Dennis Miller (not the one you are thinking of) from Casey Research with some interesting thoughts. I think he is absolutely right about credit cards enabling instant gratification.
The time to think about retirement is not right before you expect to retire. And saying you don’t plan on retiring can be kindof funny and might actually be what happens, but what happens when the world forces you into retirement? There aren’t a ton of places looking to add 65+ year olds to their workforce.
If you start thinking about how you plan on funding your retirement when you are say 30, you will be less likely to be worrying about it in your 50′s and during retirement (given some luck).
Why Can’t Americans Save Money?
By Dennis Miller, Editor of Miller’s Money Forever
For the past several decades, the United States has been the most prosperous nation on earth. Our standard of living has increased substantially, and even those considered poor in this country would be the envy of many throughout the world.
During my lifetime I have seen society go from Dad being the primary breadwinner with Mom staying home raising the children to today, where a majority of marriages find both husband and wife working and the American family has record debt levels. What about savings? No time to think about it; got too many bills to pay. How can that be in the most prosperous nation on earth?
A friend recently sent me an article which quoted some statistics from the Employee Benefit Research Institute indicating that only 58% of us are currently saving for retirement. Sixty percent of those have less than $25,000 and 30% have less than $1,000 saved.
We are seeing lots of articles with similar themes, all pointing out that Americans have not saved for the future and it is going to be a real problem, not only for the non-savers, but for those who have saved as well, because they will be asked to subsidize their less-thrifty peers through higher taxes.
Many will go on to speculate why. The particular article I read discussed the number of folks who have plans like a 401(k) and how few participate to any major degree. The essence is that there are some obstacles to being able to save. While I will not argue with those issues, my personal belief is they are tangential issues at best. If a person is a spender, he will find a way to spend. If a person is a saver, despite the normal obstacles he will find a way to save.
There is more than one type of savings
For many of us, one of our early childhood lessons involves the idea of “saving up” for something. The theory is that we accumulate money in order to buy something we really want. I have seen cases where those lessons translate directly to adult life. I had friend who told me he really wanted a boat. Every Friday he and his wife would get paid, drop the children off at Grandma’s house, and go out with their friends partying at their favorite watering hole. He was proud to tell me that he figured out just how much that partying on Friday night cost, and that he and his wife decided they did not need to spend that money. He quickly added that the money they saved is equal to the monthly boat payment. What really happened? Now on Friday night, they drop their kids at Grandma’s house, go buy a case of beer at the discount liquor store, and go party on the boat with their friends.
I have finally come to the conclusion that saving up for something is truly no more than an illusion of saving. It is really nothing more than a reallocation of expenses. It is like our government wanting to save money by not subsidizing Big Bird, so it will have money to buy more bombs. As a taxpayer, I don’t see my taxes coming down.
Let’s start at the beginning
How should we define savings? “A system where a person, family, entity, or government deliberately spends less money than they take in, putting the remainder away for the sole purpose of accumulating wealth.” There is no immediate, specific purpose for spending that money. It is there for emergencies. In the case of a family, the goal is to accumulate enough wealth for retirement. How much is enough? It would be having enough wealth to maintain your standard of living off the earnings from the accumulated savings.
Don’t do as I do, do as I say
My youngest son will turn 50 next year. He recently asked me how those in my generation were able to save money for retirement. Honestly, most of us were done with childbearing in our 20s. The children left the nest in our 50s. Our wives worked, and I called it “the race to the finish line.” We were in our peak earning years, had more money than ever before in our life, and somehow we managed to save some for retirement. As I look at my definition, we really did not do a good job. If we had, most of us would have accumulated a lot more than we have today.
My son’s response was an eye-opener for me. Most of his peers put off having children until their late 20s or even into their 30s. When they are in their 50s, their children will be heading off to college – and they will be in their highest-expense years. Their race to the finish line is just a few years long. They have quite a different challenge than we did.
If you don’t fix the cause, you don’t solve the problem
I really struggled with trying to determine the real cause behind Americans’ inability to save. I went back and reread many of the articles I had on the subject and kept coming back to the same point. There are certain people who are just true savers. What makes them different than most who just cannot seem to save? My first clue took place in a very odd fashion.
