Nice retirement for a sweet, humble, smart Wal Mart couple

[Zander]

Just minutes ago was talking with a lady who has a daughter in college. Kid has worked part-time since she was big enough to get neighbors to "hire" her for little gardening jobs and once of legal age, worked summers through high school. She accumulated enough to cover the most of the first couple of years of college.

Now she's constantly being barraged by offers of easy-to-get BIG student loans.

She doesn't want any and makes no secret of it but there are a hell of a lot of people and "official" college "authorities" really pressuring.

And that I call BULLSHIT!

Oughta be criminal punishment for people who push young adults into taking easy money and at least jail time for those who do pimp for student loans without painting the full picture of a lifetime in servitude.

Colleges go way aboard pushing their financial aid which for most students is a college loan. These loans will pay all your college expenses, tuition, books, room and board and if you work it right you can get some spending money out of it. There's no need to work. However, unless you're going into a high demand field and make good grades, you're pretty well screwed when you graduate. You will have a whopper of a loan that will be with you for years. You can't even escape from it by declaring bankruptcy. The big problem for society is that these loans encourage people to go to college that simply do have what it takes. It drives up the cost of college and lowers the quality of the education.

I agree.

 

[Ravi]

so this couple both began working at walmart at 46 yrs old....and they had nothing at all saved and no retirement portfolio until they both began working at walmart at 46 years old????

I'm sorry but i don't care HOW FRUGAL they were, they could not live off of $6 an hour 17 years ago, even in the cheapest region and save and make the kind of money they made in their retirement fund in that short of a time....your restricted on company matches and restricted on how much you can invest in to your 401k etc etc etc.....it's gotten better over the 17 years granted but that has been fairly recent if memory serves.

My BET is that this couple worked their asses off at some sort of professional job that paid better and they saved as much as they could, then when they were approaching 50 they both probably said, screw it, screw the stress, we have saved enough...let's go get unstressful jobs and go and travel and camp and go hiking whenever they wanted.

that's what the hubby and I did....

When we were in our mid 40's we both decided that we would semi retire and quit our very high stress 50 to 60 hour a week high level jobs.... we had enough in retirement savings, we had enough to pay cash for a new home and we owned our cars with no payments....we sold the house, moved to Maine, paid cash for the new home and I stopped working altogether and Matthew took a menial, no nothing job that had health insurance coverage for the two of us....

so in a sense, we are both retired, even though Matt is working almost full time, it's a nothing type of job and pays little, but does pick up a good deal of the health care coverage for us and we get to do whatever we want, and he is doubling down on his 401k now....

It works for us.....no more vacations to Hawaii or the Carribean or Mexico or Puerto Rico etc etc etc 3 times a year anymore, we haven't bought new cars in a while etc...but it works for us....its what we want.

And I would bet, this couple did the same.....

I bet they rolled their retirement investment portfolio that they must have had from the first 29 years that they worked, over in to their Walmart 401k and this is why it is so large in 17 years.... otherwise, I honestly see it as impossible, even with walmart stock going up, even with the crashes where they could benefit from buying more, ETC ETC. Remember, it was said that they made all of this money in their 401k only while at walmart, and that is what I am saying is impossible, UNLESS they transferred money in to the account from previous 401 k's etc 17 years ago....

Sure, it could be they lived with a family member for free, it could be their cars were bought for them by family or someone or it could be they drove 20 year old cars, but even with that frugalness, it is still impossible to get a 401k that large in such a short time period.

Even if they maxed out their 401k caps in the beginning.... they only could put $1000 a year or so in it with their sales clerk salaries so low when they first started.

Bingo. I wonder how many would advise their kids to work just 17 years at Walmart and be set for life

 

[Andylusion]

Very hard to believe that these people couldhave that amount of money invested in their 401 k's on Walmart salaries for such a short time period....but TIMING is everything I would suppose?

17 years ago, they were just beginning with their 401k's in the stock market so when 9/11 came around and the stock market fell to new lows that were a shock to everyone with any kind of retirement investment and were nearing retirement, this couple was NOT affected, and they benefited from the rise in the stock market after it.... don't know how they made it through the 2008 CRASH and burn so well, with such a short time to recover from it..

I would love to know what they were invested in and how they could start at ZERO dollars saved and get it to that much money in just 17 years on MEASLY Walmart salaries for their sales clerks and going through 2 major crashes?

