The best solution is to plan plan plan, save save save, work as long as you can, and make as much money as you can.Social Security, 401K, stocks and whatever nest egg you have may not be enough. In reality, it takes years to build a nest egg that is going to support you in the last 20 or 30 years of your life.
Many older consumers today scrimp during their retirement years to make ends meet. While many make enough money to avoid poverty, they don't have much of a cushion. Often, not even enough to buy a greeting card, haircut or new pair of socks. Yes, a whole lot of people are running out of financial alternatives. Older households experience what can best be called financial exhaustion.
YOU do not want to find yourself in this situation. There's still time for you to prepare for your future years.
That number excludes pensions and housing wealth. But even if those areas weren’t as shaky as they are, does anyone think that $10,000 will even last the average American half a year in retirement?
According to the research, 27 percent of workers surveyed admitted having less than $1,000 in their bank account. Think about it — a full quarter of Americans barely have enough saved for a few utility bills.
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| Percentage of people working past 65! |
Retirement Plan vs Retirement Pain
54 percent of the survey participants revealed that neither the man or the woman had even tried to figure out much money they need in order to live comfortably in retirement!
This disturbs me as I have constantly pounded on my children to save for retirement, and I am not sure if it's even on their top ten to-do list.
One thing I am sure of is that if you don’t know how much you need… if you aren’t putting a plan in place… and if you aren’t religiously saving — YOU are absolutely doomed to a life of poverty later in life. Living under the bridge may become more of a reality than anyone imagined, because 60 percent said they weren’t saving anything at all.
What’s more, most cannot expect the traditional governmental backup to save them. As reported in a recent Wall Street Journal article, a small part of the 2008 Farm Bill now allows Uncle Sam to withhold Social Security funds from anyone with outstanding debts, even if those debts are ten years or older. Now, that's scary to think about.