Boomers who believe facing discomfort has a significant benefit may be right.

I was born a few years earlier, but I recall basically the same thing.

 

911, what is your emergency?

 

This thread has gone in a few directions.
Speaking of BB’s, they (we) must take responsibility for running large deficits over the last 20 years. passing trillions and trillions of debt to our children while we patronize them about work. Easy to brag how much money we have when a big chunk of it’s borrowed. And we'll keep spending even more on health care as we age.
Not even getting into an infrastructure not being maintained

 

I’m not mad at all. Your foolishness has been on full display here for a while now. That actually makes me quite happy.

 

Wow, you engage in multi-paragraph, factually inaccurate rants attacking others that you have never met (while listing facts about their life inaccurately) when you are happy? Odd...

 

Social security is inflation adjusted. You can get in debates as to whether cpi understates or over states inflation for elderly.

for those that have stocks, they certainly have benefited. Many own homes and experienced significant house price appreciation. If you still had a mortgage likely it’s at a rate much lower than market rates. While long term bonds have taken a hit, that’s only due to interest rates coming back to something resembling a normal rate

If you had a private sector non inflation adjusted pension, then yes you have taken a hit.

All due respect I’m not buying that seniors who have some savings and own a home have taken a material hit from inflation.

 

Children always love to hear stories of their parents suffering and austerity.

 

I should have remembered that.

 

Clever!

 

Inflation has had zero effect on my wife and I. I feel for those who are feeling its impact.

The biggest culprit for our debt is our tax code. Responsibility for that lies with the big corporations and money interests .... and Ronald Reagan, who succeeded in convincing Americans that taxes are bad. The word is especially a trigger for those on the right.

 

College isn’t always the best way to go, hopefully things get better for you. Sorry to hear that, but I feel like it’s more common than not these days.

 

Responsibility for the deficits isn't just limited to the Baby Boomer generation, everyone of voting age in the US over the last 50 years has been complicit. The most effective way to reduce deficits (the debt is the cumulative effect of annual deficits) is to reduce spending and to increase revenue. Walter Mondale proposed raising taxes in 1984 and he lost in one of the largest landslides in history; George H.W. Bush supported a very modest tax increase and it may have cost him reelection in 1992; Bill Clinton signed legislation raising taxes in 1993 again very modestly and it resulted in Republicans taking control of both Houses of Congress in one of the largest wave elections in history in 1994.

 

Truly ironic since he enacted 11 tax increases including some of the biggest in history & his "tax cut" raised the avg person's taxes.

 

It was always competitive as the jobs grads apply for are somewhat limited for a college new hire. And now there are so many more as a % of population.


Educational attainment in the U.S. 1960-2022 | Statista

 

Generally people who have a pension don’t have much in the way of a 401K. Most companies that did have pensions did not match contributions to any great extent.

So let’s say that a couple retired at 66 years old in 2020. They’re have a private pension for $3,000/month with $3,000/month SS. They have $150,000 in 401K with all of it still in pretax $. They will have to pay tax on $5,550/month plus whatever is withdrawn from the 401K.

The pension is fixed and the SS COLAs are always in arrears. The COLAs for 22,23, and 24 were, I believe 3%, 8%,and 4%. So the COLAs as of 1/24 have really only covered 11% of the 17% inflation, and the 17% is really understated for seniors due to food and gas, not too mention insurance costs and property taxes. Floridians catch a break on property taxes but take a beating on insurance. Medicare supplemental policies run around $4K/each per year now, and rising as well.

To me, this is probably not far from average. So looking at this average scenario you do not see how these people have been harmed?

PS I intentionally left out their residence as there are significant expenses involved in getting to that liquidity such as Interest on equity lines, fees for a reverse mortgage, or closing costs for a cash out refi. I also have read that many people plan to use home equity to cover long term care insurance.

 

Ok boomer

 

In my post I said that those on a fixed private pension would be hurt. The reality is not many people have fixed private pensions.

Your point about SS cola being in arrears is a valid one that I didn’t think of. As inflation decreases they should catch up though as the cpi adjustments exceed current inflation.

Like I said you can debate the applicability to cpi U to retirees. I’ve seen it argued both ways. One of the things that has made cpi sticky is the housing component that lags real inflation. If a retiree is renting then yes, that hurts. If they own they are actually avoiding that component of inflation almost entirely.

Yes, people are experiencing real economic gains in their home equity but yes it isn’t always easy to get at it and people understandably would rather not borrow further against it

 

Can’t tell if this a joke or serious.

 

It is hard, I’ve done far better than my parents, in part because I wanted the things we couldn’t have when I was young and wanted them for my kids.
Trouble is it seems like almost all the kids have the hot gadgets, clothes newer cars, not sure how some of their families can afford it to be honest but they do.