Retirement

America’s Elderly Are Twice as Likely to Work Now Than in 1985

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By Bloomberg – Re-Blogged From Newsmax

Just as single-income families began to vanish in the last century, many of America’s elderly are now forgoing retirement for the same reason: They don’t have enough money.

Rickety social safety nets, inadequate retirement savings plans and sky high health-care costs are all conspiring to make the concept of leaving the workforce something to be more feared than desired.

For the first time in 57 years, the participation rate in the labor force of retirement-age workers has cracked the 20 percent mark, according to a new report from money manager United Income.

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Half of Older Americans Have Saved Nothing for Retirement

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By Bloomberg – Re-Blogged From Newsmax

The bad news is that almost half of Americans approaching retirement have nothing saved in a 401(k) or other individual account. The good news is that the new estimate, from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, is slightly better than a few years earlier.

Of those 55 and older, 48 percent had nothing put away in a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan or an individual retirement account, according to a GAO estimate for 2016 that was released Tuesday. That’s an improvement from the 52 percent without retirement money in 2013.

Half of Older Americans Have Saved Nothing for Retirement
(motortion/Dreamstime)

Pyramids Of Crisis

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By John Mauldin – Re-Blogged From Silver Phoenix

In an increasingly divided world, we all share one great desire: self-preservation. Not just humans, either. The survival instinct exists in almost every living thing. Humans simply have greater ability to do something about it.

In fact, we have been doing something about it for many thousands of years. An inverted pyramid of geniuses and giants, modern medicine, nutrition, sanitation, and assorted other innovations has extended our lifespans and helped more of us live to ripe old ages. That’s wonderful… but it’s also a problem many of us still don’t fully understand.

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Public Pensions Could Become Retirement Crisis for Everyone

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By Peter Reagan – Re-Blogged From Newsmax

It’s become fairly common knowledge that public pensions are on the verge of either radical overhaul or extinction.

Worldwide, pensions are set to reach a shortfall of $400 trillion. This is a larger amount than 20 of the world’s largest economies, according to Sovereign Man.

It was even reported that Congress is planning for pension fund failure in the U.S. Not to mention, Philadelphia has considered tapping public utility payments to cover their shortfall.

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Americans Are Retiring Later, Dying Sooner

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By Bloomberg – Re-Blogged From Newsmax.

The U.S. retirement age is rising, as the government pushes it higher and workers stay in careers longer.

But lifespans aren’t necessarily extending to offer equal time on the beach. Data released last week suggest Americans’ health is declining and millions of middle-age workers face the prospect of shorter, and less active, retirements than their parents enjoyed.

Here are the stats: The U.S. age-adjusted mortality rate—a measure of the number of deaths per year—rose 1.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the Society of Actuaries. That’s the first year-over-year increase since 2005, and only the second rise greater than 1 percent since 1980.

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Impact Of The National Debt On Our Retirements

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By Daniel Amerman – Re-Blogged From http://www.Silver-Phoenix500.com

In this analysis we will take a look at something deeply personal – which is how the $20 trillion United States national debt may change the day-to-day quality of life for savers and retirees in the decades ahead. That is likely a somewhat unusual perspective for many savers and investors.

On the one hand, we have what are often thought of as abstract economic concepts – such as how large will the national debt be in 10 or 20 years? How will Federal Reserve actions to increase interest rates change future government deficits and debts?

On the other hand, we have something that is typically presented as being entirely different, which is individual financial planning. What are the savings and investment choices that we need to make today that will help determine what our standard of living may be in retirement 10, 20 or 30 years from now?

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How Gold Can Rescue Pensions

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By Alasdair Macleod – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

The World Economic Forum, in conjunction with Mercers (the actuaries) recently estimated that the combined pension deficit currently stands at $66.9tr for eight countries, rising to $427.8tr in 2050. The eight countries are Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Netherlands, UK and US. Of the 2016 figure, $50.5tr is unfunded government and public employee pension promises. Yes, we are now talking in hundreds of trillions. Other welfare-providing states missing from the list have deficits that are additional to these estimates.

