Half of Americans die with almost no money
Andrea Coombes’ Ways and Means
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)—Almost half of U.S. retirees die with savings of $10,000 or less, but that grim finding doesn’t fully describe the variability and uncertainty that characterize retirement in America, according to a recent study.
While some retirees struggle profoundly, living at or below the poverty line, others enjoy wealth and health—in fact, the two are strongly linked—while still others have little in savings but enjoy a decent income, according to the report, based on a survey that tracked retirees from 1993 through 2008.
While 46% of retirees have just $10,000 in savings when they die, “That doesn’t mean their standard of living is very low—they might have a relatively generous pension plan, most of them will have Social Security,” said James Poterba, professor of economics at M.I.T., president of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a co-author of the study.
But the findings “suggest something about the financial resiliency of these households,” Poterba added. “They may not have much capacity to absorb a shock, such as an out-of-pocket medical expenditure. They don’t have very much in the way of liquid assets they can access.” Read the study here.
When net worth is measured—including savings, home equity, the value of Social Security and pension benefits, and more—retirees’ financial picture around the time of death looks less bleak. Single people had average assets of about $142,000, those whose spouse had died previously had average assets of $253,000, and couples where the surveyed retiree had died but the other spouse was still living had average assets of $692,000, according to the study.
“You can’t generalize that the elderly are not doing very well financially or that the elderly are doing fine. There is a lot of variation within the group,” Poterba said. “There is a clear group of households that have relatively low income and also have low financial assets. At the other end is a group that has financial assets that are more than sufficient to accommodate any shocks.”
Policy makers and financial advisers, take note. “One-size-fits-all solutions are unlikely to really capture the flavor of what’s here,” Poterba said.
Another worrisome finding: The degree to which some retirees face a steep drop in income. While single people and married couples saw their retirement income remain fairly steady, on average, that was not the case for retirees whose spouse had died.
Their income dropped almost 75% between 1993 and the last year of being surveyed. The study doesn’t explain why that happens, though Poterba hazarded a guess that it might be related to a drop in pension benefits when the first spouse dies.
If you want the best retirement outcome possible, get rich. If that fails, consider getting married, staying married—and doing your best to die before your spouse does. That last is not entirely serious, but the general take-away is that being married pays off in retirement.
For example, remember that 46% of retirees who have just $10,000 in savings when they die? That jumps to 57% for people who are single throughout the course of the survey.
Married couples are likelier to have home equity, too. Overall, in the last year before death, 57% of single-person households and 50% of surviving spouses had no housing wealth when they died. But retirees who died before their spouse did? Just 20% lacked home equity, the study said.
“The group who does the best in terms of average level of financial assets are those who are married when we first see them, remain married when the first person dies, and we’re looking at the first spouse to die. They tend to have higher income levels,” Poterba said. “Single individuals on average have lower levels of retirement income as well as lower financial assets.”
But perhaps the study’s most striking finding was a “strong and consistent” relationship between wealth and survival. If you’re rich, you’re much likelier to live longer.
“The relationship between wealth when first observed and subsequent mortality is striking,” the study said.
Maddie's Mom says:
Is there a point to this article?
“You can’t generalize that the elderly are not doing very well financially or that the elderly are doing fine. There is a lot of variation within the group,” Poterba said.
That could’ve been the beginning and end right there.
Duh.
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31st August 2012 at 10:07 am
bluestem says:
Can’t take it with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! John
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31st August 2012 at 10:09 am
Maddie's Mom says:
“If you want the best retirement outcome possible, get rich.”
I wish I could get paid to write stuff like this.
I wouldn’t even have to get out of bed to come up jewels like that.
Must’ve been a slow day for Andrea.
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31st August 2012 at 10:09 am
FTL says:
Don’t worry – In a few years a vast majority of Americans up to 99.5% will die broke.
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31st August 2012 at 10:24 am
Pirate Jo says:
You can probably do okay with $10,000 to your name if you have checks coming in from a pension and Social Security.
Those of us under the age of 50, who will see neither, had better save all we can and plan to work until age 75.
