Author Topic: [MarketWatch] This is the only generation less prepared for retirement than ...  (Read 3817 times)

jinga nation

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TheFrenchCat

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Ugh, this is my mom, an older genxer.  She has a bit in her 401k and thankfully a good bit of equity in her house, but she keeps getting into and out of 5 figure credit card debit. And I don't see this changing while she keeps supporting my adult brother:(

bacchi

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Isn't this a factor of being at the tail end of raising kids? Teenager costs, college costs, and the 2000-2010 crap market all had a hand in less wealth.

Gen X is now in their prime earning years and kids are leaving the house. If the economy holds, they'll make up for it.

UnleashHell

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Isn't this a factor of being at the tail end of raising kids? Teenager costs, college costs, and the 2000-2010 crap market all had a hand in less wealth.

Gen X is now in their prime earning years and kids are leaving the house. If the economy holds, they'll make up for it.

that'd make for a terrible headline.

mm1970

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Isn't this a factor of being at the tail end of raising kids? Teenager costs, college costs, and the 2000-2010 crap market all had a hand in less wealth.

Gen X is now in their prime earning years and kids are leaving the house. If the economy holds, they'll make up for it.
Yes.  And DUH.

Gee, we aren't as close to retirement as Boomers.
Also, we don't have the added advantage of time as millennials.
And, huh, our kids are in college!  Or if you are a late bloomer like us, still in elementary and junior high!
We are in the prime of our high cost years.

(But also prime earning years.)

Yawn.

mm1970

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Ugh, this is my mom, an older genxer.  She has a bit in her 401k and thankfully a good bit of equity in her house, but she keeps getting into and out of 5 figure credit card debit. And I don't see this changing while she keeps supporting my adult brother:(

Yup

mm1970

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Though I WILL add - and this is partly due to where I live (CA, high housing costs), and the people I know (middle and upper middle class folks), but there's a lot of spending.

Spending on travel.
Spending on concerts.
Spending on eating out.

I've got friends who eat out multiple times a week, and think nothing of dropping $50 for two or $100 for four.

I've got friends who talk about how they love concerts, but now are priced out because:
$250+ for two tickets, $75 for babysitting, plus dinner out, drinks, and Uber/Lyft, that's a $500 evening!
(Well, if you want the whole experience ... yes ... but you maybe aren't gonna to that many.  We aren't so into concerts, but the one concert we bought tix for, we got the very back row, so $75 each.  We had one drink.  We ate dinner at home.  We parked a few blocks away for free.  We paid a sitter.  But the other 2 concerts we went to were even cheaper.  Neighbor has season tix, gave them to us, I bought him some treats from Costco in exchange.  By then our kids were old enough to not need a sitter.)

I've got other friends who just LOVE travel.  Now, they may be hacking, but I'm guessing most aren't.  I'm talking about multiple international trips a year. 1 - 2 weeks at a time, in addition to weekend jaunts to go skiing in Aspen or to NYC to see a show.

I think in many cases, there's the idea that by now we are old enough to deserve it, so why not!

Not There Yet

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Quote
Shame on us! We'll just blame our boomer parents... again. /s

You must have read the comments!

jinga nation

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Shame on us! We'll just blame our boomer parents... again. /s

You must have read the comments!

I don't get to see the comments, my browser plugins ensure my mind is remains self-sullied.

Cassie

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Sadly people aren’t prioritizing retirement.

Lucky13

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But isn't MMM also a member of GenX... :)   thx for this article, explains why most of my friends & family around my age cannot comprehend how I'm planning to quit my job and retire later this year.

ApacheStache

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I've never understood the point of these types of articles. I've also never payed close attention to MarketWatch articles, but the key takeaway I got from this is that Catey Hill, senior content strategist at MarketWatch, and most of the article's comment section gets a chuckle out of taking a proverbial shit on older generations or individuals that are less prepared for retirement than others. She authored another equally click-bait-y article called "All the ways Gen X is financially wrecked" last July.