Recently my wife and I went into Walmart, and something caught my attention. A mother had her son in the cart; he was probably not yet four years old. He was carrying on about how he wanted a toy he grabbed off the shelf. His mother said, “No,” and predictably he just screamed louder. His mother then said, “Maybe for Christmas.” At that point, the child raised his voice and screamed, “No, I want it now!” Much to my chagrin, the mother finally gave in. The lady and her son ended up in front of us in the checkout line. She took the toy away from her son so the clerk could scan it and ring up the sale. Then she took out her credit card and paid the bill. Bingo! It hit me.
In 1975 our world changed forever. Up to that point in time, if you had a credit card, it would have been from an oil company, a department store, or something like American Express or Diner’s Club. The cards could only be used at the specific stores that issued them. A very limited number of establishments would accept Diner’s Club or American Express. You paid for your purchases with cash. If you didn’t have the cash, you didn’t buy it – just that simple.
Along came Visa, soon to be followed with MasterCard offering credit cards that would be accepted most anywhere. If you had any type of credit card, there was a good chance you would get – unsolicited – a Visa or MasterCard card in the mail with a $200 credit limit. Thus the concept of “instant gratification” was enabled. The expansion of instant credit has fueled economic booms and changed family values significantly.
When you really look at saving money, isn’t it really a trade-off? It is sacrificing something providing instant gratification for something of greater value in the future. How does an entire generation brought up in the age of instant gratification all of a sudden change and learn how to save? The last of the baby boomer generation turns 50 in 2014. They were taught to buy the biggest house they could because real estate was always going to appreciate. Homes owned by couples in their 20s and 30s are beyond anything their parents could have dreamed of when they were the same age. Want a new car? No problem: you can get a seven-year loan. Most have never been taught to save; they never felt nor saw a real need to do so.
The idea of instant gratification has become so ingrained in the US that it is easily defined as part of our culture as a nation. Noel Tichy wrote a book called Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will. He defined corporate culture as “The unwritten norms, beliefs and values that define appropriate behavior.” It is not what is written in the personnel manuals, but rather just the accepted way things are being done. The definition struck home; it applies to families just as much as corporations. For many Americans, the culture is instant gratification – charge it, and worry about saving sometime later in life.
For those who have not saved nearly enough money for retirement, are they not putting themselves at the mercy of others who will control their destiny? Kinda scary when it’s put that way… particularly when you know that the government is so broke it is printing trillions of dollars on a printing press to try to create the illusion that it is real money. The idea of putting our destiny in the hands of any government is frightening.
So where do we start?
When a corporation or entity sets out to accomplish a change in culture, it is a major financial and emotional event for everyone. It is an attitude and priority change, coupled with a major commitment and behavior change on the part of all people involved. It is the same process within a family.
Within our family, we have some folks who are married who have either always lived within their means and been true savers or they had a “revelation event” that caused them to reassess things and radically change their spending and savings habits.
In those cases, both husband and wife have to come to an understanding of priorities. That is followed by a total assessment of their current debt, spending habits, and lifestyle. The next step is to figure out where they want to be. Then they asked themselves the real question: “Are we willing to learn to defer gratification and give up a lot of stuff that is cool and fun to truly accumulate wealth?” We might want to start by giving a clearer definition of the goal.
In May, 2012, the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies released its 13th annual Retirement Survey. In a survey of over 3,600 workers, 56% plan to work after age 65, and 54% indicated they would continue working after they retire. The lead paragraph of the press release says, “American workers, shaken by the realities of the Great Recession, have adjusted their visions of retirement …”
The detailed research report offers a new definition of “retirement readiness”:
“A state in which an individual is well‐prepared for retirement, should it happen as planned or unexpectedly, and can continue generating adequate income to cover living expenses throughout his/her lifetime through retirement savings and investments, employer pension benefits, government benefits, and/or continuing to work in some manner while allowing for leisure time to enjoy life.”
The real question is this: Are the perceived benefits in the above paragraph enough to motivate people to change their behavior? Almost all people want to be set for retirement, so they can sleep easy and enjoy the rest of their lives. While the articles tend to point to the majority of folks who are ill-prepared financially for retirement, there still are many who have taken the necessary steps to look after, and be in control of, their own future destiny (one of those steps is to not depend on interest income from CDs).
