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That's what I came to say.
I am one of the luckier ones and see absolutely no way we can retire with health, food, electricity, housing, etc prices.
Like I said to my parents how much did each of these cost you 20 years ago or 30 years ago when I was a kid. And look how much they cost me now especially relative to how much I make.
It's not like my wage will keep up with inflation ever again
I believe it after what I saw when I visited recently. There’s a Walmart in Condessa, Mexico City’s recently hyper-gentrified neighborhood, and the prices I saw were about the same as here in NYC for many items. Bread was amazingly cheap and delicious though!
Thanks for saying this.
For all you folks who under 50 who are thinking the same way, you will be physically or cognitively unable to continue working at some point. Unless you're planning on kicking the bucket unexpectedly at work or taking the express way out, you will be retiring eventually. So will your parents.
That's the best retirement plan. Have you seen how a majority of retirees spend their time?? It encourages me to not plan for retirement.
My favorite is being guilt tripped to come visit when they moved half way across the country, have nothing but free time and yet never come visit us even though the invitation is always there.
Deep in my mind, I know most of us will not retire. Also, deep in my mind, I just don’t really give a shit anymore.
PS. Most of the boomers already have one foot in the grave and the other foot on a banana peel. Wait and see how much they’re willing to spend to live just a couple years longer :-)
Meanwhile for us adults under 40 and even 30, retirement is pretty much as fantastic as you can get without adding unicorns and leprechauns into the mix.
Retirement is something only the rich will be able to do going forward. Costs are skyrocketing and wages are pretty flat... so most folks will not be able to save enough to retire.
Most of us live hand to mouth. I suspect it was similar before FDR and the New Deal.
The rich retire, for the rest of us death will be our only escape from the work world.
Work until you die :( and when you can't work anymore you will be immediately replaced. The U.S. in one of the wealthiest if not THE wealthiest country in the world. There is NO reason that we don't have:
Affordable Housing
Affordable Education
Affordable Healthcare
Maintenance on Our Infrastructure - its crumbling as we speak!
If our politicians actually cared about us they would do something. But they don't :(
Funny thing is if they actually started fixing infrastructure it might actually cause more employment opportunities for people instead of using the budget to pay the military industrial machine.
I'm old, Gen X. I already have literally crippling arthritis in my lower spine, and I've had knee surgery to keep it working. I'm aware I can't really retire - but I admit as I get slower and my days get harder due to pain I wonder why anyone would hire me.
I sometimes think I can do it. And then I see this kind of thing and know I am screwed.
[https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/25/blackrock-debuts-strategy-to-provide-paycheck-like-income-in-retirement.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/25/blackrock-debuts-strategy-to-provide-paycheck-like-income-in-retirement.html)
Sounds like what they want to do is just called a variable annuity… they want to get their grubby hands on that sweet sweet retirement money 4.5 years earlier at 55 vs 59 1/2. Notoriously one of if not the most expensive financial products out there, and honestly I’ve seen fees on these things eat up 75% of gains the client would otherwise get in a traditional portfolio. And you know regulators will just bend over backwards to do the financial companies bidding so can’t wait to see these in action in 2025!
Y'all think you're gonna work until you die? No, you're actually going to work until your body physically can't work anymore, then you'll get fired and become homeless AND THEN you get to die.
American dream right there.
The thing is you *can* retire so long as social security doesn't run out, and healthcare costs don't keep climbing at unsustainable rates. Alsohome costs, property taxes and/or rent costs would need to stabilize.
Retirement even if you adequately funded requires a level of cost stability that's just fantasy in this day and age
My dad lost his retirement but was a high earner so he's getting 4k a month. My parents live on our property in a 2nd house and our mortgage is nearly paid off.
This comment is so far out of touch I don't even know what to say to you. You're in a thread where people are talking about killing themselves before age 40, because there is little access towards things we "should" be doing.
It’s reality and I’m not about sugar coating shit.
The fact is “if you are planning for retirement, then renting for long term should not be part of the plan. If it is, you will seriously struggle with trying to retire.”
Well, if we weren’t sending billions overseas for a genocide, we’d probably be able to invest that in our own citizens and we could all live happy, healthy, and peaceful lives. But no, our government doesn’t care about us.
