Luckily, the average American is so bad at math they can’t read this chart and understand the implications. They remain willfully ignorant of their plight. After a lifetime of working, the median Boomer household has managed to accumulate $12,000 of retirement savings. That means that 50% have even less than $12,000 for their retirement. These 55 to 64 year olds are up shits creek without a paddle. No wonder the percentage of over 55 people working is at an all-time high. Every age bracket has been living in a land of delusion. The entire country has bought into the “live for today” mantra. We have trillions in unfunded Social Security obligations that won’t be paid. Cities and States have trillions in unfunded pension and health benefits that won’t be paid. The government and its citizens have lived above their means for decades and haven’t saved for a rainy day or their futures. Wait until the 40% stock market crash does a number on these figures in the next year. There is no possible scenario where this ends well or can be solved by another government solution. It’s too late. We’re fucked. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Bug, Meet Windshield. Splaaaaatt.
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Or, in this particular case – a Boomer’s FAT BUTT!!!!
(just for AWD)
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All joking aside, what the hell is going to happen to these people, and the country? Their parents retired with ASSETS, the Boomers are too far in debt to retire, much less survive any period of joblessness.
Grasshoppers vs Ants – The (Fucked Up) USA version.
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This would mean nothing if the dollar becomes worthless. Other things will have a lot more value than paper fiat money.
I’m starting to hate Boomers. I’m not shitting you.
Omg, is stucky coming over to the other side???
So the Boomer is ignorant because he doesn’t have his money in the stock market preparing to loose 40% you say or because he is in the stock market?
Seems biased against boomers, they can’t win either way with you.
Tbessi: you are so right.
I have a Defined Benefit and a Defined Contribution retirement account and I plan as if I will never see a dime of either account. I pour my money into my little farm and tangible items that I can lay my hands on.
Stucky, I don’t think that law means what you think it means.
Calamity: never gamble with an Austrian when fabulosity is on the line.
“Luckily, the average American is so bad at math they can’t read this chart and understand the implications.”
I met a teacher from the Chicago school system while having a beer at a campsite during the Oshkosh Airshow. I was having a conversation with a couple from Illinois about the sad state of their state while also laughing about detroit in my state.
She stuck her nose into the conversation and said “If “they” would only renegotiate the teachers contract, all would be well.” “How so?” “Well, by lowering the interest rate.” Sure, but what about the debt, how do you propose to reduce the unfunded liabilities of your pension?
Deer in the headlights look: Well………you see, you lower the interest rate…..Yes, that will help with future obligations, but what do you do about the debt right now?
This was answered once more by renegotiating the contract and lowering the interest rate.
At this point I stopped and asked, “May I ask what subject you teach?” Yup, you guessed it, math, and she told me she makes $100k per year.
I em varning you fakking gay bashers here on zee Burning Platform.
You leave my StuchenStumpher alone!! Or else I schtick my Swantz zo far up your Arsh it vill clean your ear vax.
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I’m not sure how that is possible. We have that much in our 401ks already. What the hell are these people doing?
My taxes are paying salaries of $100K a year to math teachers who cannot figure out that low interest rates are the doom of their pension plans.
I hope every goddam one of these brainless, overpaid, underworked, and utterly unqualified trolls ends up getting ten cents on every dollar face amount of his or her pension entitlement. In fact, I believe that will happen. The taxpayers are finally beginning to twig that there might be a causal connection between the bloated pension benefits and unfunded liabilities of Chicago’s public workers’ pensions…. and the undermanned and outgunnned police force, the pothole-riddled streets in the neighborhoods, the reduction of civic amenity such as shorter library hours and more unkempt parks, and the rising fees for parking and services in this city.
The U.S. government and the Fed still looking at the chess board in shock, but they lost their queen years ago and now their king is trapped. It’s called checkmate.
Congress isn’t moving on anything because they’re in check. They still want to move their pieces over and over to see if somehow something is changed. Each time they make a move they hear check.
Oh ya! That’s right.
Worldwide checkmate. Game over. When 99% are losing, in the end there won’t be any winners.
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I have stopped putting money in my retirement account because I expect the government will lay their hands on it.
There is a reason why government offers tax break savings, so your hard earn cash is trapped inside their playbook. Then the government has all the time in the world to tap it bit by bit when they want.
