I wonder if you can collect SS and unemployment. There an income stream for ya. Food stamps, heat assistance, etc.... People who are in "that" place are not looking to travel, join golf clubs, etc. when they retire, they "retired" from life long ago. There are plenty of union workers retiring on 3-4k a month, they haven't got a million dollars. So who is the target audience of the article? Schlups that have min wage jobs, self employed? Maybe someone who has 50k in the bank and 20 years till retirement and looking for investors?
I know someone who has a paid for house, 150k in stocks and lives off 1200 per month Social security. In the last 15 years she has spent about 50k of her savings. With the dividends in her stocks I would say she makes about $1800-2k per month. She takes 2 vacations every year that are about 3 weeks to 1 month long going on cruises, or just traveling to other countries. She has a 65 inch big screen TV, high speed internet and she buys a 2 year old car every 4 years or so (Car always costs less than 13k) If she didnt take a hit in real estate and the stock market in the last few years, she would have alot more. So i know you can live comfortably on less than 1 million. If you want to live like a 20 year old, drinking & partying all the time and you dont own your own house, and you live in an expensive part of the country, then and only then will you need a million. Most people retire to cheap places when they get old, like arizona or texas though.
The sad thing is all these union people act as if they are the best traders / investors in the world, I enounter them almost on a daily basis in the real world. You'd have to be to believe that you could envision a situation whereby dying companies are able to continue support the withdrawal of (nonexistent) money from their pensions with a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of pensioners to workers... Given that many of them are working for obsolete companies in the auto sector, metals, etc, nevermind the fact that this is an environment of zero yield, where the only thing a pension fund can chase are risky illiquid assets that will probably default, you would have to be a stupid union worker to believe that these pensions will survive. As for social security, we'd have to look back in history to see how a country funded there obligations against this kind of economic outlook. So, I would definitely agree, you need a million bucks.
I know most people don't want to give up control of their money and inspite of poor returns one should consider annuitized annuities as part of your retirement plan. You need income that cannot be taken away. People have to spend down savings to qualify for medicare or a facility, all well and good but if you recover and no longer need that type of care your money is gone. You are left a pauper.
no way. annuities are a terrible choice and they are not guaranteed. they are only as good as the company selling them. if the selling company goes broke you lose all.
The catholic church (probably other denominations do also) sells them. About as good as you can get for a guarantee.
i've been hearing that for hte past 20 years. from 1995 Still 2 people out of 100 would have a million saved.
are you kidding? the fricking catholic church might be bankrupted if many more child sex abuse cases pop up. why in the world would you advise someone to purchase an annuity that they can not escape now with rates as low as the are? if interest rates rise in the future you would not be able to escape the annuity and take advantage of higher rates.
what a sad state america is in were it takes so much money just to retire. that is not the fact in other places. americans should take what money they have and retire to other countries. better health care, money goes further, value for your money.