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"Looks Like I'll Be Able To Retire Comfortably At Age 91"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

My advice is to focus not on retiring comfortably, but on working comfortably.

You've probably seen articles and adverts discussing how much money you'll need to "retire comfortably." The trick of course is the definition of comfortable. The general idea of comfortable (as I understand it) appears to be an income which enables the retiree to enjoy leisurely vacations on cruise ships, own a well-appointed RV for tooling around the countryside, and spend as much time on the golf links as he/she might want.

Needless to say, Social Security isn't going to fund a comfortable retirement, unless the definition is watching TV with an box of kibble to snack on.

By this definition of retiring comfortably, I reckon I should be able to retire at age 91--assuming I can work another 30 years and the creek don't rise.

Since I earned my first real Corporate America paycheck at 16 in 1970 (summer job for Dole Pineapple), I've logged 45 years of work. Now if I'd been smart and worked for the government, I could have retired 15 years ago with generous pension and healthcare benefits for life.

But alas, I wasn't smart, so here I am, a self-employed numbskull.

The articles and adverts usually suggest piling up a hefty nestegg to fund that comfortable retirement. As near as I can make out, the nestegg should be around $2.6 million--or maybe it's $26 million. Let's just say it's a lot.

This presents retirees without generous government pensions two basic problems. One is making enough money to pay the bills of survival and set aside the two million or whatever the number is to retire comfortably.

The average full-time earned income in the U.S. is around $50,000, depending on how the statistics are massaged. At this income, the worker would need to to save every dime for 40 years to assemble the nestegg. Needless to say, this isn't practical (unless you inherit a trust fund, in which case you don't even have to bother with earned income.)

The magic solution is unearned income, i.e. dividends, interest, capital gains on investments, etc. If the worker aiming for that comfortable retirement socks his/her retirement nestegg in high-yielding investments, the nestegg will grow over time to the sky (i.e. the $2 million needed to retire comfortably.)

This raises the second problem: identifying those magical high-yielding investments that won't suddenly turn to dust when the long-awaited retirement approaches.

In the good old days, plain old savings earned 5.25% annually by federal law. Buying a house was not a way to get rich quick, it was more like a forced savings plan, as over time real estate earned about 1% above the core inflation rate.

But all the safe ways of gaining earned income have been eradicated by the Federal Reserve. As I described in The Fed's Solution to Income Stagnation: Make Everyone a Speculator (January 24, 2014), the status quo "fix" for economic stagnation was to financialize the U.S. economy. What this means on the ground is eliminate safe returns and make everyone a speculator in high-risk, high-yield financial games.

The essence of financialization is turning debt into a tradeable security that can be leveraged into speculative pyramids. If I loan you $100,000 to buy a house, that loan is called a mortgage. The collateral for the mortgage is the property. In the pre-financialization era, I held the mortgage to maturity (30 years) and collected the interest and principal. This trickle of earnings from interest was the entire yield on the loan.

In the securitized economy, I divide the loan into tranches that are sold to investors like stocks and bonds. I can "cash out" my entire gain in the present, and then sell derivatives on the securitized debt as a form of "portfolio insurance" to other buyers.

Clever financiers can pyramid security on security and debt on debt, all collateralized by debt on one property.

This enables the generation of vast profits not from producing goods and services but from financial churning. The more debt I underwrite, the more I can securitize and the more debt instruments I can conjure out of thin air.

The key dynamic of speculative financialization is that pyramiding credit expansions lead to bubbles which eventually pop, wiping out the phantom wealth created by the bubble.

In effect, the central bank/state's policies of low interest rates, easy money and limitless liquidity sought to compensate for the decline of real income by generating speculative income on a vast scale.

The problem is that speculative financialization only benefits speculators with access to nearly free money and the securitization markets--Wall Street financiers, corporate raiders, hedge funds and other financial Elites. These Elites pocketed immense fortunes but very little of this wealth trickled down to households for the simple reason that there is no mechanism for such a transfer except taxes--and this mechanism is controlled by the central state, which is easily influenced by wealth (campaign contributions, lobbying, etc.)

The Federal Reserve's solution to stagnating household income was to make every homeowner into a speculator. The Great Housing Bubble of the 2000s was the perfection of this strategy: as every home in the nation was floating higher in valuation as the result of an enormous credit/financialization bubble, homeowners were granted a form of "free income" via home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and second mortgages.

That this increase in home equity was a form of phantom wealth that would necessarily vanish was not advertised as being an intrinsic feature of the solution.

In the wake of the implosion of the housing bubble, the Fed sought to repeat the exact same strategy of inflating speculative bubbles in widely held assets: stocks, bonds and real estate.

