Retirement is a new concept, for all of human history until the last century people worked until they died or “retired” from work to work in the household. It’s not unusual outside of the west for those older people to still live with their families (wow, no government child care required).
It is not the government’s responsibility or other tax payers to support everyone’s retirement. People should be held accountable for their decisions. The way people live should reflect their income, not what they think their income should be. If your income doesn’t support the lifestyle you want, change it.
Why should I be punished because someone drove new vehicles their entire life, took awesome vacations, and didn’t save s***?
This is absolutely the greatest country in the world as far as opportunity goes, but that doesn’t guarantee success.
Not true at all, my Grandfather retired with a pension when he was 57, lived a comfortable life, owned a home, a cabin, new vehicles, did plenty of hunting, fishing, vacations, raised 2 kids.
My Dad has 2 pensions from the saw mills he worked at (both UNION pensions that the companies he worked for paid for), plus SS. He does really well.
Nobody is talking about what people can afford, we're talking RETIREMENT.
An employer provided pension plan was pretty normal not that long ago even in the private sector. Nobody is punishing anyone when it's part of the benefit package provided by an employer. Many times the pension plans are in lieu of higher wages.
They still do it for the most part with 401's, it's just that they should be more secured and it should be much more difficult, if not impossible for an employee to access that money prior to retirement age. Employers should also be required to contribute whatever they would match.
The .gov contributes 1% automatically into the tsp, and then employees had to "opt in" and contribute another 5% to receive the other 4% match. Now, new hires are automatically signed up for the full 5% match, they have to OPT OUT.
You can say anything you want, but you'll not convince me otherwise, that pensions and/or employer mandated 401's that employees can't withdraw until retirement should be required by law.
Yes, they work, and they work well when professionally managed. Check out the TSP:
he Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), a cornerstone of retirement planning for federal employees and uniformed service members,
oversees an impressive $845 billion in assets, making it the nation's largest defined contribution plan. With 7 million participants, its scale and the active engagement of its members—who significantly contribute to receiving full matching funds—highlight its critical role in ensuring
financial security.
A TSP is a defined contribution plan for retirement. Here's the information you need about this retirement account and how it may impact you.
www.forbes.com
116,827 tsp millionaires as of the end of 2023, low management costs as well, 48-52 cents/$1000 to manage it yearly, return on the C fund since inception in 1988 10.96%/year.
I wonder if someone started investing 20% of their gross salary since 1988 with almost 11% gains would be in a good position to retire?
I'll go out on the ragged, hairy edge, and say pretty good chance. Combined with a pension at 1.0-1.1%/year of high 3 salary, and also SS...likely pretty comfortable and able to retire at MRA of 57/30 years of service.
. Id be disowned for not watching it.