Median income per wage-earner in the US is around $25K, right? I’m a single wage-earner making nearly three times that. I’m also kid-free, debt-free, and mortgage-free. My living expenses run around $25K a year, which is a lot cheaper than what most people in the country live on. This has to put me in the top 10-15%, right?
But this idea that I can quit my job someday and live off the interest on my savings – that’s nuts. Interest rates are around 1%. I’d need $2.5 million. Some guy elsewhere on the Internet yesterday was saying that people who have to dip into their principal in retirement are “living on the raggedy edge.” I just about fell out of my chair laughing. According to this article, only half the population even has $10,000 in principal in the first place. That raggedy edge is awfully big!
What FTL said.
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31st August 2012 at 11:01 am
Tim says:
I’m 37 years old, and I am certain that I won’t see any of the money that has been withheld from my wages in the form of Social Security taxes. That’s money that I earned; it belongs to ME. I really wish there were a way to opt out of Social Security and get a refund of ones withholdings.
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31st August 2012 at 11:14 am
AWD says:
“others enjoy wealth and health—in fact, the two are strongly linked”
They obviously aren’t talking about baby boomers; their health is the worst this country has ever seen. They’re all on 12 meds, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cholesterol through the roof, joint problems, heart disease, many smoke, have COPD, sleep apnea, joint replacements, can’t walk, yet continue to abuse their health.
Being wealthy and being healthy are most certainly linked. You can’t work and become wealthy when your health is destroyed. All you can do is become a ward of the state, and die with nothing. Taxpayers will make up for your sins, even if the criminals in Washington have to put a gun to their head to make them pay.
From what I’m told, many boomers that are dying are dying in debt, not with any cash. The last insult to their progeny and society, dying in debt. A boomer right of passage.
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31st August 2012 at 12:15 pm
flash says:
Why do Half of Americans die with almost no money?
BecaUse, It’s the only option left.
By the time the crooked ass heath-care systems’ bean counters are thru tallying up the cost of the asswipe who prescribes the aspirin , the nurse who delivers of the aspirin , the cups used for water to swallow the aspirin and the fee associated with the disposal of the water cup ain’t enough money left to live on…might as well die.
I’ve seen this play out in terminally ill patients more often than not.
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31st August 2012 at 12:31 pm
flash says:
via Karl Denninger .
Those g-damn boomers knew that artificially inflated healthcare cost were going to be shoved up their ass with a pair of flaming forceps. They shoulda’ planned ahead…yeah, thats the ticket.,
More Health-care Monopoly Practices
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?blog=Market-Ticker&page=5
Here ‘ya go folks…
After David Hubbard underwent a routine echocardiogram at his cardiologist’s office last year, he was surprised to learn that the heart scan cost his insurer $1,605. That was more than four times the $373 it paid when the 61-year-old optometrist from Reno, Nev., had the same procedure at the same office just six months earlier.
“Nothing had changed, it was the same equipment, the same room,” said Dr. Hubbard, who has a high-deductible health plan and had to pay about $1,000 of the larger bill out of his own pocket. “I was very upset.”
Why? Because the local hospital bought his cardiologist’s practice, and then started billing as hospital outpatient rates and pulling similar games.
Since medical licenses and permits to build facilities are often politically controlled and artificially-limited, this means that per-se price controls exist by these firms. This is then exploited to quadruple a procedure’s cost over a mere six month’s time.
There is no resolution to the medical mess until the effective monopoly controls and forced cost-shifting, all of which exist only because of government protections, are stopped.
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31st August 2012 at 12:39 pm
flash says:
More reality check via Denninger. Heath-care is one giant scam and doctors are in on it….but we didn’t know they say as they build a million dollar home straight out of med school.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=210446
Health Care: Reality Check
I’m tired of the lies. Including those of Peter Orszag, who was President Obama’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. He said:
The vast bulk of health-care costs arise from an extremely small share of patients, whose insurance will inevitably bear a substantial share of their expenses.
That’s why competition in health care doesn’t work as well as in other sectors, and it’s also why the key to keeping costs to a minimum is to encourage providers to offer better, less costly care in complex cases.