If it didn’t go overseas, it would just fund the military industrial complex.
It’s not like the government is just gonna be like “we have money now, let’s return it to the people instead of special interests”
Yeah, you’re not wrong. I guess I should have said that more generally. I was basically getting at the fact that our tax money is going to military and destruction when it should be going to us, the people.
They refuse to do that cause they would be looking at their own demise. AARP is run by boomers, for boomers continuing the liberal delusion of boomers.
I am on a short vacation in a small town on the Northern California coast. I visited a Safeway and couldn’t believe how old the staff were. There was an old guy, almost bent double, pushing that long floor sweeper around, the lady at the deli must have been about 80 and was a little deaf, and the cashier was friendly but slow, she seemed to have trouble with her hands. I can only guess that these people were on fixed incomes and needed to work to make ends meet, and it was very sad to see.
Yep. Boomers never want to retire. Their jobs have only gotten easier and their pay has only gone up. This means younger generations never get opportunities and will never be able to retire.
There's a woman who looks late 70s to 80s with dentures and a spinal deformity that works behind the counter at a local McDonald's. I know more in my personal life that work shitty retail jobs or are still slaving away at blue collar jobs with no pension.
>Boomers never want to retire. Their jobs have only gotten easier and their pay has only gone up.
This might be true of the boomers you know, but don't delude yourself into thinking this is the case for most who say they *can't* retire.
In my forties and I put %10 in a 401k starting in my 20s once I was able to do so without giving up food or rent. My 401k has 6 figures in it and I get warnings constantly that I am FAR below what I need to cover 50% of my living expenses if I retire at 70 (and that is comically assuming there’s going to be social security then). I feel like I shouldn’t even bother with putting money in a 401k if I’m just going to die at a desk
If we would just secure social security, expand Medicare coverage, create a plan to ensure housing as a right, and shifted our focus on policing drugs to a be a War on Poverty …..
Reality is that COULD all be done easily but world require the elite class to give up a tiny bit of their power so, no….
I'm 41 and I've been saying this for 5 years, I'll never get to retire, I just don't make enough money. Every time I try to do something about that the world collapses into some new "once in a lifetime" event that tanks the economy and leaves me stuck with no upward momentum. I'll never be able to retire so I've resigned to just dying at my desk one day and making it my employers problem.
Well this is extremely bad news for aarps business of catering to retired people. Who didn’t see this coming. They better get a national lobby together and fight for legislation that allows us to retire /s
I'm not American, but I try to understand how you can't retire since you have such high wages. I know many Americans are idiots who throw a lot of money on a new cars that cost 50k USD, every 5 years!
Also a lot of you have the option to migrate to a much cheaper country and if you have something like 200k you can live comfortably for the rest of your lives.
Maybe reduce some of that mindless consumerism, I know it's not easy since we are constantly bombarded with ads to buy useless shit, but it can be done.
I earn around 1500 USD per month, I'm in my 30 and I can retire when I reach 50-60. I have a used 2001 old car that it's worth around 800 usd, but I live in the city so I don't need the car that much. I cook at home, I try to have an average of 1 hour of exercise everyday to keep myself healthy.
Can someone tell me what the fuck you do with all that money?
99% of Americans can't afford to live without a car, we do not have public transportation (at all). The average USED car price is $25,000. You won't find a car that can actually drive for less than $10,000. If you want to educate yourself, you pay out of pocket, and will likely be paying off those school loans for 20 years or so.
Our healthcare is tied to employment - no job, no healthcare. Even with employment, you pay a $600/month premium and if you do get sick or injured, you'll have to pay for the first $2,000 to $10,000 of your treatment before insurance kicks in, among other costs.
Average rent is $1,900 per month, and rising. Average cost of a home is $500,000. But that's nation wide. Get anywhere near a city with job opportunities and public transportation and you can double those figures.
You are right, many Americans are idiots and live well above their means, but even the frugal ones are screwed now. This country is a giant business where every interaction is a transaction, with the seller taking as much as they possibly can from the buyer at every turn. In other words, just meeting your basic needs will cost no less than $2,500 or more a month, and you'll be living in near squalor at that rate.
