Focused Read in 3-4 minutes
"This Is What Life Without
Retirement Savings Looks Like
Many seniors are stuck
with lives of never-ending work—a fate that could befall millions
in the coming decades.
(By Alana Semuels)
Roberta Gordon never thought she’d still be alive at age 76.
She definitely didn’t think she’d still be working. But every Saturday, she goes down to the local grocery store and hands out samples, earning $50 a day, because she needs the money.
She definitely didn’t think she’d still be working. But every Saturday, she goes down to the local grocery store and hands out samples, earning $50 a day, because she needs the money.
“I’m a working woman again,” she told me, in the common room of the senior apartment complex where she now lives, here in California’s Inland Empire. Gordon has worked dozens of odd jobs throughout her life—as a house cleaner, a home health aide, a telemarketer, a librarian, a fundraiser—
but at many times in her life, she didn’t have a steady job that paid into Social Security. She didn’t receive a pension. And she definitely wasn’t making enough to put aside money for retirement.
but at many times in her life, she didn’t have a steady job that paid into Social Security. She didn’t receive a pension. And she definitely wasn’t making enough to put aside money for retirement.
So now, at 76, she earns $915 a month through Social Security and through Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, a program for low-income seniors. Her rent, which she has had to cover solo since her roommate died in August, is $1,040 a month.
She’s been taking on credit-card debt to cover the gap, and to pay for utilities, food, and other essentials. She often goes to a church food bank for supplies.
She’s been taking on credit-card debt to cover the gap, and to pay for utilities, food, and other essentials. She often goes to a church food bank for supplies.
More and more older people are finding themselves in a similar situation as Baby Boomers reach retirement age without enough savings and as housing costs and medical expenses rise; for instance, a woman in her 80s is paying on average $8,400 in out-of-pocket medical expenses each year, even if she’s covered by Medicare.
Many people reaching retirement age don’t have the pensions that lots of workers in previous generations did, and often have not put enough money into their 401(k)s to live off of; the median savings in a 401(k) plan for people between the ages of 55 and 64 is currently just $15,000, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security, a nonprofit. Other workers did not have access to a retirement plan through their employer.
That means that as people reach their mid-60s, they either have to dramatically curtail their spending or keep working to survive.
“This will be the first time that we have a lot of people who find themselves downwardly mobile as they grow older,” Diane Oakley, the executive director of the National Institute on Retirement Security, told me. “They’re going to go from being near poor to poor.”
“This will be the first time that we have a lot of people who find themselves downwardly mobile as they grow older,” Diane Oakley, the executive director of the National Institute on Retirement Security, told me. “They’re going to go from being near poor to poor.”
The problem is growing as more Baby Boomers reach retirement age—between 8,000 to 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day, according to Kevin Prindiville, the executive director of Justice in Aging, a nonprofit that addresses senior poverty. Older Americans were the only demographic for whom poverty rates increased in a statistically significant way between 2015 and 2016, according to Census Bureau data.
... “In the early decades of our work, we were serving communities that had been poor when they were younger,” Prindiville told me. “Increasingly, we’re seeing folks who are becoming poor for the first time in old age.”
This presents a worrying preview of what could befall millions of workers who will retire in the coming decades.
If today’s seniors are struggling with retirement savings, what will become of the people of working age today, many of whom hold unsteady jobs and have patchwork incomes that leave little room for retirement savings? The current wave of senior poverty could just be the beginning.
If today’s seniors are struggling with retirement savings, what will become of the people of working age today, many of whom hold unsteady jobs and have patchwork incomes that leave little room for retirement savings? The current wave of senior poverty could just be the beginning.
...The retirement-savings system in the United States has three pillars: Social Security, employer-sponsored pensions or retirement-savings plans, and individual savings. But with the rise of less stable jobs and the decline of pensions, a larger share of older Americans are relying only on Social Security, without either of the two other pillars to contribute to their finances. This by definition means they have less money than they did when they were working: Social Security replaces only about 40 percent of an average wage earner’s income when they retire, while financial advisors say that retirees need at least 70 percent of their pre-retirement earnings to live comfortably.
Today’s seniors are so reliant on Social Security in part because companies that once provided pensions began, in the 1970s, to turn the responsibility of retirement saving over to individuals.
This switch saved companies money because it asked employees, not employers, to take on the risks associated with long-term investing. This means that the amount people receive is more affected by the ups and downs of the stock market, their individual wages, and interest rates.
Rather than “defined benefit” plans, in which people are guaranteed a certain amount of money every year in retirement, they receive “defined contribution” plans, which means the employer sets aside a certain amount of money per year.
... The recession and economic trends in the years since have also worsened the finances of millions of seniors. Some bought homes during the housing boom and then found they owed more on their homes than they were worth, and had to walk away. Others invested in the stock market and saw their investments shrink dramatically. Jackie Matthews, now 76, lost her investments during the recession, and then had to sell her Arizona home in a short sale, netting only $3,000. She now lives near her family in Southern California, renting a room in a friend’s apartment, and budgets her finances carefully, skimping on meat and never buying anything new.
Average wages, when adjusted for inflation, have remained near where they were in the 1970s, which makes it hard for workers to increase their savings. This has had a significant impact on the bottom 80 percent of workers, for whom average wages have remained relatively constant, even as income increased for the top 20 percent of households in the past three decades.
