Work Until You’re Dead?

[SteadyMercury]

Only the poor and lower end of the middle class retires. The very weathy work until they drop on the job. The upper middle class retires into second careers.

Yay! Today's award for making up sillu shit that is easily proven false goes to Katz.

Nice work, and good luck tomorrow too!

 

[SteadyMercury]

What fed-bashers mean when they say 'stable dollar' usually refers to the change in value one century to the next --as if anyone cared about working one day and then buying groceries 100 years later.

Yup, I see them making that argument over and over (at least when they pause from waving their Ron Paul signs) and am just baffled as how they think it is relevant.

People are still buying plenty of crap:

 

[Agit8r]

"It is painful to see old age working itself to death, in what are called civilised countries, for daily bread."

-- Thomas Paine; from 'Rights of Man, Part The Second' (1792)

 

[Luddly Neddite]

The Boomers were the last generation virtually guaranteed a better life than our parents.

That's because they went and ruined everything they got their hands on.

You'll get a lot further if you stop blaming others for your own shortcomings and take responsibility for your own life.

Be that as it may, my rule is simple - pay yourself first. No matter what else you do, put 10% away and don't touch it. I'm obsessive about saving. In addition to investments, I have enough cash on hand to live quite a long time. Its not that hard to do and I don't go without the things that are important to me. I'm just as obsessive about not going into debt for anything. I have no doubt that my money attitude comes from having been homeless and alone at 16.

Even though I retired many years ago, I'll never stop working. There has never been a time when I didn't have several "jobs" going and I have new ideas every day.

But, there's a big difference between working because you want to and because you're desperate to keep a roof over your head.

To those who live from paycheck to paycheck, I have a question: What do you think is going to save you?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Only the poor and lower end of the middle class retires. The very weathy work until they drop on the job. The upper middle class retires into second careers.

Yay! Today's award for making up sillu shit that is easily proven false goes to Katz.

Nice work, and good luck tomorrow too!

No fair.

He/she/it wins every day.

 

[oldfart]

What fed-bashers mean when they say 'stable dollar' usually refers to the change in value one century to the next --as if anyone cared about working one day and then buying groceries 100 years later.

Yup, I see them making that argument over and over (at least when they pause from waving their Ron Paul signs) and am just baffled as how they think it is relevant.

People are still buying plenty of crap:

If you make that chart per capita, it flattens to where we are just now to the 2007 peak again.

 

[Spiderman]

Buy smaller houses, buy less crap, go to college part time while you are working and take 6 or 8 years to get a degree

The average level of student debt for the class of 2013 is $35,200. College tuition rates are outpacing inflation. For example, tution/fees for community colleges have increased 25% more than inflation over the last five years. How does a kid making $7-$10/HR pay for this? Then they graduate, and due to idiotic macro policies, many of them can't find decent paying jobs in their field.

Then go to school part time and pay cash for your classes. Go to state colleges, community colleges for the first 2 years then matriculate from a better school.

I'm sick and tired of people whining that they have no money while they are driving a new car or worse a leased car, sipping on a 5 dollar coffee, have HBO Showtime, Cinemax and all the pay sports channels, eat out 5 or 6 times a week pay 200 a month for a stupid cell phone etc etc etc.

Yeah, that ship has sailed. Americans have been consuming significantly less. We have all this excess capacity if you haven't noticed.

Significantly less than what?

 

[Politico]

God bless Obammy. Call him Booger. You picked him.

 

[SteadyMercury]

If you make that chart per capita, it flattens to where we are just now to the 2007 peak again.

And that is fine. My point was there hasn't been some drastic generational drop off in people's ability to spend money to live their lives.

I just don't believe the claim that the standard of living for this or the next generation is worse off, more like each one just takes more luxury items for granted as something everyone has.

 

[OnePercenter]

Some basic personal finance skills would go a long way for many of the people who are 60 years old and realize they have no savings.

If they had anything left after 2008.

 

[Katzndogz]

If you make that chart per capita, it flattens to where we are just now to the 2007 peak again.

And that is fine. My point was there hasn't been some drastic generational drop off in people's ability to spend money to live their lives.

I just don't believe the claim that the standard of living for this or the next generation is worse off, more like each one just takes more luxury items for granted as something everyone has.

