Anonymous wrote:What are people who don’t make enough to live supposed to do? It’s a privilege to save for retirement. It really is.

Then they live a basic life in retirement without any extras. Yes, saving is a "privilege" but far more people are able to save and choose not to. And yes, the little things add up. So while one trip for coffee each day doesn't seem like much, when it's $8 *30, that's $240/month and add in multiple poeple in family doing this and extend it to other things that are WANTS not needs and most people could find $$ to save.
I grew up LMC/Poor. We didn't live in a nice house, we had a garden and majority of food came from there. We ate out/got take out pizza maybe 1-2 times per month (and when money was "tight" we didn't even do that). We drove really old cars, they worked but were not nice (think DCUM area but no AC in the car or the house). Mom made most of my clothing (sewed it---it wasn't pretty but it worked)--only new clothing I got to buy was underwear, socks and shoes, and even then I typically had 1 pair of everyday shoes and 1 pair of shoes for church. Who do you know today that has only 2 pairs of shoes?!?! Even those who say "we cannot save".

However, my parents prioritized saving and never wanted to be a burden. So they retired with over $500K and another $200K from the "not so nice house" after 40 years of owning the same house (they had it almost paid off).

But if you choose not to save, then you have to live with that choice. Life is all about choices. You have a job, it pays X, and your job in life is to live on less than X. Or find a way to add to X by getting a better job, more education, working a 2nd job, etc. But the solution is not to live on all of X or more than X

Anonymous wrote:I will be working until I die. I can't afford to retire. That's for rich people.

Same. I live paycheck to paycheck. I'm single and don't have the benefit of a second income. It doesn't leave much to save for retirement.

People really don't know what they are doing with money. My MIL just told me this weekend that she needs to work a few more years to hit her retirement goal $$. A bit later she told me she cashed out a pension that was more than expected so she could redo her home office with nice built ins, French doors, wallpaper, etc. And she told me she sold some company stocks, bought a bunch of Pharma stocks hoping they would increase more quickly, but now they have gone down a bunch. She also just bought a new car with her savings, so she needs to build that back up. So basically, she is using retirement/emergency money to fund her lifestyle, and the goalpost keeps moving because she won't stop touching the funds. This is a college educated person who spent her career working in finance.

I think people do save. But they end up tapping into their savings over the years for various things. They justify it by saying they need the car, the home renovation will increase their home value, etc. But treating retirement funds like this does not help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are people who don’t make enough to live supposed to do? It’s a privilege to save for retirement. It really is.

Asian American here. I was a child of immigrants. DH and I support my parents and his mom. We know many adult Asian Americans supporting their elderly parents. It is actually quite common.

Do you feel resentful about this? Genuinely curious.

Not PP, but I'm an immigrant who told my two boys jokingly that they need to support in retirement. They know what I went through to get here and how difficult my low wage 12-hour shift job was. It took me 17-years to finish college. I never worked in my field as I was simply old and exhausted by college graduation.
Here's a thing, supporting me in my 50s-90s is easy for my kids even if I stay in US. There is no comparison what they have as citizens and what I didn't have as an immigrant. The benefit list and things going for them that I didn't have, is very long.
529, grants, loans, in-state tuition, being male, health insurance, the right to work, investment accounts, Roth IRA, family for support, cheap rent, car, driver's license, all documents in order, friend and high school network, dual-citizens.
I love it that my kids know they have it easy and don't take anything for granted.They will not repeat the mistakes I made in life. This alone will put them into a very good financial position.
No loaning money to friends for example unless they want to gift it.
19-year old started working right at the start of college and is making $35-$40 an hour now. That's a lot of money for a young adult with low college expenses. His tax refund alone paid for 2 classes.The list is way longer, but it would be an overkill to keep going. I'm not asking too much from them. They are still being supported and guided by family when needed. I should even be able to watch my grand-kids for free one day as I'm not even 50 yet.
I don't expect them to be resentful at all. I'm making it very cheap and easy for them to pay for my living expenses in the old country. I actually have enough, but joked that I'd like $500 from each a month.They won't even have an estate to close as I hope to do it for them, or funeral to attend. I cannot make their lives any easier. They are very sensible kids and not big spenders at all.
They can also move to the old country (in EU) to keep their own retirement expenses low.

They don't live in the DMV so it's cheaper to live in many places. They get by. But they don't have maid service, gardeners and expensive travel.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everytime I look up what I should have saved up, I get stats on what the average American actually has. And they don’t have much. So what do all these people actually do when they reach their 60s and 70s?

They work. I know several 70 year olds that are working jobs.

I’ll probably work until 70. I would like to retire from my “real” job in 5 years, collect small pension and work a part time easier job and hold off on SS until 67.