Magical thinking, prolly.

Ravi doesn't like this example, prolly. Regular people being smart, putting money away, taking care of themselves 'n stuff.

Let's fire up my financial software.

If, between two people and 401K matching funds, you put away $1200 a month for 17 years at an 8% compounded growth rate, you end up with $525,885.03.

Nothing magical about that.

.

How could they put away $1200 a month for 17 years if they were only making $900 gross, for each a month and at the time you could only put in 10% of your income in to 401k's with a Walmart match of only 50% of the 10%?


I think this couple must have rolled a, or several, previous 401ks in to their Walmart 401k from the previous decade(s) they worked or IRA's in to their 401k at Walmart or something like that...and you were just unaware of this....because there is NO WAY POSSIBLE that 2 Walmart Sales clerks could save that kind of money, even with good investments, in their 401k's on Walmart Sales clerk salaries, in just 17 years.

How do you figure they were just making $900 gross? Where did I say that?

How do you know they were not investing (at least partially) in Wal Mart stock, which went from about $19 to about $84 during that time frame?

I think you're just looking to discredit the story. Choose not to believe it if you wish. Choose to believe that all Wal Mart employees are victims if you wish.

.

Well, minimum wage was about $6 an hour 17 years ago, or maybe it was around $5 an hour 17 years ago....? I used $6.00 for my estimate. Walmart hires sales clerks at minimum wage and works their full time employees 35 to 38 hours a week, I used 36 hours.... That brings their gross salary of $928 a month for each of them, which federal, state, income taxes and social security and medicare taxes are then taken out, plus whatever they paid as their share for health care and dental.....

It could be as you said that the little they did have to invest, they invested it in Walmart Stock, I had not thought of that....

That's not what I know of people who worked there. First you are assuming they started off at minimum wage.

Minimum wage was $5.15 when they started.

Today minimum wage is $7.25, and a cashier will earn upwards of $12, according to self-reported wages on Glassdoor.com.

Minimum wage is usually reserved for bran new employees, and part-time employees.

The idea that full-time employees do not work a full 40-hours, is a relatively new occurrence with health care mandates by the government, that require companies to buy expensive health care plans for workers who work a certain number of hours.

It is unlikely that back in the 90s, Walmart was cutting people's hours, because there would be no benefit to doing so, like there is today.

Doing department management work, is a natural step up from a cashier position, one they likely would have gotten after 17 years working there. And he did say they did some low level management work. You can earn 20/hr doing department management work today.

So I highly doubt your $6 an hour for 36 hours, is even remotely close. At 9/hr 40 hours, would be $19K a year, times two people, would be $37.5K a year.

Now Walmart has two retirement bonuses. Lot of people don't know this, but if you purchase Walmart stock, Walmart matches 15% on the first $1,800 of stock purchase.

So if you invest $1,800, you get $2,070 worth of Walmart stock.

Additionally, Walmart matches 6% into their 401K.

If they place 15% of their income into retirement. $9 X 40 $360 X 4 weeks $1440 X 15% $216 + 6% match = $302 times two people. That's $604 a month.

$604 a month in a good growth stock mutual fund getting 10% ROI, would be $323K in 17 years.

Add to that any purchases of Walmart stock, I don't think it's far fetched to see they could easily amass the amount given.

By the way, you are talking to someone who has earned $20K for the last 12 years, and has socked money away in a Roth IRA.

 

[Andylusion]

Problem is they spent 17 years of their life working at Walmart. Imagine the thought of waking up and working in Walmart for 17 years of your life. Sorry, life is too short to have to go through that nightmare. Now imagine they both had a college education and made triple that lowly wage. We all know what large retailers think of even their best employees.... Imagine if they had made 4x that salary in a profession they loved. There are always two sides to every coin. Did they get paid vacation time every year? Did they have top of the line health insurance? Sorry, no thank you. No American dream in this story

Working at Walmart or other such retailers is a nightmare for anyone with above average intelligence and a desire to move up in the world. For those with a below average IQ who struggle to graduate from high school, these kind of jobs are you're future unless you are willing to bust your ass to get ahead.

