I'm 32 and have enough cash on hand to last ~3 months in case of unexpected job loss, but that's all. "Retirement" isn't something I expect to be able to do.
I'll probably never own a home.
My future is pretty bleak, but I feel like that's the general millennial view.
I haven't seen anything get better economically since I was born. I watched my grandparents lose their home & lose all economic security because their pensions and union payouts were crushed, their social security hasn't seen any reasonable increase in a long time.
I just see things going downhill and never getting better because that's all I've ever experienced.
That's vague and doesn't have any specifics so can't really comment on that.
> I haven't seen anything get better economically since I was born. I watched my grandparents lose their home & lose all economic security because their pensions and union payouts were crushed, their social security hasn't seen any reasonable increase in a long time.
So your grandparents had it tough in their retirement years so you and everyone else has to have it tough economically?
> I just see things going downhill and never getting better because that's all I've ever experienced.
So your 27, still early in your adult life and you have given up completely? Sounds like your setting your self up for a tough life. Do you not have plans? A career you want to excel in? Goals? Besides, being a union member or having a pension is not needed to retire comfortably. The S&P 500 index is up over 1000% since you were born if you were to reinvest the dividends. Prudent saving and investing will give you a comfortable retirement. Plus your young enough that even if you started now you could retire well off.
S&P doesn't really help me since I've always been low income.
My grandparents are an example, but with 80% of the country living paycheck to paycheck, 50% deemed poor or in poverty, 1/5 children in poverty, 60% of the country hasn't seen a pay raise since the 70's when adjusted for inflation, and workers rights being crushed daily, it's not just my grandparents, the majority of the country is feeling it. There's a reason most Millennials are "not on track", and it's because they have no money.
What do I have to look forward to? I don't have money to invest in my future, and I'm a very frugal person. Cutting 2-5% to put into some sort of savings would crush me monthly. I feel like this is how most Millennials feel too.
Social security and Medicare will be gutted by the time our generation reaches what was once considered retirement age. There’s no longer such a thing as a pension unless you belong to a public sector union. Agism makes me concerned about being able to stay employed past the next 10 years.
And that’s all still assuming that automation-related unemployment and growing inequality don’t result in extremely destructive social unrest that tears the economy to pieces. (Or that it doesn’t collapse in on itself due to inequality leaving the masses without the disposable income needed to sustain a consumption-based economy.)
I do not own a home, but expect to convert most of that liquid savings if the opportunity does arise.
I do not make enough to qualify for owing a home in the area I live.
I also don't anticipate growth in the markets long term over the period of my life to retirement; I fully expect the unfinished recession will need to show a bug ugly period again with an ACTUAL market correction and I foolishly hope we'll finally stop chasing bubbles after that because it will be politically untenable to not FULLY socialize retirement and (at least basic) health-care costs.
Just out of curiosity, what's the difference between money in the bank and money for retirement? Should the retirement money go into a dedicated (investment? pension?) fund? Can't they be your savings that you manage by yourself?
I'm asking since I was raised with a different background with pension in Europe being a very different concept from the US.
Yeah this is just some silliness and I don't understand why there are so many different types of vehicles.
It seems like there should be a given list of things that are OK for any tax exempt or deferred use, and I don't see why artificially limiting the case of that use is a good thing for society.
The exception should be based around one of two concepts. Either "investing" pre-tax, and being taxed when pulling from the pool, or post-tax and being allowed to spend for allowed uses without any tax. Any profits should be forced to go back in to the same type of pool. Given the fact that taxes are assessed at some point, transferring (at current taxes) from the not-yet-taxed pool type to the already-taxed type should be allowed.
Investment/retirement implies long time, you can afford to take a large risk because the reward is worth it long term. Stocks historically average 10% any 20 year time, but in that 20 years there are some years where they drop 20%. It works out in the long run, but you better not have near term savings in there because you can't know for sure that your money will be there.
If i remember correctly you had 6 months before the crash.
I quickly looked at the oil chart and looks like oil was still above $100 when lehman failed. It dropped way down to like 20's.