What happens to people who saved nothing for retirement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're heading in a few decades toward a situation where there will be many homeless elderly people on the streets, man and women. No one will bat an eye, either. These homeless elderly people either had no children, or didn't value developing strong, close, positive relationships with their children, and are now navigating old age all alone. If you don't have the money, you'll end up on the streets. Elderly care is expensive.

No, we have social programs for elderly people to provide them with a basic standard of living.

Lol, we can't even house our homeless. How the hell do you think we'll have enough beds for all of them when they're old PLUS all the currently housed middle-aged people who will become elderly and too unwell to work and will need housing? Your math isn't mathing.

Taxes. We're not, as a nation, going to let mentally stable elderly people go homeless.

Actually, that's what we did as a nation pre social security, and the GOP wants to cut social security.

My great grandfather decided to kill himself so his sin could save money when my dad was born, pre social security.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a nanny, and if it wasn’t for my mum, I’d be completely screwed. I am 48, paid legally, so at least I’ll get social security. My mum bought me a condo 10 years ago (currently worth 500k) and I have about 100k in savings. I live in an extremely HCOL city in California and even with my condo paid off, it’s hard to get by. My mum is planning to leave me half her estate, worth about 2 million. I know that after taxes, it won’t be enough to retire, but I’m so grateful if I’ll be able to get 500-600k from my mum. I have a learning disability and never graduated college (tried and flunked out 5 times) so nannying is really the only job I can do that pays well. I love kids, so is a great job, but sadly doesn’t pay well. I’ll work as long as families will hire me. I plan to retire in North Carolina or Mexico, because I can’t afford California.

You know a $2 million inheritance wouldn’t be taxed, right?

PP keeps using the word "mum". If they are from the UK, they will get taxed on that inheritance. My spouse is from there, and my IL's estate is about $1mil, and it will get taxed in the UK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a nanny, and if it wasn’t for my mum, I’d be completely screwed. I am 48, paid legally, so at least I’ll get social security. My mum bought me a condo 10 years ago (currently worth 500k) and I have about 100k in savings. I live in an extremely HCOL city in California and even with my condo paid off, it’s hard to get by. My mum is planning to leave me half her estate, worth about 2 million. I know that after taxes, it won’t be enough to retire, but I’m so grateful if I’ll be able to get 500-600k from my mum. I have a learning disability and never graduated college (tried and flunked out 5 times) so nannying is really the only job I can do that pays well. I love kids, so is a great job, but sadly doesn’t pay well. I’ll work as long as families will hire me. I plan to retire in North Carolina or Mexico, because I can’t afford California.

You know a $2 million inheritance wouldn’t be taxed, right?

My mum lives in Canada, so I believe it’s taxed in Canada and then taxed here? She’s doing estate planning but I think the Americans will want their money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a nanny, and if it wasn’t for my mum, I’d be completely screwed. I am 48, paid legally, so at least I’ll get social security. My mum bought me a condo 10 years ago (currently worth 500k) and I have about 100k in savings. I live in an extremely HCOL city in California and even with my condo paid off, it’s hard to get by. My mum is planning to leave me half her estate, worth about 2 million. I know that after taxes, it won’t be enough to retire, but I’m so grateful if I’ll be able to get 500-600k from my mum. I have a learning disability and never graduated college (tried and flunked out 5 times) so nannying is really the only job I can do that pays well. I love kids, so is a great job, but sadly doesn’t pay well. I’ll work as long as families will hire me. I plan to retire in North Carolina or Mexico, because I can’t afford California.

You know a $2 million inheritance wouldn’t be taxed, right?

PP keeps using the word "mum". If they are from the UK, they will get taxed on that inheritance. My spouse is from there, and my IL's estate is about $1mil, and it will get taxed in the UK.

Sorry, canadian! I hope I’m wrong. My mum wants me to talk to her estate planner to figure out what to do, but it would be lovely if I’m not taxed. I’d love to be able to have enough to pass on to my nieces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a nanny, and if it wasn’t for my mum, I’d be completely screwed. I am 48, paid legally, so at least I’ll get social security. My mum bought me a condo 10 years ago (currently worth 500k) and I have about 100k in savings. I live in an extremely HCOL city in California and even with my condo paid off, it’s hard to get by. My mum is planning to leave me half her estate, worth about 2 million. I know that after taxes, it won’t be enough to retire, but I’m so grateful if I’ll be able to get 500-600k from my mum. I have a learning disability and never graduated college (tried and flunked out 5 times) so nannying is really the only job I can do that pays well. I love kids, so is a great job, but sadly doesn’t pay well. I’ll work as long as families will hire me. I plan to retire in North Carolina or Mexico, because I can’t afford California.

You know a $2 million inheritance wouldn’t be taxed, right?

PP keeps using the word "mum". If they are from the UK, they will get taxed on that inheritance. My spouse is from there, and my IL's estate is about $1mil, and it will get taxed in the UK.

Sorry, canadian! I hope I’m wrong. My mum wants me to talk to her estate planner to figure out what to do, but it would be lovely if I’m not taxed. I’d love to be able to have enough to pass on to my nieces.