I was going to say, my former manager at Advanced Auto Parts, loved it. Smart guy. But, he worked his butt off to become a store manager, and now he has his own store. Retail is not bad if you love retail. You can make massive money if you are willing to work for it. I personally hated it, and left as quickly as I could. But it's not a bad job.

 

[Mac1958]

.

Just got a call from the husband, telling me he got word from Edward Jones that the funds are being transferred out to us now.

"Hey, I thought you guys were camping", I said.

"We are, we're on the boat right now, just wanted to let you know".



.

 

[Ravi]

Amazing they could live on such a small yearly take home pay and still own a boat, have a paid off mortgage and a cell phone and $500,000 in savings. So frugal!

 

[Mac1958]

Amazing they could live on such a small yearly take home pay and still own a boat, have a paid off mortgage and a cell phone and $500,000 in savings. So frugal!

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

 

[Andylusion]

Amazing they could live on such a small yearly take home pay and still own a boat, have a paid off mortgage and a cell phone and $500,000 in savings. So frugal!

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

I think they assume everyone at Walmart earns minimum wage. That's all I can gather from the conversation on this thread.

I don't know ANYONE making minimum wage at Walmart.

 

[Mac1958]

Amazing they could live on such a small yearly take home pay and still own a boat, have a paid off mortgage and a cell phone and $500,000 in savings. So frugal!

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

I think they assume everyone at Walmart earns minimum wage. That's all I can gather from the conversation on this thread.

I don't know ANYONE making minimum wage at Walmart.

They refuse to believe that regular Americans can live happy, humble lives.

They want everyone else to be as miserable as they are.

.

 

[Ravi]

Amazing they could live on such a small yearly take home pay and still own a boat, have a paid off mortgage and a cell phone and $500,000 in savings. So frugal!

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

I think they assume everyone at Walmart earns minimum wage. That's all I can gather from the conversation on this thread.

I don't know ANYONE making minimum wage at Walmart.

They refuse to believe that regular Americans can live happy, humble lives.

They want everyone else to be as miserable as they are.

.

Nope. We just think you are lying to further your agenda.

 

[Zander]

Amazing they could live on such a small yearly take home pay and still own a boat, have a paid off mortgage and a cell phone and $500,000 in savings. So frugal!

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

I think they assume everyone at Walmart earns minimum wage. That's all I can gather from the conversation on this thread.

I don't know ANYONE making minimum wage at Walmart.

They refuse to believe that regular Americans can live happy, humble lives.

They want everyone else to be as miserable as they are.

.

Nope. We just think you are lying to further your agenda.

What is his agenda?

 

[Ravi]

Amazing they could live on such a small yearly take home pay and still own a boat, have a paid off mortgage and a cell phone and $500,000 in savings. So frugal!

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

I think they assume everyone at Walmart earns minimum wage. That's all I can gather from the conversation on this thread.

I don't know ANYONE making minimum wage at Walmart.

They refuse to believe that regular Americans can live happy, humble lives.

They want everyone else to be as miserable as they are.

.

Nope. We just think you are lying to further your agenda.

What is his agenda?

Holier than thou PC Queen.

 

[Zander]

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

I think they assume everyone at Walmart earns minimum wage. That's all I can gather from the conversation on this thread.

I don't know ANYONE making minimum wage at Walmart.

They refuse to believe that regular Americans can live happy, humble lives.

They want everyone else to be as miserable as they are.

.

Nope. We just think you are lying to further your agenda.

What is his agenda?

Holier than thou PC Queen.

 

[Mac1958]

...

 

[Mac1958]

Nope. We just think you are lying to further your agenda.

No, YOU think that.

You took a nice, positive, even inspirational little example of a couple doing well for themselves and turned it into a negative.

A happy person, content in their own skin, doesn't do that.

.

 

[Mac1958]

Amazing they could live on such a small yearly take home pay and still own a boat, have a paid off mortgage and a cell phone and $500,000 in savings. So frugal!

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

I think they assume everyone at Walmart earns minimum wage. That's all I can gather from the conversation on this thread.

I don't know ANYONE making minimum wage at Walmart.

They refuse to believe that regular Americans can live happy, humble lives.

They want everyone else to be as miserable as they are.

.

Nope. We just think you are lying to further your agenda.

What is his agenda?

I admit it. I'm trying to change the world via USMB.



.

