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.
Calamity said “Most of my generation is still in high school.” Bullsheet.
Millennials (Gen Y) began in early 1980s, ended in early 2000s. Subtract 18 from 2013 = 1995. So around 13 years of millennials should have graduated HS by now, and around 7 years of millennials are still below graduation age.
Unless she meant, of course, that millennials by and large are too dumb to graduate HS by the age of 18. Which is a possibility.
Zach – I notice you did not address the math. Since my math is correct, and you are innumerate, that is not a surprise. Seems to me that even blind drunk I would be smarter than you.
The kids are going to pay for your social security with their tips bartending and waiting tables? Right now, there’s two people paying for each person on social security. Talk about a ponzi scheme. It’s dead already, another debt laden government program doomed to failure and collapse. The main fact is, they don’t want to pay, and neither do I, because it’s dead already. Dear God, somebody put it out of it’s misery. Soon enough, soon enough indeedy.
Boomers were the conduit by which the banksters managed to indebt our country to the tune of $56 trillion. Without them, it never would have happened. They took that anvil on their back (debt fueled consumerism) and ran with it, and are still in debt and buying shit they can’t afford. Boomers still driving BMW’s, and especially Lexus’. No savings, expecting SS and Medicare. Hilarious. They’ll delude themselves right into the grave (and our country into insolvency). Bubbles Bennie isn’t going to save you, sorry.
Zack M. says:
“Milenial Master
Get back to me with your brilliant theories after you learn to spell Milenials (sic)”
I thought we were on the same team, Sack
People 55 to 64 with little money saved and who Administrator says are up retirement’s Shit Creek without a paddle, don’t need savings. They’re better off working out their lives; we’re better off if they’re working. Actuarial stats and sociological studies prove that work gives meaning to and adds length to the lives of the common people. Also, a working public adds to the nation’s economic strength and is more likely to support the State.
Think about it… what do the plebs and lesser breeds do with their time when their lives aren’t planned and directed by their betters. The hoi polloi watches porn and tv shows, eats too much, wastes time being otherwise entertained, and heavily draws on State services. Retirement only increases the emptiness of their lives and their demand on the State’s coffers. As I said above, it’s better for us and them if the cart horse public works in their traces for the State until they drop.
Despite what Administrator, a Chicken Little analyst, says, there is a government solution to this situation. Keep squeezing the lower and middle classes while favoring the best people and the power elite.
With a strong military, an aggressive police force, and resolute leadership, any social brush fires can be maintained.
Don’t get misled by Administrator’s hand-wringing and charts. The people will be managed and maintained. The best people know what’s best for the rest and the government does too
AWD – There is not a generation that has not bought in. Boomers went debt-crazy. Kids grew up entitled and spoiled and lazy (average study time at college has fallen from around 30 hours per week to 12. Gee, I wonder if a degree still has any value).
But not everyone in any group. There are still hard-working, responsible folk in every age bracket. They are just brutally outnumbered.
Admin – by memory, I think the mean is around $70k saved up or somesuch. But that may include housing assets. In any event, that 50% of boomers have saved under $12k is an astonishing indictment of the whole country.
Irak,
If we work until we drop, the milenial fucks will bitch because we don’t quit working so they can get a job.
Irak – wrong answer. Just where are the jobs going to come from? And fact is, the participation rate for folks aged 55 and older is currently around 40%. So, for the approx. 70 millions of folks over this age, we would need to generate jobs – say 70 * .6 = 42 million jobs. Less some for the number of folks capable of supporting themselves, so lets say 30 million jobs need to be created just for older folks to keep on working.
Bwahahahahahahaha! Walmart does not need that many greeters.
llpoh
There are sometimes differences when you use average versus median. The average retirement balance is usually higher because it is skewed by those with large retirement savings. Median gets you a more realistic number.
Boomers should have a huge amount of home equity. They would have bought a house in the 1975 through 1985 time frame and would have paid off their mortgages by now. Instead they kept trading up and then took out home equity loans to buy cars, take vacations and live above their means. Home equity is near all time lows.
Anyone who is 60 years old and has been working for 40 years and has $12,000 of retirement savings has no one to blame but themselves. But that won’t stop them for blaming someone else for their idiocy. Zach M is proof of this.
Uh-oh. Admin has noticed that Zach M is deluded.
Poor old Zach moments before impact:
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Admin
How stupid are you. You know absolutely nothing about me. I have owned a number of businesses
and am quite comfortably retired. Your idiotic assumptions with no possible basis reveal a biased and juvenile mind.
Zach’s comfortable retirement villa:
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Zach out for a nice dinner:
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Zach having a great night out:
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His villa:
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llpoh
Not Bad.