As a person who is retired, I can say we have many good friends who are still struggling. Most all have confided in my wife and me something to the effect, “If I had a do-over,” followed by examples where they would have managed their finances and priorities differently. It all adds up to the same point – they wish they had taken retirement seriously at a much younger age.
On the positive side, there is something about turning 50 that causes many to stop and reassess their station in life and their priorities. My son initiated the discussion about retirement; he realized that it was an issue that should no longer be ignored.
I confessed to him that I had come to the same conclusion when I was his age; however, I also learned a bit about myself. The best way for me to save money was to put it where it was invested and I could not have ready access to it. I was self- employed, and my CPA put me in touch with a pension consultant. We set up a retirement plan where the contributions to the plan were tax deductible, which gave me a great incentive to save as much as I could. After a couple of years of seeing it grow, our first budget item was the maximum contribution to the plan; we had made the transition and were truly saving.
The easiest way for my youngest son to save money, invest it, and not have it easily available was to increase his contribution to his 401(k). They are able to live on his income. His wife recently went back to work full-time. With the help of Vedran Vuk, we provided him with some charts showing an analysis of increasing his 401(k) contributions and what it would mean over a 15-year period. He discussed it with his wife, called his payroll department, and increased his annual contributions. In addition, they committed to themselves to continue to increase their contributions each year.
What struck me about the survey I mentioned at the beginning of the article was how few folks take advantage of their 401(k) plans. One of the many sayings of my grandfather that took me many years to understand was, “Pay yourself first and learn to live on the rest!”
original here.
KaD says:
Alot of today’s 30 year olds aren’t going to get a job because the alot of the Boomers aren’t going to retire. And the ones that do get jobs probably aren’t going to make much more than they need to live paycheck to paycheck, if that.
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16th November 2012 at 10:32 pm
sangell says:
Lets get real here. Ben Bernanke, for whatever reason, has destroyed the ability of the average person to save for their retirement through his financial repression and ZIRP policies. Earning 0.01 percent on $100,000 in savings will never allow you to retire even if you are 25 years old! Investing that same money in a rigged stock market that depends on a continous flow of digital money to keep it up risks the $100,000 you have managed to accumulate. Requiring banks to hold ‘risk free’ capital and defining ‘risk free’ as the debt of a bankrupt government adds insanity to the financial system.
I read perhaps the most intelligent comment I have ever read on Zero Hedge tonight and I seldom read the comments there. It simply said.
“If you are still working your are fucked”.
There it is in 8 words. Forget about saving, forget about investing, you can only hope to hang on to what you were able to accumulate in better times. If you don’t have anything now a lotto ticket maybe your only hope.
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16th November 2012 at 10:39 pm
Ron says:
I remember reading about how if when you started your first job,around high school age and put a little away for just so many years it would have done so much more for you.
I never had one person tell me to save for retirement.Its rare to meet anyone that is retired and dosent work in some way,just to make it.
I sure dont see many having faith in the market to make them money in the long haul.
I tell people to have piece of dirt paid for.And a small cabin.So it dosent take much to live on when they get old. An RV trailer and an pickup to haul it would be good to.
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16th November 2012 at 12:44 am
Remind me to kill you... says:
This shit just pisses me the fuck off. I hate you motherfuckers writing about most of “us”. FUCK YOU. Don’t lump me in with your fat motherfucking boomer ass. You don’t know me, bitch. You don’t have permission to lump me in with “us”. Fuck you. I’ve been saving, working my ass off, doing without for almost 20 goddam years. I’ve managed to save upwards of a million dollars just by DELAYING GRATIFICATION, again and again and again and again. Meanwhile, what have you lazy ass kunts done? Used your goddam houses like a fucking ATM and now you bitches want the government to bail your lazy, stupid ass out with a loan modification. Fuck every last one of you. You and the free shit army sucking each others dicks. Where does the money for your loan modification come from? My fucking taxes, where else? Fuckface. Where’s my gun?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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16th November 2012 at 10:27 am
Thunderbird says:
Today is a different world. Who is crazy enough to save fiat money that decreases in value when you don’t use it because inflation eats it up.
If one can get a government job and join a public union then your pension is guaranteed for a comfortable retirement with plenty of money to spend.
If one observes the people approaching 65 years old today, many will not be able to work much past that age because their bodies are worn out from too much work in the past. This country was once a very productive society with many working hard jobs or jobs that wore their body out.
