Retirement savings ....Yikes !

[KTurner]

Not correct at all.
This is the kind of thing that gets uninformed folks all riled up.
I saw your statement, looked it up at several different news sites and here's what I found...

It was the country of Cyprus, not all of Europe.

It was a proposed tax, not a siezure.

They were voting to tax any individual's bank savings over about $25,000.00 at about 10% to try and help pay off their country's debt.

It did not pass their vote.

Please, please, please.... don't post this kind of stuff without researching it. It makes Floyd R. Turbo, American, go off the deep end.

Moss,
I wholeheartedly agree that fact checking is important. If you can't make your case with cold hard facts, then you dont have much of a case to make. BUT, Since when is a tax NOT a seizure? Do I have the choice not to pay tax? Last I checked, if you attempted to not pay taxes, eventually an *armed* government representative shows up at your door to seize your freedom (ie, throw you in jail). Now, this would be after seizing any property you own (via liens), seizing of paychecks (via garnishments), etc, but it would happen if you continued to ignore your tax bills. Frequently Asked Questions For Past Due Return Filers, at the bottom, particularly "provided they voluntarily file, or make arrangements to file, before being notified they are under criminal investigation"

Ask any of these big name famous celebrities - though you'd have to visit jail to ask some of them: 10 Celebrities Convicted of Tax Evasion | LegalZoom

Keith

 

[Furu]

I am constantly amazed at some of the people I work with. Makes good/great money and have no savings. Basically spend everything they make on toys, toys, toys and very lavish vacations. Then when the bottom falls out they think that someone will be there to pick up the pieces. Plan so that you count on nothing from anyone other than yourself in retirement and anything extra is gravy and you will be OK.
This means plan for no SS, no DB plan, nothing. Assume that they will all go away as they might.
Bankruptcy laws help your company takes away DB plans (if you even have one) and SS may be reduced or means tested so that you can't have it. Especially if you saved and have any savings you might be means tested out. Talk about rewarding bad behavior. If you have saved for retirement and have savings above a certain threshold then no SS for you. It is a proposal that is very close to being put into law. It might be the only thing that saves SS from total bankruptcy itself however.

Bottom line unless we change our tax code so that we stop rewarding bad behavior and rewarding with extra perks those that suckle more off he government's teat we will only continue to get in more and more trouble. A consumption tax, not that I really like it but maybe.........., instead of a savings tax would reward those that save instead of spend everything on lavish vacations and more toys might be a positive first step. Of course it will never happen they would just add it as another tax on top of everything else. They would never repeal anything they already have. Have you seen the proposal (proposal only not yet in a bill) to limit how much you can put in your 401K to a significantly lesser number than you can today? They, the government act like they don't want us to save.

I could go on forever but this thread won't survive long anyway and I do not want to be the cause of it closing so I will stop and say no more.

 

[brin]

I am constantly amazed at some of the people I work with. Makes good/great money and have no savings. Basically spend everything they make on toys, toys, toys and very lavish vacations. Then when the bottom falls out they think that someone will be there to pick up the pieces. Plan so that you count on nothing from anyone other than yourself in retirement and anything extra is gravy and you will be OK.
This means plan for no SS, no DB plan, nothing. Assume that they will all go away as they might.
Bankruptcy laws help your company takes away DB plans (if you even have one) and SS may be reduced or means tested so that you can't have it. Especially if you saved and have any savings you might be means tested out. Talk about rewarding bad behavior. If you have saved for retirement and have savings above a certain threshold then no SS for you. It is a proposal that is very close to being put into law. It might be the only thing that saves SS from total bankruptcy itself however.

Bottom line unless we change our tax code so that we stop rewarding bad behavior and rewarding with extra perks those that suckle more off he government's teat we will only continue to get in more and more trouble. A consumption tax, not that I really like it but maybe.........., instead of a savings tax would reward those that save instead of spend everything on lavish vacations and more toys might be a positive first step. Of course it will never happen they would just add it as another tax on top of everything else. They would never repeal anything they already have. Have you seen the proposal (proposal only not yet in a bill) to limit how much you can put in your 401K to a significantly lesser number than you can today? They, the government act like they don't want us to save.