There has been a drastic generational drop off in people's desire to save money for the future. Saving money might take sacrifice and deferred gratification. There are many more items available to have created a monumental desire for instant gratification that has been turned into a need. No one needs $300.00 Air Jordans. No one needs the latest Iphone. They want it, spend the money on these desires rather than what they really need, then expect public benefits to fill in their blanks.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Some basic personal finance skills would go a long way for many of the people who are 60 years old and realize they have no savings.

If they had anything left after 2008.

I try not to think about how much I lost with the Bush crash. Pisses me off but there's nothing I can do about it.


===================

I've written before about my obsession for saving and my belief that you have pay yourself first - 10% of every dollar without fail.

My question is to those who don't have any savings and investments - What do you think is going to save you?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

If you make that chart per capita, it flattens to where we are just now to the 2007 peak again.

And that is fine. My point was there hasn't been some drastic generational drop off in people's ability to spend money to live their lives.

I just don't believe the claim that the standard of living for this or the next generation is worse off, more like each one just takes more luxury items for granted as something everyone has.

There has been a drastic generational drop off in people's desire to save money for the future. Saving money might take sacrifice and deferred gratification. There are many more items available to have created a monumental desire for instant gratification that has been turned into a need. No one needs $300.00 Air Jordans. No one needs the latest Iphone. They want it, spend the money on these desires rather than what they really need, then expect public benefits to fill in their blanks.

Nothing new about that attitude. There have always been grasshoppers and ants and the I want it now way of life started way back when the first consumer goods were offered "on time".

 

[Spiderman]

Some basic personal finance skills would go a long way for many of the people who are 60 years old and realize they have no savings.

If they had anything left after 2008.

I try not to think about how much I lost with the Bush crash. Pisses me off but there's nothing I can do about it.


===================

I've written before about my obsession for saving and my belief that you have pay yourself first - 10% of every dollar without fail.

My question is to those who don't have any savings and investments - What do you think is going to save you?

If you had money in the market and didn't cash out then you didn't lose a dime.

 

[bripat9643]

A sizable chunk of the adult population is going to punch a clock until they keel-over in the office parking lot and get hauled off in the company dumpster. And those are the lucky ones, the so called baby boomers. By the time we get to the millennials it’ll be even worse because the economy will have been ravaged by 25 or 30 years of austerity leaving the proles to scrape by on hardtack and gruel. Pensions are already being looted, Social Security is under fire, and any small stipend that supports the poor, the unemployed, or the infirm is going to be terminated. That’s why everyone is so down-in-the-mouth, because their expectations of the future are so bleak….

Go figure. And there’s a larger point here too, which is that Americans have always believed that their children would enjoy a higher standard of living than their own. Until now, that is. Now most people think things are going to get worse, much worse. You see it in all the surveys. Expectations have changed, the future looks darker than ever before, and people are scared.

Continued:

Work Until You're Dead

I think both left and right with eventually address this since our current trajectory will become politically unsustainable.

"Austerity" isn't the cause of the problem. If we have been practicing "austerity," then how did we get $17 trillion in debt? Organized plunder and looting is what caused the problem. Too many moochers riding in the wagon rather than pulling the wagon is the cause of the problem.

 

[Mudflap]

People I know are wondering if their retirement plans will still be viable in the next five or ten years.

 

[initforme]

Dying on the job? How embarrassing. One place I swore I would never ever ever ever want to die..... on the job. I would rather die doing something like a hobby, not at work. That would have to be the absolute worst place. I saved and I collect my SS to avoid the utter embarrassment of dying on the job.

 

[Mudflap]

Dying on the job? How embarrassing. One place I swore I would never ever ever ever want to die..... on the job. I would rather die doing something like a hobby, not at work. That would have to be the absolute worst place. I saved and I collect my SS to avoid the utter embarrassment of dying on the job.

Cops and the military say the same thing....

 

[Mr Natural]

Dying on the job? How embarrassing. One place I swore I would never ever ever ever want to die..... on the job. I would rather die doing something like a hobby, not at work. That would have to be the absolute worst place. I saved and I collect my SS to avoid the utter embarrassment of dying on the job.

I worked with a guy who dropped dead of a heart attack in the airport on the way home from a business trip.

Talk about a miserable way of going, ay?

 

[SteadyMercury]

If they had anything left after 2008.

Nah, I'd say some basic personal finance skills would in fact be even more important if someone took a big hit in 2008.