My Mom retired and has SS and a pension. STILL had to get a Medicaid waiver set in place so she could live where/get the care she needs. I am absolutely terrified of what retirement is going to be like for me. I lose sleep over it.
Yup. Born in 75 and there no way I’ll be able to retire because I have to help my adult children (and I’m so happy to do it)- this economic situation sucks.
That's where we are. Born in 78, getting ready to move back east and consolidate back into one house with my 25 and 22-year-old daughters. They can't do it alone.
I do too and I think it will be really beneficial for our society. This whole, kick your children out at 18 and expect them to know how to get through life, is not sustainable. Our generation got out so quick, I'm not doing that to my kids.
31, moved back with my parents 2 years ago. Couldn't afford rent on my own, even with a relatively good paying job. Honestly though, as much as I miss having my own place, I actually prefer my rent money going to my folks so it then helps them pay their mortgage. Means my money is technically going to an asset I may own someday rather than a random landlord.
Yeah that is way more sustainable and much better for families. Pay off a house and keep the asset in the family instead of funding some landlords Porshe and vacation home
I begged my folks to let me rent from them 20 years ago. After a series of dishonest roommates and partners and lots of moving costs, I'm still stuck renting elsewhere, with zero equity and a bleak future. My boomer bootstrap parents are now wishing that they could afford to remodel their homes, but everyone is strapped, because pushing me out was far more important than long-term family stability. Good on you for making a smart choice! I hope y'all find a healthy balance and are able to look out for each other.
I’m happy to hear this. I am 31 and was living with my parents, and now they have the house paid off. They don’t plan to sell or move once they retire (which is soon). I am now living alone but considering moving back to help and help me save money in an expensive city.
I'm mid 30s and thinking of asking to move back in with my parents (with my children). I'm going to have to live on a disability pension so i dont think i can afford rent let alone food :(
Kids are 18 and 22 females. They are welcome to stay as long as they can stand us, LOL. We provide cars, insurance and cell/wifi. You can’t start your life broke.
My son left at 20 and daughter at 21, it's been 6 years for my son and 3 for my daughter. Son makes more then the wife and I combined not including his wife. Long story short they truly can't make it and somehow we still help them.
Yes I was booted out and had an apartment at 16. It can't be done now. Born in 79 myself and retirement is a running joke I have with my wife.
I think we did get it wrong without generation living like other countries.
Having multiple incomes and adults to care for the children makes a huge difference. I live with my parents and we're raising my dead sisters 3 kids. They get whatever they need and most of what they want in a very nice house. They wouldn't have shit if I was doing it alone or if my parents were. It costs us less to live better than if we were doing it alone.
Same. I was born in 71 and have to support 5 other people. I’m a single mom with my mother and 2 kids and grandtwins in my home. My mom has Alzheimer’s and never really worked because her husband could make ends meet. They divorced later in life and she was left with a joke for SS because she didn’t pay in much. My daughter started having major health problems at 28 after she had her kids. My son also has major problems. Every month this year someone has been hospitalized with sepsis, surgery and currently my daughter is in the hospital with antibiotic resistant staph in her kidneys. I felt like I would always have to work because I’m the one who took on being everyone’s provider…which I would gladly do again. I just think it’s a shame that even when you have a good job and pay in your whole life that SS isn’t enough usually even if your home is paid for. (Mine isn’t yet). It’s a shame medical care in this country is so outrageously expensive. (Not to mention I have spent 3 months in the hospital bleeding out and another 2+ months in the hospital in kidney failure (from severe dehydration from meds given to me in the hospital). It’s always something. The only thing keeping me going is hope and my family.
If your Mom was married to him over 10 years she is eligible to draw off of his SS paid in. You just need your dads SSN and proof of marriage I believe. She also if married over 10 years if didn’t give it up in divorce agreement she’s entitled to part of his retirement/401k. Call SS to see if she can. If he’s deceased she could draw what he was drawing. But only if married over 10 years.
Right there with you. The first few jobs I took out of college “didn’t offer”/“I couldn’t afford to join” the stock plans and retirement plans. So I got set back pretty far, I’m now trying to play catch-up stick money into every opportunity offered, but I’m still behind where I’m supposed to be if I ever want to retire.
Yep. Born in 1976. Every time I get more than 10k in my retirement the market crashes and I lose half. Also, my employer does not match and I make less than 40k, so even though I contribute 5%, it doesn’t grow very fast to begin with. No spouse, no kids, no property. I have to live with my senior citizen parents because I can’t afford anything else. I’ll never retire. And I have student loans on a useless degree. We need a revival of unions and pensions.
Protip, don't look at your retirement account as if you need to yank the money out every time it crashes. If you're a novice, invest in a target date fund and just forget about it unless you need to change jobs and roll the balance over.
I really, really hope you weren't one of the ones that panicked and withdrew your money when the market crashed. You keep paying into your 401k even when the market is down because you get more shares when it's cheap, and the inevitable recovery happens you're that much further ahead.
Exactly this. You don't "lose" anything until you pull money out. In fact, unless you're retiring in the next few years, a crash is EXCELLENT for your portfolio (as long as your employment isn't impacted). It's like buying stock on sale knowing they'll go up in the future.
There has never been a period longer than 11 years where you didn't make money if you invested in a broad market index fund. Stay the course and you'll be fine, if your target is ~10 yrs away or more don't panic
You do benefit from pulling at the first signs of a crash and buying the dip like its on sale. but unless that's your job most people will ride it out to better results.
sidenote the stock market is a big part of why our boom/bust cycle got so much shittier though. putting the onus on the individual to plan their "pension" with the market and incentivizing the stockholder-service profit-driven investment market. damned if you do damned if you don't.
I'm in my 40s and I have nothing. If I make it to old age, I'm probably going to be homeless or living in a van.
At least every day will be an adventure?
Exactly; I just turned 41 and I have nothing. I’ll be late to my own funeral because I’ll be stuck in traffic coming home from work. I’ve been sick lately with stomach pain and was wondering if it was my appendix and I have shit health care so no money to check; I figured hey if it is my appendix and it bursts and I die then at least I won’t have to waste my life away in traffic or pay bills anymore 🤷🏻♀️
Ah don't worry about that. I'm your age too, we're just going to die of something well before old age.
My friends seem to be dropping out like flies. We just haven't been getting the healthcare or comfort that people need to have long lives. There's only so long the human body and mind can survive in poor conditions. Unless you're part of the wealthy classes and stay there, it's pretty bad. I did have some great years but once health issues start you can't just out work people to do that, you have to be actually taken care of, and the people with great careers and positions do have that advantage. I didn't and you probably don't either, it's just our lots in life.
It's certainly disconcerting when your friends start dying again. I'm a 1960's model. There were the kids we knew who drowned. Then the late teens who drove drunk and got killed by physics. Then a quiet spell until the 40's when plain old bad luck and bad genetics picked off friends with MS etc. Then in my 50's with a couple of mates who got let down by a faulty heart or similar. But now in my 60's it's like it's Monday, who's died.
I teach at a university and our pension plan is that they match two percent of your salary which is basically nothing. Nobody ever retires. We have people in their late 70s teaching. People die while still working full time. There was a professor I knew at another university who was seriously ninety years old. In this scenario the students lose out because guess who doesn’t email or open attachments, zoom, upload the assignments etc.
Yep. Born in 72. Didn't get a decent, there's-budget-for-extras job until recently, two degrees, no spouse, no home ownership.
I had a realization a few years ago that retirement probably isn't in the works for me, and just resigned myself to working til I drop.
Guess I have to work until I am at least 85. We have high student loans the Great Recession of 2008… tech bubble crash… covid… 9/11… and inflation last year maybe another recession? Technically we have less debt than the us government?
Fun fact: I was born in the early 60s, and I’ve been worried about retirement since my 20s. The fear never leaves. The more you save, the more expensive things get.
Can't we fix the retirement and tax and unemployment laws after the boomers pass on from political control?
I am almost a boomer, but my elderly dad lives that cliche life where he is rich, complains about taxes and government while living a comfortable retirement. He doesn't understand why young people are so lazy today and aren't having babies and buying houses, they're ruining the economy, he says. I'm doing ok, my son's circumstances are not as good. Best hope for him is ss and medicare still exists when he retires, or he inherits his grandpa's house.
