Guest Post by Martin Armstrong
A new survey by Clever Real Estate shows that 64% of Gen Xers have stopped saving for retirement. These are the people born between 1965 and 1980. Retirement has become a luxury, and people are working well into their golden years out of necessity. The cost of living is so high that the majority cannot afford to save for the future. Social Security will not be there to soften the blow, pensions are failing for those lucky enough to secure one, and we soon will have a nation of elderly individuals with no financial means. This is a great premise to usher in the Great Reset, where the government usurps all power, as people may have no other option.
According to the survey, 56% of respondents have less than $100,000 in savings, while 22% have absolutely nothing saved for retirement. Most (69%) would like to retire before the age of 65, but only 37% believe that is a possibility. In fact, 19% do not believe they will retire before 80, and 11% believe they will be working until the day they die.
The average 401K match from employers is at an all-time high of 4.7%, but people are still unable to stow away funds. Of those who never saved for retirement, 73% said they simply could not afford to save, while 30% said they were focused on paying off debt. Over half (52%) said they have over $10,000 in non-mortgage outstanding payments. Around 44% blame the poor economic conditions of the US for their dilemma.
Americans are falling deeper into debt and have no plans for financial management. Americans raked in a record $17.05 trillion in debt during Q1 of 2023 alone. Credit card debt is at an all-time high, and the cost of borrowing continues to rise. Public schools do not educate people on the importance of saving for retirement, and we are all paying into Social Security with no guarantee that it will be paid back to us. America is heading toward a retirement crisis.
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When starvation becomes the rule, politicians will become a delicacy.
They just don’t want to work hard and save. They are lazy.
Waiting for inheritance after parents die: 87%
Now that right there is the epitome of Boomer thought process. X’rs, the “latch key” generation got little/nothing from our parents growing up, and we will get little/nothing from them when they pass. Most X’r parents were forced to draw down their retirement savings just to live, many were then forced to sell everything left, to go into assisted living or ‘retirement’ homes. The only thing that hasn’t happened to the “middle class” in America, is that they aren’t using us for food. Yet.
Just Sayin’
Fucking NAILED IT!!!You’re born middle class, you gonna die middle class…IF you’re lucky.
You will die as the “new”middle class; meaning in the middle of the masses who’s wages have diminished substantially in terms of purchasing power over the last 50 years.
Just Sayin’…..food for thought.
Too late. If you are Gen X, you are over age 45 and your parents most likely are already dead.
We ALL dead, you fucking moron!
Signed,
Schrodinger’s Cat
I’m not dead, I will never die !
Signed,
Keith Richards
Touche’
Gen X is the 1st generation that had consumer math phased out in schools. It was in the process when I was in government high school so I believe many 2nd half X never learned things like budgeting or balancing a checkbook.
Not surprising at all. The uneducated make easier and better debt slaves.
They’ve also suffered through multiple financial calamities, rampant housing cost inflation and the financial burden imposed by past generations. Turn on ,TuneIn ,drop out.
This right here. Can’t save for retirement when you can’t find work are getting laid off all the time, not to mention deciding to save for retirement or eat.
Assholes never understand this, they just revel in the misfortune of others.
Late boomer here, and I approve this message. They should be furious.
Abolish the state . . . and the Fed.
https://wtf1971.com/
Reopen the gold window. 2024 = 1776.
Pretty shocking to actually see it graphed out and realize none of the fuckheads saw it happening to them at the time. That was the exact moment I resolved to sell my “give a fuck” stock.
I saw it happening since the early 90’s:
“Clouds started forming on my economic horizon by the early 90’s. After I had accumulated a few years of earning and living on my own as a university graduate in a professional field, I had an epiphany. I did not have my father’s standard of living, and likely never would, and I needed to adapt. With an equivalent education and at an equivalent age, my father’s after-tax income went a lot farther than mine ever would. At 30 years of age he could buy a brand-new car for 3 months take-home pay and a 2400 square foot suburban house for 3 years take-home pay, and there was no provincial sales tax back then.
