Hacker News Reader

Comment by mynewwork | Hacker News Reader

"Become millionaires" sounds a lot sexier than "Will be adequately prepared for retirement when they're 65".

If you have a full career in any white-collar profession and don't have a million dollars between your 401k, home equity, IRA and other savings when you retire, you spent too many years living too wastefully.

View on HN

Or you were chronically underpaid and didn't realize it. Or you were the victim of circumstances beyond your control that resulted in abnormal financial burdens. Or any of innumerable reasons someone's life can simply not go perfectly.

The idea that getting a job, keeping it, and living responsibly necessarily result in sufficient savings and assets for retirement is pretty widespread and deeply flawed. Life just is not that simple, and there are plenty of ways to end up screwed (in varying degrees) without having done anything particularly irresponsible or stupid that would warrant it.

You don't even need to be the victim of unforeseen circumstances. Just having kids makes it much harder to save money. Your expenses for food, clothing, housing, energy, healthcare, etc. go way up, and if both parents work, they're paying for daycare when the children are young. Which means it's much harder to invest a significant fraction of your income.

> If you have a full career in any white-collar profession and don't have a million dollars between your 401k, home equity, IRA and other savings when you retire, you spent too many years living too wastefully.

If only I had known this buying my home at the peak of the real estate bubble (-$150K to net worth), having to take a pay cut when switching employers (effectively -$15K/year) last year, or having to provide financially for my disabled mother (-$20-35K/year).

It sure isn't like I've been living as a rockstar. Life happens. At least I'm only 31 and can still recuperate from above financial setbacks.

What part of the US do you live in that house prices are still depressed $150k since the bubble (on a house that costs presumably less than $800k)? In most cities prices have come back up, I think.

Keep in mind... you have 34 years until you're 65. That's a lot of years of investment interest, additional income, and inflation away from OP's proposed $1mil figure.

My townhouse was in the western Chicago suburbs. My builder went bankrupt, and the land was sold at fire sale prices to M/I Homes, who then proceeded to sell their townhomes for a little less than half of what I paid.

Ouch. That sounds pretty horrible :(.

At the time, I was in a pretty rough place. Now I'm in a much better place, short selling it to get out from underneath it, my credit score has recovered, etc.

It's gotten better.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com