I'm not a Gen Xer, and I don't know/care what generation the author belongs to, but it seemed like she wrote that article to band together younger generations to gawk at and mock older generations — the very same older generations that sacrificed quite a bit for the younger generations. Not to mention, the author would be well-served to flip open an economics book and revisit what was happening with Growth, Inflation, Unemployment, Interest Rates, Nixon Shock, Wage and Price Freezes and OPEC Oil Prices throughout much of the 1970's and 1980's. Needless to say, those 2 decades weren't exactly conducive to retirement savings.

« Last Edit: January 31, 2020, 10:48:35 PM by ApacheStache »

RetiredAt63

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I've never understood the point of these types of articles. I've also never payed close attention to MarketWatch articles, but the key takeaway I got from this is that Catey Hill, senior content strategist at MarketWatch, and most of the article's comment section gets a chuckle out of taking a proverbial shit on older generations or individuals that are less prepared for retirement than others. She authored another equally click-bait-y article called "All the ways Gen X is financially wrecked" last July.

I'm not a Gen Xer, and I don't know/care what generation the author belongs to, but it seemed like she wrote that article to band together younger generations to gawk at and mock older generations — the very same older generations that sacrificed quite a bit for the younger generations. Not to mention, the author would be well-served to flip open an economics book and revisit what was happening with Growth, Inflation, Unemployment, Interest Rates, Nixon Shock, Wage and Price Freezes and OPEC Oil Prices throughout much of the 1970's and 1980's. Needless to say, those 2 decades weren't exactly conducive to retirement savings.

Oh yes, when finance books had mortgage tables in the back that started at 7% and went up from there (no electronic calculators back then to figure it out on your own).  And 18 - 22% interest rate spike for mortgages.  Fun times.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2020, 02:01:29 AM by RetiredAt63 »

Imma

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I've never understood the point of these types of articles. I've also never payed close attention to MarketWatch articles, but the key takeaway I got from this is that Catey Hill, senior content strategist at MarketWatch, and most of the article's comment section gets a chuckle out of taking a proverbial shit on older generations or individuals that are less prepared for retirement than others. She authored another equally click-bait-y article called "All the ways Gen X is financially wrecked" last July.

I'm not a Gen Xer, and I don't know/care what generation the author belongs to, but it seemed like she wrote that article to band together younger generations to gawk at and mock older generations — the very same older generations that sacrificed quite a bit for the younger generations. Not to mention, the author would be well-served to flip open an economics book and revisit what was happening with Growth, Inflation, Unemployment, Interest Rates, Nixon Shock, Wage and Price Freezes and OPEC Oil Prices throughout much of the 1970's and 1980's. Needless to say, those 2 decades weren't exactly conducive to retirement savings.

Oh yes, when finance books had mortgage tables in the back that started at 7% and went up from there (no electronic calculators back then to figure it out on your own).  And 18 - 22% interest rate spike for mortgages.  Fun times.

I really don't get this whole setting up one generation against another. I'm a Milennial, my parents are boomers. We've both had good luck and bad luck. My parents were born in the jobs for life-era but it was much more difficult when they were young to get ahead because many working class people didn't even finish high school, let alone get a degree. Despite my fairly humble background it was easy fit me to go to uni and get a good job. When my parents were young homes were relatively cheaper compared to income, but interest rates were double digits. In our country the average house price is now 7-8 times the average income but interest rates are much lower. There are less companies offering a company pension but there are increased options for private retirement savings. I'm sure over the course of a lifetime it will all equal out.

PDXTabs

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Oh yes, when finance books had mortgage tables in the back that started at 7% and went up from there (no electronic calculators back then to figure it out on your own).  And 18 - 22% interest rate spike for mortgages.  Fun times.

And 30 year treasury bonds that paid 13%. Oh, wait.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!