pays when a broke woman with no education or job has 10 children with 10 different fathers?
Who do you think pays for all of these millions of illegal invaders, who illegally cross our southern border every year, with nothing but the clothes on their backs? And I could go on and on.
Most people in this country are broke because they have no financial discipline, and they want and buy everything they see. Sure, there are a few who fall on hard times and can't work. But there are far more who simply waste 100% of every paycheck they receive for their lifetime of work.
And much like the people I linked to, it doesn't matter how much they earn. Because it's not what you make. It's what you do with it after you make it.
My point is, this is a hard truth in this country. And it's going to get a lot worse, before it gets any better..... If it ever does. At present we are going 100 MPH down a dead end economic road. And when we get to the end, there is going to be one hell of a wreck.
JHZR2
Staff member
I agree 100%.
Thing is, that’s why discussions like this are important. That’s what I took issue with - your premise (perhaps I misunderstood) that such discussions are irrelevant.
Thing is, even if $10M is unobtanium for most, some amount, $10k, $100k, $1MM… these people need something. And they need to hear the hard truth about what they need.
They are for 99.9% of most working Americans today. In fact, I'll go as far as to predict that by the time this latest generation of people reach 65, retirement of any kind will not ever be realized in most any capacity.....
Unless you want to use Cuba as the gold standard. Because that's exactly where we're heading.
That is not being pessimistic. But rather is based on simple arithmetic.... With a healthy dose of today's poor work ethic, along with plenty of bad economic attitude thrown in for good measure. And I don't care how much money they print and pump into S.S. between now and then.
JHZR2
Staff member
Doom and gloom. Which I don’t disagree with. Lots of people make poor decisions or don’t have the ability to bring in more and save more for whatever reason.
But it’s not a matter of giving up. It’s a matter of slapping as much reality into as many as possible so that might hear and heed it as possible.
Many won’t. Humans are naturally self destructive. But if some hear the right way to plan and do things everyone will be better off.
Mostly agree. But today the number is steadily slipping. A lot of it can be laid at the doorstep of today's educational system..... Which is becoming more socialistic / communistic daily.
Both K-12 public, and most college's, be they state or private. Many, (read most), students are taught to despise wealth because it's not distributed fairly.
And that capitalism is bad, (again because it is viewed as, "not fair"), and socialism is better, because most are B.S.'ed into thinking we need the government to help, "level the playing field".
The fact is the government can't help anyone with anything, unless they rob it from someone else first. Because the government produces nothing on it's own except debt. This creates even more class warfare, and animosity toward wealth, and those who possess it.
No matter what color glasses you try to view this through, the outcome isn't good. Education is much like computer data.... Garbage in equals garbage out. Today the stench is becoming all but unbearable.
and some are helping their parents by keeping them out of a nursing home or assisted living.. I wouldn't say they are waiting it out.
Can I live on a $10mil retirement? Bring it on and I'll let you know. The smart money says yes, and there'll be plenty left for my wife and son when I die.
I'm 44 and spent 11 years in higher education and now I'm currently in the middle of my MBA at UMass Amherst (a very liberal university in a very liberal state) so I have a fair handle on what's being pushed these days and that's not it, at least not by faculty in the business school. The ideas of capitalism being bad and socialism leveling the playing field were going strong in 2000 when I was in college and none of my peers who are the product of higher education are anti-capitalism or pro-socialism. I'm not saying these people don't exist and that this sentiment doesn't exist - only that it has always been there and it is really nothing new.
The idea that young people go through a phase where they are more sympathetic to others, even at their own expense, goes back to the 1960s and 1970s. My father used to say if you're not a hippie liberal as a young adult you don't have a heart and if your not a republican as an older adult you don't have a brain. Again, as far as I can tell, there's nothing new to see here other than these ideas have not just been politicized but weaponized. Even your presentation, capitalism or socialism, is part of the problem. There are and have always been socialist aspects to our flavor of capitalism, that's just a fact.
Often with two earners of course. Making 70,000 instead of say 100,000 a year can make a huge difference over a 30-40 year work life on retirement savings potential and still living a decent middle class life.