Bullcrap.
In 1963 it cost $120.55 to have a baby in a hospital, according to one man who actually stroked the check. There was no “insurance” for any such routine and expected medical procedures (have sex, child will likely follow if you do it often enough.)
This is great because the BLS says that the CPI was 30.4 in 1963. Today it’s 229.104, or 7.54x as high.
So we’ll multiply $120.55 X 7.54 and we get $908.95, or what it should cost for everything, including the room for both baby and mother, drugs, the delivery room, circumcision (it was a boy, obviously) and lab fees. This covered four days in the hospital, incidentally, not the less-than-24 hour “quickie” that is usually the norm today.
Now I’ll grant you this was an “uncomplicated” birth. And? Most births are. Some are not, but a routine birth was, in 2012 dollars, under $1,000 in 1963.
And trust me, babies are born the same way in 2012 that they were in 1963; they are emitted out of the same place in the mother, the same labor and delivery process happens, the cord still has to be cut, etc.
Oh sure, things go wrong and when they do it can get more expensive — quickly.
But find me a hospital that will deliver a baby, with a four day stay for mother and child, for $1,000 cash anywhere in the United States. You can’t because such a hospital does not exist.
Indeed, you can’t even stay for one day in a semi-private room at Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights, IL — just stay in the room, without any care being provided whatsoever — unless you spend $1,365. Incidentally, you can stay in the Mariott downtown on the MagMile in Chicago for $209 a night, or $259 if you’d like access to the Club Lounge, roughly 1/5th of the hospital (and quite a bit nicer, I might add; I’ve been in the latter.) The Renaissance Schaumburg, a few miles from that hospital for those who claim that using downtown Chicago prices is being “unfair” (compared to a Suburban hospital), is $219.
And remember, the hospital room is just for the room — no medical procedures, no drugs, no monitoring devices, no special facilities like an ICU unit, nothing other than the physical space.
We can talk about medical care cost escalations once we remove all of the cost-shifting, monopoly protections passed by government, EMTALA’s impact and outright frauds that the medical industry foists on all of us that cause costs to be 5, 10 or even 20 or more times what inflation says this procedure should cost. A procedure that is functionally identical to the one performed in 1963 and is an utterly routine and ordinary process that humans have undergone for thousands upon thousands of years.
The point of this, my friends, is that for $1,000 you could write a check for your childbirth expenses; “insurance” would be unnecessary. If you were not well-off you could hock your car’s fancy rims (which you had plenty of money to buy, right?)
Guess what? Most of the rest of “common” medical procedures are likewise overinflated in price by similar amounts for exactly the same reason — cost-shifting, monopoly protections granted to these businesses, EMTALA and, of course, outright frauds and money-sucking off the government and private-sector teat.
The entire medical system is one gigantic scam.
Period.
There’s not a thing wrong with allowing people to buy really fancy medical care using really fancy equipment and procedures, decking out really fancy rooms in fancy hospitals, paying for it all in cash. But there is something very, very wrong when utterly routine things like childbirth, hernia repair, gallbladder operations, an inflamed appendix, setting a broken leg or arm and similar wind up costing you 5, 10 or even 20x what the inflation-adjusted price is from, say, 1963.
Every one of these politicians needs to shut the hell up until they put a stop to this crap. And make no mistake — absent the government protections that have been given to this industry there is not a snowball’s chance in hell that their pricing would survive 30 seconds in an actual competitive market where people had to write checks.
These politicians are all scam artists in bed with the medical shysters who are interested in exactly one thing — bleeding the entirety of this nation dry.
The proof is in the numbers.
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31st August 2012 at 12:46 pm
Maddie's Mom says:
We are boomers and if we can die with some assets, some cash and no debt to leave to our daughter, I will be happy.
As things stand right now, we’re all set, but who knows what the future holds.
We have also paid off her student loans.
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31st August 2012 at 12:48 pm
flash says:
Maddie’s Mom -As things stand right now, we’re all set, but who knows what the future holds.
