If someone were actually coming from the future they’d probably advise some bubble like crypto and exactly when to get your money and go.
I'm a mid 30s dude who worked since 16 off/on in some capacity.
When I was a teen the jobs were all such dogshit (yeah even in 2005 or whatever) that no one really talked about "savings" except my dad, which is kind of weird since he's not exactly wealthy by any means. He's that dude I guess they're targeting "just put $5 a week in if that's all you can afford! Feeeeeeel gooooood don't off yourself! We need to exploi-- you're like our family member!"
In my 20s, the jobs got less shit, and suddenly I was forced to learn wtf a 401K was. Pension? Wtf is a pension?
And now in my 30s it just feels like... it's been 15 years of that 2008-era "you're lucky to even have a job!" (During that recession) sentiment from workers (kill me...) and the bosses of course (kill... them...?). Must've been an amazing time to be a capitalist.
It's just the same shit for years now. Wages have hardly increased. I was making $12/hr when I was 19. It was absolutely not enough, but of course I was also with my parents. I mean that's still a common hourly wage I think for like grocery jobs and stuff. But since the mid-2000s the prices of everything are also up at least 50% or something like that. I guess gas is about the same price now, but rent and housing prices have just been on a straight upward climb. Wages just stayed the same.
That sentiment of "lucky to have a job!" hasn't gone away, people legitimately have absolutely no understanding of where value comes from (which I don't blame workers for since they're kept ignorant on purpose), the capitalists keep squeezing the lemon harder and harder, no one knows what to do (well, some do... but, yeah), and I dunno. I feel like that whole "just invest!" thing worked on the boomers (such as my dad) since although he wasn't wealthy by average American standards, he was definitely "ok." As long as he worked he was able to provide and blah blah and he had some money, actually more over time, to put into investments. So when he gets to 50 and now 60 he can look at his life where he did legitimately start from basically the bottom (homeless for a while as a teen) to end up... well off, or whatever he is now. The system worked for him, buying a house worked for him, investing worked for him. And these people who are generally not "bad people" such as my dad just can't see, or don't want to see, that houses are a non-option for many of his children's generation and their kids? I don't think "beyond fucked" even sums it up. Investing is out the window since obviously with rising costs (normal over time) and no raises in wages... there is no investing. There's social security which is also constantly under assault (but rarely do they openly admit that, but it is) and that can provide, you know, something more than just dying on the street when you're 70.
I feel like the pitching of investments has dropped over time. Maybe I've become numb to it, so that's my bias, but I don't see as many "how's your IRA?!" ads and shit and fewer people talk about it probably because it leads to a dark conversation (dying on the street and such) or just anger and rage when it's becoming more and more impossible to hide the hoarding of wealth by some and the absolute getting fucked over by most and then some have the gall and balls to even suggest cutting literally the one thing which might prevent those years of despair when people are elderly. I don't see how that doesn't trigger a murderous rage in more people. They'll flip the fuck out over nothing just because they've been massaged into thinking it's literally satanic or whatever, meanwhile their bosses are robbing them blind and shoving them towards a cliff that has a tiny safety net and simultaneously the guys who work for their bosses (politicians) are trying everyday to figure out how to cut the safety net without everyone noticing. But we do notice, everyone fucking knows it, some like to cope with "we can't afford it anyway..." and just resign themselves to, again, street death.
I dunno. I try not to be doomer or whatever but it just feels absolutely impossible to convince people to even not accept these types of things as inevitable. People are so disempowered by propaganda and, really, living in a world of commodity excess. It's still kinda, mostly ok. All that abstract talk of dying at 70? Who cares? It also effectively forces me into a liberal position of arguing for keeping the fucking half-ass measure things just to prevent more pain. The way things are going, I think we're all just gonna do like old elephants soon. Everyone age 55 just goes down to the closest landfill and drinks poison koolaid and then, hey, elderly problem solved. Now the biggest pieces of shit can keep getting richer. Except that's actually more humane than the system which seems to be inevitable (because if people perceive something as inevitable it sort of wills it into existence, but maybe not) where you do alienating, pointless labor to enrich some asshole for 50 years until you get hurt or sick then you can't pay for rent then you go live on a park bench for a year slowly rotting away while everyone pretends you aren't even there. Sounds great. The future capitalists want.
I was referring to 2008-ish when gas hit an all time high. It was $4 here so it was probably $6/gal in Cali then. Of course $4 (or $6) in 2008 was a lot more relatively than $4 ($6) now.
Actually according to the inflation calculators, $4 in spring 2008 is about $5.75 now.