So anyone assembling a nestegg for retirement is gambling that the bubbles don't all pop before he/she cashes out. If the bubbles keep inflating steadily for another decade, making assets ever-more richly valued and unaffordable to anyone who isn't using leverage to buy them, then maybe I could retire after only 55 years of work at age 71.

But what are the chances that monumental bubbles in stocks, bonds and real estate will continue inflating for another decade? Most gigantic asset bubbles pop after five years of expansion. The current bubbles are in Year 6 of their speculative expansion, and it seems highly unlikely that they will be the only bubbles in the history of humanity to never pop.

If the current bubbles follow the pattern of all other speculative credit-driven bubbles, they will pop, without much warning and with devastating consequences for all those who believed the bubbles couldn't possibly pop. In that case, it looks like I'll need to work another 30 years, logging 75 years of labor before I can retire comfortably at 91.

My advice is to focus not on retiring comfortably, but on working comfortably. Line up work you enjoy that can be performed in old age. That's a much safer bet than counting on the serial bubble-blowing machinery of the Fed to keep inflating speculative bubbles that magically never pop.

 

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Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:00 | 5726451 SickDollar
SickDollar's picture

 Death will be soon the only retirement choice for the 99%

 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:04 | 5726467 knukles
knukles's picture

Y'all know the etymology of "the creek don't rise"?
It was meant to refer to an uprising of the Creek Indians.
Your Zen for the day

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:12 | 5726501 ACP
ACP's picture

Does that mean we're all up Shit Creek?

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:14 | 5726520 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

We are so far up Shit Creek.  The employment gains are with the 55+'s and there is a population bubble with this age group.  These are the people that have 401ks and are in the market.  When they finally have to retire, they will need to liquidate their stock positions.  Who is going to buy the stocks they are selling?

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:27 | 5726559 ACP
ACP's picture

Retire? No, regular everyday folks in private industry will be taxed at 99% to pay for those fat multi-six-figure government pensions. They still will be working when everything blows up in a few years.

California is a sneak preview - pensions even higher than salaries:

"In Contra Costa, California, the final salary of one fire chief, 51, was $221,000. He was given an annual, guaranteed pension of $284,000. Another chief, 50, whose final salary was $185,000, got a pension of $241,000. Credit the Contra Costa Times with uncovering this."

"In California, 9,111 retired government workers have pensions of more than $100,000. One retiree draws an annual pension of $509,664. Among retired teachers, 3,065 receive more than $100,000. One gets $285,460. Pensions for retired state workers and teachers will rise 2 percent this year, though Social Security recipients aren't getting any cost-of-living increase."

 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:38 | 5726625 centerline
centerline's picture

Is exactly how the country will tear itself apart... literally.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:44 | 5726653 max2205
max2205's picture

At 91 you will be the 2% in your birth group who live that long.....best wishes

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:43 | 5726655 knukles
knukles's picture

New Common Core Math:  Zeno's Law of Retirement

come on, I know you can get it

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:27 | 5726848 Handful of Dust
Handful of Dust's picture

With that Fat 0.01% yield on my hard-earned savings from barry and the Fed, I should be able to retire at 128 years old.

 

[PS: I'd like to take this moment to thank Alan, Ben and Janet for punking the average Merikan as hard as possible for as long as possible. I'll get misty eyed if I continue, so I'll end here.]

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:00 | 5726898 The Big Ching-aso
The Big Ching-aso's picture

I'm already too tired to retire knowing that as soon as I retired I'll be even more tired trying to stay retired.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:14 | 5727049 GeorgeWKush
GeorgeWKush's picture

I often wonder how someone can be so tired of life that they plan their own retirement long time in advance.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:36 | 5727159 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

It's the dream of escaping the rat race. Which has kinda turned into a nightmare.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 21:24 | 5727740 JuliaS
JuliaS's picture

Rachael: Have you ever retired a human by mistake?

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:22 | 5727105 Lester
Lester's picture

Anybody NOT employed by Govt, Teaching System, or Union still have a "Pension Plan"?

 

NO, not since the late `80s.  Bruce Williams and Bobby Boy Brinker sold everyone on the idea that they could pick stocks and do better with a 401k.  Got the funding obligation off the corporation's back and for a while, looked pretty good.  Then, DA FED began loaning money directly to banks in the late 90s and interest on capital went to hell; like 1% and then the Pigeon Drop was worked on Retired Americans who had Capital, and many manipulated crashes since...  NOW the Wall St. Operators are shaking the last dime out of your pants cuff, the dime you didn't know you still had.