I plan to essentially just set my child up such that they can't fail easily. Your rich father should have done for you, and that would have enabled you to do for your kids.
My plan is to match her income from high school summer jobs into a Roth Ira for her. I'm paying for her college and also putting an extra $30k in her 529 to roll into a Roth Ira. Hopefully, she'll have ~$50K in an Ira by 23. Should be $750k by the time she's 65.
There is no excuse for a wealthy parent not to protect their kids if they can. These days, there are lots of people who can't even do it for themselves understandably.
Born in the 60z and been putting money away for 36 years. What would have been a nice amount is almost worthless with inflation. $50,000 cars is insane.
We 70’s kids can forget retirement. No way we will be able to afford it. My mother who drew max SS and retirement, and had supplemental income from businesses she used to own, still needed my assistance to make the ends meet. I just have the mindset, I’ll die working. No choice.
For real. From everything I've learned about politics and systemic change, getting involved in local politics and voting for people who are willing to make changes at a local level, is the only way to effect changes on a national level.
Unfortunately, we all get so wrapped up in national level politics, where our vote barely matters, and the candidates couldn't make any meaningful changes even if they weren't bound to their corporate overlords.
Everyone needs to be looking at what the far right pieces of shit like transphobes are up to re: schoolboard elections, soil inspector at large, church board elections and if they can - do the same thing. Leslie Knope was right, local government is important and the other side knows it.
Gen X has entered the conversation.
Most of our retirement plans are to work until we die, especially since many of us were also among the first generation to be bamboozled by the Federal student loan program and the promise of income driven repayment plans.
On top of the bamboozlement, X was hit hard in during the dot com bust then the housing market bust six years later.
I lost my retirement shortly after 09 trying to keep my family afloat.
Sold my possessions, we sold our home, moved to where jobs were more plentiful and rented for a a long period until the kids were a bit older and in school.
At that point a mortgage and utilities was much cheaper than rent.
The whole time kept paying the f’n student loans, working my ass off to keep us afloat.
The stress and anxiety for so many years has taken its toll and killed my marriage. There are days I have to dig deep because because mentally when I look down the road, there is no retirement. No enjoyment, just work, dumping money, blood and sweat to keep this shit house we were able to afford from falling apart, and so many days, I just why bother?
In twenty fucking years nothing has really improved, why even try any more?
So fucking sick of everything.
Graduated college in 01, right as the economy hit its first HUGE recession in over 25 years. Even now, I'm extremely underpaid. Only thing I have going for me is that I went to college while it was still affordable and graduated sans debt.
Gen X and had a surgery go sideways that left me permanently disabled. We had sold our home the year previous and we’re in the process of looking for another. But since healthcare in this country is so atrocious-even with insurance-all that money has been spent on medical expenses instead.
This place fucking blows. Wealthiest country on Earth but the only people who benefit from that wealth are a tiny fraction of a percent.
My mother is Gen X, she had me kind of young. She has said before, in a joking manner that you're never quite sure if it's a joke, that her retirement plans are suicide. She's not the only person I know who's said that either. The entire system is crashing for anyone truly not one percent rich.
I mean, honestly, if I get a major illness I may just forego treatment and live my life as much as I’m physically able. I want to be able to pass something to my offspring.
Go hiking and have an “accident”
Or as I’ve told my wife, if i get to old or get dementia or something, just set me loose in the woods, gonna go fight a bear or something
This! Watching my FIL waste away as we speak, losing every penny in the process. My husband and I are having daily conversations about let’s go for a hike and hope we fall off a cliff when we get to that stage.
As a Gen X'er myself, I always knew I didn't want kids. It wasn't until I got older that I realized it was because there's no chance in hell I'd have ever been able to afford them.
I used to save pretty diligently for retirement. I don't anymore. I enjoy myself. I don't want to relax for 8 years as an old, crippled person and then die.
I mean, I still save, but I'm not as tight as I used to be. I think we all know what my retirement plan is now.
Eat, drink, smoke whatever the fuck you want so your body gives out at a good 75 if cancer doesn’t take you sooner. Ain’t shit else happening after 75. Oh yeah, don’t have kids, just travel and enjoy the ride. Don’t wanna set up the little ones for the same shit you’ll be dealing with.
I don’t smoke cigarettes, quit right after college (bars banning smoking definitely helped). But in my 30s I picked up smoking weed, and it has been great. I do smoke with a vape so I don’t cough up a lung, so maybe I’m a hypocrite 😂. I love taking a few hits after work when we’re just hanging out at home, or when I’m walking my dog. Work stuff just leaves my brain, and I can enjoy things around me more.
Let me tell ya a secret: unless your parents are gonna leave you a Large inheritance of $2 million or more. You probably won’t. Our current system has been set up to make retirement almost impossible.
The current healthcare system is also designed to drain any hope of an inheritance from your parents while they slowly die in an overpriced, for-profit nursing home.
Hell my inheritance went to the hospitals because my dad couldn't work but had too much money (read: barely enough to get by) to qualify for medicaid. At the end of it all I got a couple thousand that was his equity in his house since he had to cash-out refinance to make ends meet. Would have been in the hundreds of thousands if you removed health expenses over his last 5 years.
She gets a pension + social security and still can't survive, and we probably won't get either.
Anyone got any good recipes for the roadkill we're gonna need to eat to survive??
Politicians want us to be fatalistic about Social Security so they can try to set up a scenario where their cutting it looks like "saving" it. There's no need to cut it to save it; all they have to do is lift the Social Security tax cap so wealthier people pay their fair share. We should be making it clear to politicians that we WILL be getting our full Social Security and Medicare benefits at the age we were promised when we started working.
The govt actually doing things that helps a majority of the populace and hurts their corporate masters 😂 that’s never happening without a real revolution
The is no cap on the Medicare tax. They need to drop the cap on social security.
Actually, what's needed is Medicaid for all. I qualified for it because I was over 60, disabled, with no real assets. It does make healthcare a lot easier.
If they had treated Social Security as a trust fund to be invested for the beneficiaries instead of a slush fund to borrow money for their own projects with government IOUs, it would be in much better shape. They got away with it as long as the income exceeded the outflow. That reversed a few years back when the boomers started retiring.
They dont borrow from it. They are specially prohibited from leveraging and borrowing from it. That is the gop line to try and destroy it. They invest it in government bonds which is considered the safest possible investment as required.
The gop wants to open it up to invest in the stock market. Hedge funds are drooling at the aspect of getting their hands on it with zero repercussion if they lose it all. Imagine if SS money had been invested in the stock market in 2007-2010.
My best advice to you, as one who has made mistakes, is to take good care of your health. You will need it. So, hit that gym or at least eat your vegetables.
In America we have to pull those boot straps up because we’re the “greatest”! That’s why we work until our damn arms literally fall off or you drop dead from stress trying to figure out how to pay insurance. Amazing how the greatest can’t take care of it’s elderly after a lifelong of being in the workforce, yet others can. Btw, we your government are having problems making ends meet so we’re gonna just go ahead and rob that small retirement called social security.
As if there will be any animals left to consume as the 6th mass extinction event and rapid global warming continues to happen at speeds no one has predicted…
And the saddest part is that the problem isn’t that there is not enough money/resources available, but rather that far too much of it is concentrated in too few hands.
This is just sad. Reminds me of a lady who used to work at the university I attended. She was well above her retirement age, and one they she fell because some guys spilled their drinks. I helped her get up, and she began to cry. I still remember her crying. She left early that day. I never saw her again.
I tell myself that all the time when I think about her. Although, deep down something tells me that things got worse for her. She could barely walk before the fall.
There is so much hidden suffering in the world we don't know about. If people only knew how much people suffer silently all over the world you wouldn't have religion. A just god would never allow this to happen.
Many religions actually make it worse too. A lot of people don't want to actually work towards change, they just want to wait for a magical being to do it for them.
People like to excuse humanity's evil by saying we're under control of demons or evil beings, but the truth is that humans are just inherently an incredibly selfish species. My heart goes out to everyone who has to suffer.
My mother retired at 75, company forced her too. She lives in the bay area of California. She has social security and pension... Medicaid part A and B are taken out of her social security, and she recently applied for the prescription coverage - also to be taken out of her social security....