I’ve done the same as Joe – no contributions into my IRA or 401k in the last 5 years, initially because of market conditions (2008!) but more recently because I expect some form of confiscation, either outright or de facto. Trying to put savings into something that seems more resilient and less likely to be stolen from me, even though I don’t get that nice upfront tax benefit.
And yeah, I’m under 40 with a little over six figures in my retirement accounts. Despite all the market turmoil. The people who are poor may have an excuse, but any boomer who made a decent income and failed to save has themselves to blame. And will get no pity from me, or I think from most of my generation.
A 60 year old Boomer was 27 years old in 1980. A 20 year bull market in stocks and bonds began in 1980 with returns of 10% annually. Since 2000 the stock market is flat and the bond market went even higher. If this person put $2,000 away per year since 2000, they would have at least $200k socked away today. There is no excuse for 50% of ALL Boomer households having less than $12,000 saved today.
Every once in a while I tell myself it must be me, as in ‘it must just be me, I must be the one who is fucked up.’ Today is another one of those times. After looking at the chart above I have to ask myself if maybe I am the one that doesn’t get it, maybe I am the one that has screwed up along the way towards retirement by saving my money and investing in my own family’s future. Maybe all these other ignorant lumps did it right, spent their money on nice vacations, cruises, fancy cars, top shelf booze and nice restaurants four nights a week, while I worked hard and pinched pennies saving.
Maybe instead of living within my means and within a budget, meeting my financial obligations and providing what the family needed instead of what they wanted, maybe I should have just pissed it all away on things that made me happy, bought a McMansion, the newest Mercedes, a yacht and a weekend house at a ski resort or golf course. Yeah maybe I should have done that because at the end of the day after shit goes upside down with the markets, and the dollar won’t buy you dick any more, guess what all the money I saved for retirement will be worth? That’s right nothing, I’ll be in the same place as all the other irresponsible pecker heads that spent theirs along the way.
Yup, maybe it is just me that doesn’t get it and they all had the right idea all along…….
You know, my biggest beef with Boomers isn’t that they didn’t save specially for retirement, it is that they are in debt. It would be a completely different story if most boomers didn’t take on a lot of credit card debt, 30 year house loans, brand new car loans. The worst offenders are the ones who did this type of shit within 15 years of their retirement. Previously with the GI and Silent generations they payed off their homes and vehicles before retirement. They spent money to maintain the things they owned. I would have less of a grudge with Boomers had they just payed off their fucking debts before hitting 60. I just hope many have enough compassion for their children and grandchildren to have good life insurance so they aren’t saddled with their debts after they die.
I have not one iota of sympathy for those dumb mofos. Forgot to save for retirement? They can eat their big screen TVs and SUVs and whatever does not get repossessed.
Fuck ’em. Why should ANYONE worry about them if they did not worry about themselves. To misquote the Russian from Rocky – “If they die, they die”.
@ Calamity
Doubtful, boomers would only have life insurance if Uncle Sam paid for it.
Dan, yeah I know. That is probably going to be the last disrespect fuck you as they leave this earth. Not only taking all they can while alive, but making their children pay for their end of life and funeral costs.
I don’t know that ALL the Boomers made great money and then blew it on fun stuff instead of saving money. I suspect there are some of them, just as there are in all generations, who simply never could make that much money to begin with. But I’m with Calamity about the debt part. Even if you never make fabulous big bucks, you can still live within your means.
Charles Hugh Smith is proposing that we cut SS benefits for people with pension incomes, which would pretty much only be Boomers, since Gen X and Y have never worked for companies that offered pensions.
I can just hear the howling now, “But that turns Social Security into a welfare program!” Yeah, no shit numbnuts, it’s ALWAYS BEEN a welfare program. Except that if CHS got his way, instead of being a welfare program where young working people get robbed to pay old non-working people, young working people and RICH old non-working people would get robbed to pay POOR old non-working people. This would keep the system alive longer, though, and I can’t say I’m a fan of that idea.
At the rate baby boomers are dropping dead from health issues, I think the problem may solve itself pretty quick. Medicare is making cuts, cuts and more cuts. Pretty soon Medicare will pay less than HMO’s.