 

Ain't been no COLA bumps, because ain't been no flation; so Govt tells us...  Got your 401 and Profit Sharing all "Integrated w/Social Security" so your employer gets "credit" for what they been required to pay in matching.  Starting to add up to nothing yet?  Wait!  There's More...  Then you got the Private Corp buyouts which used Retirement Plan Assets to pay-off the prior owners so now your $$$ is all tied up in a non-public traded entitty under ESOP mechanism.

 

Didn't Congress just vote to Backstop all the derivative losses that money center banks are facing?  Adding about $300 Trillion, potentially,  to the Federal "debt" (which isn't our debt at all).  That is a kinda Inflationary thing.   Consider Laurence Kitlikoff's $200T plus numbers for total Fed Govt obligation is now way-over Half A Quadrillion Dollars!

 

It really just goes back to the Pigeon Drop, don't it...  Such is Life In These United States.  $500 Trillion in Govt Obligation to fund a private economy that might generate $4 Trillion in GDP i all Govt sales are backed-out.  Nothing out of the ordinary here...  Don't everyone owe 400x their annual productivity or 600x if adjusted for interest?

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:41 | 5726641 MissCellany
MissCellany's picture

Government workers? Nah. Government employees.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:14 | 5726782 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

Let's say hypothetically 2 neighbors live side by side, same age; one is a school teacher, the other a computer programmer.  Every morning they say hello to each other as they leave for work and every evening they again say hello as they walk their dogs.  The teacher retires at age 60 because who wants an old teacher teaching kids (so goes the arguments I hear, hypothetically).  The teacher gets full medical and a great retirement.  Now each day the programmer goes to work for another 7 years?, 10 years?, 15 years?

Hypothetically, the argument is that the programmer should have been a teach however when the programmer chose to become a programmer teachers along with all government workers were paid relatively low salaries but in return had generous retirement benefits.  Over the years, the government workers unions made sure they elected public officials that said how unfair the salaries were so government workers are paid at least as much as private workers.  The private workers needed to be taxed more to pay for these increases.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:42 | 5726900 Pie rre
Pie rre's picture

Don't forget that the civil servant can retire early and then take on another position in the .gov to increase their retirement or move to a higher pay scale for a few years and have their retirement reset then revert back to a lower and easier pay scale without having the retirement reduced. They can also develope a "condition" that doesn't allow them to perform their jobs, get on disability which the state transfers to SSD getting them off the states bookd to the .gov.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:14 | 5726783 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

Let's say hypothetically 2 neighbors live side by side, same age; one is a school teacher, the other a computer programmer.  Every morning they say hello to each other as they leave for work and every evening they again say hello as they walk their dogs.  The teacher retires at age 60 because who wants an old teacher teaching kids (so goes the arguments I hear, hypothetically).  The teacher gets full medical and a great retirement.  Now each day the programmer goes to work for another 7 years?, 10 years?, 15 years?

Hypothetically, the argument is that the programmer should have been a teach however when the programmer chose to become a programmer teachers along with all government workers were paid relatively low salaries but in return had generous retirement benefits.  Over the years, the government workers unions made sure they elected public officials that said how unfair the salaries were so government workers are paid at least as much as private workers.  The private workers needed to be taxed more to pay for these increases.

Sat, 01/31/2015 - 01:37 | 5728249 August
August's picture

 >>>the final salary of one fire chief, 51, was $221,000. He was given an annual, guaranteed pension of $284,000. Another chief, 50, whose final salary was $185,000, got a pension of $241,000.

A cute variation on the "Retiring Chief Scam" is that in some departments, the new Chief is expected to step down after only two years or so in the role, so the next guy can step up into the top pay rank, and then onward to the top pension rank.  So, not only do you have each Chief retiring with a full quarter-mil annual pension, you have a new one doing so every two years, forever.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:28 | 5726579 Arrowflinger
Arrowflinger's picture

The Fed will balk at funding another $200 Trillion in retirement entitlements?. Their current position is to do just that!

$200 trillion in existing entitlements and obligations somehow got instantly doubled with the 2009 financial rescue.

A 401k is better than a FDIC insured bank deposit.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:16 | 5726528 Smegley Wanxalot
Smegley Wanxalot's picture

If Shit Creek rises, then it's all up us.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:13 | 5726505 Greenspazm
Greenspazm's picture

"up shit creek in a barbed wire canoe sans paddle".

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:14 | 5726511 90's Child
90's Child's picture

By the time I'm 65... In four decades and some change.

Hopefully my stack will have "matured" enough to where I can "retire".

