There is a lot written about retirement and being financially prepared. You can also find a lot here under the “Retirement” category.
However, there is nothing that is written that can compare with the experience, especially the retirement experience over a number of years.
The best plan can go to hell with unexpected events. Perhaps you can’t reach your retirement age goal and must retire early. Maybe you have a major financial emergency that throws your plan for a loop. Most likely you will suffer from longevity and the impact of inflation. In other words, regardless of your means, you need a plan, a backup plan and a backup to that plan.
But the reality is that most retired Americans rely solely or substantially on Social Security. That’s no plan and in the future it will be even less so.
Following are sample comments from this blog. These comments and many more are in response to the Social Security COLA (check more out in articles under “Social Security” category.) or lack thereof.
This is the reality for people who think Social Security will provide for them in retirement or naively think the future will take care of itself.
You can’t sit in a low wage job for years and expect to get ahead because the minimum wage is raised and you can’t expect a reasonably comfortable retirement if you don’t do something about it when you are twenty and every year thereafter. .. and as these people have learned, you can’t count on a generous COLA from Social a Security every year.
Well, I guess none of us will be buying eggs, meat paying for car gas and electricity bills that keep us hostage with our DLA (Daily Living Activities)and trying to enjoy the senior life that we are so lucky to have achieved With trying to get a Tetanus shot and shingles shot the cost of co-pay is $40 now where is that supposed to come from since Medicare HMO’s have raised their Tier levels of costs per procedure, These are doctor ordered after a wellness visit that are necessary In trying to appeal, the plan turns a person down, so what’s the use. no gardening, if you had chicken pox forget it as one is probably going to get shingles as we can’t afford to get the shot, So we are doomed to stay home since we can’t afford to go anywhere since all the bills are so escalated that there isn’t anything left in the budget, and using credit cards is out of the question with interest rates in the 20’s that no one ever addresses on these zero interest for a year and then over 20% thereafter. So, seniors, we might as well know that our only chance of survival is to stay at home, don’t eat, don’t put your air on, and remember when you are voting to ask questions about a person’s empathy for seniors trying to make it in the community before you vote the person in to Congress.
People are in debt and it’s not because of frivolous and irresponsible spending, no more than it was 50 years ago. Everything has gotten too damn high and wages haven’t gone up nearly as much as it should have in the last 40 years and especially the last 30. I can set in my house everyday, not spend anything and the rent, utilizes, taxes, insurance, cable service goes up, but my salary doesn’t.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I totally understand how this person got in the predicament they did. When I think back 35 years, fresh out of high school making less then minimum wage I thought I would be king of the world if I could only make $10/hr. I worked in a large mom & pop print shop with about 10 employees. I earned no extra money to save for retirement. In 1981 banks started offering IRA bank accounts advertising if you saved $2500 / yr you could have $50k in retirement at age 65. I only made $9,300 that year and needed a new vehicle to get to work. There was no pension were I worked. I was lucky to have medical. There was no corporate benefit director offering advice to take advantage of the various benefits plans because there were no plans. I recognized that I would need something and joined the Air National Guard to get something for retirement.
But what if I got promoted and started making $10 /hr? $10/hr was high on the wage scale for a non-union shop at the time. Would I earn enough money to buy a house, start a family, save for retirement too? A printing pressman was a good trade career. What if I stayed and worked my whole life there? Several of the old guys in the shop raised their families working there, after all 99.7% are small business in the private sector according to the SBA.
I don’t know if they ever got to retire. I got bored and moved on after five years. The inflation in 1980’s was outrageous, 14% mortgages, 18% car loans. It was cheaper to import printed material from overseas than to print stuff in the USA even with oil prices climbing through the roof raising transportation cost. The print shop eventually got sold and then closed.
Lucky for me, I got bored and moved on and landed a job in one of those 0.3% large employers. I will get a pension; I earned enough to save in a 401K and some other investments. The new hires where I work do not get a pension but are given plenty of opportunity to contribute toward their retirement. I am thinking in those mom and pop shops, employees are grateful if they can get medical today for free since the cost is running in some cases over $25k per family plan. Not to mention that today most jobs are in retail and are low wage part-time, no benefit jobs.
Another problem is education. How do you get an 18-20 old to understand what they have to do for retirement? It is so far off. My wife has finally taken an interest in retirement as her sisters have reached that age. She always let me worry about it. My wife has several small IRAs and 401Ks. One of them is worth $50k today. She thinks that you can withdraw it all at once and spend it all at once or that she can withdraw money over time and it will last forever. When I explained that drawdown should only be 5% (easy math, I use 4% for me) it will only $2,500/ yr or just over $200 a month, she gets depressed. What can you do with $50/week? It is not worth it to her. I explained to her that every little bit helps. $200 month pays the utility bill freeing up money to do something else.
I am thinking that the person in the article would love to have that extra $50 a week. I am grateful that I make a ton of money now. But what if I only made three times the current minimum wage like back in 1980 which was $3.10/hr? Would I be able to retire today? Today I am not too sure due to medical cost if I can retire maintaining my current life style. The rules have changed over the last 35 years and the stock market has not returned the historic averages in over a decade.
Now tell an 18 year old, who seen how their parents got down sized, pensions taken away, and politicians promising them socialism which will take care of them. I think there will be a bigger crisis in about 20 years for the people who got caught with the retirement rules changing and job losses that included pensions in the 1990-2000’s and are left with little time to make up for those pensions.
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