Right before you started high school, did your parents tell you to get good grades, get into a good college, get good grades and then find a nice, secure, and well-paying job with benefits that will let you retire by the time you're sixty? My parents did. The thing is, if I put all of my work into finding a job that is not as secure as it appears, because some young hot shot could always come and sweep my position away, I will never be able to retire. If you do this, you won't be able to either.
Jobs these days no longer offer pension plans, and even less are offering 401k plans. On top of that, our colleges and universities do not teach us how to make money; they teach us how to get a good job. Finding a "good job" is an idea of the past, what worked for baby boomers and older generations won't work for the X and Y generations and younger. That's like saying a radio from the '50's works as well as an mp3 player made this year.
And are you thinking about relying on Social Security?
As the baby boomers get closer and closer to retirement age, there will be more and more strain on Social Security.
What does that mean? That means that the resources Social Security has will not be able to last past the baby boomers. By the time it's time for me to retire, there will be no Social Security left for me.
But how much is there for the generation that's retired right now?
The baby boomers' parents receive a check for $1,000 in the mail from Social Security every month. I make that much right now and I don't even have a college degree yet!
Saving no longer works. We have to play the game the way the rich play the game. They invent money (Rich Dad, Poor Dad). That means invest.
I suggest that if you care about your financial future, you either read into how to invest and the benefits of investing, or you contact me. I'll let you know about opportunities that my generation has that baby boomers don't understand.
You should give information on yourself? I would like to know what your major is!? I dont see why saving up would not help you retire i mean you can graduate college and get a job making around 55k if the degree is right. According to payroll taxes your paycheck would be $1,660.92 every 2 weeks. Now if you put dont spurlge it all away and put maybe $400 a month in savings for retirement then after 35 years youd have 168000, thats not including interest build up and possible bonus's and inflation.
Although you are right thats not enough to retire with... now im sad
My major is Marketing, but I already have a business and I have several investments. I'm talking about residual income. The problem with saving is that the average American does not save more than $50 a week. And I don't want to retire in 35 years; I'd like to retire in 9 like my senior partner did. Retirement isn't the amount of money you have, it's if you can replace your income for a loooong period of time by what you have in cashflow assets (savings, stocks, bonds... etc). If you can cover your liabilities with your savings, that's cool, but there's more to retirement than the amount of money you save. That's why you need to invest. Oh yeah, with interest, you'd be lucky to find an interest rate of 5% to produce an even noteworthy yield.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world..." - Ghandi
It's true that Social Security won't be around for us, but you're wrong when you say few employers offer 401ks. Almost every corporation has a 401k plan and if you are a civil service worker or other public employee like a teacher or nurse you have a 401k counterpart, sometimes called a 403b. If a 401k plan isn't available you can invest in a Roth IRA, which some people do in addition to 401ks.
It is our responsibility to educate ourselves on investing so we're prepared to create our retirement plans as soon as we land our first steady, full-time job. There are tons of books and web sites out there that are helpful. I learned the basics of credit, loans, and retirement investing from Suze Orman's book "The Money Book for the Young Fabulous, and Broke"
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
wow! you make $1000 for each paycheck!?! so in two weeks roughly you make $1000, do you work a lot of hours?
When i worked full-time during winter break (i'm still in high school) for two weeks, i made $900, i stick everything in the bank though... since i'm not paying for bills yet... but it's almost as much as you made.
yea it sucks how everyone tells you to go to college, and get a good job. i know some people who went to college, and ended up working at mcdonalds because they couldn't find a job or some younger person came in & did it at a lower rate.
my father says some secure jobs are : nursing, and dental hygeinest. but they require LOTS of "roughing-it" - i wouldn't want wipe people's butt, ya know? or scrub teeth. but those are career's worth going to college for..... nursing is in huge demand right now in hawaii. (;
but yah, i agree. college / highschool doesn't prepare us for LiFE.
I wonder if there's a way to avert this. Oh, wait, there is! it's called fixing the federal budget! If we keep borrowing the way we are and increasing the federal debt, we'll end up with a budget that only does two things: pays interest on the debt and pays for social security. Guess what, guys? That means if we have a war, we can't afford it. And we can't afford unviersal health care, new infrastructure, government bailouts. . . . ..