What are your plans for retirement?
Posted at 5:00 AM on October 7, 2010
by Eric Ringham
(32 Comments)
Filed under: Economy
More Americans are working beyond the traditional retirement age, both because of the recession and because they expect to live longer. Today's Question: What are your plans for retirement?
Comments (32)
Re-Freshment :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_812w4AokLc
I think the concept of retirement is outdated.
If conservatives have their way, we'll all be at the mercy of investment bankers who will get rich stealing our hard-earned, but meager, investments, leaving us destitute.
Then, in our 70's, we can compete for entry-level jobs with young people in their 20's, who won't be able to understand why we haven't retired.
Lilely continue working to support all the LOSER democrats determined to ride the wagon for a long as possible.
I'm currently 34. Every few years I change jobs and take a substantial pay increase. Making over 100k/year now. I fully intend on the fiance and I being retired by 55 years old.
What folks who hold opinions like those of Gary F. fail to understand is that in our constitutional republic, the government is not some sort of independent being with nefarious motives or desires of its own. The governement is a what, not a who. It's an institution that belongs to us, the people, and that exists to do those things that are everyone's responsibility in general but no one's in particular-- things the free market won't do of its own accord, such as national security, law enforcement, infrastructure, caring for those who are unable to care for themselves, etc. If government is not doing its job well, it's the responsibility of voters to change it. The demonization of government by the likes of the Tea Party is fundamentally irresponsible.
"There is talk that Obama may want a chunk now of your 401/IRA's now instead of later. They are even thinking of going back on the Roth IRA promise."
Such talk, of course, isn't coming from Obama, or even from his economic advisers. Instead its coming from people with fantastic imaginations that claim the President was born in Kenya, is a practicing Muslim and wants to turn this country into a socialist paradise - all despite zero credible evidence of any of these things.
At 40, I'm targetting being able to retire at 55. Given my kids will just be entering college then, I'll probably have to push off retirement to 60.
Gary F, I read the article at the link you gave. If you meant it as an answer to the question I asked, it doesn't work. That article is about how big-business insurance companies are stonewalling on implementation of the health care reform law and never mentions anything like what you wrote in your bogus fear-mongering ("There is talk that Obama may want a chunk now of your 401/IRA's now instead of later. They are even thinking of going back on the Roth IRA promise"). That kind of baseless, inflamatory accusation only serves to sabotage good public policy and undermine our democracy. To call a spade a spade, it's a lie. I don't know if it's your lie, or if you're repeating someone else's lie, but it's a lie nonetheless. No one in the Obama administration is seriously talking along those lines, and even if they were, there is zero chance of Congress going along with it.
6 years ago, my husband and I started a small business growing vegetables in the winter in a passive solar greenhouse. We grow for 19 families all winter, spending only $75 in propane. We plan to build a bigger one so as we age and get close to retirement (and have the house paid off), we can live on our gathered resources and what we make feeding others in a sustainable way. For now, we pay down debt, hope pensions make good, and know that even if it all goes to hell in a handbasket, we won't starve.
I retired 3 years ago, and 6 mo. ago I started teaching exercise classes at a senior center. Its great for the money and the socialization. I will keep doing this till my knees wear out...the fear of being a bag lady..is always in the back of my mind....
CElizabeth
Well, since there will be no pension for me and Social Security will be long bankrupt, i plan to work well into my 70's and probably die on the job.
Being unemployed at the moment, ever reaching the ideal of even the chance.....
A roof, meals, and if lucky just someplace to call home maybe with friends and family.
Honestly anything else is wasteful.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39548132/ns/health-the_new_york_times
I don't trust government. You may, I don't.
Retir-what?
"There is talk that Obama may want a chunk now of your 401/IRA's now instead of later. They are even thinking of going back on the Roth IRA promise."
Where is that talk coming from? Glenn Beck? Bill O'reilly? Sounds like fear-mongering to me.