What this country is headed for when the boomers retire is a work force lacking skilled vocational labor. It is going to hit hard. My advice would be to return vocational studies and education to the public schools. If this doesn’t happen look out for a failed infrastructure with an insufficient work force to repair or replace it.
The mentality of our business and government leaders has to change. Like the title of this thread, “Saving, like math, is hard” which reflects a lack of understanding about the foundation that supports a strong economy, basic infrastructure maintenance requires people that love math and electro/mechanical physics, not just management skills to run an organization.
If our leaders don’t change their thinking this country is going down just like the Soviet system did. What good is a leader that can’t even lead sheep in the right direction. What I mean is good for the development of the people. Leaders that use people for their own self interest are a dime a dozen. Leaders that can lead are rare today. This is both in government and business.
The value of a salary or wage can be reflected in a bell curve. Pay a person too little or too much and the quality and quantity of the work goes down. We pay our CEOs and public administrators way to much and as a result we get low quality work and decisions. Why? Because being paid too much gives a person a false sense of worth and their focus is on what they are going to do with the excess money rather than what they are going to do at their job.
Too little wage or salary destroys incentive so the person’s mind is not focused on the work, and so the quality goes down.
In the end our nation, as it is headed today, is headed for doom. But this is not new in the history of life. Those that see what life is about; that is, the Ying and the Yang of life, prepare accordingly. It is nothing to get negative about.
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16th November 2012 at 10:58 am
Thunderbird says:
Remind me to kill you:
All this lack of gratification for twenty years has sure taken it’s toll. Just think of all those people for the last twenty years have gotten lots of gratification on your dime while you have gone without?
Ever heard of a Faker? It is those people in India and other parts of Asia that make their bodies suffer to finally achieve enlightenment. You seem twenty years in that direction. Perhaps you are very close to enlightenment.
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16th November 2012 at 11:06 am
AWD says:
With Obamacare, I’m focusing 100% on one thing: retirement. So are 84% of doctors (results of recent survey: 84% plan to retire or quit medicine due to Obamacare).
I’m very concerned though,
Saving cash: can be confiscated by socialists running our government. Inflation will devalue it.
Stocks: the market is going to crash when the debt bubble explodes, new recession/depression etc.
Gold: a good investment, but not exactly liquid.
So, what to do? If the dollar becomes next to worthless, it doesn’t matter how much you saved for retirement. The stock market is going nowhere but down in the next few years, and the Fed and the debt will lead to massive inflation. What to do?
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16th November 2012 at 11:06 am
AWD says:
“FUCK YOU. Don’t lump me in with your fat motherfucking boomer ass.”
Well said. 10% of boomers bothered to save for retirement. They’re going to be out of luck when the government cuts Social Security by 50% (austerity). They’ll have to live with their kids.
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16th November 2012 at 11:10 am
sangell says:
An interesting observation was that as interest rates sink even lower into negative territory ( and the FOMC is contemplating just that) then cash becomes worth more. Obviously if a bank ( or T-bill) is only going to return 99% of your principal after say 3 months then keeping your money in $100 bills is the better option. Of course the government can print ( and will have to as people hoard cash) but they will have to print an enormous amount given the ratio of cash to deposits and other digital money that will ‘vaporize’. Somebody smarter than I needs to think through the ramifications of this because Ben Bernanke likes to ‘try’ things even if has no idea of the consequences. For an erudite look at what I’m talking about here is Jeff Snider from REAL CLEAR MARKETS yesterday giving his as usual super sharp perspective on an earlier blunder by the Fed.
http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2012/11/16/its_a_good_bet_the_fed_doesnt_know_what_its_doing_99993.html
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16th November 2012 at 11:48 am
Thunderbird says:
AWD says: “They’ll have to live with their kids.”
I might add also the grand children. What is wrong with that? In many societies the old live with their kids, grand children, great grand children, and so on. With what you are saying we are getting back to the norm. What is wrong about that?
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16th November 2012 at 11:48 am
Eddie says:
This brings up some interesting trivia. Although the bank credit card was invented by a New York banker named John Biggins, it was Frank McNamara (who founded Diner’s Club ) who brought them into wide usage in the late 1950′s.