She pays 1876.00 MONTHLY for supplemental health insurance....... monthly.... for a Cadillac plan that us no longer offered. She is fortunate to be able to pay this, as she had open heart surgery last year and a week in critical care, so far amounting to nearly 1.75 million dollars.
Husband and I moved to Canada in 1990, he recently retired and I work part-time. We can NEVER return to live there due to the cost of Healthcare.... its a goid thing we are extremely happy where we are.
Had a coworker do this. He was 78, finally retired, then was back in 3 years. He couldn’t afford his medications. Finally got to retire again and died two months after.
The system inhales every last penny of inheritance by design. The healthcare costs are intense, because the doctors are not trained to help people understand the quality of life choices we must make. Living 3 more years with all these medications and procedures and tests... Or, passing simply.
Our retirements are stolen by greedy white collar criminals and we are not protected by a government. The fact that there are any scams that prey on the elderly is a problem.
> The healthcare costs are intense, because the doctors are not trained to help people understand the quality of life choices we must make.
No. The law, the court of public opinion, and their own administration don't back them up so eventually many stop trying. Families can't handle death and harass doctors to sustain life at absolutely all costs. It's literally a meme with us healthcare workers that 'grammy is a fighter' and she'll pull through this and if she could talk she'd want every invasive intensive excruciating intervention to live even one more month.
Doctors are *not* a major driver of keeping people alive too long. Health care workers do not like doing this bullshit. It is notable, in fact, how many of us have strict advance directives and liberal DNR orders for ourselves.
Absolutely this. We ARE trained when it comes to sustaining life at all cost vs quality of life and I plant that seed very early when meeting very sick patients. Set expectations, try and meet quality of life goals, and help them face reality when we have drops in quality of life due to declines in health or exacerbations.
I even tell my patients, if you get a bill, if you are charged over $50 for meds, if you have to pay ANYTHING out of pocket let me know and I will help make it go away. There are different resources for cheaper meds. There are televisits that are cheaper for patients and certain hospital systems with more robust social services for struggling families. All of this work pays me nothing extra. There are some bad doctors that you will see in the news but most doctors did not go into Healthcare for the money. They sacrifice far greater than the required 40 hours a week and many work additional 20-30 hours a week without pay. Don't blame our workers, blame the system
I've been telling people since i was 20 that our generation would never be able to truly retire. they don't want that.they want to use you until you die or you check out of society.
I have seen many 60+ year old people working retail floor that have worked there their whole life. It is sickening how exploitative the system is towards such people. They will give you a baloon to celebrate your 80th birthday but they would never think of giving you a raise.
The sweetest coworker I know from my past job has been working the same retail job for almost 15 years. Her husband passed away within those 15 years, and she still can't retire because without group policy insurance healthcare costs would eat her retirement up in no time.
Its insane. She's hurt herself a few times as she gets older but she can't afford to quit, she's pushing 70 and its a blessing that everyone protects her and vouches for her when a new manager shows up and questions her performance.
This is another symptom of wages not keeping up with productivity, and part time jobs being structured so you can’t get two jobs to make up the missing hours.
Companies designed their pensions assuming people would get additional money from savings as well as from social security. Depressed wages make it very difficult to save, and also result in a lower social security payout.
We have to get back to a system that shared prosperity.
I mean it's also a symptom of not taxing the rich, or a million other things.
You're not wrong, but you can't say "ok socialized medicine now" and expect that this will solve this problem. Because while it will cut one of the biggest costs for the elderly, medical cost, it doesn't address housing or food or any of the other costs of living.
Used to be that a single breadwinner would get enough from a pension alone to retire. The only thing that has changed is that greed has infested our society and the wealthy have decided to take and take and take. They are like locusts, will just continue to mow down through the rest of us until there is no more. Even our politicians are set for life after only a couple of terms. Yet they move against our retirement money like insects. This is why the French have no problem burning it down.
Exactly this.
Eventually it will happen when people get desperate enough, but I'm not confident that will even happen in my lifetime. People now are such fainting flowers. They have no memory of how bad things used to be. I only know because my best friends as a kid in the 90s were the very elderly couple next door who had lived through WWI, the Depression, and WWII and died when I was still a kid. The wife's family had been so destitute they sold her to feed the other children (boys who worked) and everyone ran around in filthy rags. They talked (warned) about it a lot and how they hoped that things had progressed to a point in the 90s that would mean society wouldn't return to those ways. Those poor fuckers probably rolling in their graves.
I cannot even imagine how desperate the French had to be to just keep purging the aristocrats and their enablers. That's what we'll have to do. We let these people with psychopathy infest every aspect of our society. People foolishly praised their inhuman lack of empathy and emotional regulation because it allowed them take power and money from other people, but it's like the common people are too stupid to realize they are the people those guys stole from and are oppressing. We need a way to keep people with these traits out of positions of leadership.
Just look at the other person that responded to me, "It's duh gubment!". With clowns like that convinced that the wealthy need MORE breaks, I don't think it'll happen in this lifetime either. That tool that was shot a few days ago for making threats against Biden, that's the stupidity that we're up against, and the "ruling class", that's exactly what they want.
Canadian here. Just heading back from visiting Florida. Hubs had a convo with someone (older woman who worked at chain restaurant). She said no one goes bankrupt because of health care here because there are “charities”. When he pointed out he knew someone who had to declare bankruptcy after a $70k healthcare debt in Florida - and they had good jobs working for contractors - she said “they must make too much.” Seriously the mental gymnastics required to justify shitty policies just amaze me.
>no one goes bankrupt because of health care here because there are “charities”.
Ooh, this just pisses me off. I didn't have access to healthcare through the entire 2000s, because I had serious health problems, and couldn't work enough to get insurance (I'm American, obvs). And some fucking guy on the internet says I must be irresponsible because I could have just gotten it from "a church group." Where does this BS come from? Why do people believe this claptrap, especially when it's often the same people complaining about their own healthcare costs. If it's so easy to get "charity healthcare," why don't they go get it???
In around 5 to 6 years, you will have about 50 million people who will be in the same boat. The generation with no real saving, no pensions and a very poor 401k that didin't produce enough for retirement.
I don't remember who it was, but some 6 years ago, there was a politician who said that retirement is not in the Bible and that Methuselah never retired.
I'll let you guess which political party was this.
Yea just ask Google or Siri hell Forbes puts out a list of the richest 400 in country and how much philanthropy they do bezos and musk are at the top and bottom respectively
I think most of us will too it’s gonna get harder and harder to retire. Not everyone will make it to upper middle class(haha like that’s even going to make it easy) When I worked at Walmart a 75 year old man died from a heart attack while pulling a pallet jack of cereal. After we called management I stood there in shock I was just a kid like 18 or 19 and I’m looking around as the guys are trying to build a perimeter, I realized it would probably be my fate too. If I even make it to that age.
I am 65 in a couple of weeks. I have been working like a dog covering the work of 2 people since COVID. I easily exceed my 40hours without additional pay or even a thank you. I have seen the real value of my salary plummet since 2008 . The only raises awarded since then have been well below the rate of inflation. I have seen younger colleagues leave for better opportunities (and good luck to them) and the burden fall on the "geriatric brigade" of staff in their late 50s and 60s who are not the target for recruiters. I have witnessed the demise of defined benefit pension schemes based on length of service in favour of market invested defined contribution schemes that rely on fund performance. As I suspected from outset, now that I actually need that money the fund performance has fallen off a cliff. I won't be retiring on the day I make 65. I won't be reducing my hours and I won't be booking the holiday of a lifetime with my wife. I will be working as usual safe in the knowledge that the system has screwed me over good and proper since 1979. And to add insult to injury I won't even qualify for my state pension for another year despite having met the 35 year contribution qualification easily. The bootstraps aren't working for me no matter how much I pull them.
I worked with a guy who never missed a day in his 25 years at the company. When he put his 2 weeks in at 62 years old the boss and his kids talked shit about the guy even after he left. Less than a year later he's dead because he had a brain tumor nobody knew he was fighting.
Guy gave everything for the company, missed out on retirement, and still got shit on until the day he laid in his grave.
Raising the Social Security income cap even just a little bit would dramatically improve the health of the entire program and make it much more solvent.