This is what I want to do too. I don't want to just stop working completely, I would rather ramp back and do something that gets me out of the house a few hours a week though I hope to wait until 70 to collect SS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will be working until I die. I can't afford to retire. That's for rich people.

Actually, rich people don’t retire, they keep working. People who dream about retirement are poor people with bad jobs.

My uncle is rich (several businesses, properties, investments -- I know because I am his executor) and he absolutely retired. He now lives a life of jetsetting around the world, visiting friends, dating (he is divorced) age appropriate and similarly situation women and hosting parties and gatherings for politicians at his home. It's a sweet life.

age appropriate similarly SITUATED women

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will be working until I die. I can't afford to retire. That's for rich people.

Actually, rich people don’t retire, they keep working. People who dream about retirement are poor people with bad jobs.

My uncle is rich (several businesses, properties, investments -- I know because I am his executor) and he absolutely retired. He now lives a life of jetsetting around the world, visiting friends, dating (he is divorced) age appropriate and similarly situation women and hosting parties and gatherings for politicians at his home. It's a sweet life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are people who don’t make enough to live supposed to do? It’s a privilege to save for retirement. It really is.

Asian American here. I was a child of immigrants. DH and I support my parents and his mom. We know many adult Asian Americans supporting their elderly parents. It is actually quite common.

It’s the same with other immigrants.
Some of these parents receive a lot of benefits because they don’t have American assets and don’t have a high SS benefit or they have none and get SSI.
Lots of parents of high earning software engineers who have housing vouchers, SSI and in home support services funded by the state.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are people who don’t make enough to live supposed to do? It’s a privilege to save for retirement. It really is.

Asian American here. I was a child of immigrants. DH and I support my parents and his mom. We know many adult Asian Americans supporting their elderly parents. It is actually quite common.

Do you feel resentful about this? Genuinely curious.

Anonymous wrote:What are people who don’t make enough to live supposed to do? It’s a privilege to save for retirement. It really is.

Asian American here. I was a child of immigrants. DH and I support my parents and his mom. We know many adult Asian Americans supporting their elderly parents. It is actually quite common.

What are people who don’t make enough to live supposed to do? It’s a privilege to save for retirement. It really is.

Anonymous wrote:Based on the small sample of my parents/their friends, they didn't need huge retirement savings because:
1. They paid $40-50K for the homes where they raised their kids in the 80s-90s and sold for $400K+ ten years ago. And most had been paid off for a long time before they sold.
2. They took the money and bought a smaller place in a lower COL area. No mortgage and their taxes and utilities plummeted.
3. Many of them have pensions from jobs, military, etc. So they add that to SS, they can cover their bills.
4. A few of them inherited some money/homes from their parents--none are rich off of that but it helped.
5. They aren't paying for the kinds of things we are in our 40s/50s raising kids--no college savings, summer camps, sports dues, etc.
6. They have no commuting costs--yes, they have to pay for gas but only if they want to go somewhere. Most of their social activities take place within 5 miles of their homes. And their cars last longer because they don't use them as much.
7. When they go out to eat, they go during the day for the lunch specials and cook simple meals for dinner. So much less expensive and they can sit and chat for awhile because restaurants aren't itching to get them out the door at 2pm.
8. They can travel on off times and aren't stuck going on vacation during the small windows of school breaks.
9. In addition to their primary homes, many also had small vacation homes that they bought for under $50K and are now worth 5-10x that. A lot of them moved into the vacation homes that, again, they had paid off well before they retired.

The short answer is, they didn't need a lot of retirement savings because they don't have a lot of expenses. And they held their assets elsewhere.

They may have had lower house prices, but lower salaries. They paid for the same exact things and you are really stretching. My parents were nothign like you describe. We had summer camps as they worked, day care, etc.

And, my spouse has a military pension. Its about $600 a month. Ex gets part, then taxes, and all that, then tricare payment and it doesn't even cover our groceries and we don't eat fancy and buy at Aldi's or Walmart.

I'll be working til I die

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to manage a couple of people who worked way too long because they had to. One issue affecting both of them was having to give half their pension and/or SS to an ex after divorce. I think this affects many people and leaves them with much less in old age.

SS is never given to an ex, at least not directly.
Maybe it’s used to cover their settlement agreement amount but they need to go to court and review it.
Workaholics or those who are afraid to become irrelevant if they stop working often use it as an excuse.
They either “have to pay their ex wife” or “have to support their young adult kids”.

My parents divorced after 13 years of marriage when I was little. After my dad died and my mom retired, she collected his SS for years before she started collecting her own.

https://share.google/gbQpN3AIcQKB4OBlS

Well did it come out of your dad’s pocket directly? NO
that’s what I am talking about

It reduced the amount his second wife received.

No it doesn’t, other contributors are paying for those who divorced