I went through two serious bouts of unemployment in this decade. If they taught me anything, it's that anything can happen and that planning is the refuge of fools. At the moment, I have no plans for retirement. I assume that, like Gary F, I'll be working well into my Seventies. Beyond that I have no idea.
Don't die in squallor
At 25, I still have a while to go, but I plan on having a house on the edge of town with a view of the wind turbines. Just sit on the deck and watch them turn.
Quick comment to Gary F. I am sorry that you have drunk the pessimistic Kool-Aid! The big government that you seem to hate (your government) is a compilation of many years of American citizens making choices about what is important to them. John Galt and his Libertarians had to run away and create their own Utopia because they couldn't understand or at least get along with others who were less selfish.
Retirement can be truly an Encore for life, giving back as Amanda plans to do, working at something that you really love like Molly or trying something entirely different as I am doing. The American mystique of work, work, work, then retire to a golf course was a construct of the mid to late 20th century that has minimal relevance now. Remember that prior to the Greatest Generation and now after the Greatest Generation, the elder years will have a much different character. They can and probably will be richer in satisfaction, richer in community engagement and richer in social capital as we discover that "Elders of the Tribe" have meaning and value and are active contributors to the common good.
Grabbing my fishing pole and living off my military retirement.
I'm looking forward to going to Best Buy and getting a new refrigerator box, placing is under a cozy bridge, and settling down to a relaxing retirement panhandling on freeway entrance ramps
I'm 28, and retirement feels like a far-away dream. I don't expect a luxurious life, but I hope to maintain my good health and spend time volunteering and traveling. I would also like to develop an art and music program for young people. I think it is a great loss to have those programs cut from education budgets, and I hope to be able to give back some of the knowledge I have.
I'll get in the Gary F. line.
DTOM
First off, Steve the Cynic, I always love reading your posts. I share your same sentiment pretty much all the time!
My plans for retirement are already in the works, I started contributing to a 401k and plan to do that for the rest of my working life. I hope that social security still exists 40 years from now when I am at retirement age. My plan is to have enough saved in a retirement account to live on regardless of state of social security. I don't want to be like the seniors I work with now who live just on social security and barely make ends meet.
The problem is that I have been living within my means and saving for retirement. What a concept!
But, I see the money hungry insatiable beast called national and state government, never getting enough.
There is talk that Obama may want a chunk now of your 401/IRA's now instead of later. They are even thinking of going back on the Roth IRA promise.
We've spent so much money in the last two years that they plan on paying it back with inflated dollars. Talk about hurting the poor!
Look what's happening in Europe, the insatiable beast called government is out of money. As Margaret Thatcher once said "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of someone else's money". So true.
How about all the government pensions? Who pays them?
If you haven't figured out who John Galt is, you better start finding out.
Retirement plans are still on track. Continue to keep our heads down and put away for retirement and other future big expense items like next car, roof, whatever.
If I continue being unable to save any significant funds for retirement, I'm going to have to keep working till I'm dead. So I guess my plans for retirement would be to decompose.
When (if) I get to be retirment age, I hope to be doing work I love so much I won't want to quit.
If Gary F is right and Social Security goes away because Congress fails to fix it, and if I'm no longer able to support myself from my own resources, I plan to get a tin cup and go begging outside the Capitol. As I learned in Sunday School ("Honor your father and your mother.") we have a moral obligation to care for our elders. Social Security is one of the ways we do that. Shame on us if we don't elect representatives with the moral courage to do what's right! Shame on us if we keep voting for politicians who pander to the rich and able-bodied, while portraying societal support for the poor as an unaffordable luxury!
I think that I will always be working. My hopes are that when I am around retirement age, I might have more financial flexibility to take a job doing something I really love and that offers at least some personal gratification. That is definitely not the case now!
I'm 46, I don't think I can commit to any plans for retirement. I probably will need to work at least into my mid 70's.
There will be no Social Security when I'm at whatever date I will actually become eligible. If it is still going, the dollar amount will be undervalued because of inflation that it won't amount to anything.
no idea for now i am 30 years old
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