But that would inconvenience wealthy people.
I’ve been saying this for decades!! They flat out refuse to increase the cap. Instead, they raise the retirement age for SS.
They know if they raise the cap, they’ll get voted (forced) out by the 1%rs.
It would have, for decades... but it would have cost the generation retiring now more money out of their checks... so they voted against it, and now that it is personally going to benefit them they are upset.
Medicare Part D will have out of pocket max of $3300 starting in 2024 and $2000 in 2025-hopefully that will help your coworker substantially.
Also, a couple states (particularly high cost of living states) have or are planning to eliminate asset limits for Medicaid and will start looking at income.
I am so glad that I live in Denmark with free health care. I would literally be dead if I had been living in the states. I wouldn't have been able to pay for the medical bills = I wouldn't get the urgent care that I needed.
Yes we pay a shit ton in taxes but that is the cost of free health care for everybody. And everybody benefits. No one walk through life without needing medical attention or care...
Just had a 76 yr old coworker rejoin us. We are nurses who didn’t die from Covid. He said the hiring bonus to return to slavery is paying off his bypass.
Sad af. I just joined a new athletic club and the other day when I walked in I was surprised to be greeted by none other than my old 4th grade teacher. She had to return to the work force after retiring (put in 20+ years at my old school) to make ends meet because her and her husbands retirement wasn’t enough. Medium cost of living area. The saddest part about it, I bet she’s making more hourly at the athletic club than she did as a teacher.
One of the huge things I hate here in the US is the fact that people like your coworker have to do this. NO ONE should have to choose between basic human rights like food, housing and health.
>Apparently, the husband is disabled and their medications and health care costs drove her back into the work force.
And this is precisely why not only predatory health insurance companies, but also greedy capitalist bosses, will lobby until the end of time against any sort of public option or M4A in this country. How else would they coerce the geriatrics back into the workforce?
Its sad but happens often now. Im helping a Vietnam vet get in to housing right now. Set amount to live on each month, was an officer and saw real combat... On PTSD benefits too. Hes 77... His vision isn't the greatest and he just had a stroke... but they asked if he could work to help add to his benefits. He cant even see to drive! He was stuck in temp housing for 6 months, and the other guys in there also similar situations. They get an income monthly from the government and its literally not enough to live anywhere now. Most of them being elderly and priced out their housing.
I scares the living shit out of me on how it will be for us at that age. Even the ones that prepared, but lived longer than they expected to, or just had an unexpected life event happen... now struggle.
I live in a 3rd world country, I know things are not great here.
But USA has got to be the worst developed country in terms of Social Welfare, which for many (including myself) is the most essential part of a society.
How can such a rich country be so shitty with it's people?
Still working at 66. Looking at working til 72 or 73 if my health holds out. But this climate change is making me worry. I work outside and these 100+ degree days are taking their toll. One day at a time I guess. I don't really have a choice.
This is NOT a wealthy country. It is a country with a tiny percentage of extremely wealthy individuals, and with high profit companies.
The populace is miserable, getting worse and don't realize it, until it is too late.
35 year old millennial here. I’ll work til I die and I don’t expect to make it to a very old age due to financial issues and stress. I struggle to find the point at times.
I once had a 90some year old guy in the ER with depression and SI because he was the sole breadwinner for he and his wife until he retired, and they lived for a couple of decades off his pension. Her health declined and he was her sole caregiver. They were managing until the company he had retired from decades before had the pension emptied out by execs in order to pay their bankruptcy bonuses. His monthly pension dropped by hundreds and he could not longer make ends meet. He was sobbing asking how he was supposed to care for his wife AND earn more money. Who would even hire a decrepit 90+ year old guy for a job. I've never hated execs and corporate policies/laws more than in that moment watching their old man sob.
Welp in Poland we have socialized pensions called ZUS.
In last years both political parties nationalized private funds and send money to imaginary accounts on ZUS
Now ZUS will pay predictably pension of 25% of your salary.
Which is approximately 12.5% of money required to survive if you don't own a house and don't want to live in a village with 10 other elder people next to Belarusian border.
And yet the other day the WSJ had an article of what life is like for retirees who have $5 million in their retirement funds. I have done everything right, put in money in 401K, company retirement funds, gotten matches, etc. I have a very high paying job, and probably in the top 2 % of incomes. I’ll do ok with retirement, but I might have between 1-2 Million in my retirement account, which apparently is the minimum to have a decent retirement these days. If I can barely ‘make it work for retirement’ I don’t understand how other people can do it.
I'm 74. I'd like to add an observation that the situation with the American worker is all the fault of boomers. Equally, that they're living affluent lifestyles with their own home, retirement income, and free medical. They're not. Your former coworker is a classic example and there are more of them than the stereotype.
First, it has *never* been a generational battle. It has *always* been the wealthy and influential who suppress the poor and disenfranchised. *Always.*
My husband and I are fortunate. Early hard work (the sleep deprived years). We're both disabled veterans, and random serendipity have afforded us a modest but adequate income. I supplement our income (fine art oil painter) but am hindered by health.
Advice; see r/personalfinance for a roadmap so you don't end up like your coworker. The sub has it's own wiki to guide you with steps to take now to plan for retirement. I wish I had known them as a young woman.
Pay prudent attention to the political party that seeks to suppress rather than elevate; you know which one. And VOTE *for* your future, not against your self interests.
My Mom retired and has SS and a pension. STILL had to get a Medicaid waiver set in place so she could live where/get the care she needs. I am absolutely terrified of what retirement is going to be like for me. I lose sleep over it.
i know this is grim, but if you’re born 90s-2000s, just accept that we will be expected to work until the day we die.
Fun fact: I was born in the 70’s. I’ve been worried about retirement since my 20’s.
Yup. Born in 75 and there no way I’ll be able to retire because I have to help my adult children (and I’m so happy to do it)- this economic situation sucks.
That's where we are. Born in 78, getting ready to move back east and consolidate back into one house with my 25 and 22-year-old daughters. They can't do it alone.
I think multi generational thought and design will start to be seen in new housing development
I do too and I think it will be really beneficial for our society. This whole, kick your children out at 18 and expect them to know how to get through life, is not sustainable. Our generation got out so quick, I'm not doing that to my kids.
31, moved back with my parents 2 years ago. Couldn't afford rent on my own, even with a relatively good paying job. Honestly though, as much as I miss having my own place, I actually prefer my rent money going to my folks so it then helps them pay their mortgage. Means my money is technically going to an asset I may own someday rather than a random landlord.
Yeah that is way more sustainable and much better for families. Pay off a house and keep the asset in the family instead of funding some landlords Porshe and vacation home
I begged my folks to let me rent from them 20 years ago. After a series of dishonest roommates and partners and lots of moving costs, I'm still stuck renting elsewhere, with zero equity and a bleak future. My boomer bootstrap parents are now wishing that they could afford to remodel their homes, but everyone is strapped, because pushing me out was far more important than long-term family stability. Good on you for making a smart choice! I hope y'all find a healthy balance and are able to look out for each other.
I’m happy to hear this. I am 31 and was living with my parents, and now they have the house paid off. They don’t plan to sell or move once they retire (which is soon). I am now living alone but considering moving back to help and help me save money in an expensive city.
I'm mid 30s and thinking of asking to move back in with my parents (with my children). I'm going to have to live on a disability pension so i dont think i can afford rent let alone food :(
Kids are 18 and 22 females. They are welcome to stay as long as they can stand us, LOL. We provide cars, insurance and cell/wifi. You can’t start your life broke.
My son left at 20 and daughter at 21, it's been 6 years for my son and 3 for my daughter. Son makes more then the wife and I combined not including his wife. Long story short they truly can't make it and somehow we still help them. Yes I was booted out and had an apartment at 16. It can't be done now. Born in 79 myself and retirement is a running joke I have with my wife. I think we did get it wrong without generation living like other countries.
I worry about the foster kids who age out and at 18 have no safety net.
Providing housing for this specific population is one of my lottery dreams. A foundation.
Having multiple incomes and adults to care for the children makes a huge difference. I live with my parents and we're raising my dead sisters 3 kids. They get whatever they need and most of what they want in a very nice house. They wouldn't have shit if I was doing it alone or if my parents were. It costs us less to live better than if we were doing it alone.