The sooner the better.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:07 | 5726744 Greenskeeper_Carl
Greenskeeper_Carl's picture

Im with you there, im 29. I am just going to keep stacking my entire life, hopefully be able to cash out for a nice place in the mountains somewhere one day, many many years from now.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:36 | 5726883 replaceme
replaceme's picture

Study languages in your spare time, thinking my HS/college French should have been Spanish - thinking my mountains may be south of the border...

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:09 | 5727026 Greenskeeper_Carl
Greenskeeper_Carl's picture

ya ive thought the same thing. I have a friend who was born there to american parents, so he has dual citizenship and owns property down there. He is a lucky individual, since while we listen to our president try to grant amnesty and american citizenship to any ilegal that wants it, going down there and applying for mexican citizenship and getting a passport is not an easy proposition, since they require you to live full time for(i think) 5 years first

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:14 | 5726516 Dr. Richard Head
Dr. Richard Head's picture

So I am extremely fortunate to work for a company where I earn way more than the average and we actually run a business that is not robbing people blind.  I am on the Board of Directors and bring up the problems with the financial system quite regularly.  The same reply from all of the other well compensated board members is "Don't worry about it.  Just make more money".  Such a shame.  

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:28 | 5726584 Arrowflinger
Arrowflinger's picture

The trouble is that the amount of more money really needed is unattainable.

Boomers will be eating a lot of bullets.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:37 | 5726627 SickDollar
SickDollar's picture

and your kids future and grand children  will starve cuz the system will collapse

 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:35 | 5726871 Arrowflinger
Arrowflinger's picture

Nope on the children and grandchildren.

A person who does numbers and trends the way I have is about 3 or 4 decades ahead of these times.

It is fascinating alternating from mongoose to cobra, but age is slowing down the reflexes and mental agility.

ZH helps.

 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:04 | 5726466 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

I'm pretty sure that once WWIII heats up, retirement will be the last thing on people's minds.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:11 | 5726506 Billy Sol Estes
Billy Sol Estes's picture

Vicegrips to keep your head from bobbing around when they inject the RFID into you on the plantation.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:14 | 5726518 yogibear
yogibear's picture

The elite's solution is indeed WWIII.

Most have private jets as well as secure, well equipped refuges in the southern hemisphere.

Their  all prepared.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:06 | 5726472 pods
pods's picture

Retire?

That term will soon fall into obscurity altogether.

But hey, we'll all have flying cars, right?

pods

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:10 | 5726491 Skateboarder
Skateboarder's picture

Autonomous splooglecars, so you can get plastered on your way home from work in the car cuz your life sux.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:35 | 5726611 centerline
centerline's picture

Sounds good to me.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:09 | 5726751 Greenskeeper_Carl
Greenskeeper_Carl's picture

ya when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so bad. Im in

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:20 | 5726542 rejected
rejected's picture

Right you are except it has already happened.

I did everything as explained by the financiers during my,,, shall we say,,, younger days. Today with inflation,taxes and ZIRP it has turned out to be all crap. This boomer will have to work until he can't. I want to scream every time I read some young millennial post about us retired, fat, raking in their money boomers.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:22 | 5726803 Greenskeeper_Carl
Greenskeeper_Carl's picture

well, get ready to scream then. I don't blame you, expicitly for me having to pay into social security, but I do blame boomers in general for perpetuating this ponzi scheme on us all. I am 29, and could do a lot with the thousands of dollars I am forced to piss away into SS every year. By the time I am old enough, social security in its present form will be a mrmory, as it is already bankrupt, we just keep pretending it isnt. Your generation demanding payment on your benefits that you 'earned' is why no politician who ever wants to be elcted can seriously propose even allowing us young people to opt out. I get it, you paid into it, your were forced to, but you will get out FAR MORE than you paid into it, and that money comes directly out of my paycheck and gets sent to boomers everywhere. Im sorry that you were lied to, and ripped off, but that doesn't excuse your generation forcing us, en masse, at the ballot box, to keep this up, ripping us off as you were ripped off. Your generation has done future generations a great disservice by doing so. People in that age group have no excuse for not having a nest egg. You lived throught the greatest period of economic growth and properity in memory. All you had to do was put away a few % of your income in an index fund, and even with the crashes of 2000/2007, you would still have a sizable nest egg if you had tried. no excuses. You could have also bought gold at 35/ounce, kept fucking loose change in a jar, and had a nice ammount for retirement, but most people in the boomer generation didn't becuase the govt will take care of you. Well, guess what, it won't so now the younger generation will pay for your retirement until you die, and by the time we reach that age, the farce will have ended. but hey, you got yours, i guess.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:37 | 5726877 malek
malek's picture

 but you will get out FAR MORE than you paid into it

Only if you believe the gov't CPI numbers. And before you go hogwild I'm an X'er.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:39 | 5727180 max2205
max2205's picture