Then please plan on not getting a terminal illness or the heath-care system will pick your fiscal carcass clean with every unnecessary test and procedure known to exist , not to mention charging you for any air that you happen to breathe while in their custody.
And , the doctors will never fail to have a friend …er…specialist stop by your death bed on the way to the golf-course , just to say high and submit the $3,000.00 dollar hi-ya bill to your grieving family.
beemers don’t come cheap , you know.
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31st August 2012 at 12:56 pm
S Varghese says:
Home equity credit is a concept which is very popular in the Western world. In the East, generally children take care of their parents and the parents pass on their wealth/home to their offspring. I have a house which is fully paid, but I will not use it as my retirement ATM. I will have a deal with my children, whoever takes care of me and my wife in my old age will get to keep the house.
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31st August 2012 at 1:02 pm
Ron says:
Because most people dont have much money? I tried to sell medicare supplement insurance many years ago.All i met were broke elderly.They were almost sharing the cats food,they didnt buy all the meds they were supposed to because they wanted the electricity to stay on.Not everyone has some dream retirement.
I advise people to buy an rv, And a piece of dirt somewhere.A paid off place to live is the best.
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31st August 2012 at 1:13 pm
Kill Bill says:
100% of humans die with no money, gold, houses, cars, clothes – you cant take it with you.
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31st August 2012 at 1:13 pm
Stucky says:
Think about it …. DYING with no money is not a problem! In fact, I call that “perfect timing”. That’s how I want to die … when I’m down to my last penny …\POOF!/, gone to the Great Beyond. Perfect.
LIVING with no money. Now THAT’S a problem. No?
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31st August 2012 at 1:14 pm
Jesus, Son of God says:
MSM Article: “Bill Johnson was worth $20 million dollars when he died.”
ME: “No. Bill Johnson was worth zero the moment he died. There are no rich or poor, for all stand naked before me on the Day of Judgment.”
Sincerely,
Jeebus
Hot debate. What do you think?
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31st August 2012 at 1:28 pm
Kill Bill says:
Wages have been stagnant for decades. Inflation steals peoples wealth, the value of their labor, over time. Jobs, thru such folks as Mitt Damien Thorn Romney , vulture capitalist, sends jobs offshore to fill his scroogy pockets. Today he claims that America more needs lots jobs, jobs jobs while flying the Cayman flag on his yacht.
Obama is no better. The landed plutocracy controls our puppet whore politicians thru the media, mega foundations, think tanks and pundits.
We are not on the right track, we are circling downwars into the maelstrom and the woodbines (Ivey leaguers) at the wheel are steering into the slide thinking it will correct the understeer.
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31st August 2012 at 1:29 pm
Thor says:
Jeebus …. bite me.
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31st August 2012 at 1:29 pm
AWD says:
Wow, nice to see the God of Norsemen, the God of thunder, my personal hero, Thor. A blessed day indeed.
Get a job, and then you won’t die penniless, dipshits….
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31st August 2012 at 1:32 pm
Kill Bill says:
Money is not life. Humans survived without it for longer than we have survived with it.
It was meant as a means to ease barter. Today its become something of a con where its used to wreck your wealth because the greedsters of the central banking system, for one, have figured a way to steal you labors. Thats by creating money from nothing – ex nihilo. Its beneficial to them but detrimental to the masses.
Screw Bernanke and his funny money.
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31st August 2012 at 1:34 pm
AWD says:
KB: welcome back!
Damn, Stucky and KB in the same week. Things are really looking up!
“Money is only something you need in case you don’t die today”
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31st August 2012 at 1:40 pm
Stucky says:
Good to “see” you Kill Bill. Stick around, please.
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31st August 2012 at 1:49 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
“Think about it …. DYING with no money is not a problem! In fact, I call that “perfect timing”. That’s how I want to die … when I’m down to my last penny …\POOF!/, gone to the Great Beyond. Perfect.
LIVING with no money. Now THAT’S a problem. No?”
Agreed, however since this is the USA, the MSM can easily gloss over the distinction as few will understand the difference.