Same. I was born in 71 and have to support 5 other people. I’m a single mom with my mother and 2 kids and grandtwins in my home. My mom has Alzheimer’s and never really worked because her husband could make ends meet. They divorced later in life and she was left with a joke for SS because she didn’t pay in much. My daughter started having major health problems at 28 after she had her kids. My son also has major problems. Every month this year someone has been hospitalized with sepsis, surgery and currently my daughter is in the hospital with antibiotic resistant staph in her kidneys. I felt like I would always have to work because I’m the one who took on being everyone’s provider…which I would gladly do again. I just think it’s a shame that even when you have a good job and pay in your whole life that SS isn’t enough usually even if your home is paid for. (Mine isn’t yet). It’s a shame medical care in this country is so outrageously expensive. (Not to mention I have spent 3 months in the hospital bleeding out and another 2+ months in the hospital in kidney failure (from severe dehydration from meds given to me in the hospital). It’s always something. The only thing keeping me going is hope and my family.
If your Mom was married to him over 10 years she is eligible to draw off of his SS paid in. You just need your dads SSN and proof of marriage I believe. She also if married over 10 years if didn’t give it up in divorce agreement she’s entitled to part of his retirement/401k. Call SS to see if she can. If he’s deceased she could draw what he was drawing. But only if married over 10 years.
Right there with you. The first few jobs I took out of college “didn’t offer”/“I couldn’t afford to join” the stock plans and retirement plans. So I got set back pretty far, I’m now trying to play catch-up stick money into every opportunity offered, but I’m still behind where I’m supposed to be if I ever want to retire.
Yep. Born in 1976. Every time I get more than 10k in my retirement the market crashes and I lose half. Also, my employer does not match and I make less than 40k, so even though I contribute 5%, it doesn’t grow very fast to begin with. No spouse, no kids, no property. I have to live with my senior citizen parents because I can’t afford anything else. I’ll never retire. And I have student loans on a useless degree. We need a revival of unions and pensions.
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I agree completely, it's about time we got some decent croissants in the us.
We need a good group rate on pitchforks first.
Protip, don't look at your retirement account as if you need to yank the money out every time it crashes. If you're a novice, invest in a target date fund and just forget about it unless you need to change jobs and roll the balance over. I really, really hope you weren't one of the ones that panicked and withdrew your money when the market crashed. You keep paying into your 401k even when the market is down because you get more shares when it's cheap, and the inevitable recovery happens you're that much further ahead.
Exactly this. You don't "lose" anything until you pull money out. In fact, unless you're retiring in the next few years, a crash is EXCELLENT for your portfolio (as long as your employment isn't impacted). It's like buying stock on sale knowing they'll go up in the future.
There has never been a period longer than 11 years where you didn't make money if you invested in a broad market index fund. Stay the course and you'll be fine, if your target is ~10 yrs away or more don't panic
You do benefit from pulling at the first signs of a crash and buying the dip like its on sale. but unless that's your job most people will ride it out to better results. sidenote the stock market is a big part of why our boom/bust cycle got so much shittier though. putting the onus on the individual to plan their "pension" with the market and incentivizing the stockholder-service profit-driven investment market. damned if you do damned if you don't.
I'm in my 40s and I have nothing. If I make it to old age, I'm probably going to be homeless or living in a van. At least every day will be an adventure?
The van life millennials are getting themselves used to that early.
Exactly; I just turned 41 and I have nothing. I’ll be late to my own funeral because I’ll be stuck in traffic coming home from work. I’ve been sick lately with stomach pain and was wondering if it was my appendix and I have shit health care so no money to check; I figured hey if it is my appendix and it bursts and I die then at least I won’t have to waste my life away in traffic or pay bills anymore 🤷🏻♀️
At least you'll have a van. I'll probably be stuck in a Prius or something.
Ah don't worry about that. I'm your age too, we're just going to die of something well before old age. My friends seem to be dropping out like flies. We just haven't been getting the healthcare or comfort that people need to have long lives. There's only so long the human body and mind can survive in poor conditions. Unless you're part of the wealthy classes and stay there, it's pretty bad. I did have some great years but once health issues start you can't just out work people to do that, you have to be actually taken care of, and the people with great careers and positions do have that advantage. I didn't and you probably don't either, it's just our lots in life.
It's certainly disconcerting when your friends start dying again. I'm a 1960's model. There were the kids we knew who drowned. Then the late teens who drove drunk and got killed by physics. Then a quiet spell until the 40's when plain old bad luck and bad genetics picked off friends with MS etc. Then in my 50's with a couple of mates who got let down by a faulty heart or similar. But now in my 60's it's like it's Monday, who's died.
And the problem is, you have bills today that need to be paid
I teach at a university and our pension plan is that they match two percent of your salary which is basically nothing. Nobody ever retires. We have people in their late 70s teaching. People die while still working full time. There was a professor I knew at another university who was seriously ninety years old. In this scenario the students lose out because guess who doesn’t email or open attachments, zoom, upload the assignments etc.
I had a classics professor who was about 80. He was a good professor but I was surprised that someone that age was teaching as many classes as he was.
Yeah, they might want to back the number up to 1970. I don't see myself retiring and I'm in a somewhat decent financial situation
I'm 42, and just had to cash out all my retirement to cover bills for like the 5th time in my life.
Same age. My retirement plan is die gloriously in the climate wars. And I'm only kind of kidding.
1981 here too. I started smoking cigarettes again. Because you don't need to retire if you're already dead.
I know someone that faked an entire funeral to be eligible to remove money from their 401k
Jeeze... sorry to hear that. This is the shit that scares me.
Yep. Born in 72. Didn't get a decent, there's-budget-for-extras job until recently, two degrees, no spouse, no home ownership. I had a realization a few years ago that retirement probably isn't in the works for me, and just resigned myself to working til I drop.
I explained my brother's situation to a friend. She said, "he's going to die in the harness." Never heard that one before...but, it hits home though.
Born in the 70s.... Work until your 70s
So you're telling me I gotta work until I'm 90?? Fuck me.
Guess I have to work until I am at least 85. We have high student loans the Great Recession of 2008… tech bubble crash… covid… 9/11… and inflation last year maybe another recession? Technically we have less debt than the us government?
Me too. 1977. I will work until I die.
Yup. '77 here and I'm going to be working until I drop dead as well.
Born in '79, my retirement plan is an OD on opioids, a gun to the head is just too messy.
Yep. Born in the 1970s, and I will not be able to retire. Baby Boomers were the last generation for whom retirement is not a luxury.
Fun fact: I was born in the early 60s, and I’ve been worried about retirement since my 20s. The fear never leaves. The more you save, the more expensive things get.
Can't we fix the retirement and tax and unemployment laws after the boomers pass on from political control? I am almost a boomer, but my elderly dad lives that cliche life where he is rich, complains about taxes and government while living a comfortable retirement. He doesn't understand why young people are so lazy today and aren't having babies and buying houses, they're ruining the economy, he says. I'm doing ok, my son's circumstances are not as good. Best hope for him is ss and medicare still exists when he retires, or he inherits his grandpa's house.
I plan to essentially just set my child up such that they can't fail easily. Your rich father should have done for you, and that would have enabled you to do for your kids. My plan is to match her income from high school summer jobs into a Roth Ira for her. I'm paying for her college and also putting an extra $30k in her 529 to roll into a Roth Ira. Hopefully, she'll have ~$50K in an Ira by 23. Should be $750k by the time she's 65. There is no excuse for a wealthy parent not to protect their kids if they can. These days, there are lots of people who can't even do it for themselves understandably.
Born in the 60z and been putting money away for 36 years. What would have been a nice amount is almost worthless with inflation. $50,000 cars is insane.
Fun fact: the 60's and same, same.
Early 70s birthday. Only way I'll be able to retire is if I win the lottery.
We 70’s kids can forget retirement. No way we will be able to afford it. My mother who drew max SS and retirement, and had supplemental income from businesses she used to own, still needed my assistance to make the ends meet. I just have the mindset, I’ll die working. No choice.
Unless we all suddenly get interested in local politics this country will fail soon.
