Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire "Boomers" have dismal retirement investments.

My folks qualify as some of the earliest born of the baby boomers. They had good jobs and bought a home in 1980, but it took them a long time to get ahead. While I don't know if they were living paycheck to paycheck, things were certainly tighter when my brothers and I were younger. They had a lot of credit card debt at one point, drove newish cars for most of my upbringing and paid for college for the three of us by borrowing on their home equity.
My Dad liked to have nice things, but he was afraid of losing his investments in the stock market. He basically only put money into money market accounts. Thankfully Northrup also paid him in stock to some degree and after 30 years in aerospace, that's probably the only investment of his that had any appreciable return. After retiring from Northrup and doing his last 8 years with Raytheon, plus having my brothers and I out of the house and out of college and fully independent, he was able to invest much of his Northrup pension while living on his Raytheon salary. He was no longer scared of losing his job, or losing money in the stock market now that no one really depended on his income.
My mom was more willing to invest in more aggressive mutual funds, but she was a university administrator and didn't make nearly as much as he did. In the end, her investments were only 1/4 of his.
They are both in their mid 60s and both recently retired, they drive older cars than they did when I was growing, despite probably being able to afford much newer, no longer carry credit card debt and are about 3 years from paying off the house after numerous refis throughout the 90s and 2000s (probably because they are paying 4-6 times their monthly mortgage in order to expedite it).
They are a classic example of people who had good jobs, but couldn't save anything for the longest time. The combination of my dad's "rehirement" stint with Raytheon and getting better control of their expenses by the early 2000s, is probably the difference between them enjoying retirement and eating cat food in 10 years.
My point of this example is they could have swung to either side of the spectrum. Are they as wealthy as they could have been if they got their spending under control and invested more heavily and aggressively at an earlier age or chose not to pay for 3 college educations? Definitely not. Will their savings, investments and pensions last them if they live into their 90s? I think so and I expect them to continue enjoying their lives well into their 70s. You never know when health issues will creep up on you, but for now they are able bodied and still getting out to see the world (even went to Antarctica) without having to dip heavily into their investments. Their hope is to be able to live off a combination of their pensions, Social Security and only dabble into the interest or dividends on occasion to maintain their standard of living from the past 10 years. Seems like it'll work to me.

some of you make blanket assumptions and generalizations about boomers. I am one of those boomers. You also forget one thing.
birth control was around, so were sacks, and us boomers could have tossed you generation x ers in the river.
I am in the top 5% of the country in retirement savings, own three homes, about ten cars(like military vehicles) have a quite aedequate collection of other things, haven't voted democratic in my life, and am somewhere to the right of attila the hun politically.
Not all of us were at woodstock, and that freelove stuff wasn't true, you had to work for nooky then too.
oh, one other thing. Took about 7 years to get through college. I had basically no help, my father died about 3months before i started, and i had 700bucks to my name at the time. At age 27 i married a women ten years older, still married to her, and raised three of her kids.
It's funny watching you pups solve the problems of the world.

OK, I'm a boomer I guess.

Doing fine financially.

Attila was a liberal.

The government cause the problem but the government can't or won't solve the problem.

Boomers are dumb, Subsequent generations are slackers, both seem like blanket statements. I hate being judged as a member of a group. My story is nothing special. I ran away from college and joined the army and spent 27 months running through the jungle. worked as a cop, paramedic and PA for 21 years. Married at 25 and bought a house on the VA. Raised 4 kids, 3 of which graduated from college w/ advanced degrees and NO student debt. Never turned down OT, never drove a new car, avoided debt like the plague. Lived a life of fun and adventure via work opportunities that I created and had a ball raising a family.I made some decent investments and retired at 58. I got bored and now work part time in the gun Biz. I was blessed w/ good health. Work hard and avoid debt. You too can succeed. Whining is for the weak.

mike r

With what's going in with Obamacare, more and more old folks will be living with kids.

Obamacare severely reduced reimbursement rates for medicare. As a result, most nursing homes are losing money for each medicare patient. The number of old folks in these homes on medicare is increasing, and will continue to increase. As a result, they are beginning to lay off staff, consolidate, and even close their doors. This is just getting started.

