Millions of baby boomers are getting caught in the country’s broken retirement system

[Serious]

Hit dogs holler. And the degree of moral grandstanding you engage in doesn't line up with simple adaption.

'

All I do is advise people to avoid serious debt and save / invest a decent portion of their income.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

'

All I do is advise people to avoid serious debt and save / invest a decent portion of their income.

That's good advice, but 2 things.

1. Avoiding debt is difficult for most people that aren't lucky enough to have a financial support system.

2. 78% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck before Covid-19. So, at least that many Americans have had to use more than a "decent portion" of their income just to survive. When 4/5 people are living check-to-check, there's no extra money to invest.

And in 2021 when we see the real economic effects of this pandemic? Most people can kiss that 'decent portion of their income to invest' notion goodbye.

EDIT I guess if you mean boomers they do have more money for this

 

[hashmander]

if i think i'm going to die and spend like it, then i'm killing myself if i don't because there wouldn't be anything left.

 

[Red Shield]

Felt bad for Bates. Man thought he was gonna check out, but death said no.

So the generation that fukked future generations of Americans also fukked themselves.

off shoring.. financialization of everything... etc etc

and now there's just this crumbling everything in this country.




Guess they figured they'd be able to check out before the shyt storm appeared

 

[phcitywarrior]

The Fed

 

[Serious]

That's good advice, but 2 things.

1. Avoiding debt is difficult for most people that aren't lucky enough to have a financial support system.

2. 78% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck before Covid-19. So, at least that many Americans have had to use more than a "decent portion" of their income just to survive. When 4/5 people are living check-to-check, there's no extra money to invest.

And in 2021 when we see the real economic effects of this pandemic? Most people can kiss that 'decent portion of their income to invest' notion goodbye.

EDIT I guess if you mean boomers they do have more money for this

Here’s the thing in my perfect world.....


Education would be free, including pre-K.
UBI would implemented
A livable wage would be implemented along with rent control.
More money would be funneled into preventative social programs instead of reactive policing and ticketing.
Taxes would be higher especially on those with enormous wealth, but the quality of life for overall individuals would increase.
With that said, I also believe in teaching mandatory high school courses in personal finance, how to start a business and nutrition courses.


The problem is that where we’re at as Americans, in order for to “get ahead” you either have to cut back, exploit others or change the system.


Some people hate my tough brand of politics, when I advocate for ways that people cut back. Yet this is shyt that I read all the time. People buy a lot of shyt they don’t really need to survive. I’m sure we could all trim some of our expenses if we really looked at where our money goes and what it’s spent on. I used to leave check to check. You know what I did? I got a second job and I worked on upgrading my skill set.


What I don’t advocate for is debt. I only speak from personal experience. When I was going through a debt crisis, I had to struggle, hold my own nuts, until I found an innovative way to get ahead. In that process I figured out, there’s a lot shyt I spend money on that I don’t really need. Now that i trimmed the fat, I invest / save that extra money.

 

[Serious]

yall nikkas give me shyt all the time for the stuff I say, but how is it any different from any other financial educator:

 

[NkrumahWasRight Is Wrong]

So the generation that fukked future generations of Americans also fukked themselves.

 

[Kenny West]

Damn.

Oh well, guess you gotta settle for the ol reliable bootstraps

 

[Pressure]

yall nikkas give me shyt all the time for the stuff I say, but how is it any different from any other financial educator:

Anything short of a full throated rebuke of the system will usually have people complaining about what you post.

Take it in stride.

 

[ogc163]

That's good advice, but 2 things.

1. Avoiding debt is difficult for most people that aren't lucky enough to have a financial support system.

2. 78% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck before Covid-19. So, at least that many Americans have had to use more than a "decent portion" of their income just to survive. When 4/5 people are living check-to-check, there's no extra money to invest.

And in 2021 when we see the real economic effects of this pandemic? Most people can kiss that 'decent portion of their income to invest' notion goodbye.

EDIT I guess if you mean boomers they do have more money for this

Right, and the degree of moral grandstanding makes no sense when you take into consideration the misguided incentives present in the system. I emphasize making decisions on large tradeoffs in your life early so you don't end up in these type of positions, but as the data shows people generally are not good at making these type of decisions. And so, policies should be put in place to cover peoples downside risks.

 

[Serious]

Anything short of a full throated rebuke of the system will usually have people complaining about what you post.

Take it in stride.

You'd think I was saying take out 35% payday loan or cop a dodge challenger / hellicat at 0 down with 40% interest.

 

[No1]

Anything short of a full throated rebuke of the system will usually have people complaining about what you post.