... I met a woman named Deborah Belleau who is 67 and works as a manager at a mobile-home park in Palm Springs, California. She worked as a waitress for 30 years, and often relied on government assistance as she raised her two children as a single mother. “You just don’t think about tomorrow” when you’re more worried about getting food on the table, she said.
That means that today, though she receives money through Social Security, she can’t afford a cellphone or a TV. Her rent is $600 a month.
She works full-time at the mobile-home park, despite aches and pains in her back and feet. Sometimes, when she wakes up, she can’t walk.
But, she says, “I can’t quit. There’s no way I can live on $778 a month,” the amount she receives from Social Security. ... "
That means that today, though she receives money through Social Security, she can’t afford a cellphone or a TV. Her rent is $600 a month.
She works full-time at the mobile-home park, despite aches and pains in her back and feet. Sometimes, when she wakes up, she can’t walk.
But, she says, “I can’t quit. There’s no way I can live on $778 a month,” the amount she receives from Social Security. ... "
You can read more here
Personal Commentary ~
Based on personal experience and observation
-- keeping it simple --
When President Obama walked into the Oval Office in January of 2009, he discovered the Republican Party under President George W. Bush had nearly bankrupted the United States of America.
At the time, President Obama committed to Rescuing, Reviving and Reinvesting in America. But, as this article clearly demonstrates -- many Americans never rebounded. Income was not rising and jobs were being cut and asset values were declining.
One of the things that was happening under the radar was that many were caught in the trap of losing their jobs before their official retirement age, having to apply for their social security early and having to pay a penalty for it by accepting less money than they would have received if they had not been forced to retire early. And many were unable to find jobs in a workforce that was not inclined to hire a lot of 50-somethings due to retire soon after being hired.
That was only one of the outcomes of the Republican philosophy of "starving the beast," i.e. eliminating the value, the principle of America -- The Common Good -- and moving money saved in the process of cutting programs designed to provide for the general health and welfare of The People to the wealthy among us and big business, while making that never-ending Republican promise that the success of big business will "trickle down."
President Obama was successful. He stemmed the flow of an economic crash and he put us on a pathway toward full recovery and reinvestment.
Donald J. Trump is claiming that success and the Republican Party has kick-started its philosophy of starving the beast via eliminating the Affordable Care Act and a tax cut plan that favors the wealthy among us and big business and creating a bill The People will pay for through the budgeting process in ways I don't think we can even imagine, yet.
#its2018now and we are running out of time to course correct.
If you are not registered to vote, register. If you are registered to vote, periodically check that registration to make sure you are not GOP purged. Inform yourself, inform others and after you've voted -- Democrat -- help get out the Democratic vote!
📌 You can find more information on voting here
Based on personal experience and observation
-- keeping it simple --
When President Obama walked into the Oval Office in January of 2009, he discovered the Republican Party under President George W. Bush had nearly bankrupted the United States of America.
At the time, President Obama committed to Rescuing, Reviving and Reinvesting in America. But, as this article clearly demonstrates -- many Americans never rebounded. Income was not rising and jobs were being cut and asset values were declining.
One of the things that was happening under the radar was that many were caught in the trap of losing their jobs before their official retirement age, having to apply for their social security early and having to pay a penalty for it by accepting less money than they would have received if they had not been forced to retire early. And many were unable to find jobs in a workforce that was not inclined to hire a lot of 50-somethings due to retire soon after being hired.
That was only one of the outcomes of the Republican philosophy of "starving the beast," i.e. eliminating the value, the principle of America -- The Common Good -- and moving money saved in the process of cutting programs designed to provide for the general health and welfare of The People to the wealthy among us and big business, while making that never-ending Republican promise that the success of big business will "trickle down."
President Obama was successful. He stemmed the flow of an economic crash and he put us on a pathway toward full recovery and reinvestment.
Donald J. Trump is claiming that success and the Republican Party has kick-started its philosophy of starving the beast via eliminating the Affordable Care Act and a tax cut plan that favors the wealthy among us and big business and creating a bill The People will pay for through the budgeting process in ways I don't think we can even imagine, yet.
#its2018now and we are running out of time to course correct.
If you are not registered to vote, register. If you are registered to vote, periodically check that registration to make sure you are not GOP purged. Inform yourself, inform others and after you've voted -- Democrat -- help get out the Democratic vote!
📌 You can find more information on voting here
Focused Thought in 15 seconds
Focused Action in 30 seconds
You can share Leader Pelosi's Tweet here
( You can read some of
Leader Pelosi's comments: “Pelosi Remarks at Press Event on the
Consequences of the GOP Tax Scam on America’s Future”
here )
( You can also read: 'Inefficient, Ineffective, Irresponsible: A TRUMP BUDGET," prepared by the Democrats House Committee on the budget -- here )
( You can also read: 'Inefficient, Ineffective, Irresponsible: A TRUMP BUDGET," prepared by the Democrats House Committee on the budget -- here )
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→ Direct sources for Democrats:
* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )
The Democratic Party Website
Also
C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))
→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists
in alphabetical order...
→ Some of my favorite, most informative
follows on Twitter include:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:
📰📰📰 Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
...for Networking for Democrats today!
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
📎 Note: I rarely get involved in primary races -- outside of those in my own area. And, unless there is a glaring reason that can not be ignored, I support Democratic Party nominees winning in general elections.
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(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.
It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."
( #its2018now )
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Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!
( You can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )
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See the League of Women Voters website:
Vote411 here
Thank you for focusing!
g., aka Focused Democrat
✊ Resisting "Fake News"
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