Generation X has been the alpha tester for the 401(k) retirement system, and the gloomy results are rolling in.
Nearly half of Gen Xers say their retirement savings are behind schedule.
"Many Gen Xers got a late start transitioning to 401(k) plans and struggled to catch up," Chris Ceder, a senior retirement strategist with Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told Yahoo Finance.
That’s significant as the oldest in this cohort will turn 60 next year.
Australia’s Superannuation Guarantee requires companies to contribute the equivalent of 11% of an employee’s monthly pay to an investment account that is controlled by the worker, who can also put in additional money. > (continued)
(cont) W/ its relatively small population—27 million—Australia now has the world’s 4th-highest per capita contributions to a pension system, and almost 80% of its work force is covered. >
A lot of people think they can't be garnished but they don't really know what that means.
They've seen videos or read information telling them that certain income sources, like social security benefits, can't be garnished by a debt collector, and they think that makes them safe.
Amazing. Just amazing. Read this. [Politico]: ‘The 401(k) industry owns Congress’: How lawmakers quietly passed a $300 billion windfall to the wealthy
Greased by lobbying and campaign cash, tax breaks for retirement savings are one thing Congress agrees on. But they also blow out the deficit and add to income inequality. By Benjamin Guggenheim, 04/13/2024 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/13/how-your-401k-ate-the-federal-budget-00150319
@jackhutton It's even worse when you know people who work in that industry and just how despicable their views are. They may work hard, but they still don't deserve what they get rewarded with.
@ljrk Quite right too. TBH, I felt like that before I'd even left school. Who actually wants to work to make someone else rich ?
This is actually a pension from one the jobs that I had around 30 years ago. The company it was associated with went under quite soon after I started there so I didn't pay into it for long.
You could choose a retirement age on the application form and I said 60, hence the early "retirement". But I think it's only worth about €200 per year (not per month) so it's not going to change my life much ;-)
@hembrow Yup, and even if you work at a company (or org) that's demonstrably not making your bosses much richer than you... you still play in a rigged system where every move you make almost inevitably makes a Bezos, Musk, Nadella, ... even more stinkingly rich :|
Heh, EUR 200 per year... that's barely enough for dieing, not enough for living. At least it's not the only thing.
Compare and contrast two Guardian quotes from today
On Charles III's cancer diagnosis "will once again raise questions about whether it is fair to expect a man in his mid-70s to fulfil a rota of public duties."
"UK state pension age will soon need to rise to 71, say experts"
@cmsdengl there are far more important urgent things happening round the world than the Kings diagnosis lots of us have had cancer been treated BY THE NHS and quietly got on with our lives yet there appears to be nothing on the news but the kings diagnosis this is yet more distraction from what our Westminster government is about -awful sycophantic mawk
@GreenerFutures I think people need to be alarmed though as the Tories will def raise the pension age if they get back in power .And thats going to mean a lot of misery for the large numbers of people who cant work because they have developed chronic health issues,they wont get a pension they will get Universal credit which is a lot less,about £80 for single people and they wont get heating allowances etc ,so its back door cost cutting
The only reason to raise the pension age is to maximise the amount of work you can squeeze out of people while minimising what they get back for their decades of work.
Given UK life expectancy is falling, and the impact of covid on long term health (both thanks to neoliberals dictating policy), it's clearly a deluded, unreasonable and cruel proposal.
As experts suggest longer lives & higher numbers entering #retirement in good #health suggest the retirement age should rise even further than planned (to 71?), for those over-55 the gap between the (forced?) end of a working life & the state pension is a yawning gulf of prospective poverty.
If the retirement age is to continue to rise then #ageism in the #workforce needs to be addressed & retraining/re-skilling needs to be much more available & affordable for the 55+
Should we stay in our current house or should we look for a more suitable #retirement home? As a #minimalist, I’m leaning towards a smaller place. And I recently saw a “smart” pre-fab home that appears ideal and reasonably priced.
The “smarts” aren’t likely what you think, but they make all the difference.
@jnv Yup, I'd love to see that too. We keep focusing on "more" and "bigger" when it comes to housing, which isolates certain regions / income levels from home ownership.
New figures from ONS suggest labour shortages caused by early #retirement & 'economic inactivity' are being compounded by a reduction in average working hours for #workers between 25-49.
While small in hours (less than two hours reduction since 1998), in aggregate this is like a further withdrawal of over 300k people from the workforce.
If the UK was not suffering from a stagnation in #productivity growth this would be less of problem...