After the collapse happens, and it looks like it’s getting closer every day, it’s gonna be pure Darwinism, the survival of the fittest, ie, the only people that are going to survive are healthy people. People that took care of their health always survive tough times. Your health and spiritual life are the only thing that really matters in life. The most obese generation in history (boomers) and their spawn will not survive. They aren’t surviving now, their dropping dead before they even get a chance to get on SS.
AWD- I don’t doubt you are right. All it takes it drug shortages for blood pressure, diabetes, and anti-psychotics and Boomers will drop quicker or off themselves. With the coming collapse I believe a good amount of our over 50 population would be able to survive. Hell there are plenty of boomers that are only alive because of these drugs.
sorry, I mean they wont be able to survive
Its not like people are spending about every dime they make just to get by. It well only get worse considering inflation. I tell people(like I have here) to get an RV of some sort and maybe one or two pieces of dirt to park on. Each lot should be in a different climate so you can move with the weather.
I’m guessing the author is in an upper tax bracket. Out of touch with most people, like our fearful leaders in Washington.
Damn, Admin, that is cold hearted – expecting that folks would actually take some responsibility for themselves. Show some compassion.
llpoh
Deferred gratification is an unknown concept in America.
Thanks T4C, nice to hear a little validation for life choices that I feel were made well and for the right reasons.
Being labeled a boomer is a little difficult especially on sites like this where it is so easy for folks like Dan and Calamity to stereotype an entire generation of people as being this way or that, and how they rail on about how this segment of the population has fucked up the world. Makes good sport I guess. That being said there are an embarrassing number of boomers that have not been responsible, have carried an hooray for me attitude throughout their whole life and don’t seem to care less about what effect and toll that philosophy has and will continue to have on their children’s and their children’s lives. It is a very sad situation. They are big contributors to how amazingly screwed up this country is, but the boomers are not alone they have had plenty of help along the way.
If you were to go back and make a list of all the subjects that have been broached and dissected to death on TBP over the last six months, including the size of Stucky’s sclong, it is mind numbing how fucked up every segment of our global society currently is, boomers fault or not, and all of it comes with no good answers or solutions. Sometime soon, it seems, a reset is waiting.
Peaceout
Right. No boomer ever stereotyped an entire generation. Gen X weren’t called slackers. Millennials weren’t called narcissists. Sorry but all they other people that came before the boomers that added to the problems are dead. Boomers just got holding the blame bag. While Gen X and Mills got holding the bankruptcy bag.
I started investing in fall of 1998, with a couple hundred bucks. I felt smart for somewhat less than 2 years, then the “oh shit” wave started. Somehow I kept investing for 10 years. I guess it’s been “successful” in nominal terms. I wish I had put half as much in gold or silver the whole time, I’d be a rich mofo now. Really rich. Hindsight 20/20.
Anyway, part of the reason I invested and saved was that I lived on only half my income for my first 4-6 years of real employment, gradually going up to now living on maybe 75-80% of my income (thanks, inflation!). Still saving, just not as much. Still living at what I consider a nice level. But I’ve never bought a luxury car (I have bought several new non-luxury cars, and yes I’m aware that’s not ideal financially), have a home that is not a McMansion, don’t have a vacation home or boat, no Rolex, etc. etc. I’m living better than probably 99% of all humans who’ve ever lived though. It doesn’t exactly feel like poverty.
There are a few people for whom circumstances have made them poor, and they could not have done much to escape it. But most boomers have had every imaginable opportunity and benefit, and any who haven’t at least tried to save are idiots.
Here’s a laugh for you. Wanna know the best investment I actually did make in the last 20 years? US SAVINGS BONDS, SERIES I. No joke. That was a large part of my investing around 2001-2004 when the stock market was flaky and interest rates, although low, were much higher than now. I’ve been earning 4-6.5% consistently (depending on the exact issue date) with no fluctuations. I know I’m still not making a lot in inflation-adjusted terms, but it has beat most other investments I actually made. Sorry, the Series I door closed several years ago when Congress changed their terms to make them basically worthless as an investment, at least in current inflation and interest rate conditions.
Peaceout – not to be a killjoy but you mention “Stucky’s sclong”.
Come on – how old are you? You gotta get with the program – we discussed his shortcomings, his poor endowment, his inability to satisfy his missues, his schlong, but never his “sclong”. Unless sclong is the term used for a very, very, very short schlong. In which case, you are correct, and I stand mistaken.