Gas is actually cheaper when inflation is factored in (nationwide average) than it was during the so-called great recession. Which is starting to seem like a world wide depression, but it's too early for me to back that idea fully. It's very common since the beginning of tracking economies and charting everything over time to see the classic boom bust cycles but it's more involved than simply big up them smaller down then big up, always trending upward (for the imperialist countries anyway... odd how that works...). It goes big up, strong dip, false recovery (2010-now?), then strong downward push, perhaps with economic numbers falling below the previous highs. So, in the case of the US, economic measures falling back down to like 2001 highs. Obviously neoliberal measures are made-up for the most part, but they do measure something real, and the numbers going up or down can generally correspond with quality of life. A sharp downturn in economic activity combined with the austerity of the last 45 years... will probably be catastrophic. Imo, 2008 should've been an already-too-late wake up call for capitalists and labor that it was time to stop neoliberal politics which clearly has failed and was clear at the time as well, but capitalists are always so desperate to race each other to the top that they can't see it's dragging everyone, including them, to the bottom. We're so fucked.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m
Anyway this is what I was referring to. I remember how miserable it was at that time where quite literally it became not worth it to go to work when factoring in gas prices. Should've been a wake up to switch to mass transit or at the least electric and other fuels... but, nope, prices went back down within a few years and the Hummers came back.
I suppose I can cut down to half a meal every two days. Maybe then I can afford to save.
Do I really even want to retire? Retirement homes are mostly dumping grounds for the elderly where they can be abused out of the public's sight. I think I'd rather work until I drop dead instead of retiring under capitalism.
Remember near the beginning of the COVID pandemic when right-wing talking heads were saying it's okay if a ton of the elderly die because they're not working or paying taxes? That's more or less an unstated universal sentiment, and I'd rather not live out the remainder of my life knowing that most people think I'm a worthless parasite who deserves to die.
The idea of saving for a pension is so that you can live in dignity in retirement, not be squirreled away in a home (unless you need care).
I strongly reject the notion that pensioners are 'worthless parasite[s] who deserves to die' just because right wingers say it. And you better believe the talking heads on TV and the CEOs who say this shit are rubbing their hands together waiting for their own pension/retirement.
Just to deal with the tax question. It may depend on where you live. But in many countries, pensioners pay taxes as much as other workers. Because pension contributions face deferred taxes. I.e. you don't pay tax on the contribution when you make it, you pay tax on that portion of your wages when you receive it (i.e. in retirement). This may keep your tax liabilities lower by putting you on a lower tax bracket (not always). But you're still paying taxes.
Retirement is "supposed" to be that a person works for like 20-30 years and retires somewhere at 50 or older if they want.
Something like 1/3 of your life learning, 1/3 "being productive" to each person's potential, and then 1/3 for rest for a job well done.
Capitalism has reached a stage (and to be clear, it was and is MUCH worse for people in the past and now days in third world countries) where basically you get like 3-4 years as a baby of relative freedom and then it's full blown competition from then on. You better get into the special classes with the smart kids by middle school! You better be in AP courses in high school so you can turbo boost your college education! Better take 1-2 courses more per semester than your parents or grandparents ever could've imagined! Better not get less than As! And oh, just in case you burn out or want to just not participate in the rat race, here's six figures in debt, with interest, thanks Joe!, so that you can never quit or even consider it.
Now retirement goes from 50 to 65-70 before you can even pay off loans and if you were lucky and intelligent enough and had parents or advisors who shoved you in the right direction MAYBE you pay off a house too around 60. Time for retirement right? With what fucking money? Now you get to start a new "post retirement" career until you're 80, break a hip showering for work, get fired for not showing up at Home Depot, get a hospital bill that forces you to take a mortgage out on the house, then you die in a few years and your entire estate, the sum total of your entire life, is liquidated to pay the fucking hospital bill. Your kids and grandkids are worse off and the spiral keeps spiraling ever faster.
Now you work 90% of your life. 1/3 for being a kid at the beginning and 1/3 for enjoying things as an elder? Pfft. Work work work, we're heading back to 1830 in this motherfucker! You get poorer, boss man gets richer, and you'll be begging for the sweet release of death by the end, all alone because who can take off time from work to visit you?
Sounds like good advice.
Whatever the state of one's personal finances, the best way to prepare for retirement is, as Kwame Ture says, to organise, organise, organise.
Yup, we have to save money. There is no such thing as "disposable income" as a part of the working class. Also be wary of gambles labeled as "investment".
There was a video of a financial analyst doing the calculations, and it came to the conclusion that no matter how hard they budgeted or planned, with current wages and the person doing only the bare minimum to survive, the hypothetical person would end every month in debt by 500-1000.
They repeated the test for the 90’s, 80’s, and 70’s and the exact same “person” was in the green 2,500-2,000 dollars.
We will all die, without a penny to our names.
They have made their gambit. It is time for ours. What is your response?