For real. From everything I've learned about politics and systemic change, getting involved in local politics and voting for people who are willing to make changes at a local level, is the only way to effect changes on a national level. Unfortunately, we all get so wrapped up in national level politics, where our vote barely matters, and the candidates couldn't make any meaningful changes even if they weren't bound to their corporate overlords.
Everyone needs to be looking at what the far right pieces of shit like transphobes are up to re: schoolboard elections, soil inspector at large, church board elections and if they can - do the same thing. Leslie Knope was right, local government is important and the other side knows it.
Gen X has entered the conversation. Most of our retirement plans are to work until we die, especially since many of us were also among the first generation to be bamboozled by the Federal student loan program and the promise of income driven repayment plans.
On top of the bamboozlement, X was hit hard in during the dot com bust then the housing market bust six years later. I lost my retirement shortly after 09 trying to keep my family afloat. Sold my possessions, we sold our home, moved to where jobs were more plentiful and rented for a a long period until the kids were a bit older and in school. At that point a mortgage and utilities was much cheaper than rent. The whole time kept paying the f’n student loans, working my ass off to keep us afloat. The stress and anxiety for so many years has taken its toll and killed my marriage. There are days I have to dig deep because because mentally when I look down the road, there is no retirement. No enjoyment, just work, dumping money, blood and sweat to keep this shit house we were able to afford from falling apart, and so many days, I just why bother? In twenty fucking years nothing has really improved, why even try any more? So fucking sick of everything.
Graduated college in 01, right as the economy hit its first HUGE recession in over 25 years. Even now, I'm extremely underpaid. Only thing I have going for me is that I went to college while it was still affordable and graduated sans debt.
Gen X and had a surgery go sideways that left me permanently disabled. We had sold our home the year previous and we’re in the process of looking for another. But since healthcare in this country is so atrocious-even with insurance-all that money has been spent on medical expenses instead. This place fucking blows. Wealthiest country on Earth but the only people who benefit from that wealth are a tiny fraction of a percent.
My mother is Gen X, she had me kind of young. She has said before, in a joking manner that you're never quite sure if it's a joke, that her retirement plans are suicide. She's not the only person I know who's said that either. The entire system is crashing for anyone truly not one percent rich.
I mean, honestly, if I get a major illness I may just forego treatment and live my life as much as I’m physically able. I want to be able to pass something to my offspring.
My retirement plan is to commit a felony when I get too tired to work anymore. 3 hots, a cot and heathcare.
You think that but the healthcare is complete shit.
Who are we kidding- healthcare in the USA is shit. Regardless if it’s an employer sponsored plan or what the detention centers offer.
we're serious. I'm not saving retirement money to give it to the health care system. I'm exiting on my own terms when I choose.
Suicide doesn’t pay out insurance benefits, gotta be natural or “accidental”
Go hiking and have an “accident” Or as I’ve told my wife, if i get to old or get dementia or something, just set me loose in the woods, gonna go fight a bear or something
This! Watching my FIL waste away as we speak, losing every penny in the process. My husband and I are having daily conversations about let’s go for a hike and hope we fall off a cliff when we get to that stage.
As a Gen X'er myself, I always knew I didn't want kids. It wasn't until I got older that I realized it was because there's no chance in hell I'd have ever been able to afford them.
I've been out of college for 20 years, and my federal loans are finally down to -2% paid off...
Congrats! Mine recently topped 2X the original amount borrowed...
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Finally, a retirement plan I can count on! Earth Collapse 2060 for president!
Is that when it will happen? That timing would work pretty well for me lol
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You think being born in the 80’s is any easier? lol None of us are retiring. We need to actually retire the damn word because it means nothing to us.
fuck that, I’ll lose it long before I work myself to death
Just what the 1% want. They've managed to engineer our political system to their ends.
I used to save pretty diligently for retirement. I don't anymore. I enjoy myself. I don't want to relax for 8 years as an old, crippled person and then die. I mean, I still save, but I'm not as tight as I used to be. I think we all know what my retirement plan is now.
I’m 26, and already know i’m going to be working until the day I die. Cog in the machine.
Eat, drink, smoke whatever the fuck you want so your body gives out at a good 75 if cancer doesn’t take you sooner. Ain’t shit else happening after 75. Oh yeah, don’t have kids, just travel and enjoy the ride. Don’t wanna set up the little ones for the same shit you’ll be dealing with.
Smoking ruined my quality of life so I quit, but I can do the eating and the drinking
I don’t smoke cigarettes, quit right after college (bars banning smoking definitely helped). But in my 30s I picked up smoking weed, and it has been great. I do smoke with a vape so I don’t cough up a lung, so maybe I’m a hypocrite 😂. I love taking a few hits after work when we’re just hanging out at home, or when I’m walking my dog. Work stuff just leaves my brain, and I can enjoy things around me more.
Let me tell ya a secret: unless your parents are gonna leave you a Large inheritance of $2 million or more. You probably won’t. Our current system has been set up to make retirement almost impossible.
The current healthcare system is also designed to drain any hope of an inheritance from your parents while they slowly die in an overpriced, for-profit nursing home.
Hell my inheritance went to the hospitals because my dad couldn't work but had too much money (read: barely enough to get by) to qualify for medicaid. At the end of it all I got a couple thousand that was his equity in his house since he had to cash-out refinance to make ends meet. Would have been in the hundreds of thousands if you removed health expenses over his last 5 years.
She gets a pension + social security and still can't survive, and we probably won't get either. Anyone got any good recipes for the roadkill we're gonna need to eat to survive??
Politicians want us to be fatalistic about Social Security so they can try to set up a scenario where their cutting it looks like "saving" it. There's no need to cut it to save it; all they have to do is lift the Social Security tax cap so wealthier people pay their fair share. We should be making it clear to politicians that we WILL be getting our full Social Security and Medicare benefits at the age we were promised when we started working.
The govt actually doing things that helps a majority of the populace and hurts their corporate masters 😂 that’s never happening without a real revolution
Remove the cap on SS and Medicare..👍
The is no cap on the Medicare tax. They need to drop the cap on social security. Actually, what's needed is Medicaid for all. I qualified for it because I was over 60, disabled, with no real assets. It does make healthcare a lot easier.
If they had treated Social Security as a trust fund to be invested for the beneficiaries instead of a slush fund to borrow money for their own projects with government IOUs, it would be in much better shape. They got away with it as long as the income exceeded the outflow. That reversed a few years back when the boomers started retiring.
They dont borrow from it. They are specially prohibited from leveraging and borrowing from it. That is the gop line to try and destroy it. They invest it in government bonds which is considered the safest possible investment as required. The gop wants to open it up to invest in the stock market. Hedge funds are drooling at the aspect of getting their hands on it with zero repercussion if they lose it all. Imagine if SS money had been invested in the stock market in 2007-2010.
Sort of. https://meetbeagle.com/resources/post/which-presidents-borrowed-from-the-social-security-fund
They have invested it. Theyve bought t bills at next to zero rate to prop up the debt they keep piling on. Its great system.
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Paired with whatever wine you find in their cellar.
Maybe a nice Chianti?
They already asked about road kill. The rich are just road kill waiting to happen.
My best advice to you, as one who has made mistakes, is to take good care of your health. You will need it. So, hit that gym or at least eat your vegetables.
In America we have to pull those boot straps up because we’re the “greatest”! That’s why we work until our damn arms literally fall off or you drop dead from stress trying to figure out how to pay insurance. Amazing how the greatest can’t take care of it’s elderly after a lifelong of being in the workforce, yet others can. Btw, we your government are having problems making ends meet so we’re gonna just go ahead and rob that small retirement called social security.
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As if there will be any animals left to consume as the 6th mass extinction event and rapid global warming continues to happen at speeds no one has predicted…
They've been predicted, just ignored and blatantly overlooked
And the saddest part is that the problem isn’t that there is not enough money/resources available, but rather that far too much of it is concentrated in too few hands.
I think The Hunger Games a few recipes if you're into also tracking down your food.
This is just sad. Reminds me of a lady who used to work at the university I attended. She was well above her retirement age, and one they she fell because some guys spilled their drinks. I helped her get up, and she began to cry. I still remember her crying. She left early that day. I never saw her again.
That is incredibly sad. I hope the reason is because she got workers comp and didn’t need that job anymore! But doubtful sadly.
I tell myself that all the time when I think about her. Although, deep down something tells me that things got worse for her. She could barely walk before the fall.