There will be no Social Security or fat pension plans for me or my wife. Therefore, we are already trying to save (student loans paid off first, then begin saving) and are trying to build a road map for our lives that doesn’t end with us being completely dependent on the government for food/lights/meds.
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31st August 2012 at 1:59 pm
Maddie's Mom says:
flash,
Yes, I’ll do my best.
But the health care system can only pick your fiscal carcass clean if you allow it.
My mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness many years ago. When it reached the point of having to consider a bone marrow transplant and other expensive life-prolonging measures, she said “No.” She would not allow the family farm she had worked so hard for over the course of 40 years to be handed over to the health care system. She wanted it to remain intact to be passed on to her children instead.
She refused any further treatment and passed away at 62.
We do have choices, difficult though they may be.
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31st August 2012 at 2:03 pm
IndenturedServant says:
I got a hot tip that Wally World had an awesome price on some ammo I wanted so I popped in to see. Every time I go there, I’m amazed at the number of people pushing around shopping carts full of shit they don’t actually need. They appear to be programmed to buy anything and everything on sale whether they need it or not. Perhaps this is why half of Americans die with no money?
The hot tip proved accurate. They were selling Federal HI-SHOK 9mm jacketed hollow points for $6.97 per box of 50. I can’t buy the brass, powder, bullets and caps for that cheap! They had them mis-marked! I bought 1500 rounds. Gonna be a fun Labor Day Weekend!
I_S
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31st August 2012 at 2:55 pm
TeresaE says:
I don’t know why we are even worried about “dying with no money.”
According to Hillary, probably Obama too but he is smart enough to keep his mouth shut, NO ONE (barring the *special* 1′ers) should die with ANY money.
No one should inherit anything and we should INCREASE both gift taxes and death taxes to make sure things are “fair.” (to the government and the likes of her, I guess).
So, no problem.
Even if we manage to (somehow) have a little fiat left at the end, the helpful bureaucrats are standing pat, ready to relieve us of our evil burden.
Of course 50% die with nothing, at least 50% of our fellow citizens never wanted to work, never said no to ease & entertainment today, and even if able, couldn’t save a dime if their life depended on it.
Because that is the reality of humans.
Those that work harder, save more, deny more, are the EXCEPTION, not the freaking rule.
Though all these great “think tanks” and “experts” like to pretend otherwise.
Some people are just meant to be poor and there is NOTHING the rest of us could do to change them.
Which is the exact reason why you occasionally see one member of a family become “rich” while the rest lay around waiting for their sib to dose a little “fairness” (called ‘charity’) on them.
I hate all this crap that tries to make us feel sorry for people that have made their own beds.
Meanwhile we can’t seem to find a lick of sympathy for the people being destroyed intentionally by the government, bankrupted and thrown in jail, not a lick.
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31st August 2012 at 3:37 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
TeresaE makes a good point, only half of us even bother to pay taxes at this point.
I wonder if there is any correlation.
What percent of those that die with nothing also paid nothing in throughout their lifetime? No matter what the answer, its bound to be interesting.
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31st August 2012 at 3:50 pm
Stucky says:
“TeresaE makes a good point, only half of us even bother to pay taxes at this point.” — TPC
Admin. Admin!! Admin!!! ADMIN!!!!!
Now would be a good time to jump in and teach these mangy curs a lesson or two.
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31st August 2012 at 4:11 pm
Kill Bill says:
Thx Stuck, AWD. I plan on sticking around, well, at least till the pump and pipes lock up. =)
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31st August 2012 at 4:13 pm
Kill Bill says:
Yikes
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31st August 2012 at 4:19 pm
Kill Bill says:
Thx Stuck, AWD, I plan on sticking around till the hamster wheel seizes up like an Edsel.
(:^D
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31st August 2012 at 4:21 pm
flash says:
Maddie’s Mom,
After years of fighting Hodgkins , my cousin opted for a bone marror transplant.I think the asking price was 450 thousand.
Needless to say when all was said and done she lost the farm and her life. She dies bankrupt.
