hope
I might read too much
stuff about economics
to ever retire.
There is little that’s poetic about money. So let’s not get our hopes up too high.
Usually I ask the messenger to deliver this kind of news, but he called in sick.
The message is: I/you/we aren’t saving enough. If you aren’t saving, start now. If you are saving, increase the amount.
Here’s the test. Even if you work and contribute to a plan now, if you have a coffee drink prepared by a ‘barista’, more than once a week, then you are not saving enough. Increase your contribution by $25-$50 per paycheck, and lay off those sweet drinks.
For the intrepid only:
Seriously.
The (motherfathers at the) Federal Reserve say:
49% of “the respondents” to their questionnaire had not even begun to think about retirement planning. (lalalalaa can’t hear you. lalaa.)
The problem with their numbers is they get their averages by using all people, rich and poor, in one group, so it might give false confidence to modest savers who think they are above average.
Those frenemies at fool dot com address that. They say:
[if you only count people with any savings at all] the median account value for Americans aged 35 to 44 is just $42,700, while the median value for Americans aged 55 to 64 years old is $103,000.
And then they get ugly…
“‘Many experts recommend that retirees live by the “4% rule,” whereby they withdraw 4% of their savings in their first year of retirement and then adjust that percentage upward with inflation in following years. Based on that calculation, the average person retiring at age 65 with $103,000 in retirement savings would withdraw just $4,120 in their first year of retirement, or $343 per month. That’s hardly enough to live on.” No shit.
“As a result, most Americans will rely heavily on Social Security, but Social Security on its own won’t allow people to live lives of luxury. According to the Social Security Administration, the average Social Security recipient collected just $1,300 a month in 2014. Add that $1,300 in Social Security payments to the $343 in income from retirement savings, and the typical retiree is looking at a monthly income of just $1,643, or only $19,716 per year.”
all of those bad words were COMPLETELY COPIED FROM THEIR WEBSITE ;-P
I hate the fool and the Fed (sometimes).
I hope this will help. 😐
January is here and for many of us, it means a month of budgetary austerity. I agree, there is little that’s poetic about money. Come to think of it, this may be the first poem I’ve ever found that incorporates the Federal Reserve. 😉
