I didn't read the whole thread, but will share a few observations -- I used to work in a call center for 401K's and that type of thing up till a couple years ago.
The comments about boomers and older workers not having enough for retirement is spot on. About half of people who would leave their jobs who called in would cash out their meager 401K, take the 10% penalty and pay full taxes on it. I would get a lot of comments like "yeah, I know I'm not supposed to, but I really need the money. It's only $5,000, so it's not going to make a difference anyhow in the long run." Some of these people were 50, 55, 60, so you wonder how many jobs they've left over a lifetime and how many times they've cashed out their "only $5,000" 401K over the years.
People over age 45 who would openly admit to me (sometimes I was like the person in the confessional! I think because I was a stranger it was easier to admit things to me than someone they know) that they have no retirement savings at all, no 401K, no pension, no IRA . . . not even a CD or savings account with more than a token sum. It was a lot of people. A scary lot of people.
I would say half of people current over age 50 are going to hit a point where they can no longer (comfortably) work, and they are essentially going to live off nothing but Social Security (a bad forced savings plan) & government assistance. The government will essentially tell them the type of home they can live in (a small, crappy apartment that accepts housing assistance), the type of food they can eat, etc.
- one last anecdote -- Spoke to a guy once who was about 55 years old, give or take 3 years. He had worked for his company about a year, and wanted to start saving for retirement. He had never saved for retirement before, but I applaud him for the "better late than never" mindset. His company would only let him make a max 401K contribution of 20% of each paycheck. He noticed that on the website (which was like a tool to project retirement savings), even if he set his retirement contribution to 20%, his projected retirement income (with a Social Security projection included) was way, way below what he needed to live somewhat comfortably. I asked if he could put more in on his own (outside of work) into something, he said he couldn't afford to. "Is there anything I can do?" I had to be the one to break it to him. It was honestly very sad. At age 55, this was the first time in his life that he saw the actual facts and figures showing him that even if he saved 20 cents on every dollar earned, starting now, he could not even come close to being able to retire at age 65. He was nice, but almost in tears when he realized at that point that he would have to work for (likely) the rest of his life.
The comments about boomers and older workers not having enough for retirement is spot on. About half of people who would leave their jobs who called in would cash out their meager 401K, take the 10% penalty and pay full taxes on it. I would get a lot of comments like "yeah, I know I'm not supposed to, but I really need the money. It's only $5,000, so it's not going to make a difference anyhow in the long run." Some of these people were 50, 55, 60, so you wonder how many jobs they've left over a lifetime and how many times they've cashed out their "only $5,000" 401K over the years.
People over age 45 who would openly admit to me (sometimes I was like the person in the confessional! I think because I was a stranger it was easier to admit things to me than someone they know) that they have no retirement savings at all, no 401K, no pension, no IRA . . . not even a CD or savings account with more than a token sum. It was a lot of people. A scary lot of people.
I would say half of people current over age 50 are going to hit a point where they can no longer (comfortably) work, and they are essentially going to live off nothing but Social Security (a bad forced savings plan) & government assistance. The government will essentially tell them the type of home they can live in (a small, crappy apartment that accepts housing assistance), the type of food they can eat, etc.
- one last anecdote -- Spoke to a guy once who was about 55 years old, give or take 3 years. He had worked for his company about a year, and wanted to start saving for retirement. He had never saved for retirement before, but I applaud him for the "better late than never" mindset. His company would only let him make a max 401K contribution of 20% of each paycheck. He noticed that on the website (which was like a tool to project retirement savings), even if he set his retirement contribution to 20%, his projected retirement income (with a Social Security projection included) was way, way below what he needed to live somewhat comfortably. I asked if he could put more in on his own (outside of work) into something, he said he couldn't afford to. "Is there anything I can do?" I had to be the one to break it to him. It was honestly very sad. At age 55, this was the first time in his life that he saw the actual facts and figures showing him that even if he saved 20 cents on every dollar earned, starting now, he could not even come close to being able to retire at age 65. He was nice, but almost in tears when he realized at that point that he would have to work for (likely) the rest of his life.