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31st August 2012 at 4:31 pm
TeresaE says:
@TPC and Stucky
I don’t know if not “paying” taxes (because even the lowliest paid/not paid person in this country is paying taxes – if not directly, then by default as there is NOTHING that is not taxed, we all pay) has anything to do with it.
Inherent human traits lead MOST people (the rule, not exception) to only work hard enough to feed themselves. That’s it.
Drive anywhere in this (formerly) great country and see the truth. People CHOOSE to live and die broke and dependent.
I didn’t/don’t choose it for them, they did/do it all by themselves.
And don’t give me the crap about where you are born, the family, crap like that.
Every single one of us had the same freaking opportunity (at least everyone over 30). Nobody forced us to have kids, get fired, refuse to learn new skills, refuse to make the sacrifices to save, go to school, buy a house, whatever.
NOBODY. We had the wonderful, beautiful, apparently rare, opportunity to work for anything we wanted to work towards without anyone stopping us.
There are many of the poor that try really hard but due to things like IQ, or other handicap, are unable to earn more. But, for nearly every other person in this country, there is ZERO excuse for knowing you are broke and living in shit and choosing to do NOTHING to change it.
I will agree that inflation has robbed us of many things, but the reality is that inflation is rarely enough to override a burning desire to make your life better.
This site is proliferated with those that just can’t grasp that concept because they are the EXCEPTIONS, not the rules.
Appalachia, Harlem, Gary, St. Louis, THOSE are rules.
People are inherently lazy and inherently hate change.
I, thankfully, and if you have read this far probably you, too, figured the “secret” out. The other 80% NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER will.
Even if we spot them free housing, free health care and free (or nearly) retirements.
I’m done feeling sorry for the likes of most. I’ll retain my sorrows and empathy for those that are screwed even as doing everything in their power to change it.
100% of our seniors lived through one of the most prosperous, progressive, exciting times the world has ever seen.
If they played grasshopper, instead of ant, I just won’t feel sorry for them.
Even as I take care of my own father, the supreme grasshopper. So it goes.
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31st August 2012 at 6:59 pm
TeresaE says:
@MM, I’m sorry about your mom.
My mom’s liver died from cirrhosis; she never drank, didn’t smoke, didn’t even take prescriptions (but, I’ll admit was morbidly obese for much of her adult life), didn’t have hepatitis.
My parents were the epitome of the working poor and poor decision making skills, they couldn’t even begin to pay for a transplant.
Mom and dad only had COBRA insurance because my father’s company went belly-up the same time he had his first hip replacement, and the jobs he found after wouldn’t pay for “pre-existing” conditions (pretty sure she was born with a faulty liver, but didn’t matter, it was diagnosed under original insurance, neither COBRA nor the new job’s would pay)
My grandmother offered to sell her home that she had lived in since before WWII to pay for it. My mom said no. It sucked, but was the right thing to do. She died at 63.
Spending millions to eke out a couple more years (or decades) of life seems to be a new entitlement in this country. Eventually the math will catch up. Like it used to be, like the choices our mothers made.
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31st August 2012 at 7:08 pm
Maddie's Mom says:
TeresaE,
Thank you and I am so sorry for your loss as well.
It is so hard to lose our mothers, isn’t it?
Life has never been the same for me since.
Brave ladies they were.
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31st August 2012 at 9:36 pm
Maddie's Mom says:
flash,
That is such a sad, sad story.
I really had no idea the cost of a bone marrow transplant.
450K seems outrageous to me.
In my mom’s case, it still would not have meant a cure. Just a little more time.
Multiple myeloma gets you in the end.
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31st August 2012 at 9:53 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
@flash – A sad story indeed. My family is replete with both sides of that story. People bowing out early and leaving their families something, and people who died $1M in debt.
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31st August 2012 at 12:55 am
Nonanonymous says:
Thor, you miss the point, perhaps because you’re a myth.
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31st August 2012 at 10:36 am
Stucky says:
TeresaE
Regarding my tax comment — I was just trying to flush a post out of Admin.
I posted a pic about half the country not paying taxes, and Mr. Admin basically told me I was full of shit … in a kindly manner, however.
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31st August 2012 at 8:59 am