 

[Zander]

They still owe on their mortgage, not much. But I never said they had paid it off. You made that up. Lied.

I don't think it's their boat. They're camping with friends. They do have that cool new little 4x4 thing, though.

You hate this, so you just refuse to believe it. Too funny.

.

I think they assume everyone at Walmart earns minimum wage. That's all I can gather from the conversation on this thread.

I don't know ANYONE making minimum wage at Walmart.

They refuse to believe that regular Americans can live happy, humble lives.

They want everyone else to be as miserable as they are.

.

Nope. We just think you are lying to further your agenda.

What is his agenda?

I admit it. I'm trying to change the world via USMB.



.

I knew it!!!

 

[Care4all]

Magical thinking, prolly.

Ravi doesn't like this example, prolly. Regular people being smart, putting money away, taking care of themselves 'n stuff.

Let's fire up my financial software.

If, between two people and 401K matching funds, you put away $1200 a month for 17 years at an 8% compounded growth rate, you end up with $525,885.03.

Nothing magical about that.

.

How could they put away $1200 a month for 17 years if they were only making $900 gross, for each a month and at the time you could only put in 10% of your income in to 401k's with a Walmart match of only 50% of the 10%?


I think this couple must have rolled a, or several, previous 401ks in to their Walmart 401k from the previous decade(s) they worked or IRA's in to their 401k at Walmart or something like that...and you were just unaware of this....because there is NO WAY POSSIBLE that 2 Walmart Sales clerks could save that kind of money, even with good investments, in their 401k's on Walmart Sales clerk salaries, in just 17 years.

How do you figure they were just making $900 gross? Where did I say that?

How do you know they were not investing (at least partially) in Wal Mart stock, which went from about $19 to about $84 during that time frame?

I think you're just looking to discredit the story. Choose not to believe it if you wish. Choose to believe that all Wal Mart employees are victims if you wish.

.

Well, minimum wage was about $6 an hour 17 years ago, or maybe it was around $5 an hour 17 years ago....? I used $6.00 for my estimate. Walmart hires sales clerks at minimum wage and works their full time employees 35 to 38 hours a week, I used 36 hours.... That brings their gross salary of $928 a month for each of them, which federal, state, income taxes and social security and medicare taxes are then taken out, plus whatever they paid as their share for health care and dental.....

It could be as you said that the little they did have to invest, they invested it in Walmart Stock, I had not thought of that....

That's not what I know of people who worked there. First you are assuming they started off at minimum wage.

Minimum wage was $5.15 when they started.

Today minimum wage is $7.25, and a cashier will earn upwards of $12, according to self-reported wages on Glassdoor.com.

Minimum wage is usually reserved for bran new employees, and part-time employees.

The idea that full-time employees do not work a full 40-hours, is a relatively new occurrence with health care mandates by the government, that require companies to buy expensive health care plans for workers who work a certain number of hours.

It is unlikely that back in the 90s, Walmart was cutting people's hours, because there would be no benefit to doing so, like there is today.

Doing department management work, is a natural step up from a cashier position, one they likely would have gotten after 17 years working there. And he did say they did some low level management work. You can earn 20/hr doing department management work today.

So I highly doubt your $6 an hour for 36 hours, is even remotely close. At 9/hr 40 hours, would be $19K a year, times two people, would be $37.5K a year.

Now Walmart has two retirement bonuses. Lot of people don't know this, but if you purchase Walmart stock, Walmart matches 15% on the first $1,800 of stock purchase.

So if you invest $1,800, you get $2,070 worth of Walmart stock.

Additionally, Walmart matches 6% into their 401K.

If they place 15% of their income into retirement. $9 X 40 $360 X 4 weeks $1440 X 15% $216 + 6% match = $302 times two people. That's $604 a month.

$604 a month in a good growth stock mutual fund getting 10% ROI, would be $323K in 17 years.

Add to that any purchases of Walmart stock, I don't think it's far fetched to see they could easily amass the amount given.

By the way, you are talking to someone who has earned $20K for the last 12 years, and has socked money away in a Roth IRA.

The reason I presumed they were menial employees and paid little is because Mac said they were....in his own words, he said they were shelf stockers and sales clerks etc, in a LOW stress job.

He didn't say they were working the very high stress 50-60 hour a week Assistant store managers, or department managers there...who work their buns off....