No estate tax in canada. Just a deemed disposition tax, but i'm pretty sure it doesn't apply to your primary residence or RRSPs. No tax when you receive it as an american, since the US estate tax applies to US decedents/US assets. If the assets aren't in the US or your mum isn't american, no estate tax (even if the estate tax in the US is reinstated).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My MIL is in this situation in her early 70s and she is thriving!
+ She inherited a fully paid off house from her mother in a HCOL area
+ She moved in with her best friend into this
house and they split expenses. Her best friend has her own paid off condo in the same HCOL area that they could rent for cashflow, but right now they don't even rent it out. They both enjoy the companionship of living together and frequently hosts friend together etc.
+ She has a long-time therapy practice that she enjoys and maintains on a very scaled back schedule (10-20 hours a week). I think she gets a decent high five figure income from this (much of it directly in cash) but she doesn't prioritize saving for retirement.
+ She does not save anything for retirement and plans to work on her current schedule as long as possible by choice but maybe also necessity?
+ She travels a ton, has a better social life than we do, and seems to have a lot of leisure time. Honestly it seems like a great life despite her having made very different choices than I would.

Great life until she needs long term assisted living/memory care/health care and cannot afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're heading in a few decades toward a situation where there will be many homeless elderly people on the streets, man and women. No one will bat an eye, either. These homeless elderly people either had no children, or didn't value developing strong, close, positive relationships with their children, and are now navigating old age all alone. If you don't have the money, you'll end up on the streets. Elderly care is expensive.

No, we have social programs for elderly people to provide them with a basic standard of living.

Lol, we can't even house our homeless. How the hell do you think we'll have enough beds for all of them when they're old PLUS all the currently housed middle-aged people who will become elderly and too unwell to work and will need housing? Your math isn't mathing.

Taxes. We're not, as a nation, going to let mentally stable elderly people go homeless.

Let's bet on this. If you're wrong, I get to come live at your house, okay? See ya in 35 years, roomie!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're heading in a few decades toward a situation where there will be many homeless elderly people on the streets, man and women. No one will bat an eye, either. These homeless elderly people either had no children, or didn't value developing strong, close, positive relationships with their children, and are now navigating old age all alone. If you don't have the money, you'll end up on the streets. Elderly care is expensive.

No, we have social programs for elderly people to provide them with a basic standard of living.

Lol, we can't even house our homeless. How the hell do you think we'll have enough beds for all of them when they're old PLUS all the currently housed middle-aged people who will become elderly and too unwell to work and will need housing? Your math isn't mathing.

Taxes. We're not, as a nation, going to let mentally stable elderly people go homeless.

Oh, so you are ready to fork over more in taxes to the govt? To the govt that needs to keep raising the age for SS because it's so poorly managed. No thanks. Already pay enough in taxes and am fairly confident the govt will actually not manage it well. If they could, we would have universal healthcare, homelessness would not be much of an issue, etc with the taxes they currently collect.

My parents are in their 80s. They were LMC to low income much of my life. I can recall at least 4, 6month+ times in my 18 years at home where my parents were unemployed/I ate free lunch at school/we got food stamps/etc. They never made more than $60K/year combined at retirement age. No pension, yet they somehow had over $850K saved for retirement once (including the family home which was only worth $250K). It's your job to plan for retirement. It is not the government's job to house you and take care of you if you choose not to do that

[Anonymous]

They collect SS and work full or part time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have about $150k and am 46. I will never retire. I'll work until I drop dead.

You can give up, but I don't think 46 is the time to do that. I'm 45 and only have 250, but I'm cautiously optimistic. We've paid off all of our debts (except mortgage). I just started maxing out my 403(b) for the first time in the last two years (of terrible returns) and plan to keep doing so. I will do the catch up contributions when I turn 50 in a few years. It adds up. My husband is about the same. We won't have a pension, but are finally at a decent earning (260 total pretty evenly split), out of daycare years, and saving as much as we can after paying off substantial school loans. We need to be careful with our approach to kids college, but I think we have every reason to believe we can have a normal middle class retirement in 20 years if we focus on catching up.

[Anonymous]

If they have enough equity in their home they can get a reverse mortgage.

[Anonymous]

I have nothing. 60 and divorced. Working and earn 40k salary. I hope to inherit at least 2M from my parents (healthy and mid 80’s now). That’s all I can hope for. And I suppose I will collect my ex husband SS if he dies before me. (Married 25 years).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have nothing. 60 and divorced. Working and earn 40k salary. I hope to inherit at least 2M from my parents (healthy and mid 80’s now). That’s all I can hope for. And I suppose I will collect my ex husband SS if he dies before me. (Married 25 years).

You can collect on your ex Husband's SS whether or not he dies before you. Depending.
https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/applying7.html#:~:text=on%20your%20record.-,Benefits%20For%20Your%20Divorced%20Spouse,Your%20ex%2Dspouse%20is%20unmarried

[Anonymous]

They move abroad to live in LCOL countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have nothing. 60 and divorced. Working and earn 40k salary. I hope to inherit at least 2M from my parents (healthy and mid 80’s now). That’s all I can hope for. And I suppose I will collect my ex husband SS if he dies before me. (Married 25 years).

You can collect half your ex SS before he die