I could go on forever but this thread won't survive long anyway and I do not want to be the cause of it closing so I will stop and say no more.

:thumbsup:

 

[pennwalk]

There are a bunch of different problems tied up in this retirement thing and as far as I can see none of them can be solved. I have no idea what will happen. I have no idea if someone is trying to make us poor or if we are trying to make ourselves poor but it sure looks like a lot of us are going to be poor.

When I was in high school I used to deliver groceries for the local grocery store. One of our customers was an old couple who lived out behind the lake on the outskirts of town. Their place was small and pretty run down. Seemed like among other things in their order were 5 or 6 cans of alpo but I never saw a dog. Just in case this whole thing works out badly anyone know any good alpo recipes?

Chris

 

[Gator6x4]

As more and more Boomers retire I look for entitlement programs to grow by leaps and bonds. A large percentage already retired are using the phone program started in 1985. Utility service assistance funds are being stretched by increased demands. More and more retiree's are showing Food Stamp voucher debit cards when checking out at grocery stores.

 

[keegs]

It's pretty tough to own a home, raise a family, and save for retirement on a median income of $50k. Folks will work longer or won't retire at all.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I know lots of older folks that are tapping into their home equity to take out reverse mortgages in order to survive...
It is sad that some of them have to do this but it does give them some spending money...
I hope to retire in 11 years @ 64...
I will have a 30 year state pension in addition to social security...
Coupled with zero debt and some savings we should be OK but who knows...
I just hope that my health allows me to continue part time farming and playing on different tractors and machines...

 

[JDgreen227]

I remember a few years back when I saw a story in the news that said many people were expecting to finance their retirement by hopefully winning the lottery or making a big gambling score...the percentage of people planning to do that was higher than the percentage who planned to save to finance retirement.

As for me, I feel grateful that I worked at a job long enough that I got a pension, and earned enough to set aside some money in a 457 plan, and as the situation is now I will begin drawing Social Security at age 62 in, lets see now: 5 months and one day and a few hours...HOPEFULLY. Sad thing is, many people don't get a pension or are unable to save anything, so they have to depend on SS. My older sister is one of them, never worked full time, never tried to save, so she is dependent upon what she gets from SS and can mooch in some way.

Tell you guys something, when I was planning to retire back in late 2002, I spent a lot of time crunching the numbers and when I met with my financial planner to get his advice, he looked at my figures and asked me "why did you figure out a 5% annual inflation rate over the next ten years, there is NO WAY there will ever be anything like that figure...well since my planned budget assumed that it looked okay on paper for me to retire. Okay now, gasoline back in 2002 was $1.45 a gallon...now it's $4 a gallon. My pension was formerly untaxed, but now it is taxed by the state, costing me an additional $1200 per year. It truthfully worries me just how much the cost of living has increased over the past ten years and I feel really sorry for those who are going to have to depend of Social Security for a retirement.

Know what is really strange? Once I begin collecting at age 62, I will basically "earn back" all the money I paid into the system in only 42 months...while that calculation does not allow for any interest those funds might have earned, it pretty well illustrates why the SS system is in dire straights.

 

[riptides]

Who thinks they will every retire here? I am speaking about the retirement our grand dads had when we where growing up...no walmart jobs, and travel by car for vacations and such. I believe health care, and energy cost will prevent almost everyone from a retirement.
I can't see it anytime in my life and I am near 50.

I retired last year. I work when I want, every day. Where I want, every where, how I want, I'll do anything.

Three kids in college, huge bills, limited health care insurance, and money I cannot touch without Cyprus going belly up until I am 67.

My vision of retirement, has been radically altered since my grandfathers time.

On the serious side, the retirement was a mutual benefit to both my ex-employers and I. But the economic circumstance and market timing are areas totally out of my control.

 

[keegs]

We're DINKs who've earned enough to put some away for retirement. We both have small pensions from back in the day when the private sector provided them. So for us it's those pensions, SS and our savings. All the models say we're fine. Hope they're right.