Unless major change happens, you are not going to want to spend 1 day in a retirement/nursing home under medicare. It will be very bad service, and old, rotting buildings.

In 30 years, 13k a month isn't going to get your very far. It'll get you somewhere, but not as far as you think it will.

Save your money. You'll need it, and you'll kids will need you to have money to take care of yourself.

More and more old folks will be put on one of those dwindling ice bergs.

Forgot to mention, i have three freezers full. I am a prepper and grow things in the back yard. Eating carrots right now for breakfast.
At least a year's food supply, maybe more on hand.
I know quite a few boomers like me.
My only real bad addiction, if you want to call it that, is collecting pieces of metal, generally made by smith and wesson. Which in hindsight wasn't so bad.
I remember 25 years or so ago, people beating on me for buying those WWII jeeps for 600bucks or so a piece. Course I get a lot of offers today, like weekly, to sell one of them.
I don't think my future is in a rest home. I actually have a daughter, and a grandson, that have multiple times offered to take me in if needed, which isn't likely. Tht's what families are for.

Attila was a uncle on my mothers side.
Eric the red on the fathers.

Mike:
I have been accused many times during the years of wanting to retire since i was 20, which is basically true. So I prepared for it as best i could.
I have also been in the investment world for 40 years, and have many many examples of people that did everything right, and yet the unexpected stuff really wacked them, sickness being a big one.

Really?



I too am a "boomer"

Snake

BTW

I am doing OK

Time will tell if my 401K is enough

Snake

RoninPhx, while I agree that luck is always a factor I also have found that the harder I worked and the better I planned that the luckier I became. I also agree that health issues are the true boogeyman and that I and my family have been relatively lucky accompanied by great insurance that I worked for. My kids have done very well but I fear that my G-kids will reap the whirlwind that our govt. and society have created. I can only help them prepare and be strong.

mike r

Life IS funny and just full of "little" surprises that can knock anyone right off their high horse. There is nothing like a life threatening diagnosis for a person [even with excellent medical insurance] and their spouse to change that good ole' financial portfolio over night. We can plan, be disciplined, and be so tight with our money that we squeak when we walk. Just don't be surprised when life throws a curve ball. I stopped trusting in my "horses and chariots" along time ago.

I have had a couple of major health issues through the years, and if hadn't been for my hoarder instincts, the outcome would have been much different. I often council people that while you may not know the trials in front of you, it's better to prepare than not prepare. As to the grandkids, some get it, some don't, in my personal experience.
One of my favorite stories is a client of mine that started a ira around 1981 with 2k, they are now in the 700k range. I often kidded them about how they were worth more than the doctor she worked for. Could have something to do with his multiple wives and expensive life style.

If the gubmint wants people to save money, why do they place all the incentives on borrowing? (Think that $17 trillion national debt might have something to do with it?)

Just this week a man I work with said he was going to put in for SS at 62 and retire.
I can not feed my two big dogs on the $$$ they will pay out at age 62. Only guys
like Donald Trump can live off only SS at 62.

Looking at Calvin's posts above I have to agree. I started investing in 1981 soon after my first was born. Raised two kid and put them through private schools. Both are debt free and have good jobs.

I have made every mistake known in these 35 years of investing. After all this I have $3MM in investment funds. I never made big $, but embarked on a month over month investment and savings approach to investing. I have no debt. My wife's father started investing at an early age and was my mentor

The biggest factor is I invested in was my smarts and and manual labor. I built and sold 2 houses (from scratch) with my own hands

Now I have (by design) $1.5 MM in Roth and personal (taxed) accounts These $ yield about 3.5 %. This is my retirement money to supplement SS and my pension. My planned withdrawal rate is about 2% of savings for an annual income of about $100K with SS and pension

I also have $1.5 MM in IRA accounts ( don't hold a 401 K!)Which is invested in EFT's for growth and some income. I doubt I will need these funds Yield is also about 3%. These are invested more in a more aggressive manner for the future.

It's really is pretty simple if you you put your mind to it.
Even as a middle class citizen it's not " very surprising" how the system won't work for dumb [bleep]

Having millions in the bank is a good way to get suicided by your kids.

Fragged...