I doubt we see much more of old Zach. It has become way too easy to run off the delusional. It is getting a bit mundane, but it is a job that just has to be done to keep the streets safe at night.
I got 18 thumbs down today, wow. no wonder faces go heel, cheers or jeers, it’s still attention.
Zack M. says:
“llpoh
Not Bad.”
Zach shows some character and sportsmanship and he gets 2 thumbs down. There are some real mofos on this site. Cool.
There is nothing more satisfying than reviewing the posts first thing in the morning …. and seeing “Stucky’s schlong” being discussed.
Carry on!!
To be fair, the chart reveals Gen X to be almost as delusional as the Boomers. The amount of savings is pitiful. They have no excuse either.
Saving money is very simple. It doesn’t require investment prowess and brilliant financial acumen.
Listen closely and I’ll reveal the secret.
Spend less than you make.
If you make $20k, then keep your spending at $18k.
If you make $100k, keep your spending at $80k.
Amazingly, you will begin saving money.
TBP financial tip of the day.
@Admin – To be fair, all of America is delusional. Stupid fucking Boomers/Xers putting no money away for retirement. Stupid fucking millennials signing up for college courses with a guaranteed negative ROI.
Even worse, that college debt can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, so for the rest of your life you either have to bounce from college to college, or pay off an increasingly insurmountable debt.
As for the Millennial hate, suck on the fattest part of Stucky’s sclong*. Blaming society’s current problems on the crop that just graduated is fucktarded.
@LLPOH – “So around 13 years of millennials should have graduated HS by now, and around 7 years of millennials are still below graduation age.”
True, the “the millenials are zero fault” thing kind of died out after the first time Obama won the presidency. Sure, he got 75% of the millenial vote, but 75% of a small number is still a small number. Its been 5 years since then, and a LOT of kids have come of age.
The load has shifted to us at this point. The preceding generations either accelerated (Boomers) or ignored (GenX) the problems. If the Millennials do the same, you can rest assured this country will devolve into a civil war sometime during our lives.
Which is what runs through my head every time I catch hell for being in my 20s.
Ilpoh and Stucky care about the thumbs up/down. What an egotistical, pitiful lives you must have.
People with pride and self-confidence who voice opinions don’t give a shit about what other people think.
WOW!
How easily the mud-slinging begins when supposedly ‘like-minded’ (i.e. you are at this site) people refuse to acknowledge personal responsibility.
We will not recover until we ALL recognize it IS OUR FAULT – we have been deceived. Next we move on to FORGIVENESS of each other. Minus these simple acts, we continue to be distracted from the essence of FREE-WILL (not free stuff!)
The following, I believe, is true for us all:
LEGACY MATTERS!!!
“It is my fault, please forgive me.” Try it, you’ll like it.
Dumb asses.
“Retirement savings.”
All this chart shows is 401(k) and IRA balances, i.e., what Fidelity gets to manage (sarcasm).
Not everyone who has low ERISA balances is poor. I hit the company match on my 401(k) because when my job ends (again) I can pay all the taxes and pre-59 1/2 year old penalties and still pull out 100% of my paycheck deduction.
Otherwise, I save AFTER-TAX money because I can do with it immediately whatever I damn well please.
As to “savings” in general, 99.9% of people’s “savings” is just piles of IOU-dollars, not actual money. 81 years of continual inflation has taught people to NEVER keep cash-money, always trade it to the Banksters for an IOU-money that pays a below-inflation, barely positive yield.
Sooner or later, that’s going to be a Roach Motel for “everyone’s savings.”
Pulse, it’s not “my fault.”
I do not consent to this idiotic paradigm. I am one tiny atom in this perverted universe and if most of my fellow citizens insist on “jumping in a lake,” they also insist on dragging me in with them.
The only thing I can do is wear a life vest.
Hubby and I have been married almost 36 years. We have no debt.
He was having lunch recently with a couple of young co-workers. The young, single male had just purchased a 3700 sq. ft. home. Yep. For one person. The young, single female had recently purchased a home of approx. 2000 sq. ft. For one person.
They asked dh what interest rate we have on our mortgage. He said “I don’t have a mortgage.” They were surprised, I guess you could say.
Then the conversation turned to travel. Hawaii, in particular. And how expensive that is.
They were flabbergasted that, at his age, hubby had never been to Hawaii. They asked why not.
He said to the young woman, “Well Grace, how do you think we paid for that house???”
People just don’t get it.
The boomers, the millenials, no one. (except monkeys;))
You really can’t do it all.
