To have kids or not

...not much of a future for them unless you move to Galt's Gulch. By the time they're ready to start a family, they're going to be so overburdened and surrounded by real zombie they won't be able to enjoy life as we knew it. I miss America.

1. Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States. By 2050 that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.
2. According to one recent poll, 25 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no retirement savings at all.
3. 26 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no personal savings whatsoever.
4. One survey that covered all American workers found that 46 percent of them have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.
5. According to a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, "60 percent of American workers said the total value of their savings and investments is less than $25,000".
6. A Pew Research survey found that half of all Baby Boomers say that their household financial situations have deteriorated over the past year.
7. 67 percent of all American workers believe that they "are a little or a lot behind schedule on saving for retirement".
8. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
9. More elderly Americans than ever are finding that they must continue working once they reach their retirement years. Between 1985 and 2010, the percentage of Americans in the 65 to 69-year-old age bracket that were still working increased from 18 percent to 32 percent.
10. Back in 1991, half of all American workers planned to retire before they reached the age of 65. Today, that number has declined to 23 percent.
11. According to one recent survey, 70 percent of all American workers expect to continue working once they are "retired".
12. According to a poll conducted by AARP, 40 percent of all Baby Boomers plan to work "until they drop".
13. A poll conducted by CESI Debt Solutions found that 56 percent of American retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.
14. Elderly Americans tend to carry much higher balances on their credit cards than younger Americans do. The following is from a recent CNBC article...

New research from the AARP also shows that those ages 50 and over are carrying higher balances on their credit cards -- $8,278 in 2012 compared to $6,258 for the under-50 population.​

15. A study by a law professor at the University of Michigan found that Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States. Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12 percent of all bankruptcies.
16. Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.
17. What is causing most of these bankruptcies among the elderly? The number one cause is medical bills. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.
18. In 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits. Today, that number has fallen to 2.5 workers, and if you eliminate all government workers, that leaves only 1.6 private sector workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits.
19. Millions of elderly Americans these days are finding it very difficult to survive on just a Social Security check. The truth is that most Social Security checks simply are not that large. The following comes directly from the Social Security Administration website...

The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker was about $1,230 at the beginning of 2012. This amount changes monthly based upon the total amount of all benefits paid and the total number of people receiving benefits.​

Could you live on about 300 dollars a week?
20. Social Security benefits are not going to stretch as far in future years. The following is from an article on the AARP website...

Social Security benefits won't go as far, either. In 2002, benefits replaced 39 percent of the average retirees salary, and that will decline to 28 percent in 2030, when the youngest boomers reach full retirement age, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.​

21. In the United States today, more than 61 million Americans receive some form of Social Security benefits. By 2035, that number is projected to soar to a whopping 91 million.
22. Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.
23. As I wrote about in a previous article, the number of Americans on Medicare is expected to grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.
24. Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.
25. Today, only 10 percent of private companies in the U.S. provide guaranteed lifelong pensions for their employees.
26. Verizon's pension plan is underfunded by 3.4 billion dollars.
27. In California, the Orange County Employees Retirement System is estimated to have a 10 billion dollar unfunded pension liability.
28. The state of Illinois has accumulated unfunded pension liabilities of more than 77 billion dollars.
29. Pension consultant Girard Miller told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have 325 billion dollars in combined unfunded pension liabilities.
30. According to Northwestern University Professor John Rauh, the latest estimate of the total amount of unfunded pension and healthcare obligations for retirees that state and local governments across the United States have accumulated is 4.4 trillion dollars.
31. In 2010, 28 percent of all American workers with a 401(k) had taken money out of it at some point.
32. Back in 2004, American workers were taking about 30 billion dollars in early withdrawals out of their 401(k) accounts every single year. Right now, American workers are pulling about 70 billion dollars in early withdrawals out of their 401(k) accounts every single year.
33. Today, 49 percent of all American workers are not covered by an employment-based pension plan at all.
34. According to a recent survey conducted by Americans for Secure Retirement, 88 percent of all Americans are worried about "maintaining a comfortable standard of living in retirement".
35. A study conducted by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research found that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.
So what is the solution? Well, one influential organization of business executives says that the solution is to make Americans wait longer for retirement. The following is from a recent CBS News article...

