Posted by Riddle:
What do you do if you are fifty and don’t have a pension or any money saved for retirement?
Continue to work.
Maybe you’re doing what you really want to do and are happy. Great. But you could be disabled, or just old.
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It is really hard to tell from the numbers. A third of Americans don’t have anything (i.e., something growing) for retirement (when you can’t work). That is understandable if you are young and working, but still you want something for a rainy day. Two-thirds of Americans, especially older ones, do have something put away or a plan of some sort, which could include a pension, inheritance, etc. Again, information is not complete and may come from something commercial like Fidelity Investments internal database. Also, people don’t or can’t always answer such questions. It is a shame that there are not more definitive government statistics.
There are people age 50 who have literally nothing. For people 50-60 who have something MOST, or so the data say, do not have enough. That’s where financial literacy comes in. Approximately a third of older Americans do have “enough” in terms of something put away and/or a plan.
Is there or will there be a financial retirement crisis?
To repeat, there are people who have nothing, are on government assistance, or for whom it is bleak. Opioid addiction probably isn’t the answer. That is another problem.
I agree that people want immediate gratification. It is way more fun to spend than save. But immediate gratification can also take the form of watching and enjoying it grow. That is what we will tackle here in Part 3–how to invest your savings.
Lawsuit-preventing disclaimer not necessary.