What happens to people who saved nothing for retirement?

[Anonymous]

How many of these people relying on SSI, food stamps and subsidized housing/healthcare are MAGA voters who believe half the country are lazy bums living off the government?

[Anonymous]

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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!

I’m the PP. I’m not betting on this. I’ve maxed out my 401k since my first real job @ 22. I do think it’s unlikely we’ll ever remove our safety net for older Americans, and I’m fine with paying taxes to provide it.

What safety net? Besides Medicare and crappy nursing home if you have no money? SS is something you pay into, if you don't pay in (or spouse didn't) you don't collect.

But the majority do pay in, unless they worked illegally or had a job that provides a pension instead of SS.

[Anonymous]

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

My in-laws are in their 70s, renters, and have negative net worth. They were people that believed in helping others and took jobs that reflected that but paid little. They didn’t think ahead to what that would mean when they could no longer work. They are squeaking by on SS and a small pension, but rent is a killer and we’ve been helping them out.

[Anonymous]

We are on schedule for retirement savings but I’m afraid everything will crash and we lose everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many of these people relying on SSI, food stamps and subsidized housing/healthcare are MAGA voters who believe half the country are lazy bums living off the government?

A lot

Just like when Obamacare started, all the interviews with people who now finally had "affordable health insurance" except they did not realize it was "Obamacare". The right throughout history cannot understand any program/situation until it affects them directly, and once it does well then "it's acceptable", or they are not capable of realizing they have "government help" .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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!

I’m the PP. I’m not betting on this. I’ve maxed out my 401k since my first real job @ 22. I do think it’s unlikely we’ll ever remove our safety net for older Americans, and I’m fine with paying taxes to provide it.

What safety net? Besides Medicare and crappy nursing home if you have no money? SS is something you pay into, if you don't pay in (or spouse didn't) you don't collect.

But the majority do pay in, unless they worked illegally or had a job that provides a pension instead of SS.

Exactly, so SS is NOT a government safety net. It is getting back what you paid into the program (or at least a portion). My point was there really is NOT a safety net for elderly besides Medicare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many of these people relying on SSI, food stamps and subsidized housing/healthcare are MAGA voters who believe half the country are lazy bums living off the government?

Yes, like the denizens of Baltimore or Anacostia?

A lot of angry projections in your posts. I do remember from sociology classes that the working poor were the most judgment about those who got government benefits as they saw a lot of abuses of the benefits.

[Anonymous]

My mother is one of these. If we didn’t subsidize her she would be in the crappy Medicaid nursing home that my aunt is in, or she’d be dead for lack of care. I resent it (she wasn’t a good mom or a kind person at all), but I can’t do otherwise.

[Anonymous]

the lack of foresight in people is astounding.
I grew up poor, but made sure I was very educated so I could get a great job with a pension and live beneath my means.
I married someone equally frugal and fiscally goal oriented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you need to learn personal finance and investing. I finally made over $40k last year after working for 25 years.
Looking at my SS statement, 20 years I made under $20k and only four years a little over $20k.
I'm retiring at 50, because I am a master of budgeting and investing. I find personal finance exciting and rewarding. Knowing where every penny goes is the reason I have been able to survive and thrive on so little.
I can go to the store with $50 and come back as if I spent $100 (without stealing anything).
I usually get $400 a year back in cash from CC. This feeds me for several months. My last investment made 30 percent in one month. I saw the dip in price and pick it up. I don't really even need to work anymore as investment income has taken over by now; I did all that on that very low income.
I have so many ideas how to make money/save money that I'm fine making so little now at work. The way it even came about was that I worked 12-hour shifts for minimum pay and I could see that I cannot continue like that forever.
While I do have a better paying job now, the years of working long hours with little pay, taught me a lot. Had I been able to go to school and got a decent job, I probably would have upgraded my life, maxed out the 401k, and do what most people do and work til 62-67.
I probably would have never bothered to look into investing on my own or budgeting or being frugal.

This is fascinating. You should do an AMA, or at least share some of the money-saving tips you referenced above. Many of us are looking for new ideas. Also, I have to ask, how is your health? I don’t want to cut grocery bills if it means eating Purdue chicken or .99 eggs. I’d rather pay a little more, but that being said, I would love your non-grocery ideas!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of these people relying on SSI, food stamps and subsidized housing/healthcare are MAGA voters who believe half the country are lazy bums living off the government?

Yes, like the denizens of Baltimore or Anacostia?

A lot of angry projections in your posts. I do remember from sociology classes that the working poor were the most judgment about those who got government benefits as they saw a lot of abuses of the benefits.

The majority of people on government assistance are white. Sad you don't know this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of these people relying on SSI, food stamps and subsidized housing/healthcare are MAGA voters who believe half the country are lazy bums living off the government?

Yes, like the denizens of Baltimore or Anacostia?

A lot of angry projections in your posts. I do remember from sociology classes that the working poor were the most judgment about those who got government benefits as they saw a lot of abuses of the benefits.

The majority of people on government assistance are white. Sad you don't know this.

The majority of tax payers are also white.

Hint : the majority of the population is white.

Try looking at per capita next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of these people relying on SSI, food stamps and subsidized housing/healthcare are MAGA voters who believe half the country are lazy bums living off the government?

Yes, like the denizens of Baltimore or Anacostia?

A lot of angry projections in your posts. I do remember from sociology classes that the working poor were the most judgment about those who got government benefits as they saw a lot of abuses of the benefits.

The majority of people on government assistance are white. Sad you don't know this.

What is sad is your projecting. A higher share of blacks get government aid than whites. But what does it it matter? As far as we know, all the white welfare recipients may well be progressive Democratic voters. Plenty of whites vote Democratic. And what is also indisputable is that there is a high concentration of government assistance in urban areas, which also tend to have higher black populations. Hello Anacostia? Detroit? Baltimore? Philadelphia? Atlanta?