“The time to start planning for retirement is when you get your first job. Yeah, I know, not much income. But you plan for retirement by creating good financial habits (such as a budget, and savings)and paying off credit cards each month.”
You are absolutely correct!
Except you missed one thing, don’t marry a scheming B-och who after 18 years of marriage secretly drains your life savings; demands a divorce; wants half your 401K; wants half of the your houses value; and threatens you with a restraining order if you don’t give in to her demands and/or tell the court she took all the savings money during the financial filing for divorce.
Yeah ... don’t forget that part.
When SS trust fund runs out, I fear a European-style “bail in” where the government seizes our 401K, pension, and bank savings to help continue to pay out to others’ monthly Social Security checks. I think that’s why they are so hell-bent on getting rid of guns. Remember, all these immigrants are going to get SS and SSDI whether they ever put a dime into it or not. We’re adding 2 million+ LEGAL immigrants a year, many of them chain-migration old people, all of whom will also be drawing off of SS. The system is about ready to break. Think this culture and government WON’T want elderly white people who paid into the system their whole lives get reduced payments in order to pay for everyone else? Heh. They blame us for everything NOW, just wait until the SHTF.