Yes, but we grew out of it. Today it is not only taking hold, but they go on to elect that type of mindset into Congress. Who then vote with those same passionate beliefs. I could name names, but you know who they are. You're seeing the result.
The Baby Boomers of the 60's and 70's went on to become the successful retirees of today. You see them everywhere. Hard work and financial discipline got them there. Do you honestly think you are going to see that same proportionate amount in another 40 to 45 years? We'll be lucky if we have a country by then.
No, the socialist mindset is taking hold in younger Americans. Just like it has in many other failed countries around the globe. And it took the successful invasion of the educational system to do it.
For me it really depends on managing the cost side of my retirement. I would probably prefer to move to a lower cost area once I am totally retired, which probably won't be until I'm 65-67 as I had a child late. An extra $1M would help, but it probably wouldn't change my calculations that much. An extra $10M would change things a lot, but, I'm not planning on it.
The Austin area isn't what it used to be. It's almost California expensive, the traffic is horrible, all the cool old-timey Austin places are shutting down to be replaced by Anywhere USA stuff and everything where you used to go for peace and solitude is crowded now. In short don't believe anything you read about those "best places to live" reviews. Living here stinks now. I would move away now but my career, wife's family and my parents are all in the immediate area so it's not really an option at the moment.
I'd like to move somewhere with a lower property taxes but that didn't just replace those taxes with higher income/sales taxes. I don't really care for the South as I am an Oregon native but I'm really going to need to put my biases aside if we retire elsewhere. It has to make dollars and sense. I'm not interested in paying $12-15K a year in property taxes in retirement like I am now. I'd also like a little less intense summers temperature wise without giving up too much on the wintertime side.
The Austin area isn't what it used to be. It's almost California expensive, the traffic is horrible, all the cool old-timey Austin places are shutting down to be replaced by Anywhere USA stuff and everything where you used to go for peace and solitude is crowded now. In short don't believe anything you read about those "best places to live" reviews. Living here stinks now. I would move away now but my career, wife's family and my parents are all in the immediate area so it's not really an option at the moment.
I'd like to move somewhere with a lower property taxes but that didn't just replace those taxes with higher income/sales taxes. I don't really care for the South as I am an Oregon native but I'm really going to need to put my biases aside if we retire elsewhere. It has to make dollars and sense. I'm not interested in paying $12-15K a year in property taxes in retirement like I am now. I'd also like a little less intense summers temperature wise without giving up too much on the wintertime side.
The government contributed far more to the cost of higher education when the boomers and gen-x'ers were young. The tuition cost increases in the last 30 years far outstripped inflation. And then people wonder why these kinds want student loan relief. I don't blame them, and I support it.
It was realistic in the early 90s to pay your way through college on a minimum wage job going to UT Austin where I went to undergrad. My tuition was never over $700 a semester and I paid $350 a month for housing. There's no way kids can do that nowadays. I don't know exactly what yearly tuition is now but it's north of $10K. Now the Unviersity of Texas at Austin says they want to be the "world's most important public research institution". I say the "heck" with that. The UT system needs to focus on educating the young people of Texas for an increasingly STEM future at a price that folks can afford.
I don't doubt the increased cost. What hasn't gone up in price? That's not the issue as much as what is being taught. It is making that additional cost anything but worth it. Places like Berkeley were always hotbeds of liberalism.
But back then they at least believed in free speech, and supported it. With the whole, "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
Today If you're not of the socialist mindset, you're taking your life in your own hands going there with an opposing viewpoint. I can remember when teachers gave higher grades to students who openly challenged the curriculum. Because it showed attentiveness by asking questions and engaging in spirited debate.
Do that today and you're considered a disruption to the educational process. And it will negatively affect your grade. Today they are being taught WHAT to think, not HOW to think.
You have to be an idiot to take out student loans for that. It's not what it costs. It's the lack of quality of the crap that's being sold at such a high price, that has become dangerous.
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This post is complete BS.
Complete BS.
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