Various technological breakthroughs in the 1960′s and ’70′s made the cards themselves more secure and easier to use, but it was a guy named Mike Phillips who gave us the modern revolving cards we use now when he founded Mastercard in 1966.
I wonder how Mike Phillips feels about his invention now….Phillips was and is a genius level guy who went on to found the first voluntary business network and wrote twelve books aimed at educating people about money.
The best known of these, “The Seven Laws of Money”, is a book I read maybe 30 or more years ago, and it shaped my own ideas about handling money, along with a few others.
Money s a tool, and like any tool, you need to learn to use it correctly or you can get get hurt.
Here’s a list of books I’d recommend for anybody who wants to get a broader perspective on money and learn how to make it work for his or her best interests.
The Wealthy Barber…..David Chilton
The Richest Man in Babylon…..George Clason
The Seven Laws of Money….Michael Phillips
The Next Economy….Paul Hawken
The Secret Power Within Your Mortgage….Daniel Amerman
Robert Kyosaki….Rich Dad, Poor Dad
I agree whole-heartedly with harry p. that some kind of forced savings plan into a vehicle that isn’t easy to sell off on a whim is the way to go for most of us humans….with our short little attention spans.
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16th November 2012 at 12:14 pm
IndenturedServant says:
-*Knocking on wood*- I can honestly say that since 2006, my net worth has gone up substantially each year and continues to do so. I still work and save 40%-50% of my pay but I put it to use in ways that minimizes the erosion of inflation. Over the last year though, I have noticed that inflation in essentials has reduced the amount I am able to save even with the 2%-3% annual COL raises.
I wonder, if you conducted one of those Jay Leno, man on the street interviews, how many people between the ages of 18-60 could define and provide examples of delayed gratification in their own lives?
Ask most people why they work and they will say “to pay the bills”. Fuck that! I work to pay myself first and foremost. I use what is left to plan and pay for what I need in ways that reduce future expenses as much as possible.
My wife found it tough to watch her friends, family and co-workers fly away on two week vacations twice a year and buy the latest and greatest toys while we “appeared to struggle” by comparison. She would get downright angry about it on occasion. Since the mini-collapse in 2008, she has not struggled with that as much after seeing how the wisdom of building a safety net for ourselves has insulated us from the misery her friends, family and co-workers are currently enduring.
I’m the one who manages our finances and it has become tradition for me to announce how *broke we are* after funding our savings and paying bills each week. Two or three times a year, I announce how much we have accumulated in savings and she is always blown away, as it is always more than either of us thought we would ever have. It pays to always leave yourself some options.
I_S
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16th November 2012 at 1:09 pm
Saving, Like Math, is Hard « The Burning Platform | How To Reduce Debt Quickly says:
[...] and the American family has record debt levels. What about … … Read the rest here: Saving, Like Math, is Hard « The Burning Platform ← The Bankruptcy Hotshots Stolen Much of Their Total Strut but | Phone [...]
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16th November 2012 at 3:15 pm
AKAnon says:
AWD asks “Saving cash: can be confiscated by socialists running our government. Inflation will devalue it.
Stocks: the market is going to crash when the debt bubble explodes, new recession/depression etc.
Gold: a good investment, but not exactly liquid.
So, what to do? If the dollar becomes next to worthless, it doesn’t matter how much you saved for retirement. The stock market is going nowhere but down in the next few years, and the Fed and the debt will lead to massive inflation. What to do?”
Yes, the whole concept of saving for retirement has always assumed a rate of growth, and some level of security in the investment. With earnings essentially zero and risk between moderate and high, the paradigm has changed. Forget about the markets and electronic savings for the time being.
My recommendation: To the extent practical, “save” by investing in the items you will need in the future. I.e., purchase your future lifestyle up front. Obviously limited for short shelf-life and low unit-value items.
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16th November 2012 at 3:24 pm
Colma Rising says:
Saving for retirement, as has been mentioned above in roundabout ways, is a very recent development relatively speaking. It is impossible without the power of compounding interest working for you, doubly impossible with compounding inflation working against you.
Without growth in the economy that paces, at the very least, with inflation and the ability to generate aggregate capital to pay for the compounding interest, the zero-sum game becomes increasingly drastic and will not allow for but a few persons who speculate against others’ speculations to amass anything that could possibly continue rates of consumption that could compare with those while earning income (not retirement).