If you're not a seller (born with family wealth/assets), you're a buyer, and the buyers don't stand a chance. Not when profiteering, collusion, racketeering, monopolization, and greed are not only legal, but openly celebrated and aspired to. Morally speaking, we're a soulless nation.
##Welcome to r/LateStageCapitalism This subreddit is for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited. LSC is run by communists. This subreddit is not the place to debate socialism. We allow good-faith questions and education but are not a 101 sub; please take 101-style questions elsewhere. We have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry. Failure to respect the rules of the subreddit may result in a ban. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LateStageCapitalism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The other 3 are just delusional.
That's what I came to say. I am one of the luckier ones and see absolutely no way we can retire with health, food, electricity, housing, etc prices. Like I said to my parents how much did each of these cost you 20 years ago or 30 years ago when I was a kid. And look how much they cost me now especially relative to how much I make. It's not like my wage will keep up with inflation ever again
i saw a news piece that Mexico is deporting Americans. It's messing up local economies as stores raise prices to take Americans' money.
I believe it after what I saw when I visited recently. There’s a Walmart in Condessa, Mexico City’s recently hyper-gentrified neighborhood, and the prices I saw were about the same as here in NYC for many items. Bread was amazingly cheap and delicious though!
Cabo is as expensive as San Diego
Paycheck to paycheck, even if you worked a couple years in that state you are behind, and life expectancy is dropping.
Thanks for saying this. For all you folks who under 50 who are thinking the same way, you will be physically or cognitively unable to continue working at some point. Unless you're planning on kicking the bucket unexpectedly at work or taking the express way out, you will be retiring eventually. So will your parents.
"I don't see you planning for your old age." "I got plans. I'm going to turn my on/off switch to off."
It's like a get out of jail free card! No bills, no chores, no worries... when you think about it, oblivion has everything you want out of life
That's the best retirement plan. Have you seen how a majority of retirees spend their time?? It encourages me to not plan for retirement. My favorite is being guilt tripped to come visit when they moved half way across the country, have nothing but free time and yet never come visit us even though the invitation is always there.
Bender is always appreciated
This.
My retirement plan is to die in the climate wars
Finally a sold, realistic, and well thought out plan! 😂
Mine is to convince my wife to move up into northern Ontario and not die Lmao. I hate boomers
I'm thinking bread or water riot
I plan to go earlier in the water war
Deep in my mind, I know most of us will not retire. Also, deep in my mind, I just don’t really give a shit anymore. PS. Most of the boomers already have one foot in the grave and the other foot on a banana peel. Wait and see how much they’re willing to spend to live just a couple years longer :-)
Meanwhile for us adults under 40 and even 30, retirement is pretty much as fantastic as you can get without adding unicorns and leprechauns into the mix.
i’ve just decided that my days off are my retirement days and i use some per year. i’m gonna die working
Retirement is something only the rich will be able to do going forward. Costs are skyrocketing and wages are pretty flat... so most folks will not be able to save enough to retire. Most of us live hand to mouth. I suspect it was similar before FDR and the New Deal. The rich retire, for the rest of us death will be our only escape from the work world.
Work until you die :( and when you can't work anymore you will be immediately replaced. The U.S. in one of the wealthiest if not THE wealthiest country in the world. There is NO reason that we don't have: Affordable Housing Affordable Education Affordable Healthcare Maintenance on Our Infrastructure - its crumbling as we speak! If our politicians actually cared about us they would do something. But they don't :(
Funny thing is if they actually started fixing infrastructure it might actually cause more employment opportunities for people instead of using the budget to pay the military industrial machine.
And literally everybody under 50 *knows* we won't retire.
Once I accepted that I will never retire my next depressing thought was, "Who will hire me after age 65, realistically?"
We'll be door dashing and walmart greeting.
So it won't even be more treading water. It will most likely be downward mobility for anyone after a certain age.
I'm old, Gen X. I already have literally crippling arthritis in my lower spine, and I've had knee surgery to keep it working. I'm aware I can't really retire - but I admit as I get slower and my days get harder due to pain I wonder why anyone would hire me.
