Great Retirement Lie.

[Buck]

From the story....
"For years, the privatization propagandists have been telling people that when the time comes, Social Security will not be there for them. Now many are learning that it's their private savings that may not be there. They are discovering they have been forced into a system in which other people have, in effect, been allowed to gamble with their retirement savings and have lost it."

The story....
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/92658/how_wall_street_wrecked_your_retirement/

Barter looks better and better.

[walls0stone]

No one I know here will afford retirement.

Some people will need to decide if they want to live poor in the sticks..have land and a garden, or live in the city with a highpaying job and more free time.

Nothing is for sure.

[Buck]

No one I know here will afford retirement.

Some people will need to decide if they want to live poor in the sticks..have land and a garden, or live in the city with a highpaying job and more free time.

Nothing is for sure.

VERY astute observation indeed! VERY astute!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

[walls0stone]

comes from years and years of seeing people move to the sticks and get "free" only to discover *that it's lots of work. Those realy smart people who thought they knew it all, came to learn that book smarts and a large vocab are not going to do much good in an area intended to be agg' not industry or office people.

If your come'n to no place to be "free"..and you don't give in and have power polls back up in 5 years

Then I hope you have a plann befor your 90th Birthday.

Personaly, I hope I'm just dead.

[Suzy]

Husband is almost 64 and I just turned 56. Retirement is not a word that fits into our future....husband has had two heart attacks and has been told he CAN NOT do any manual labor....but he is still "supervising" because he started his own little four-man electrical company about a decade ago....which includes son, son-in-law, and son's best friend (who is like one of our own)....

I am not longer a day-to-day reporter but am homesteading practically full time and writing for our state wide agricultural newspaper....

I sell eggs, goat milk soap, dried herbs, quilts, knitting from my Angora fur, homemade jellies, and anything else I can think up, either at farmer's markets or here at my little farm store....

I know folks who are in their 70's and HAVING to work as door greeters at Wal-Mart because they only "draw" about $400 a month Social Security.

That's why I've been exploring all my options on what I can do to make as much money as I can here. This place will be paid for in about five years....that was the BIGGEST MISTAKE we ever made was put another mortgage on this place once it was paid off!

If you are any age, get you some land that is YOURS, out somewhere where there are no restrictions; either pay cash for it up front, or double up as much as possible and pay it off as quickly as you can. If you have to live in a tent, mobile home, or whatever, at least you'll have your land. Learn to garden, get chickens, maybe some goats. That way you won't starve...

Think SIMPLY but think about the needs of yourself and your family. Pray for help and then work your butt off!!!

[Terri]

Oh, how I WISH I could invest my retirement in land!

No matter how you cut it, though, the future is a gamble: it always has been. SS was started because inflation was so bad that it was not possible to save for your retirement: a dollar saved would be worth a nickle by retirement age!

So, they started SS, used the funds to decrease the National Debt (Like THAT worked), and now SS will possibly not be there when I retire.

Again, the future is always a gamble. My goal is to have no mortgage when I am 65, that and a small IRA and SS is all that I can do. In other words, I do not have all of my eggs in one basket!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JakeLeg]

given the source of the article, I'm not surprised by the spin... the spin on an age old adage: if you do not understand _____ then the _____ "specialist" could take you for a ride.

investing is always a gamble. by nature. larger return potential means larger risk. everyone investing needs to know that before doing so. if one puts 15% of their paycheck in a single vehicle from age 60, and at age 65 the market is low, then it's their own fault for not (a) spreading it out, and/or (b) considering that markets have ups and downs, and one does not put money in stocks at at 60 (if they want to retire at 65). i've never had a financial class in my life, and i've known the general rules for years.

there are many ways of preparing for retirement, aka the future. stuff pennies in coffee cans, IRA, buying land, baseball cards, 401K, CDs, selling hand-knit cummerbunds, etc. the general rule is "know what you're doing and you're far less likely to be taken for a ride"

my folks started off with absolutely nothing (dad was an orphan, mom was from a large catholic great depression family) and retired at 61 and 62, fully funded, with paid-for house, vehicles, and plenty of very well spread-out assets.

it's no different than saying "next year I want to go on vacation" and saving up for that vacation. all you're doing is saying "at age xx, i want to retire comfortably" i'm nearly 40, and have had retirement vehicles since my early 20s. never made over 40k a year until recently. but, wife and I have 2 paid-for autos (98 car and 03 truck) and a nice little place that is very far along toward being paid off in less than half the note's length. furthermore, we're packing away in several diverse sources to retire one day. what happens if the market tanks tomorrow? well, a large chunk of a few of our holdings will tank tomorrow, but we're not retiring tomorrow. we still own the shares, and they will come up again. in fact, if the market tanked tomorrow, i'd probably write a check to buy a crapload more, since the shares are basically on sale. have I seen my portfolios tank? sure. a little market correction in the mid/late 90s made me lose about 25%, but within a couple of years, it was well above and beyond that little blip.

it happens. it's the nature of the game. know the general rules, and you'll do fine.

[RangerRick]

Like most things in life, fail to plan plan to fail. In retirement - everyday is Saturday and if not it should have been.

Rick