If they worked their way up the latter in higher level jobs then it easily could be achieved, as you even said, you have to work harder than anyone could imagine in retail....to make it to that top dog spot....but if you make, it does pay quite well, but those good jobs that pay good, are 1 out of every hundred workers, maybe even 1 out of every 500-1000 employees will make it to Store Manager level.....but it can be done, I agree. In Maine, Managers of a few Departments of the Store get paid $13.00 an hour...employees about 25 cents more than the minimum State wage....though this month I believe Walmart went to $9 for new hires.

Oh and employee stock purchase programs, it is NOT in your 401k and would NOT BE involved with your 401k...

I have participated in 3 different corporation employee stock purchase programs and it is not like you said Walmart did it, though the end result is the same.....

What you do, is elect to have the same amount of money taken out of each pay check to buy the corp's stock, and the Corporation gives us a 15% discount on our purchase....end result is you have 15% more stock than you would have had with that purchase... so this is probably what Walmart offers...

But like I said, that is separate from the 401k and Mac was discussing the 401k.

So, because Mac IMPLIED that these two people held menial type, non stressful jobs, is the only reason I question the amount they saved on the menial salaries I presumed they were paid for the positions mentioned that they held.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT!
Oh and full time employees are scheduled the 35 to 37 hours a week or so, because the employer does not want a situation that they may have to pay their hourly employee overtime pay, in case they end up clocking in or out 15 minutes earlier or later, or there a half an hour longer because of needing to finish up with a customer or finish up restocking a shelf or removing merchandise being returned to vendor etc...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When they were hired at minimum wage or a quarter more when they were first hired, no one could even live on that unless they had a nest egg ahead of time from previous jobs that they did not transfer to their Walmart portfolio....which is possible I suppose? Or more than likely they transferred their portfolios to Walmart when they were first hired.

I believe strongly that it is the latter...because HOW can such frugal and saving money conscious people not have been frugal the first 27 years of their working life?

How could they have NOTHING saved in previous 401k's or IRAs before working for Walmart, with this kind of determine and strong and admirable mindset to save, save, save?

I personally am not trying to say Mac intentionally lied or anything like that... there are just too many pieces of the puzzle that are a mystery!!!! and quite frankly, UNKNOWN...

 

[Abishai100]

The Philosophy of Prizes


Wal-Mart 'philosophy' is not un-related to lifestyle philosophy in our age of consumerism (i.e., eBay, eTrade, etc.).

For example, if the European Union created a unified and standardized stance on the regular growing of genetically-modified foods, in our modern culture of consumerism-gauged globalization (i.e., eTrde), no one would argue with them that economics is complicatedly connected to governance (even though the growing of genetically-modified foods can technically be construed as a philosophical issue).

In other words, it seems that the story of a Wal-Mart couple planning for their retirement is today's version of the proverbial American Gothic.

So is consumerism a farmer's problem or a politician's problem? Can this Wal-Mart couple's retirement story be used as an example of modern 'self-determination pedagoguery?'

 

[Ravi]

Ravi doesn't like this example, prolly. Regular people being smart, putting money away, taking care of themselves 'n stuff.

Let's fire up my financial software.

If, between two people and 401K matching funds, you put away $1200 a month for 17 years at an 8% compounded growth rate, you end up with $525,885.03.

Nothing magical about that.

.

How could they put away $1200 a month for 17 years if they were only making $900 gross, for each a month and at the time you could only put in 10% of your income in to 401k's with a Walmart match of only 50% of the 10%?


I think this couple must have rolled a, or several, previous 401ks in to their Walmart 401k from the previous decade(s) they worked or IRA's in to their 401k at Walmart or something like that...and you were just unaware of this....because there is NO WAY POSSIBLE that 2 Walmart Sales clerks could save that kind of money, even with good investments, in their 401k's on Walmart Sales clerk salaries, in just 17 years.

How do you figure they were just making $900 gross? Where did I say that?

How do you know they were not investing (at least partially) in Wal Mart stock, which went from about $19 to about $84 during that time frame?

I think you're just looking to discredit the story. Choose not to believe it if you wish. Choose to believe that all Wal Mart employees are victims if you wish.

.