@pulse – “We will not recover until we ALL recognize it IS OUR FAULT”
My fault? I give you permission to clean my ball hair with your tongue. (as any good little dog would)
@pulse: welcome to TBP. You seem to have a good heart, though you also seem a bit naive and perhaps even willing to use other people’s money to give to still other people who you somehow deem more worthy. (I am speculating on that last bit.) Hang around, enjoy the shitstorm, don’t expect much admiration whatever you say.
In other words – you should have ducked.
dc.sunsets
I respectfully disagree, it is your fault.
Perhaps you have been fortunate to stay dry (as have I) yet all the tools of statism continue to expand beyond any mathematical sustainability. We have failed to change this.
I have been re-educated with truth these last 8 years and watched as people continue to look at the many available avenues of blame, studiously avoiding all shiny surfaces which may allow them to view their own participation in the numerous frauds (all equating to getting something for nothing.) Strangely, no-one wants to acknowledge the unlimited personal desires or the impossible task of ‘security.’ This immediately removes us from lasting pleasure and safety in neighbours.
Limitless desire will meet with blind disruption. Libra laughs
.
Fear is winning, stealing life while fate observes our stubborn refusal to accept mortality, and create a level playing field for those who would follow.
dc, there are so many determined to jump in the lake, there will be lots of space for those who, by example, will leave a legacy of truth and free-will on the plains. Just stop standing near those who insist on jumping…..
http://archive.lewrockwell.com/orig3/nock3b.html
Helmet is on…
TPC… I suspect, evidenced by your tone, it would be very difficult to locate supposed scrotal content.
Persnickety.. been kicked out of sites before, just can’t shut up. Thank you for the welcome (warning not required) I believe in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, while respecting the contributions and sacrifice of those who came before me.
Flail away!
A reflection of your poor vision I’m afraid, although I should known you would have trouble completing even this simple task.
Get Zach M’s help, LLPOH assures me he’s an excellent ball handler.
Pulse – there are folks around here whose fault it is not. Not everyone has done the wrong thing. Until you know that, you maybe should be a bit more careful of your words.
Get a life – Stuck and I have collected more thumbs down than any save Smokey and SSS (Smokey is the benchmark). You are a clueless dolt.
As a 1943 entrant into this sorry world, and the widow of a self-employed man, let me tell you how hard it was to save over our 45 years of marriage.
We paid twice the amount (SS, etc) that those working for companies, school districts, and the government did. We had to pay our own health insurance, and the tax laws kept changing over the years, never to our benefit, might I add.
It is true that many of the boomer generation were unable to save enough for their retirement
but, I propose that you take a cold hard look at how the standard of living has declined since WW2 before blaming them for the economic mess we are in.
Back then, a middle class family, with one breadwinner, a SAHM, and a few kids could live a pleasant life. Not so today.
The dollar has lost most of it’s purchasing power, and a modest small car that cost us, brand-new, in 1967 was $1,600. (vw bug, in which we hauled around 4 kids before they demanded we strap them all in.
And, just so you know, we managed to save a modest amount – just over 6 figures, but did it by torturing our children with only one car for the entire family, lots of beans and rice, lentil soup, home canning, and no vacays. (Someone was always weeping into their plate at dinner time)
We had only 1 tiny b&w tv, which we all crowded around. We lived in a modest house, with kids sharing bedrooms and only one bath for all. Made getting ready for school in the teens years a challenge, with all the fighting over the mirror and hairdryer.
All that said, I feel so scared for my adult children and my grandchildren, but let’s place the blame where it belongs – all those 60s liberals who got tired of radical politics, of calling police “pigs”, blowing up buildings, and having sit-ins at their universities, who then decided to infiltrate our institutions, and ruin our free market system.
Rant over – too spset to type more, because I know what is coming, and it isn’t good for any of us. Ross Perot was right, and so is Ron Paul.
ZH picked this up as their top of the page post. Over 20,000 reads and over 250 comments.
Everyone loves a good Boomer post.
Wonderer – what you describe is the lot of the business owner. Employees do not understand what is involved in owning/running a business.
One thing that all you youngsters are forgetting is this:
For their entire work span, the government has confiscated 3.5 to 6 percent of the Boomers’ earnings in order to “invest” them in Social Security.
Social Security is not an entitlement, it is supposedly the return on our decades long “investment” that the government extracted from us.
That money might well have been the little bit each month to go into a bank account for retirement for those who did not have high paying jobs, and that $12,000 might well be the end result of responsibly saving what little they had left over.
Investments?
Not everybody is so foolish as to pour money month after month into investments that are going to get clipped 20% every few years, sure as spring follows winter, by a contrived “crash” that somehow leaves the brokerages and banksters a little more flush and the investors a little slimmer in the portfolio.
