Posted on 01/17/2013 9:02:32 PM PST by blam
Do You Want To Scare A Baby Boomer?
By Michael Snyder
January 17th, 2013
If you want to frighten Baby Boomers, just show them the list of statistics in this article. The United States is headed for a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude, and we are woefully unprepared for it. At this point, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching the age of 65 every single day, and this will continue to happen for almost the next 20 years. The number of senior citizens in America is projected to more than double during the first half of this century, and some absolutely enormous financial promises have been made to them. So will we be able to keep those promises to the hordes of American workers that are rapidly approaching retirement?
Of course not. State and local governments are facing trillions in unfunded pension liabilities. Medicare is facing a 38 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years. The Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years. Meanwhile, nearly half of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. The truth is that I was being incredibly kind when I said earlier that we are "woefully unprepared" for what is coming. The biggest retirement crisis in history is rapidly approaching, and a lot of the promises that were made to the Baby Boomers are going to get broken.
The following are 35 incredibly shocking statistics that will scare just about any Baby Boomer...
1. Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States. By 2050 that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.
2. According to one recent poll, 25 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no retirement savings at all.
3. 26 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no personal savings whatsoever.
4. One survey that covered all American workers found that 46 percent of them have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.
5. According to a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, "60 percent of American workers said the total value of their savings and investments is less than $25,000".
6. A Pew Research survey found that half of all Baby Boomers say that their household financial situations have deteriorated over the past year.
7. 67 percent of all American workers believe that they "are a little or a lot behind schedule on saving for retirement".
8. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
9. More elderly Americans than ever are finding that they must continue working once they reach their retirement years. Between 1985 and 2010, the percentage of Americans in the 65 to 69-year-old age bracket that were still working increased from 18 percent to 32 percent.
10. Back in 1991, half of all American workers planned to retire before they reached the age of 65. Today, that number has declined to 23 percent.
11. According to one recent survey, 70 percent of all American workers expect to continue working once they are "retired".
12. According to a poll conducted by AARP, 40 percent of all Baby Boomers plan to work "until they drop".
13. A poll conducted by CESI Debt Solutions found that 56 percent of American retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.
14. Elderly Americans tend to carry much higher balances on their credit cards than younger Americans do. The following is from a recent CNBC article...
New research from the AARP also shows that those ages 50 and over are carrying higher balances on their credit cards -- $8,278 in 2012 compared to $6,258 for the under-50 population.
15. A study by a law professor at the University of Michigan found that Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States. Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12 percent of all bankruptcies.
16. Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.
17. What is causing most of these bankruptcies among the elderly? The number one cause is medical bills. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.
18. In 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits. Today, that number has fallen to 2.5 workers, and if you eliminate all government workers, that leaves only 1.6 private sector workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits.
19. Millions of elderly Americans these days are finding it very difficult to survive on just a Social Security check. The truth is that most Social Security checks simply are not that large. The following comes directly from the Social Security Administration website...
The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker was about $1,230 at the beginning of 2012. This amount changes monthly based upon the total amount of all benefits paid and the total number of people receiving benefits.
Could you live on about 300 dollars a week?
20. Social Security benefits are not going to stretch as far in future years. The following is from an article on the AARP website...
Social Security benefits won't go as far, either. In 2002, benefits replaced 39 percent of the average retirees salary, and that will decline to 28 percent in 2030, when the youngest boomers reach full retirement age, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
21. In the United States today, more than 61 million Americans receive some form of Social Security benefits. By 2035, that number is projected to soar to a whopping 91 million.
22. Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.
23. As I wrote about in a previous article, the number of Americans on Medicare is expected to grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.
24. Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.
25. Today, only 10 percent of private companies in the U.S. provide guaranteed lifelong pensions for their employees.
26. Verizon's pension plan is underfunded by 3.4 billion dollars.
27. In California, the Orange County Employees Retirement System is estimated to have a 10 billion dollar unfunded pension liability.
28. The state of Illinois has accumulated unfunded pension liabilities of more than 77 billion dollars.
29. Pension consultant Girard Miller told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have 325 billion dollars in combined unfunded pension liabilities.
30. According to Northwestern University Professor John Rauh, the latest estimate of the total amount of unfunded pension and healthcare obligations for retirees that state and local governments across the United States have accumulated is 4.4 trillion dollars.
31. In 2010, 28 percent of all American workers with a 401(k) had taken money out of it at some point.
32. Back in 2004, American workers were taking about 30 billion dollars in early withdrawals out of their 401(k) accounts every single year. Right now, American workers are pulling about 70 billion dollars in early withdrawals out of their 401(k) accounts every single year.
33. Today, 49 percent of all American workers are not covered by an employment-based pension plan at all.
34. According to a recent survey conducted by Americans for Secure Retirement, 88 percent of all Americans are worried about "maintaining a comfortable standard of living in retirement".
35. A study conducted by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research found that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.
So what is the solution? Well, one influential organization of business executives says that the solution is to make Americans wait longer for retirement. The following is from a recent CBS News article...
An influential group of business CEOs is pushing a plan to gradually increase the full retirement age to 70 for both Social Security and Medicare and to partially privatize the health insurance program for older Americans.
The Business Roundtable's plan would protect those 55 and older from cuts but younger workers would face significant changes. The plan unveiled Wednesday would result in smaller annual benefit increases for all Social Security recipients. Initial benefits for wealthy retirees would also be smaller.