Contrasting those times with my own at 30 years of age and those cars and homes would cost almost double that, closer to 5½ months and 5½ years respectively. By 1991 the provincial sales tax (introduced in 1961) had already climbed from 3% to 8%, and then along came the Goods and Services Tax, which added another 7% of federal tax on top of the 8% provincial tax and it was applied to practically everything the common man needed to purchase except for basic groceries.
So, on top of higher income taxes, lower relative compensation, and higher costs, I was also faced with forking over 15% more of my hard earned “after-income-tax” money at the cash register. I was being forced to live well below my father’s means, while my own means continually diminished, all to finance an ever-expanding Canadian government “bloatocracy” that refused to live within ITS means. Enough was enough.“
Amazing how you conveniently ignored the Jimmy The Peanut’s Stagflation, which was twice as bad as Bidenomics. Back then if your mortgage was 18%, you got a good rate. Gasoline went from $0.45 to $1.25 a gallon. Meanwhile, unemployment was close to 20%.
Don’t forget the ‘free” Government cheese program! I still remember the plebs lining up for that shit!
Generation X
Gen·er·a·tion X (jĕn’ə-rāʹshən)
n.
The generation following the post-World War II baby boom, especially people born in the United States and Canada from the early 1960s to the late 1970s.
American Heritage Dictionary 4th Ed.
Generation X
noun
the generation of Americans born in the 1960s and 1970s
• Generation Xer noun
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Ironic. According to this, I’M Gen X and my sister is a Boomer! that’s quite a trick!
They know they are doomed . Save for retirement ?
Late boomer here, and I approve this message. They should be furious.
Abolish the state.
I am an early Gen X and saved for retirement. Then I retired early. Why let the big failure socialist government steal the tax money I earned? Instead, shut down and let everyone else suffer for not working smarter, saving, and investing. I laugh at those who say the smart thing to do is to shove everything into commodity X, such as gold. When the price is high, I sell. When low and they panic, time to shop for good deals for the next upswing. Then when it is high again, rape and pillage the gold-mongers. This tactic works for any commodity that has a limited amount of volume and an almost unlimited amount of stupid people willing to panic.
I’m long Raytheon, General Dynamics and Rheinmetall ADR (German tank manufacturer) it’s up 76% this year ! Cha-Ching !!
I don’t make the rules…just play by ’em.
So it’s true. The rich really don’t have souls. Good to know!
The broader question might be what do you have planned for ‘retirement’., if you live that long. People tend to forget that they will be old at that point, if they make it.
Also, how soon people forget even 2009. We had several 70 year old applying for jobs, and more stories. Why anyone would have their savings very long in a 401k astounds me. The whole premise of them was ‘let you keep your own money with strings’, just to start. When you bring up things like this people ask where else can I keep my money…
This whole thing is a spiritual question which is never addressed by economists who are frontline technocrats, even if they don’t know it. Of course the churches gloss over it, too.
…” this whole thing is a spiritual question ” …
WTF are you talking about ?
I guarantee you that collectively speaking, the wealth and retirement security of non-believers is exponentially higher than than the opposite.
Being fiscally intelligent, or just plain lucky, has nothing to do with god.
You either are, or not.
Yes, their security is in money which is a shakey proposition. First you have to live long enough for retirement.
No one says dont pay any attention to money but the money is not the main point, and that’s how you should plan as far planning can go.
So staying alive is the main point. Got it.
Try staying alive in this world that god created without money.
If you are looking to a magic sky fairy for help, you might as well be asking Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny for economic advice. Pretty much all Bible Whackadoodles are life-long thieves looking to steal from their sheeple.
C’mon now! Have a little respect.
Santa and The Easter bunny are responsible for untold billions of sales every year!
For entities that don’t even exist ? That is utterly amazing.
I have yet to see Baby Jesus dolls or crucifixion Easter baskets making any money.