Not everybody was so selfish as to run up debt in their later years. In fact, I dont know anybody of my age who did, but I know a lot of them who snivel every few years about how their portfolio was hit by a down in the market.
SS was promised to be a retirement fund for every working American. Well, it appears that the government has squandered the $$ they were supposed to guard, sort of like Corazine in DC, so a lot of oldsters will be out in the cold.
The young people, being historically illiterate, think that SS is an entitlement out of their pockets, so screw the old people. No, it was our money and the government stole it. Now they are blaming us and you dummies are buying their lies.
Some Boomers made more and invested it in the market, but when all is said and done, let’s see what they end up with.
And let’s see how those 401Ks of yours pay out when the govenment is through raiding them like they raided the SS funds. That’s what’s happening right now, so get ready to rapidly readjust YOUR retirement plans.
I guarantee you, you ill tempered young people will not have the last laugh on this one.
ditzy
Your name fits. If you are a Boomer, you will get every dime you put in, plus plenty more than you put in. Don’t cry poor to millenials who will never see a dime of their SS contributions. It’s a Ponzi scheme and the early members will get their fair share.
You don’t know any Boomers who ran up debt????
You need to get out more. How do you explain this?
What you geezers aren’t getting is that you got hosed!.
ditzy says:
“For their entire work span, the government has confiscated 3.5 to 6 percent of the Boomers’ earnings in order to “invest” them in Social Security.”
agree, but you won’t get any sympathy here. the fuckwits are running the farm now.
Ditzy – SS was originally set up to be an insurance fund, and it morphed into something grotesque. By law, there is no entitlement to SS upon retirement. Also, if the money taken from workers via SS deductions had been invested and saved for them upon retirement, it would have been quite insufficient to pay them the amounts that are currently being paid.
The government has indeed stole the money, as you point out. But the fact is, the amount paid in was never going to support the amount paid out. Three thousand or so a year going in for for forty years simply will not match thirty thousand a year coming out for thirty years. Do the math.
Admin attacks from the right, llpoh circles around from the left in a classic pincer movement.
The reason ditzy doesn’t have enough retirement savings.
at the low end it would be $7200 per year for 10 to 15 years which is a lot less than the average payout you assume.
BBES
Boomers are a bunch of fat fuck, junk food eating, cigarette smoking slogs. And I mean that with the utmost respect. Here’s the sad facts.
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It’s easy to pick a boomer out at a great distance most of them are round, they look like a bowling ball with four appendages
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Boomer Lungs
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llpoh says:
“thirty thousand a year coming out for thirty years. Do the math.”
early retirement at 62 + 30 = 92 years old, only in your dreams will they live that long.
early retirees are penalized so they might see $1000 per month if they’re lucky, = $12,000/yr.
if they retire at the full retirement age (66) do you really believe the fatfucks will live to age 96?
the normal life expectancy is 72 so they will collect for 6 to 10 years tops and they will collect about 1200 to 1500. $180K tops.
minimum wage earners will get a lot less
Social Security was started in 1883 by Otto von Bismarck in Germany. It is the most brilliant scheme to bribe the voters with their own money ever devised. The young support it because it relieves them of the responsibility of caring for their parents. It is a classic Ponzi scheme about to run its course.
I was born in 1936. I retired from the military in 1978 and have been collecting retirement for 35 years and SS for 15 years. I plan to live another 20 years when I will be shot by a jealous husband at the age of 97. The beauty of a Ponzi scheme is being an early entrant and having a plan for the collapse.
I sat down 45 years ago and did the math and concluded the system is not sustainable and started planning and preparing to be able to live like my ancestors who were Mennonites. I am surprised it has held together this long.
LLPOH you inflated that total SS payout by a factor of 3. you take the Bernays prize today.
MM – you dolt. The chance of a person making it to ninety from 60 or 65 is much higher than you think. The odds of a retired woman making it to 90 is around half, the odds of a man not quite so good, the odds of one or the other making it exceeds 50% fairly substantially. And surprisingly, the odds for a 64 year old man making it to ninety is better than for a 65 year old man, etc.
llpoh says:
“And surprisingly, the odds for a 64 year old man making it to ninety is better than for a 65 year old man, etc.”
I thought your chances of making it to a ripe old age improved the older you got, at least that is what I believe I read.
Boomers bought into the SS scam…..Mills et al bought into the student loan scam. I call it even.
It took some Boomers 40 years to figure that out, some it took less, but some are still in denial. How long will it take Mills to realize that about student loans? Maybe just as long, the standards for getting accepted into college and graduating are much lower.
Spelling mistake in website mural fixed. I fhukken hate tablet screen keyboards