Nearly HALF of American Households Had No Retirement Accounts

Are you “retired?” You are! But are you still working? Aye, there’s the rub. Looking for information on how many people like myself have to continue to seek income after retirement, I came across this article from the NEW YORK POST entitled, Fast-food chains no hiring more senior citizens than teens (see featured image). The article, written by Hannah Frishberg, published on Nov 5, 2018, points out numerous reasons why the chains prefer seniors, but the most important aspect of her article to me, i.e., to us is this,

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts the number of American workers aged 65 to 74 will swell 4.5 percent by 2024, while the 16-to-24 demographic could shrink 1.4 percent.

By 2024, the BLS projects the labor force will grow to about 164 million people. That number includes about 41 million people ages 55 and older— about 13 million of those are expected to be ages 65 and up.

Guess what, yes, it is now 2024, proving Ms. Frishberg was correct in her reporting.

Figuring out exactly what you will do when you retire is a luxury that a very small percentage of us will ever have. Of course, Dorothy taught us to sing, “The dreams that you dare to dream really can come true.” On the other hand, facts indicate that the realities are often much less than we had hoped for or dreamed of. In fact, according to USAFACTS, updated November 9, 2023, the writer quoted the Survey of Consumer Finances as saying:

USAFacts

…and in a Federal Reserve report of 2008-13, opened with this statement:

“As the baby boomers begin to retire, a great deal remains unknown about the evolution of wealth toward the end of life.”

Finance and Economics Discussion Series
Divisions of Research & Statistics and Monetary Affairs
Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C.
The Trajectory of Wealth in Retirement
David A. Love, Michael G. Palumbo, and Paul A. Smith
2008-13

However, before you go to that link, I will tell you this about that!

You will love this report if you like double-talk, governmental jargon and rhetoric, flamboyant language, and tremendously confusing dialogue, with loads of charts and graphs! The document will help you see why the Federal and State governments have no idea what “life-after-working” means but instead use hand-picked information from the IRS to say, “Looks like to us, the seniors are doing just fine.” In other words, it will prove how obvious it is that so many who work within government circles become educated far beyond their intelligence!

From what I could comprehend, the document says that most retirees will outlive their wealth. Still, regardless of what anyone tells you about it, so many factors have to be figured into “life after work” that it is impossible to know precisely what you can or how you will afford it.

Why? Because we live in a very unstable world.

It’s not just day-to-day living that you have to be concerned with

When you enter retirement, you have to (i.e., you must) enter it with the end game in mind. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET YOUNG AGAIN. Ergo, your retirement planning cannot be all about what a great time you’re going to have but must include what will happen when the fun times end and your health brings you to the point where LONG-TERM-CARE will be needed.

Being the youngest in my family of seven siblings, I can attest to what time and unforeseen occurrences will do to the body. Having lost four of the seven by this time and watching my next two eldest enter their eighties are not happy events. No, they concern me, NOT ABOUT DEATH, but what can and will come beforehand. So, again, I say, PLAN FOR IT.

So, what does that mean?

 

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