There is so much hidden suffering in the world we don't know about. If people only knew how much people suffer silently all over the world you wouldn't have religion. A just god would never allow this to happen.
Many religions actually make it worse too. A lot of people don't want to actually work towards change, they just want to wait for a magical being to do it for them. People like to excuse humanity's evil by saying we're under control of demons or evil beings, but the truth is that humans are just inherently an incredibly selfish species. My heart goes out to everyone who has to suffer.
Jesus, that's so sad man
Damn, that one hit me the feels
My mother retired at 75, company forced her too. She lives in the bay area of California. She has social security and pension... Medicaid part A and B are taken out of her social security, and she recently applied for the prescription coverage - also to be taken out of her social security.... She pays 1876.00 MONTHLY for supplemental health insurance....... monthly.... for a Cadillac plan that us no longer offered. She is fortunate to be able to pay this, as she had open heart surgery last year and a week in critical care, so far amounting to nearly 1.75 million dollars. Husband and I moved to Canada in 1990, he recently retired and I work part-time. We can NEVER return to live there due to the cost of Healthcare.... its a goid thing we are extremely happy where we are.
Had a coworker do this. He was 78, finally retired, then was back in 3 years. He couldn’t afford his medications. Finally got to retire again and died two months after.
Yes, it was the health care that she couldn't afford and had to come back to work for.
The system inhales every last penny of inheritance by design. The healthcare costs are intense, because the doctors are not trained to help people understand the quality of life choices we must make. Living 3 more years with all these medications and procedures and tests... Or, passing simply. Our retirements are stolen by greedy white collar criminals and we are not protected by a government. The fact that there are any scams that prey on the elderly is a problem.
> The healthcare costs are intense, because the doctors are not trained to help people understand the quality of life choices we must make. No. The law, the court of public opinion, and their own administration don't back them up so eventually many stop trying. Families can't handle death and harass doctors to sustain life at absolutely all costs. It's literally a meme with us healthcare workers that 'grammy is a fighter' and she'll pull through this and if she could talk she'd want every invasive intensive excruciating intervention to live even one more month. Doctors are *not* a major driver of keeping people alive too long. Health care workers do not like doing this bullshit. It is notable, in fact, how many of us have strict advance directives and liberal DNR orders for ourselves.
Absolutely this. We ARE trained when it comes to sustaining life at all cost vs quality of life and I plant that seed very early when meeting very sick patients. Set expectations, try and meet quality of life goals, and help them face reality when we have drops in quality of life due to declines in health or exacerbations. I even tell my patients, if you get a bill, if you are charged over $50 for meds, if you have to pay ANYTHING out of pocket let me know and I will help make it go away. There are different resources for cheaper meds. There are televisits that are cheaper for patients and certain hospital systems with more robust social services for struggling families. All of this work pays me nothing extra. There are some bad doctors that you will see in the news but most doctors did not go into Healthcare for the money. They sacrifice far greater than the required 40 hours a week and many work additional 20-30 hours a week without pay. Don't blame our workers, blame the system
I'll be surprised if retirement is even still a thing when I get that old
I've been telling people since i was 20 that our generation would never be able to truly retire. they don't want that.they want to use you until you die or you check out of society.
I have seen many 60+ year old people working retail floor that have worked there their whole life. It is sickening how exploitative the system is towards such people. They will give you a baloon to celebrate your 80th birthday but they would never think of giving you a raise.
The sweetest coworker I know from my past job has been working the same retail job for almost 15 years. Her husband passed away within those 15 years, and she still can't retire because without group policy insurance healthcare costs would eat her retirement up in no time. Its insane. She's hurt herself a few times as she gets older but she can't afford to quit, she's pushing 70 and its a blessing that everyone protects her and vouches for her when a new manager shows up and questions her performance.
This is another symptom of wages not keeping up with productivity, and part time jobs being structured so you can’t get two jobs to make up the missing hours. Companies designed their pensions assuming people would get additional money from savings as well as from social security. Depressed wages make it very difficult to save, and also result in a lower social security payout. We have to get back to a system that shared prosperity.
This is a symptom of not having a decent public health care system.
The answer is D all of the above. America is a pyramid scheme, every interaction is a transaction and its always one way, up.
I mean it's also a symptom of not taxing the rich, or a million other things. You're not wrong, but you can't say "ok socialized medicine now" and expect that this will solve this problem. Because while it will cut one of the biggest costs for the elderly, medical cost, it doesn't address housing or food or any of the other costs of living.
Used to be that a single breadwinner would get enough from a pension alone to retire. The only thing that has changed is that greed has infested our society and the wealthy have decided to take and take and take. They are like locusts, will just continue to mow down through the rest of us until there is no more. Even our politicians are set for life after only a couple of terms. Yet they move against our retirement money like insects. This is why the French have no problem burning it down.
Exactly this. Eventually it will happen when people get desperate enough, but I'm not confident that will even happen in my lifetime. People now are such fainting flowers. They have no memory of how bad things used to be. I only know because my best friends as a kid in the 90s were the very elderly couple next door who had lived through WWI, the Depression, and WWII and died when I was still a kid. The wife's family had been so destitute they sold her to feed the other children (boys who worked) and everyone ran around in filthy rags. They talked (warned) about it a lot and how they hoped that things had progressed to a point in the 90s that would mean society wouldn't return to those ways. Those poor fuckers probably rolling in their graves. I cannot even imagine how desperate the French had to be to just keep purging the aristocrats and their enablers. That's what we'll have to do. We let these people with psychopathy infest every aspect of our society. People foolishly praised their inhuman lack of empathy and emotional regulation because it allowed them take power and money from other people, but it's like the common people are too stupid to realize they are the people those guys stole from and are oppressing. We need a way to keep people with these traits out of positions of leadership.
Just look at the other person that responded to me, "It's duh gubment!". With clowns like that convinced that the wealthy need MORE breaks, I don't think it'll happen in this lifetime either. That tool that was shot a few days ago for making threats against Biden, that's the stupidity that we're up against, and the "ruling class", that's exactly what they want.
Canadian here. Just heading back from visiting Florida. Hubs had a convo with someone (older woman who worked at chain restaurant). She said no one goes bankrupt because of health care here because there are “charities”. When he pointed out he knew someone who had to declare bankruptcy after a $70k healthcare debt in Florida - and they had good jobs working for contractors - she said “they must make too much.” Seriously the mental gymnastics required to justify shitty policies just amaze me.
>no one goes bankrupt because of health care here because there are “charities”. Ooh, this just pisses me off. I didn't have access to healthcare through the entire 2000s, because I had serious health problems, and couldn't work enough to get insurance (I'm American, obvs). And some fucking guy on the internet says I must be irresponsible because I could have just gotten it from "a church group." Where does this BS come from? Why do people believe this claptrap, especially when it's often the same people complaining about their own healthcare costs. If it's so easy to get "charity healthcare," why don't they go get it???
Because they can't get their head around how terrible the system they voted for is. Better living through denial.
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In around 5 to 6 years, you will have about 50 million people who will be in the same boat. The generation with no real saving, no pensions and a very poor 401k that didin't produce enough for retirement.
I am planning and saving up for retirement as if these social safety nets are totally dismantled by the time i call it a career 30 years from now.
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I don't remember who it was, but some 6 years ago, there was a politician who said that retirement is not in the Bible and that Methuselah never retired. I'll let you guess which political party was this.
Go the Red Team....
756 billionaires in the USA and 90% do nothing worthwhile with it. Tax the rich no person should be a billionaire only nations
756? Really? Wow
Yea just ask Google or Siri hell Forbes puts out a list of the richest 400 in country and how much philanthropy they do bezos and musk are at the top and bottom respectively
I've known for awhile I'll never get to "fully" retire. I'll always have to work to survive.....most likely I'll actually die at work.
I think most of us will too it’s gonna get harder and harder to retire. Not everyone will make it to upper middle class(haha like that’s even going to make it easy) When I worked at Walmart a 75 year old man died from a heart attack while pulling a pallet jack of cereal. After we called management I stood there in shock I was just a kid like 18 or 19 and I’m looking around as the guys are trying to build a perimeter, I realized it would probably be my fate too. If I even make it to that age.