We had consumer math, and it didnt take long for some of us to figure out that SS (boomer benefits) wasnt going to be around for us. In fact the one thing we did figure out was that whatever planning we did, would be f**ckd by boomers.
Save up, invest, whatever. As Belloq says, “Again we see there’s nothing you can possess which I cannot take away”
According to this very early retired Gen X, save everything and invest wisely. Cut spending. Act as if Socialist Security will not be there, because it won’t be.
NOW YOU KNOW WHY those Boomers kept preaching for us to ‘ work,save and invest”! It was never YOUR best interests they had in mind! It was theirs.
“Your enemies shall be those of your own household” – Jesus of Nazareth
If one needs to be taught that in school, public or otherwise, then either parents have failed owing to stupidity, ignorance, indifference or a combination of same. It’s simple common sense! These days, what responsible parent would entrust such instruction (the whys and hows of saving/investing, compound interest, etc.) to schools?
Yeah I don’t remember getting too much of that in school but my parents encouraged me early and often to save.
Saving is not really much good when inflation is 10x account interest.
Invest.
Gold or Bitcoin?
^^^^^^^^
Stupid or troll?
^^^^^^^^^ In your case , I’m going with stupid troll.
Proving beyond all doubt that 64% of Gen X members are doing the exact same thing as previous generations. Spending money on junk they don’t really need instead of saving and investing wisely. Just so they can live for the moment.
I predict that this will remain the same for future generations. Economic stupidity can’t be fixed.
Well, YOU are stupid enough to believe that economic rules never change. I bet you don’t think your Government and your Central Bankers don’t LIE either!
Plan for that shit, foole.
Gen X and only Gen X is responsible for their actions, failing to plan for old age is not wise and they will find out why.
Trust me when I tell you that it’s everybody’s problem. You think you’re getting away clean? I’ll throw a bucket of shit on you personally before I let that happen!
It’s all about the discipline. Yes sometimes people are in a terrible position and saving is impossible for a while. God always gives us the ability to better our condition. How many people look at their lives and say, how can I better my life, and what steps must I take to better it? Small steps is the key. Work on saving 1%, then increase it. I was not from a rich family, and never had a job where I made more than a maybe slightly higher than an average middle class income. Wife and I both retired at 55 or before. Peoples lack of knowledge and our poor education system certainly does not help.
Well done neocons
My parents first house was 15k with 200 a year in taxes . ,50 years later same house in 700k 15 k a year in taxes seems reasonable lol.
When your parents purchased their house their annual income was 12k a year, 50 years later your annual income is 160k household income. If taxes on a 700k house are 15k, move. Where I live they would be approx. $3,200.
50 years ago I could buy 2 weeks groceries for a family of three for $28 including paper and cleaning supplies. I’d say the blame goes squarely on fiat currency and the Fed/banksters.
I blame blood sucking Jews.
Same thing .
Yep. I’m 50. I’ll never get to retire. I’ll work till I drop over dead. Thanks Boomers. Thanks Government. Rot in hell you bastards.
Stop blaming others. You are the master of your life. Don’t be a victim.
Figure out what you can live WITHOUT and what makes you truly happy and adjust your life accordingly.
Why would you work for anybody but yourself until you “drop dead”?
Did you make some bad, life changing decisions when you were younger?
Did you go into debt for a bunch of shit you don’t need or have a bunch of ex-wives and kids you owe alimony too? Or did you have something horrible happen to you that wasn’t your fault?
Don’t just blame everything but yourself else without an explanation, because human nature assumes the worst.
Your 50. You have been around long enough to figure shit out… or maybe not.
What’s lost in all this is Obamma Care scam. Once you over 50 premium subsidies soar unless you keep your income under 24 k.
If you have savings you need to protect it. No one making less then 150 k , certainly not under 100k should work a full time 40 hrs, 52 week year.
Optimal strategy is to save and move to where you will retire by the age of 50. Hunker down till Medicare. Decide how much you want to earn based on you new much lower marginal tax rate.