"Because you likely have a better chance at this than ever seeing a retirement in the 21st Century!"

[HughBeaumont]

[uriel1972]

1. Next up: Water is wet... nt

[FreakinDJ]

2. So sad - this is what America has come to

[HughBeaumont]

3. It IS sad . . .

. . . . sad in the sense that doing the right thing for all people would be so EASY.

But we instead have to politicize every human right not nailed down and use politics sprinkled with greed and religion to justify selfishness.

Because of this, we have no security, no foreseeable future and no hope . . . with a 1-in-America's Population odds of a jackpot the only hope of sunlight.

[hfojvt]

5. do you really have no hope?

Why not? What do you do for a living?

Myself, I am a part time janitor, age, almost 54.

I hope/expect to retire in 2 years 1 month and 29 days (not that anybody is counting)

I won't have much of a pension, but I think I can make it on that and what I have saved.

We will see when I run my budget numbers and get actual pension figures.

I could do many more awesome things with that jackpot - create jobs, purchase a business, and so on. But I certainly have hope of retirement, even without it.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Depends on if my house is paid off before I retire in 16 years.

It's realistic, since I don't owe that much.

Save that, I don't see these 401ks (which I've been contributing regularly to for 18 years, and sorry to say, the math just doesn't add up) lasting all that long and Full SS likely isn't going to happen for me until 66-67.

The OP more or less speaks to the generations after me (Y and the millennials). I just don't see, short of a windfall financial miracle, how they overcome the mountains of cost that have befallen them. I mean, unless they're content with never retiring and just working at something until they're carried out of their open office. Sorry, I'm not optimistic it's going to happen. Unsecure work climates and insurmountable necessity costs are making such a scenario more improbable year after year.

[hfojvt]

8. it's really hard to predict the future

BUT those I know best from the "next' generation - my monkeys (combined word for nieces and nephews) seem to be doing pretty well. They drive nicer cars than me, they own nice houses, and they are vacationing in Europe and Mexico. If their present is that good, then I don't see why their future should necessarily be bleak.

For me, back in the 1990s, when I was in my 30s, my present was pretty bleak. Hell, even before that, when I was 26 I went to graduate school. Why? Because I could not find a job - ANY job.

And as for full SS, my own calculations and my own feeling is that it is better to take the early, partial SS rather than working until you get the full. One just never knows about life, anyway. I see too many people dying in their late 50s. Heck a guy I went to grade school with, his little brother just died, age 44. That's one reason I partially retired in 2006 - switched to part time work. Better to take your retirement NOW, when you are young.

[CTyankee]

13. so many people who swear they will never be able to retire end up retiring anyway...

why? They get old and unable to work. They face ageism at work and are forced out. Or they just can't take it anymore on the job (knees give out, shoulder permanently damaged from hauling heavy objects, like our plumber friend's did, dementia, arthritis and so on).

It's just not realistic to say you aren't going to retire, IMO.If you're health is bad I agree, take the early payment or you could end up dying before eligibility kicks in. But also work part time if you can.

I was lucky as I inherited some money from my mother. I never expected the full amount because I had an older brother. Then he suddenly died while mother was still alive. She died at 94. And even tho I inherited her estate, I had to work part time. That is, until I got very sick and was in bad shape for 4 months. I finally just had to throw in the towel and give up on my part time job...

[Snobblevitch]

4. What utter bullshit.

I believe there are still 80+ years left in the 21st century.

[HughBeaumont]

6. Tell me how a debt-strapped millenial in a weak and underpaying job market retires.

$10-50k in debt, average, for the degree(s), with interest tacked on.
Factor in all of the other ever-rising necessity costs on top of that: House (or rent), groceries, utilities, transportation, health care, etc. etc.
What if they decide to have kids? There's a whole level of debt there.
All this and they're in a job market that thinks contract work rather than permanent employment with benefits should be the new standard. Let's not mention the hundreds of thousands of jobs that automation and outsourcing stands to torch when they reach their earning years. Let's not mention they're going to have landmines they can ill afford to pay because they're already financially screwn.

Are investment vehicles going to save them? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. Here's a hint: between the two 401ks I've been regularly contributing to for 18 years, I'm not even close to the multiple hundreds of thousands needed for a not-Kraft-Mac-And-Cheese-Every-Day retirement. They should jail whoever sold us on those things, because that was one awesome and slick con. The math just doesn't add up and the ROI is tepid at best. I only hope my house is paid off when I retire in 16 years, because that's going to be one scary life if it ain't.

[Initech]

10. No shit, I've got a whopping $2,000 in my 401K.

I'm convinced that by the time I'm 70 (I'm 35 now) that if we keep electing republicans and teabaggers to government that retirement won't be an option for people like me, we'll either work until we die or face homelessness. It's pretty sickening. I'm hoping that electing Bernie Sanders at least is a step in the right direction, but as long as the republicans keep getting elected at the local levels, even Bernie might not be able to save us. I am hoping that's not the case though.

[HughBeaumont]

11. You just brought up the most important point of the future: State Legislatures.

As long as they're under Repub control (as our great state of SlowHio has been for 21 years), this gerrymandered Republican Congress isn't going away any decade soon. That, unfortunately, will require a massive amount of rural/suburbanite de-programming; with the right's stranglehold on our terrestrial media, I'm pessimistic we're going to get anything better than decades of gridlock.

For those who say "Some good things happened while Republicans were in control"; today's Republicans are George Dubya on steroids and they ain't getting any better.

[Initech]

12. Everyone is focusing on the White House.

But we got to get out the vote in local elections too. Especially Congress, the Senate, and gubernatorial elections, because that's where the Republicans keep winning and that's how we get these anti worker assholes in power. Until we stop this, there's no amount of Bernies or Hillarys that can fix this.

[Initech]

9. Fox News economics is an oxymoron.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Hmm just to raise your chances by one percent

You need to spend 100,000

The mind reels