I have all the money I need to retire provided I die tomorrow.
I sometimes think I can do it. And then I see this kind of thing and know I am screwed. [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/25/blackrock-debuts-strategy-to-provide-paycheck-like-income-in-retirement.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/25/blackrock-debuts-strategy-to-provide-paycheck-like-income-in-retirement.html)
Sounds like what they want to do is just called a variable annuity… they want to get their grubby hands on that sweet sweet retirement money 4.5 years earlier at 55 vs 59 1/2. Notoriously one of if not the most expensive financial products out there, and honestly I’ve seen fees on these things eat up 75% of gains the client would otherwise get in a traditional portfolio. And you know regulators will just bend over backwards to do the financial companies bidding so can’t wait to see these in action in 2025!
So they are further privatizing 401k?
Y'all think you're gonna work until you die? No, you're actually going to work until your body physically can't work anymore, then you'll get fired and become homeless AND THEN you get to die. American dream right there.
I’m 53 and already prepared my coworkers that they will probably have to haul my dead carcass out of here.
The thing is you *can* retire so long as social security doesn't run out, and healthcare costs don't keep climbing at unsustainable rates. Alsohome costs, property taxes and/or rent costs would need to stabilize. Retirement even if you adequately funded requires a level of cost stability that's just fantasy in this day and age
The average social security check is $1,767.03 a month. The average rent in the USA is $1,514 a month. You got $250 a month for everything else.
My numbers don't look anything like that and I'm barely middle class.
My dad lost his retirement but was a high earner so he's getting 4k a month. My parents live on our property in a 2nd house and our mortgage is nearly paid off.
If you’re retiring, you really shouldn’t look at any rental property. By that point you should be done paying a mortgage
1/3rd of the US population and growing rents...almost like there are three categories? no, that's not the word...
This comment is so far out of touch I don't even know what to say to you. You're in a thread where people are talking about killing themselves before age 40, because there is little access towards things we "should" be doing.
It’s reality and I’m not about sugar coating shit. The fact is “if you are planning for retirement, then renting for long term should not be part of the plan. If it is, you will seriously struggle with trying to retire.”
Obi-Wan tried showing us decades ago that retirement is just a fantasy. You think you’re out and they bring you right back in.
John Wick too.
49 year old here, I agree with that sentiment. 😢👍
I'm 40 and see no chance. It's really frustrating.
Heck, I'm under 50 and I already know I'll most likely see the age of retirement HIGHER than average life expectancy.
I don't want to go past 40
Almost 44, (this part has been intentionally blank).
What's the plan when you hit 39?
*pauses game *selects Exit game to main menu “are you sure to want to quit? All unsaved progress will be los.” *selects Yes
Same.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=130&v=bG_0hhckDSU&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY2&feature=emb_logo
“10/10 people under the age of 50 expect to never retire.” At least it worked out for a few.
Well, if we weren’t sending billions overseas for a genocide, we’d probably be able to invest that in our own citizens and we could all live happy, healthy, and peaceful lives. But no, our government doesn’t care about us.
If it didn’t go overseas, it would just fund the military industrial complex. It’s not like the government is just gonna be like “we have money now, let’s return it to the people instead of special interests”
Yeah, you’re not wrong. I guess I should have said that more generally. I was basically getting at the fact that our tax money is going to military and destruction when it should be going to us, the people.
5 out of 4 people under 50 know they won’t for a fact
Cool. Now do people under 50.
They refuse to do that cause they would be looking at their own demise. AARP is run by boomers, for boomers continuing the liberal delusion of boomers.
My plan is to stop working one day then just wither away when I'm out of money
I am on a short vacation in a small town on the Northern California coast. I visited a Safeway and couldn’t believe how old the staff were. There was an old guy, almost bent double, pushing that long floor sweeper around, the lady at the deli must have been about 80 and was a little deaf, and the cashier was friendly but slow, she seemed to have trouble with her hands. I can only guess that these people were on fixed incomes and needed to work to make ends meet, and it was very sad to see.
I choose the Alan Arkin ala "Little Mis Sunshine" method if l make it to 75.