The key to having anything close to the recent, untenable pipe-dream we know as “retirement” in the modern sense is to realize fully that income is NOT wealth, but is a flow variable that can increase wealth. Wealth has a broad meaning…. see Akanon’s wise post.
Where is your income saved going? What is the purpose of liquid wealth? Can this purpose be served by another form of wealth? What is durable? Are your ideas of “wealth” tied to leverage…. something that can amplify income in both directions?
Personally, my idea of retirement stems to basic necessity: Will I have a roof, clothin and shelter? Further, if I do, will it serve other members of my family? The latter is key as the foolish notion that the three generation household is a norm is as foolish as the assumption of 20th century “retirement”.
The pie has limits. There is no compounding available if you aren’t already on the benefactor side of when such was…. it will only compound AGAINST you. This is due to real constraint on growth which will further make even simple resources more scarce.
It’s time to get real about it: Lower expectations and choose what you consider to be “wealth” wisely. Then, and only then, can you possibly direct income saved to serve its role as a flow variable.
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16th November 2012 at 4:53 pm
Colma Rising says:
I meant three generation households not being normal is a foolish notion! Dammit
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16th November 2012 at 4:55 pm
Eddie says:
Gold is liquid enough. I don’t see that as an issue. It helps to have a relationship with a gold dealer. I have sold fairly large quantities of gold coins almost instantly…at least locked in a price over the phone.
The problem with gold is safe storage and also the tax treatment, unless perhaps it’s in something like a Roth IRA.
I agree that real wealth is not necessarily large quantities of cash, but rather:
1) the ability to generate some kind of income stream into your retirement years.
2)the ability to lower your need for currency…which for me means being able to grow food and also
that you are positioned for paid off real estate and very low taxes.
3)Being able to work past the age that most people retire isn’t a bad thing either, if you can pull it
off. Having the right kind of job…living a healthy lifestyle.
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16th November 2012 at 5:14 pm
Colma Rising says:
Hey Eddie:
My shitty pickup’s been acting up so I was going to upgrade and buy a nice stepside…
Then I needed a fucking root canal.
Looking on the bright side: At least the new tooth will last longer than a fucking used truck.
No less, you fucking dentists are a racket.
Do you sit and talk politics while your patients can’t answer too? That’s annoying.
I fucking hate going to doctors of any stripe.
Anyway, the point is that health is wealth. A tooth that won’t hurt in the future is a better item of wealth to spend a month’s income on rather than a dope stepside 4X4. Thanks for reminding me of an example.
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16th November 2012 at 5:26 pm
Colma Rising says:
At least I know better:
Forgoe this:
For this:
People are dumb enough to whip out a credit card and buy both. We simply cannot have it all.
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16th November 2012 at 5:33 pm
Novista says:
Remind me to kill you…
If the shoe does not fit, why let it pinch? I suspect cunts like you troll the intertubes just to find things to be offended by.
You don’t know this site nor the regular commenters yet you make assumptions and, once again, are proved wrong. Just fuck off with your million dollars and ‘tude.
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16th November 2012 at 7:04 pm
mary malone says:
Has anyone considered that Bernanke’s 0% interest rate is stealth Sharia Law?
Just saying…
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16th November 2012 at 8:17 pm
Stigmation says:
You all have it all wrong. It is not saving enough for retirement to keep up with your current lifestyle. It is all about saving enough for retirement and expecting a drastic decrease in your lifestyle. That’s how I roll with it. As long as I can get 4 packages of Ramen noodles for a dollar, I will live like a King LOL, or at least like I lived when I was 19….
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16th November 2012 at 11:06 pm
Eddie says:
colma
At least you’re in an area with a lot of good dentists…I’ve actually spent hundreds of hours doing continuing education at UOP Dental. I’d personally be inclined to go with a UOP grad as opposed to the other place across town.
Good for you for taking care of your health. I concur that health=wealth…or at least that without health, you don’t have much.
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16th November 2012 at 11:30 am
AKAnon says:
MaryM-No, that had not crossed my mind, thanks for pointing out that possibility. I bet Ann Barnhardt would concur. So why don’t the banks follow Sharia law to their borrowers-Oh yeah, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, et al. are not Muslim.
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16th November 2012 at 4:46 pm