An influential group of business CEOs is pushing a plan to gradually increase the full retirement age to 70 for both Social Security and Medicare and to partially privatize the health insurance program for older Americans.
The Business Roundtable's plan would protect those 55 and older from cuts but younger workers would face significant changes. The plan unveiled Wednesday would result in smaller annual benefit increases for all Social Security recipients. Initial benefits for wealthy retirees would also be smaller.​

But considering the fact that there aren't nearly enough jobs for all Americans already, perhaps that is not such a great idea. If we expect Americans to work longer, then we are going to need our economy to start producing a lot more good jobs than it is producing right now.
Of course the status quo is not going to work either. There is no way that we are going to be able to meet the financial obligations that are coming due.
The federal government, our state governments and our local governments are already drowning in debt and we are already spending far more money than we bring in each year. How in the world are we going to make ends meet as our obligations to retirees absolutely skyrocket in the years ahead?

Do You Want To Scare A Baby Boomer?

 

I never wanted kids, not for any of the reasons you outlined but because I simply lack any maternal genes whatsoever. The more I watch this country being taken over by the stupid, the happier I am with my decision. There are those who say people like me, who refuse to have children, are part of why the stupid are running over us but whatever. Even if I had five kids, I couldn't counteract the factory breeders who churn out 8-10-14 kids with as many different fathers.

Now if only my nephew and his new wife would GTFO of Chicago.

 

Someone has to fix this mess, you're not going to live forever. The people that got us into this are not going to stop having kids.

Kids are a blessing under any circumstances.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

It's more of a rhetorical question to make you think about what parenting will be like in the future if you have to provide for a family and also take on the redistribution burden of people who live longer and didn't plan.

Basically, what they're doing will impact you generations from now and that is wrong.

A normal person might take these issues into consideration when starting a family. Those on EBT do not.

 

Kids? Yep, gotta have 'em.
Who the eff is going to run this place after we are gone.

You are not going to live forever.
Teach your children well.
Once they fledged, they take your instruction, wisdom and training off into their uncertain future. They will shape the future. Also they will determine if you live with them or in the cheap nursing home in shacktown when you are really old. I'd rather trust my kids than the government any day.

Peace (3 kids that i know of) out

 

Not directed at VT, but for others: The post isn't trying to say "DON'T HAVE KIDS!!" Mea culpa . . . looking at the subject again I can see how I steered this wrong. I was going more along the lines of, "If you're going to have kids . . . here's what's coming. Prepare now."

 

Without my kids, there's not much point of me being here. There are the best thing I ever did, and the greatest joy of my life. I would die for my kids, but before that, I would kill to protect them. Life without my children, would hold no color, no taste, no laughter, and little purpose. They are the reason I work so hard, and rise so early, in all weathers. They are the reason I take the debt seriously (it is theirs to carry) they are the reason I care so much about what is being done to my country, because I could live out my days, as a recluse, and let the world pass me by but for what it would do to my kids. They are the reason I'm in this fight...for them.

 

I just worry about the government going after current individual retirement plans (ira's, 401ks) and nationalizing them. I watch that like a hawk. If they start bills to do that, It's instant loan against current balance to purchase PM's.

Our current system is bankrupt unless they do 2 things, reduce benefits AND increase rate on current workers, and boy that will be a welcome day now won't it.

Yeah, I figure there isn't anything in there for me of the money that was stolen from me. Maybe Grandpa, Grandma and my parents will have gotten something outta it.

Man our kids and grandkids are gonna be screwed unless this house of cards collapses soon. At least they might have a chance to rebuild.

The longer the fraud continues, the more enslaved the population becomes.
Maybe the Germans demand for their gold will start a run on the bank.
That would be interesting.

 

Many people in the 46-64 year old group have retirements which mail them a check each month and a 401K. Often, the total is more than many working people's paycheck. Others have contributory retirement, or every $1.00 they put in the company matches 50-75% and over 20-30 years. Not everyone fits into these categories; however enough to affect the polls.

 

Bruce,
Same as so many who are over 60, I watched it for generations. My last employer stopped income retirements in the 1990s; there was a date and if someone hired on after it, they received a 401-k; their co-workers who hired in before the date received an income retirement. Very talented people the companies wanted to recruit as business weapons were given accelerated retirements or for every year they worked counted as three years for retirement. Having the best weapons "pays off" just as well in business as it does warfare.
Does it pay off as I know of a case where someone was offered a 3:1; innovated 16 US Patents and a load of trade secrets in 14.5 years until he quit; so I'd say it did pay off. Make it cheap off shore instead of innovate and leave the competition in the dust is a reason why we were losing the corporate wars.

They can save a little here and there because they do not need to spend the same as working people. There are many reasons, they don't need to buy gas to go to work is one. My mother worked in Accounting so after she retired she commented she didn't need work clothes or need to pay the dry cleaner.

Often retirements of the era included a medical plan also. Some people are ill prepared as companies converted their income retirements into 401-K type retirements. The 401-K even with matching was the greatest royal screwing the American worker ever received.