For Gen X, Retirement Bites

[Celerity]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/business/gen-x-retirement.html

https://archive.ph/VrnIX

















snip

more at the top links

[dweller]

1. AARP is whispering

“hey girl”
“hey man”



✌🏻

[XanaDUer2]

2. 56 here

Hoping to get ssdi for about 1600 month. SO now pays rent and utilities. We're going to try to get cheap condo. I'm beneficiary to his pension, about 950 a month. Drive a 15-year old car.

Hope to just squeak by. Did without a lot over the years. Had one great job that paid well. Hope that gives me a good SSDI payout.

Fingers crossed. Always felt I'd die fairly young

ETA: will get small NC pension at 65

[Carlitos Brigante]

3. Retirement?! Ha!! That's adorable. nt

[Sympthsical]

4. I always wonder how job swapping affects things

Work culture has definitely changed since the boomers. My father worked for the same company nearly his entire adult life. He had a pension my mom now collects a portion of along with Social Security. She's fine.

But all of my retirement is pretty much just what I've put aside since my 20s. There has been no grand plan or 401k or union pension. Then I think about my friends, especially the ones in tech. They job swap constantly. It is not unusual for someone in the industry to bounce from company to company every two or so years.

I'm currently in school for nursing, and I expect that's what I'll do for at least the next 20-25 years. My general approach is going to be sock away as much as possible in investments while paying off the house early (should be done before I'm 50).

But my retirement has very much been a self-project. A lot of my friends spent their 30s just kind of squeaking by. I cannot imagine they have that much stored away. Even my partner, who has an amazing job, barely saved before we met. When I first saw what his savings looked like, I was floored. He was making twice as much as me at the time and didn't even have a quarter of what I'd saved.

It'll be interesting when we all get there.

[MichMan]

11. People don't get a job after HS and stay there for over 30 yrs anymore

The people who long for the days of traditional pensions and argue against them being replaced by 401k need to recognize that.

Your friends in IT, and there are many others that change jobs frequently, wouldn't ever work long enough at a single employer to ever qualify for any pensions. They are much better served with a 401k that they can take with them from job to job. Many of those 401k have an employer that matches their contributions up to a certain level.

Also, imagine working towards a pension in a company for several years and getting a much better opportunity somewhere else. Do you take it, even if that means giving up on all those years you had accrued towards a pension, and starting over from scratch? Or do you turn it down and continue working in the old job, even though you hate it?

[Bettie]

5. We entered the work force in that place where

they started phasing out defined benefits in favor of thr 401k.

Then, came vulture capitalists and buying companies to raid the pension plans.

We don't have enough in 401k's to make a decent retirement, we no longer have pensions because they got raided...I'm sure it will be fine, we don't need much to get by, we were also latchkey kids.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

6. Whatever.

I'm Gen X, and I have a retirement plan that I figure will be completely wiped out by climate change. Not a day goes by where I don't think about digging into it and start checking off my bucket list because there's no point.

[DenaliDemocrat]

7. I am a Gen Xer who will retire in 5 years

I have a 401K and pension. I have dual citizenship in Italy through my grandparents. I plan on becoming an ex Pat in Calabria. I should live very comfortable there.

[Tarc]

8. So cute that the NYT made their article look like 80s/90s alt concert fliers

They are so sadly out of touch, no different from when they got punked by "grunge speak";

25 Years Ago: 'New York Times' Falls for the Great Grunge Speak Hoax

[Demovictory9]

10. I love the water color portraits

[3Hotdogs]

9. I would figure the worst thing to do about retirement, is to do nothing.

Anuetyy? Not the best idea Good for the sales rep, not as good for you but better than nothing. Your heirs get nothing when you die. Some of the money you pay into it, goes to commission and doesn't help you.

Bit coin? Better off putting it on "red."

My best guess, S & P 500. Symbol, SPDR. Commission, "0" or a couple of bucks. More of a gamble, Dow Jones Industrial Index. Symbol, "DIA."


Good luck.