Well, minimum wage was about $6 an hour 17 years ago, or maybe it was around $5 an hour 17 years ago....? I used $6.00 for my estimate. Walmart hires sales clerks at minimum wage and works their full time employees 35 to 38 hours a week, I used 36 hours.... That brings their gross salary of $928 a month for each of them, which federal, state, income taxes and social security and medicare taxes are then taken out, plus whatever they paid as their share for health care and dental.....

It could be as you said that the little they did have to invest, they invested it in Walmart Stock, I had not thought of that....

That's not what I know of people who worked there. First you are assuming they started off at minimum wage.

Minimum wage was $5.15 when they started.

Today minimum wage is $7.25, and a cashier will earn upwards of $12, according to self-reported wages on Glassdoor.com.

Minimum wage is usually reserved for bran new employees, and part-time employees.

The idea that full-time employees do not work a full 40-hours, is a relatively new occurrence with health care mandates by the government, that require companies to buy expensive health care plans for workers who work a certain number of hours.

It is unlikely that back in the 90s, Walmart was cutting people's hours, because there would be no benefit to doing so, like there is today.

Doing department management work, is a natural step up from a cashier position, one they likely would have gotten after 17 years working there. And he did say they did some low level management work. You can earn 20/hr doing department management work today.

So I highly doubt your $6 an hour for 36 hours, is even remotely close. At 9/hr 40 hours, would be $19K a year, times two people, would be $37.5K a year.

Now Walmart has two retirement bonuses. Lot of people don't know this, but if you purchase Walmart stock, Walmart matches 15% on the first $1,800 of stock purchase.

So if you invest $1,800, you get $2,070 worth of Walmart stock.

Additionally, Walmart matches 6% into their 401K.

If they place 15% of their income into retirement. $9 X 40 $360 X 4 weeks $1440 X 15% $216 + 6% match = $302 times two people. That's $604 a month.

$604 a month in a good growth stock mutual fund getting 10% ROI, would be $323K in 17 years.

Add to that any purchases of Walmart stock, I don't think it's far fetched to see they could easily amass the amount given.

By the way, you are talking to someone who has earned $20K for the last 12 years, and has socked money away in a Roth IRA.

The reason I presumed they were menial employees and paid little is because Mac said they were....in his own words, he said they were shelf stockers and sales clerks etc, in a LOW stress job.

He didn't say they were working the very high stress 50-60 hour a week Assistant store managers, or department managers there...who work their buns off....

If they worked their way up the latter in higher level jobs then it easily could be achieved, as you even said, you have to work harder than anyone could imagine in retail....to make it to that top dog spot....but if you make, it does pay quite well, but those good jobs that pay good, are 1 out of every hundred workers, maybe even 1 out of every 500-1000 employees will make it to Store Manager level.....but it can be done, I agree. In Maine, Managers of a few Departments of the Store get paid $13.00 an hour...employees about 25 cents more than the minimum State wage....though this month I believe Walmart went to $9 for new hires.

Oh and employee stock purchase programs, it is NOT in your 401k and would NOT BE involved with your 401k...

I have participated in 3 different corporation employee stock purchase programs and it is not like you said Walmart did it, though the end result is the same.....

What you do, is elect to have the same amount of money taken out of each pay check to buy the corp's stock, and the Corporation gives us a 15% discount on our purchase....end result is you have 15% more stock than you would have had with that purchase... so this is probably what Walmart offers...

But like I said, that is separate from the 401k and Mac was discussing the 401k.

So, because Mac IMPLIED that these two people held menial type, non stressful jobs, is the only reason I question the amount they saved on the menial salaries I presumed they were paid for the positions mentioned that they held.

When they were hired at minimum wage or a quarter more when they were first hired, no one could even live on that unless they had a nest egg ahead of time from previous jobs that they did not transfer to their Walmart portfolio....which is possible I suppose? Or more than likely they transferred their portfolios to Walmart when they were first hired.

I believe strongly that it is the latter...because HOW can such frugal and saving money conscious people not have been frugal the first 27 years of their working life?

How could they have NOTHING saved in previous 401k's or IRAs before working for Walmart, with this kind of determine and strong and admirable mindset to save, save, save?

I personally am not trying to say Mac intentionally lied or anything like that... there are just too many pieces of the puzzle that are a mystery!!!! and quite frankly, UNKNOWN...

You are too nice, always believing the best of posters