I am old enough to retire, but I am afraid to do so. I was thinking about changing jobs and the possibility of an easier Surgi Center Job but I am afraid to make that move. That would make me last hired and first to go.
I wonder how many others out there feel the same way. The status of the economy for the past year and a half has me scared. You work hard all your life, save money for your retirement just to see the value of your 401k or 403b slide downward faster than you could put the money in it. Most of the companies have eliminated their defined benefit pension plans to employee funded 401K. We are headed toward a nation of people who never will be unable to retire.
The idea of moving Social Security to a consumer managed retirement is about worthless. It is like Communism, sounded good in theory. Most average people would have been out the targeted money. But, this situation the "experts" say it is unusual. That does not help people who are ready for retirement, or people who have lost their jobs.
There was a local job fair at the local Westmoreland County Community College.. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29435847/ The picture in the local newspaper showed mostly middle aged workers and not the usual college age adults.
It really angers me that for the past twenty years or so the banking industry was run willy-nilly with the elimination of regulation. It was get people housing even though they had no chance of affording the mortgage, and it is US the American Taxpayers who are now footing the bill.
Where is my stimulus package for the money I have lost? Where is yours? All we will get is the bill for the stimulus, and the burden will be on our children, nephew, nieces, grandchildren and great grandchildren yet to be born. College students are graduating with only bills for the outrageous tuition and no hope of working.....These are the people who will need places to live and could be working and spending a lot of money but they won't be finding jobs.
How much further is this downward spiral, will the money we have saved become worthless. Is the world economy and the USA economy headed for a collapse? All I hear in PA is we will have to raise taxes, how about cutting costs. No one want to hear about that, just raise taxes to make up for the governments loss of tax revenue. Will we be seeing people jumping out of windows as they did in 1929? People with no hope will do desperate things.
I have decided to add an addendum. I know the market will rebound at some point in time, but for people who have retired or are currently considering retirement they will never regain what has been lost. I read that someone (I have to search for who that someone was) stated that if you plan to retire you should get OUT of the stock market about ten years before that time. This sounds like good advice but if the market is doing well no one will want to do that. So, in retrospect, if you are close to retirement you should monitor the conditions and if it seems that the bear market is in the winds sell your stock and move the funds to somewhere safer. It might seem to be a drastic step at the time, but it looks like a good idea. We would have been better to put the money under our mattresses, at least it would still be there.
Will the market EVER get to the highs it once had? I seems now that those elevated numbers were the result of smoke and mirrors, greed and corruption, and the government was part of it for allowing it to happen by deregulation and not paying attention to what was happening.
I seems like we can not permit the Knowledgeable and Powerful to run things because they have no morals and conscience and only think of themselves and their minions. They have proved this with the outrageous bonuses and losses of the stockholders. There was actually one CEO (I have to find his name) who was blasting the decision to limit the executive compensation. He said that they would not be able to get executives because of the low pay. WHO IN THE HELL WOULD HIRE THE PEOPLE WHO SCREWED THIS ECONOMY?
They ought to be in jail and not rewarded for their greed. That money belongs to the stockholders, they actually do believe they are worthy of this compensation.
I do understand exactly where you are comming from on everything. I retired at 62 but would have worked longer but my oldest son Alan had MS and it was spiraling out of control. He was in his handicap apt. with a caregiver to help him plus hospice was comming in, but his caregivers reliability was not there, so I opted for 62 and worked part time then went to Alan's place. I could not have retired in this economy. Sorry for the long entry but I just wanted you to know that whatever you choose will be risky. Hospital workers are being laid off here, that has been there for years. Joe and I live on social security because we just did not have wages to put anything away. He had a small retirement from work and was still working when he went into Heart failure and needless to say that ate up what little there was in his 401K, we had to use it because my Soc. Sec. was not enough. I know most people are better prepared than we were. I wish you the best in whatever you decide. Lucy
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ReplyDeletePA has some of the highest taxes and now I see Slick Eddie is looking to increase them even more.
ReplyDeleteI can understand your apprehension to change jobs at this point. Everything is so unstable right now it would be scary to think of starting over and being the newest person hired.
I too am outraged and picking up the pieces for people who didn't have the common sense to know what they could or couldn't afford. I watched it happen first hand since Doug is a custom home builder, I saw the prices of the homes being built and wondered (and asked) how can they afford that kind of house? Well they couldn't.
It's a sad state of affairs and it's a scary time. I believe we will start to see more people committing crimes and the suicide rate will increase during the next fews years as people get more & more desperate.
Just before I came here, I commented on a blog where the author is retired and took a real hit on her portfolio. I commented that I feel bad for anyone who is retired or about to retire. This is a real blow to them.
ReplyDeleteI'll be the voice of optimism here. Yes, it's bad, and yes, I think we haven't hit bottom yet. But I DO think we'll recover from this. I hope people will continue to invest if they can, because things will eventually recover.
Hugs, Beth
Hope whatever you decide works for you. You seem a little more stressed and tierd lately and you have to think of yourself. Lucy
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