Take it in stride.

That has nothing to do with it. He routinely says he has “no remorse” and gives the problem 2 seconds and spends 90 percent of the time just concern trolling and lecturing to people about responsibility. He always highlights the most extreme examples and ignores systemic problems or feigns like he cares while arguing as if they don’t exist. It’s like those dudes on the Intercept who claim to be anti-racist but go and do field interviews and some how always find the what about black on black crime guy when a black dude gets shot. To top it all off he is talking to people from rougher upbringings than him who watched their parents do what he does by choice as a necessity. It will never play well. Serious literally says shyt all the rest of us always say like @ogc163 but then we spend most of our time trying to discuss systemic problems because the rest of it is so common sense that we don’t feel like it needs to be discussed as nauseum but he’s nowhere to be found in those sorts of discussions. He just shows up regurgitating 101 level shyt and thinks he’s bringing some novel “tough perspective.” In his own mind he is bringing an opposite perspective than us “excuse makers” except he isn’t actually disagreeing with anything or presenting anything new. Look @ his last post - state a bunch of generic leftist points and then go back to his bootstraps shyt not realizing that there’s an inherent disconnect between the two forms of argumentation. One accepts human error and frailty and seeks to mitigate it by creating a society where the baseline for how far you can fall is much higher and the other assumes a world where the options and choices are clear and distinct and it is merely a matter of having the proper judgment to choose them. The tough decisions he talks about have to be made precisely because of the world as it is designed - so wouldn’t it be more prudent to spend more time on how to eliminate that system, which is a much tougher question? We can go ahead and have a finance 101 thread - he brings that shyt where it doesn’t belong and people have grown tired. And then @ people like me who literally spent his entire tenure as moderator creating college and grad school threads designed to inform people and encourage them to make smart financial decisions. No one knows what the fukk he be on but we like him too much to say anything.

 

[ogc163]

Retirement Savings Gap

Non-Social Security retirement savings held by white households in 2016 averaged about 7 times the amount for Black households and about 5 times the amount for Hispanic households, reported Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, using calculations from the University of Michigan's biennial Health and Retirement Study of Americans over age 50, which had more than 12,000 respondents.

Federal Reserve data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute and the Urban Institute, both Washington, D.C.-based social policy think tanks, also show the extent of the retirement savings gap.

Even when Black and Hispanic employees have access workplace retirement plans, they typically contribute a lower percentage of their pay. Stanford University's Center for Longevity reported in 2018 that the median total contribution to an employer-sponsored defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k), was higher for white employees than for Black and Hispanic employees.

"Black and Hispanic workers face fundamental challenges that prevent them from accumulating retirement wealth including unequal pay, disparities in financial education, lack of access to retirement savings plans, and low contribution rates when access is provided," according to a July 2020 report on the racial retirement wealth gap by San Francisco-based Human Interest, a 401(k) plan services provider for small and midsize businesses. "As a result, the gap between retirement wealth between Black and Hispanic workers and their white counterparts is staggering."

While unequal pay is a driver in the wealth gap overall—and the retirement wealth gap, specifically—"significant differences in retirement savings still exist when adjusting for income," Human Interest reported. "Disparities in financial education add to this deficit," leading to reduced savings levels that "leave Black and Hispanic households disadvantaged later in life." For example, older Black and Hispanic individuals are more likely to depend on Social Security as their sole source of retirement income. They are also more likely than their white counterparts to cash out their retirement savings.

"Real and lasting change to close this gap requires a combined effort" between retirement plan sponsors and their plan advisors, said Jeff Schneble, CEO at Human Interest.

He recommended that employers:

• Track and report the number of Black and Hispanic employees that participate in the company's 401(k) plan and take steps to encourage participation.

• Auto-enroll employees in the company's retirement plan so they are more likely to participate.

• Provide financial education opportunities to all employees to help them meet today's challenges and plan for tomorrow.

Willis Towers Watson's McCann recommended that employers:

• Add a nonelective portion to their retirement savings plan to better prepare employees for retirement. Due to societal issues, many Black and Hispanic employees "have greater immediate need for cash and cannot divert funds for retirement," she noted.

• Periodically review participation in savings plans by race. "If there are discrepancies, employers may want to examine their delivery and education process to determine where there may be biases, or obstacles that prevent diverse employees from participating," she advised.

Black Workers Face Health Care and Retirement Savings Benefits Gaps

 

[ogc163]

The State of American Retirement Savings: How the shift to 401(k)s has increased gaps in retirement preparedness based on income, race, ethnicity, education, and marital status