Posted on 07/30/2007 7:31:07 PM PDT by traumer
You children are really boring. And, I won't need my monthly payment when it comes in. But I'll take it and blow it all on tango lessons knowing that it twists your nipple.
What are you talking about? The FICA is 6.2% of your pay up to @ $90k. If you make $150k your FICA is only 3.5% of your pay. Mouthing off and not knowing even the basics...
Remember, smokers HELP the Soc Sec fund !LOL...
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Perhaps one day you will learn how to work smart instead of hard.
I had some pretty good savings socked away in my forties. Then, after 9/11, the place I worked shut down.
It took me ten months to find a new job. I had a kid in college, but could not qualify for scholarship money because I had made too much money the year before. That had to be paid for, because you don’t want someone in their junior year with a 3.5 in engineering dropping out. (Well, maybe some freepers would make their kids drop out, but I would not.)
Guess what I lived on? Those savings. I went through most of them before finding that new job. And, no — we were not extravagant. We canceled plans for a 25th anniversary vacation and used the money for living expenses. We cut back our costs and dumped luxuries. The wife got a job and I looked after the kids. (We have two other kids, both at home then.) I worked odd jobs and consulted to bring in some extra cash.
But the week I started my new job, I emptied all but $500 out of my savings account to pay for the next month’s expenses. God knows what would have happened if I had been unemployed another two or three months — probably would have had to go deep in debt.
I am not complaining, just explaining. And only now, after five years, am I managing to build my savings up again. (We had to pay relocation expenses, and have another kid in college.) And I also know the job I have now will probably disappear before the end of 2011, and am planning to weather another storm then.
Actually my biggest fear is not having to put off retirement. I enjoy working and the job I do. My fear is ending up involuntarily retired at 55 or 56 when the current job ends. Employers are reluctant to take an “elderly” engineer — after all they will be retiring soon. (Never mind that a college recruit is just as likely to leave before five years are up.)
Assuming I am healthy, I would as soon keep working until I am 75 or so. (Why not? The work I do is fun, not physically demanding, and pays well. And I do good work.)
I can understand wanting to retire at 65 — or even 55 if you are in a dangerous, physically demanding work (puddling steel in a steel mill for example). But early retirement is unnecessary for those in an office environment.
Only contribute to your 401k up to the point of matching - not beyond.
For the remainder, invest in other venues. There are more profitable ventures than a 401 once company matching is out of the equation.
Whoa...talk about making a mountain out of a molehill...I think Proud USA’s point was that some boomers will be helped along by a high-value home. That’s it.
No, but someone in Maryland or Cali can retire to somewhere like North Carolina using that method. It doesn’t work for everyone.
So true. It has worked for me. I'm trying my hardest to get it drilled into my 3 grown kids heads. If folks would just learn to live by this one financial precept (and save the difference), many would not be in the leaky retirement boat they find themsleves in.
Every year I save & save - it just about covers my taxes. And I am not a boomer, born in ‘66. Socialism is stacked against those who play by the rules. Where’s my guv’mint tit?
Oh, working hard is bad? How about working smart and hard?.... are you a boomer?... I’m sorry.
It was the boomers who brought us a Republican congress, while their parents (the so-called greatest generation) brought us the welfare state and liberalized immigration laws.
It’s another boomer bashing thread. The bashing started in the third post.
Your saving habits are commendable. The best kind of mental discipline needed to save is not "No, you can't have an exotic vacation." Rather, "Why do you need one?"
I know I'm being preachy, but if people focus on what they can truly do without, it makes savings not only easier but more rewarding psychologically. Basically, buy what you need.
Me? I travel if I have to. If I want a new dress for the holidays, I'll buy it, without guilt. There's nothing wrong with occasionally shopping -- within a budget. But the rampant consumerism among younger people is frightening.
My folks first home is still there, and I'd bet if purchased today, the first 3 months of mortgage payments would equal what they paid for the home in 1951.
Remember LBJs Great Society, all his socialist programs? LBJ was born in the early 1900s.
LBJ was certainly no baby boomer. Fact is when LBJ was elected president, most boomers were about 10 years old.
And what about FDR, the guy who signed SS into law, among other socialist programs? FDR was no boomer. Wasn't he born in the late 1800s?
Agreed. And I don't feel the least bit guilty when I say that I want it all back, every cent that was extorted from my payroll and my husband's payroll all these years.
Carolyn
Yup
Actually, the root was earlier. The commies got into the gov't starting in the 1930's. Then they did a mass move with corrupting the youth in the 60's and 70's.
The boomers' parents corrupted their kids. They are mostly at fault for swallowing FDR and commie lies.
Actually, some of the boomers' got wise finally and started voting in people like Reagan and the '94 republicans.
Boomers are still learning the truth about their parents today.
But the $ave and $ave doesn’t work !
The inflation of food and gas prices... not to mention the currency exchange rate !
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