$66.9tr is roughly 1.5 times the GDP of the eight countries combined, and $427.8tr is nearly ten times. Furthermore, if we take out the non-productive government element, the figures relative to the private sector tax-paying base are closer to twice productive GDP today, and thirteen times greater in 2050. That 2050 deficit assumes a 5% compound annual growth rate. This is a linear projection, but the deterioration in finances for unfunded government pensions may turn out to be exponential, in line with the accelerated increase in the broad money quantity since the great financial crisis.

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Welcome To The Third World, Part 21: This Pension Thing Is About To Get Real

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By John Rubino – Re-Blogged From Dollar Collapse

“The problem with police officers and firefighters isn’t a public-sector problem; it isn’t a problem with government; it’s a problem with the entire society. It’s what happened on Wall Street in the run-up to the subprime crisis. It’s a problem of people taking what they can, just because they can, without regard to the larger social consequences. It’s not just a coincidence that the debts of cities and states spun out of control at the same time as the debts of individual Americans. Alone in a dark room with a pile of money, Americans knew exactly what they wanted to do, from the top of the society to the bottom. They’d been conditioned to grab as much as they could, without thinking about the long-term consequences.”

― Michael Lewis, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

Though it may not be instantly clear, in the above quote Michael Lewis is talking about public sector pensions and how over the course of several decades, mayors and governors across the US have colluded with police, firefighter and teachers unions to promise outrageously-generous benefits and then failed to put aside enough money to pay for them.

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Two Unexpected Reasons to Phase Out Social Security

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cropped-bob-shapiro.jpg   By Bob Shapiro

There are numerous valid arguments for phasing out the Social Security System.

These include the obvious, such as, since Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system, meaning that it depends on revenue from current workers to pay for current retirees, it is a Ponzi Scheme which eventually must fail.

I’d like to talk today about a couple of arguments that may surprise you: 1. Social Security, by it’s very design, is racially discriminatory, and 2. Social Security laws trying to foreclose “double-dipping” are keeping American children from getting the best possible education.

Racially discriminatory? A study from the Centers for Disease Control shows that there is a huge gap between life expectancies for black versus white Americans – age 75 for blacks versus 80 for whites (79 overall).

cdc life expectancy

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Can A Nation $18 Trillion In Debt Afford Higher Interest Rates & Will This Change Our Retirements?

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By Daniel Amerman – Re-Blogged From http://danielamerman.com/

For some years now, very low interest rates have been reducing the earnings of retirement investors as well as the lifestyles of many of those already retired. To understand why this has been happening – and why it may continue for a very long time – one must recognize that there is a direct relationship between the interest rates that are paid to savers, and the interest payments made by a heavily indebted federal government.

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Forget Retirement!

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cropped-bob-shapiro.jpg   By Bob Shapiro

There is a wonderful little classic book called, “The Richest Man in Babylon,” which now is available at no charge online. The book is a series of parables – set in ancient Babylon – which describe how anyone can amass a fortune and retire rich.

The secret is to set aside a portion of your earnings – 10% is recommended – without fail (“Pay yourself first!”), and then to use expert advice to have your money grow in a compounding fashion. As Ben Franklin put it, “Money makes money, and then the money money makes, makes more money.”

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White House looking to creep into 401(k)s

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By Jonathon M. Trugman – Re-Blogged From The New York Post

Last Monday, President Obama attacked Wall Street, again, for essentially helping in what the federal government and businesses can no longer provide — a decent retirement.

Under the false pretense of calling for new and tougher so-called fiduciary standards for financial brokers, advisers and retirement plan representatives, the White House once again horned in on Wall Street’s compensation formulas.

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Stolen Retirement

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cropped-bob-shapiro.jpg   By Bob Shapiro

I’ve been reading about retirement lately. One piece of the retirement planning puzzle is figuring out how much money you need.

Let’s make some assumptions, for the purpose of this discussion – your requirements likely will vary considerably. Your annual earnings over your work life average $60K (near the current median family income),

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