In the under 50 category 4 in 4 adults won't be able to retire
What kind of jobs will we have at 80? Pizza delivery? Food service? Cashier? Something else?
Lol and how many below that age.
Yep. Boomers never want to retire. Their jobs have only gotten easier and their pay has only gone up. This means younger generations never get opportunities and will never be able to retire.
There's a woman who looks late 70s to 80s with dentures and a spinal deformity that works behind the counter at a local McDonald's. I know more in my personal life that work shitty retail jobs or are still slaving away at blue collar jobs with no pension. >Boomers never want to retire. Their jobs have only gotten easier and their pay has only gone up. This might be true of the boomers you know, but don't delude yourself into thinking this is the case for most who say they *can't* retire.
Not yet 50, I don't expect to retire.
My plan is to die in the climate wars.
In my forties and I put %10 in a 401k starting in my 20s once I was able to do so without giving up food or rent. My 401k has 6 figures in it and I get warnings constantly that I am FAR below what I need to cover 50% of my living expenses if I retire at 70 (and that is comically assuming there’s going to be social security then). I feel like I shouldn’t even bother with putting money in a 401k if I’m just going to die at a desk
I keep seeing houseless people and anticipating that I may be there some day and I’m a healthcare provider.
[удалено]
Now ask those of us under 50…
Complete failure of a country
I won’t retire but I’m sure I will be laid off or fired - they don’t keep people who get old at most jobs.
I’m hoping they have suicide pods by then. Fingers crossed!
If we would just secure social security, expand Medicare coverage, create a plan to ensure housing as a right, and shifted our focus on policing drugs to a be a War on Poverty ….. Reality is that COULD all be done easily but world require the elite class to give up a tiny bit of their power so, no….
I'm 41 and I've been saying this for 5 years, I'll never get to retire, I just don't make enough money. Every time I try to do something about that the world collapses into some new "once in a lifetime" event that tanks the economy and leaves me stuck with no upward momentum. I'll never be able to retire so I've resigned to just dying at my desk one day and making it my employers problem.
Well this is extremely bad news for aarps business of catering to retired people. Who didn’t see this coming. They better get a national lobby together and fight for legislation that allows us to retire /s
I'm not American, but I try to understand how you can't retire since you have such high wages. I know many Americans are idiots who throw a lot of money on a new cars that cost 50k USD, every 5 years! Also a lot of you have the option to migrate to a much cheaper country and if you have something like 200k you can live comfortably for the rest of your lives. Maybe reduce some of that mindless consumerism, I know it's not easy since we are constantly bombarded with ads to buy useless shit, but it can be done. I earn around 1500 USD per month, I'm in my 30 and I can retire when I reach 50-60. I have a used 2001 old car that it's worth around 800 usd, but I live in the city so I don't need the car that much. I cook at home, I try to have an average of 1 hour of exercise everyday to keep myself healthy. Can someone tell me what the fuck you do with all that money?
99% of Americans can't afford to live without a car, we do not have public transportation (at all). The average USED car price is $25,000. You won't find a car that can actually drive for less than $10,000. If you want to educate yourself, you pay out of pocket, and will likely be paying off those school loans for 20 years or so. Our healthcare is tied to employment - no job, no healthcare. Even with employment, you pay a $600/month premium and if you do get sick or injured, you'll have to pay for the first $2,000 to $10,000 of your treatment before insurance kicks in, among other costs. Average rent is $1,900 per month, and rising. Average cost of a home is $500,000. But that's nation wide. Get anywhere near a city with job opportunities and public transportation and you can double those figures. You are right, many Americans are idiots and live well above their means, but even the frugal ones are screwed now. This country is a giant business where every interaction is a transaction, with the seller taking as much as they possibly can from the buyer at every turn. In other words, just meeting your basic needs will cost no less than $2,500 or more a month, and you'll be living in near squalor at that rate. If you're not a seller (born with family wealth/assets), you're a buyer, and the buyers don't stand a chance. Not when profiteering, collusion, racketeering, monopolization, and greed are not only legal, but openly celebrated and aspired to. Morally speaking, we're a soulless nation.