Nice posts.
You Boomer Bashers are total fucking idiots! The so-called “Greatest Generation” is the only group that has totally sucked at the benefit teat. They have been retired for 30 years and received their full S.S. Benefits, Medicare, Defined Benefit pensions, G.I.Bill education, et al. These assholes have spent 30 years at their vacation homes riding tricycles, go to the doctor once a week and when they get sick enough come home to “be with their family” – yeah right. These people paid almost nothing into the systems that they have been exploiting. The Boomers have paid all the taxes that made this possible.
Now when we are about to retire suddenly nothing is sustainable. We will have our S.S.benefits cut or eliminated. Our medical care will be rationed and expensive.
Fuck you Gen – X and Milleniums.
Well, some BOOMERS worked hard, saved and invested for the future only to come into the office one day 20+ years into their careers to be given 10 minutes to clean out their desk. And then because they were ‘invested for the long term’ they sat back and watched in horror as their investment gains and the original capital was ‘vaporized’. NOT ALL BOOMERS ARE NEAR BROKE IN THEIR LATER YEARS BECAUSE THEY ONLY LIVED FOR TODAY ! STOP THE FUCKING STEREOTYPING !
Skinbag
No one said all boomers lived like assholes. The numbers do not lie. The ONLY way the median retirement balance could be $12,000 is if the majority of Boomers lived like assholes. Facts are facts. Boomers want to deny the facts, but they are there for all to see.
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Zack – you whiny bitch. Guess you just figured out the $12k you saved is not going to cut it in retirement. Cry me a fucking river.
Plus, you are a fucking moron. Let us do the calculations. Let us say you are right, and that there are Greatest Gen folks who have collected bennies for thirty years (making them around mid-ninty years old. Not a lot of themwould make it that long, but whatever).
2013-30 = 1980. so they retired in 1980. So now lets subtract 1937, when SS taxes first began to be collected, from 1980. 1980-1937 = 42. In other words, they paid in for 42 years. Not bad, huh? But you claim they paid almost nothing. She-it.
Do yoy get the picture, you innumerate moron? The scenario you put up is bullshit. You couldn’t figure out the answer to two plus two if I spotted you f-o-u.
Go back to counting your food stamp entitlement.
Please, don’t post if you are gonna be so friggin’ stupid.
This is probably one of Aesop’s fables:
A man and his son take old grandpa out to an empty field. The old man’s son wraps grandpa with a worn blanket and leaves him there. As he is leaving, the boy catches up to him with half the blanket.
What is that for?, asks dad.
For when it’s your turn, says the boy.
Typical Boomer
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llpoh
It would really be better if you didn’t post after 9 pm. Hopefully your incoherent rant is a result of your substance abuse problem and not a reflection of your intelligence.
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Cheer up! AWD is right – we Boomers will be passively euthanized as medical care will be withheld at some point. It will be called rationing. Maybe if I live long enough they will even put me to sleep like a dog. Stop fretting. We will get our due.
Is that what this is about, we didn’t change your diaper? You had your first sexual encounter at fifteen, got laid on the second date, grew up with video games and auto flush toilets. You can get a marijuana card, and disability without working a day in your life. But you want to cry about your damp diaper? Go get a job, support my ass for 35 years or more and then come tell me how tough you have it. Fucking fuckwit.
Amazing how this topic is bringing out never-before-seen whiny old people who hate everyone but themselves.
Milenial Masher
Jesus! Is anyone on this site sober. WHF!
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Zack M. says: Jesus! Is anyone on this site sober.
It’s against the rules
Wow, the attempts at insulting Mills is sad. Most of my generation is still in high school.
Oh, excuse me, I guess I should feel sorry your little honey booboo will have to go without one more helping of KFC. You get tax credits for each little sucker and allowances that childless couples do not get. Yet the first people pissing and moaning are the ones who have paid the least into the tax coffers. My chillens, they cry, they are going to have to work to pay off the boomer debt. No, they are not. China and the Chinese will be working to pay off the debt. Who the hell do you think has been supporting this country for the last 20 years?
Milenial Master
Get back to me with your brilliant theories after you learn to spell Milenials (sic)