But considering the fact that there aren't nearly enough jobs for all Americans already, perhaps that is not such a great idea. If we expect Americans to work longer, then we are going to need our economy to start producing a lot more good jobs than it is producing right now.
Of course the status quo is not going to work either. There is no way that we are going to be able to meet the financial obligations that are coming due.
The federal government, our state governments and our local governments are already drowning in debt and we are already spending far more money than we bring in each year. How in the world are we going to make ends meet as our obligations to retirees absolutely skyrocket in the years ahead?
That is something to think about.
So what do you think? Do you believe that there is a solution to our retirement crisis? Do you think that we can actually keep all of the promises that we have made to the Baby Boomers?
I think that 1960s generation is your generation isn’t it, you are the “silent generation” aren’t you? The Jane Fonda, Bill Ayers, Chicago Seven, Bob Dylan generation.
The people who voted for the 1965 Immigration Act.
“Gen X-ers are lazy is my take.”
In choosing to place their family and children as their first priority? Wow. I had no idea ‘conservative’ boomers hated stay at home moms. Wow. Just wow.
I’m sorry, I got lost at DU, I’ll go back to FR now.
Oh I see...So the entire boomer generation are drugged crazed weirdos...
I’ve had about enough of your bull shit...
See ya!
“Social Security is a “boomer program”, and when a president is of a certain age, he is supposed to end a program that there is every reason will remain permanent in some form.”
You can’t claim that they fixed it at the same time claiming ‘nothing could be done’. Something could have been done, if you had the courage to change it. You did not. You have demanded that your children and grandchildren pay for your excesses instead.
Frankly, I’d be thrilled if the bleeding would stop - the less damage done today - the less bad things will be in the future.
You sound EXACTLY like the kind of guy who would claim such a thing.
Now the world is even depriving you of a wife and children, because you don't have enough 'money',
“I think that 1960s generation is your generation isn’t it, you are the “silent generation” aren’t you? The Jane Fonda, Bill Ayers, Chicago Seven, Bob Dylan generation.
The people who voted for the 1965 Immigration Act.”
My grandparents? :)
I might be misunderstood but I am not fos.
It was not my intent to say things for boomers are good now. My point was they grew up through good times without seeing really bad times. That is a far different experience than what boomer grandparents or even parents went though.
You are right that the good ole days are gone. Two weeks of vacation time (if you have a job that provides it anymore) is now a time to find two weeks worth of other work to get ahead.
If you could afford to buy a boat or a camper it mostly sits in the yard because you can't afford the holiday away from home.
I understand your point and I agree with you. Hope I made myself more clear than in my first post on this subject.
..the baby boom has no concept of hard times.
#####
How old are you?
“Now the world is even depriving you of a wife and children, because you don’t have enough ‘money’ “
There’s this thing called ‘responsibility’. I believe that as a father that it’s my responsbility to ensure that my wife and children are well cared for. Until I get to the point where I can take care of them, fathering children would be irresponsible.
I can understand why such thinking would be alien to a Boomer. I guess if you pool all your EBTs together you can raise a family quite well.
“agreed, my three adult kids and husbands struggle like we never did.”
Not mine. They both earn 200+K a year. Adjusting for inflation, about what I earned...
Nope, but they *do* seem to resent stay at home moms, Ozzie and Harriet, and all of the 50’s.
You said so yourself. You’re not the only one either!
Wow, I seem to have stepped in it. Wondering how what I meant came out sounding as it did. I’m not oblivious to the hardship right now if that point did not come through.
You live on less than $600.00 dollars a month, why? I don't know, but you are as goofy and bitter a person that I have seen in a while. America prevents you from marrying and having children? Really? Social Security was created by boomers, etc, etc. I think you may be on EBT.
You might want to look into the data on life during the early boomer years, you evidently think that it was like your own, it wasn't.
You think in terms of indoor plumbing, refrigerators, TV, central heating, city water, no hunger, social programs, and so on.
No, that is your generation if you are pre-boomer.
“You live on less than $600.00 dollars a month, why?”
My living expenses are 600/month, because that’s all I require. I have my rent, food and utilities, no debt. Everything I own is paid off.
“America prevents you from marrying and having children?”
That is not what I said. What I said is that my income is insufficient at present to be able to marry and raise a family and be able to care for them. I’m sorry if that makes no sense but that’s the truth. I believe that I shouldn’t marry unless I can provide for a family. Right now I can’t. Boomer policies like Social Security play a big part in my budget - more than I spend on food.
“Social Security was created by boomers”
I never said that either. Social security is ‘boomer approved’, since the Baby Boomers have chosen to keep it and are recipients of it. If Boomers sincerely believed that social security was a priority - things would be much different today. I don’t believe that Boomers view social security reform as a priority. I see no evidence for this.
“I think you may be on EBT.”
Nope, sorry to dissapoint. I earn my money.
Well, as sherlock holmes said - if my grandparents were pre-boomer, what am I?
You’re rather slow on the uptake.
LOL!
So you are a whiney kid? A member of the Obama voting generation?
Wow. Just wow. Get over your drama and do NOT put words in my mouth about hate.
Gen-Xer’s are lazy. Even my SIL the doctor admits he is lazy and that’s why he chose his field. Take your DU name-calling back to your forum.
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