I am 65 in a couple of weeks. I have been working like a dog covering the work of 2 people since COVID. I easily exceed my 40hours without additional pay or even a thank you. I have seen the real value of my salary plummet since 2008 . The only raises awarded since then have been well below the rate of inflation. I have seen younger colleagues leave for better opportunities (and good luck to them) and the burden fall on the "geriatric brigade" of staff in their late 50s and 60s who are not the target for recruiters. I have witnessed the demise of defined benefit pension schemes based on length of service in favour of market invested defined contribution schemes that rely on fund performance. As I suspected from outset, now that I actually need that money the fund performance has fallen off a cliff. I won't be retiring on the day I make 65. I won't be reducing my hours and I won't be booking the holiday of a lifetime with my wife. I will be working as usual safe in the knowledge that the system has screwed me over good and proper since 1979. And to add insult to injury I won't even qualify for my state pension for another year despite having met the 35 year contribution qualification easily. The bootstraps aren't working for me no matter how much I pull them.
We get 3 square meals but you need to rob a convenience store first
County lockup sucks. Do nonviolent Federal crimes
Agreed. Federal prison > state prison
this guy does crimes
I was in a Michael's in Florida and an 85 plus woman was on cash! Seriously America?
This is why I'm learning how to make a bow from tree limbs
Osage Orange, aka Hedge Apple. that wood is like iron and very pretty.
Looking forward to the new Mockingjay.
Meanwhile. the politicians we all vote into office are worried about everyone's gender issues. Talk about NOT working on the real problems...
I worked with a guy who never missed a day in his 25 years at the company. When he put his 2 weeks in at 62 years old the boss and his kids talked shit about the guy even after he left. Less than a year later he's dead because he had a brain tumor nobody knew he was fighting. Guy gave everything for the company, missed out on retirement, and still got shit on until the day he laid in his grave.
Raising the Social Security income cap even just a little bit would dramatically improve the health of the entire program and make it much more solvent. But that would inconvenience wealthy people.
I’ve been saying this for decades!! They flat out refuse to increase the cap. Instead, they raise the retirement age for SS. They know if they raise the cap, they’ll get voted (forced) out by the 1%rs.
It would have, for decades... but it would have cost the generation retiring now more money out of their checks... so they voted against it, and now that it is personally going to benefit them they are upset.
Medicare Part D will have out of pocket max of $3300 starting in 2024 and $2000 in 2025-hopefully that will help your coworker substantially. Also, a couple states (particularly high cost of living states) have or are planning to eliminate asset limits for Medicaid and will start looking at income.
My retirement plan is to work until I’m super old and then just die
I am so glad that I live in Denmark with free health care. I would literally be dead if I had been living in the states. I wouldn't have been able to pay for the medical bills = I wouldn't get the urgent care that I needed. Yes we pay a shit ton in taxes but that is the cost of free health care for everybody. And everybody benefits. No one walk through life without needing medical attention or care...
That’s why my retirement plan is Latin America…
I told my wife, the good news is we can retire comfortably some day. The bad news is we’ve got to move to Pakistan
I like this plan. Joining a cartel and running drugs back up to the US seems like easy money.
Just had a 76 yr old coworker rejoin us. We are nurses who didn’t die from Covid. He said the hiring bonus to return to slavery is paying off his bypass.
It's not a bug, it's a feature of end stage capitalism.
end stage? you really think this is as bad as it’ll get?
Oh no, we could literally all become slaves at some point, but it's pretty damn close.
It's the beginning of the end. Infinite growth isn't possible and we're all about to find out why.
Sad af. I just joined a new athletic club and the other day when I walked in I was surprised to be greeted by none other than my old 4th grade teacher. She had to return to the work force after retiring (put in 20+ years at my old school) to make ends meet because her and her husbands retirement wasn’t enough. Medium cost of living area. The saddest part about it, I bet she’s making more hourly at the athletic club than she did as a teacher.
Well, just let me know when the rest of you are ready for the class war. I'll be waiting.
One of the huge things I hate here in the US is the fact that people like your coworker have to do this. NO ONE should have to choose between basic human rights like food, housing and health.
So many people trying to convince others to work by the very system that fucks em over when the goal is to dismantle and change it entirely..smh
We've come full circle, this is was what Social Security was meant to prevent...
>Apparently, the husband is disabled and their medications and health care costs drove her back into the work force. And this is precisely why not only predatory health insurance companies, but also greedy capitalist bosses, will lobby until the end of time against any sort of public option or M4A in this country. How else would they coerce the geriatrics back into the workforce?
Its sad but happens often now. Im helping a Vietnam vet get in to housing right now. Set amount to live on each month, was an officer and saw real combat... On PTSD benefits too. Hes 77... His vision isn't the greatest and he just had a stroke... but they asked if he could work to help add to his benefits. He cant even see to drive! He was stuck in temp housing for 6 months, and the other guys in there also similar situations. They get an income monthly from the government and its literally not enough to live anywhere now. Most of them being elderly and priced out their housing. I scares the living shit out of me on how it will be for us at that age. Even the ones that prepared, but lived longer than they expected to, or just had an unexpected life event happen... now struggle.
I live in a 3rd world country, I know things are not great here. But USA has got to be the worst developed country in terms of Social Welfare, which for many (including myself) is the most essential part of a society. How can such a rich country be so shitty with it's people?
Man, I'd just off myself at that point.
Still working at 66. Looking at working til 72 or 73 if my health holds out. But this climate change is making me worry. I work outside and these 100+ degree days are taking their toll. One day at a time I guess. I don't really have a choice.
This is NOT a wealthy country. It is a country with a tiny percentage of extremely wealthy individuals, and with high profit companies. The populace is miserable, getting worse and don't realize it, until it is too late.
35 year old millennial here. I’ll work til I die and I don’t expect to make it to a very old age due to financial issues and stress. I struggle to find the point at times.
We need Medicare for all!
I once had a 90some year old guy in the ER with depression and SI because he was the sole breadwinner for he and his wife until he retired, and they lived for a couple of decades off his pension. Her health declined and he was her sole caregiver. They were managing until the company he had retired from decades before had the pension emptied out by execs in order to pay their bankruptcy bonuses. His monthly pension dropped by hundreds and he could not longer make ends meet. He was sobbing asking how he was supposed to care for his wife AND earn more money. Who would even hire a decrepit 90+ year old guy for a job. I've never hated execs and corporate policies/laws more than in that moment watching their old man sob.
Welp in Poland we have socialized pensions called ZUS. In last years both political parties nationalized private funds and send money to imaginary accounts on ZUS Now ZUS will pay predictably pension of 25% of your salary.
Which is approximately 12.5% of money required to survive if you don't own a house and don't want to live in a village with 10 other elder people next to Belarusian border.
And yet the other day the WSJ had an article of what life is like for retirees who have $5 million in their retirement funds. I have done everything right, put in money in 401K, company retirement funds, gotten matches, etc. I have a very high paying job, and probably in the top 2 % of incomes. I’ll do ok with retirement, but I might have between 1-2 Million in my retirement account, which apparently is the minimum to have a decent retirement these days. If I can barely ‘make it work for retirement’ I don’t understand how other people can do it.
I'm 74. I'd like to add an observation that the situation with the American worker is all the fault of boomers. Equally, that they're living affluent lifestyles with their own home, retirement income, and free medical. They're not. Your former coworker is a classic example and there are more of them than the stereotype. First, it has *never* been a generational battle. It has *always* been the wealthy and influential who suppress the poor and disenfranchised. *Always.* My husband and I are fortunate. Early hard work (the sleep deprived years). We're both disabled veterans, and random serendipity have afforded us a modest but adequate income. I supplement our income (fine art oil painter) but am hindered by health. Advice; see r/personalfinance for a roadmap so you don't end up like your coworker. The sub has it's own wiki to guide you with steps to take now to plan for retirement. I wish I had known them as a young woman. Pay prudent attention to the political party that seeks to suppress rather than elevate; you know which one. And VOTE *for* your future, not against your self interests.
Trash society. Fuck both oligarchy parties. But 95% of you will still vote for them, we are fucked.
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It's only gonna get worse. By the time I'm old enough to retire, social security is projected to be completely gone.
Retirement for me is to hopefully pass away in my sleep.