Sub 1% interest rates are killing a whole generation of Senior citizens trying to stretch their savings out as far as they can without having to resort to surviving on dog food and top ramen. It is a shame to see folks that scrimped and saved their whole lives to set money aside for retirement to now see those funds rapidly eroded because interest rates have been a joke for the past five years.
Thinker
February 24, 2015 9:08 pm
The currency devaluation argument plays in here as well. My grandmother had only $45,000 in savings in the 80’s but invested in CDs paying 12-15%. Not only could she live well off the interest, she left a nice inheritance, along with a 3-bedroom, 3-bath bungalow they bought outright for $10,000 cash.
How many of us will be so lucky in retirement?
gilberts
February 24, 2015 9:08 pm
Is it just me, or does Yellen look like a muppet? [img[/img]
gilberts
February 24, 2015 9:11 pm
[img[/img]
AC
February 25, 2015 12:17 am
Hasn’t she always been a muppet? Miss Piggybanker, right?
[img[/img]
Muck About
February 26, 2015 10:59 am
@Thinker: A fair proportion of the Silent Generation are like your grandmother. We are a narrow demographic segment of the population who are now starting to die off in significant numbers. We are the ones who have through “peak prosperity” and are now watching in amazement as the world self destructs around us.
Many of us will leave significant assets to our heirs because we grew up in an extremely productive period from the mid 40’s to the 90’s. I retired (i.e. gave it up because of undiagnosed health problems) in 1996, after a 50 year working life. Back then I COULD save and compound the earnings. Now (and for the past 15 years) the weasels and rats are scurrying around making every attempt to gnaw those savings down by inflation and taxation and even if they are destroying a significant number of late Silents and early Boomers, they can all fuck off as far as I’m concerned. The only thing that will get to me is a bullet and by then all will be lost anyhow.
The “boomers” are not so lucky and those following them are just plain shit-out-of-luck. These generations are digging a hole that will swallow the world, given sufficient time..
I’d love to live long enough to watch what happens — but I really do not want to live through the initial bust and precipitous decline. I think Old Mother Nature will take charge of that choice so I refuse to fret about it.
MA
Thinker
February 26, 2015 11:30 am
Very true, Muck. My grandmother was a late Lost generation (b. 1900), but my mother is a Silent (b. 1934). It’s fascinating to hear how much has changed. Like you, my mother is convinced we’re headed nowhere good.
Sub 1% interest rates are killing a whole generation of Senior citizens trying to stretch their savings out as far as they can without having to resort to surviving on dog food and top ramen. It is a shame to see folks that scrimped and saved their whole lives to set money aside for retirement to now see those funds rapidly eroded because interest rates have been a joke for the past five years.
The currency devaluation argument plays in here as well. My grandmother had only $45,000 in savings in the 80’s but invested in CDs paying 12-15%. Not only could she live well off the interest, she left a nice inheritance, along with a 3-bedroom, 3-bath bungalow they bought outright for $10,000 cash.
How many of us will be so lucky in retirement?
Is it just me, or does Yellen look like a muppet? [img
[/img]
[img
[/img]
Hasn’t she always been a muppet? Miss Piggybanker, right?
[img
[/img]
@Thinker: A fair proportion of the Silent Generation are like your grandmother. We are a narrow demographic segment of the population who are now starting to die off in significant numbers. We are the ones who have through “peak prosperity” and are now watching in amazement as the world self destructs around us.
Many of us will leave significant assets to our heirs because we grew up in an extremely productive period from the mid 40’s to the 90’s. I retired (i.e. gave it up because of undiagnosed health problems) in 1996, after a 50 year working life. Back then I COULD save and compound the earnings. Now (and for the past 15 years) the weasels and rats are scurrying around making every attempt to gnaw those savings down by inflation and taxation and even if they are destroying a significant number of late Silents and early Boomers, they can all fuck off as far as I’m concerned. The only thing that will get to me is a bullet and by then all will be lost anyhow.
The “boomers” are not so lucky and those following them are just plain shit-out-of-luck. These generations are digging a hole that will swallow the world, given sufficient time..
I’d love to live long enough to watch what happens — but I really do not want to live through the initial bust and precipitous decline. I think Old Mother Nature will take charge of that choice so I refuse to fret about it.
MA
Very true, Muck. My grandmother was a late Lost generation (b. 1900), but my mother is a Silent (b. 1934). It’s fascinating to hear how much has changed. Like you, my mother is convinced we’re headed nowhere good.