Carl sounds like me 20 years ago......somethings never change except I blamed the govt not boomers. ...I still blame the govt and you should  too 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 18:45 | 5727342 Greenskeeper_Carl
Greenskeeper_Carl's picture

trust me, in no way do I hold the govt blameless. But the people who rallying cry around every election is "hands off my SS/medicare" is not blameless either. Thats why the tea party pisses me off so bad sometimes. All you hear about is how we need smaller govt, obamacare i socialism, blah blah blah, but the same people will say "i eanred my SS/medicare, no cuts allowed" and not ever grasp how those are contradictory positions.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:41 | 5727178 eddiebe
eddiebe's picture

So Carl, you're not a boomer right? Why don't you stop the ponzi now so maybe your kids don't wind up accusing you for not doing something about the fix they find themselves in?

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 21:21 | 5727732 JuliaS
JuliaS's picture

Flying cars and retirement. Did I walk into a Blade Runner convention?

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:08 | 5726482 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

imo an expensive RV is one of the worst purchases a person with limited resources can make.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:11 | 5726495 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Best plan for retirees seems to be a 'Little Home' on a trailer that can be pulled.  It is considered an RV but can be built more solidly.  Best of all you avoid all the building inspections and paying taxes on a fixed home. 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:41 | 5726639 centerline
centerline's picture

Pontiac Aztec was just ahead of it's time.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:11 | 5726770 TheMeatTrapper
TheMeatTrapper's picture

Or a small houseboat on pontoons. Sit on the front porch and catch dinner as it swims by.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:38 | 5727171 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Monsantofish, it's what's for dinner.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:07 | 5726485 JRobby
JRobby's picture

I was recently provided with a whole life (don't believe in the product myself) "illustration" that went out to age 114.

At that point the net "contract" value would apparently finance a happy meal.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:10 | 5726496 Billy Sol Estes
Billy Sol Estes's picture

SS retirement age is asymptotic for anyone under 30 today.

"Oh you almost got it, just wait another year."

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:13 | 5726510 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Put away one tube of Silver Eagles and one Gold Eagle for each month of your expected retirement.  Then stop worrying about inflation, food prices, or tax increases.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:39 | 5726631 homebody
homebody's picture

So the word is out.  There is a 80-90 year old person up the street who is trying to pay his utility bill, and grocery bill with silver or gold.  Better be in good shape and be a good shot.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:59 | 5726704 MisterMousePotato
MisterMousePotato's picture

"Put away one tube of Silver Eagles and one Gold Eagle for each month of your expected retirement."

I think that was covered in the first paragraph or two of the article; to wit: To follow your advice (at today's prices) requires that one invest approximately $1,700 per month. After taxes.

After living expenses. Food, water, shelter, etc.

The author mentioned $50,000/year as an average for full-time employees.

That includes government employees (as well as other highly paid individuals such as health insurance CEOs, athletes, musicians, doctors, etc.), which skew the numbers enormously.

Normal people working the private sector make about $28,000 per year, which makes your advice irrelevant to anyone who doesn't already have a defined benefit plan, and, thus, who doesn't need your advice.

Oh, don't get me wrong. It's good advice for the one or two dozen individuals who are in a position to avail themselves of it, but ... .

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:13 | 5726513 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

I'm glad that all the people who make the wrong investments just disappear.

These people just don't exist.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:14 | 5726519 10mm
10mm's picture

One does not retire, one expires.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:21 | 5726545 Creepy A. Cracker
Creepy A. Cracker's picture

With Obamacare - very true. 

"Papers, PLEASE...  I see that you are over 60, you are not a registered democrat, and you do not have an EBT card.  NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU!!!"

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:11 | 5727035 JRobby
JRobby's picture

Out the door, turn left and board the blue buss with the dark windows. Yes, the big one.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:15 | 5726524 RockRiver
RockRiver's picture

This sounds remarkably like my situation...

 

I need another 5 years of S&P stron uptrend...

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:18 | 5726534 D-liverSil-ver
D-liverSil-ver's picture

I only need 3 things to happen before I can retire.

1) Wife dies, and I sell the house.

2) Silver goes to $50+

3) Gold goes to $2000+

There's probably something I forgot, Oh yeah Social Security must still be in exsistence and give me what they say I am due.

It's not looking good that all of these things will occur.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:13 | 5726777 Loose Caboose
Loose Caboose's picture

If I was your wife, I'd be a little bit nervous......

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:45 | 5726911 D-liverSil-ver
D-liverSil-ver's picture

You could "be" her, she has a "Loose Caboose".

Sat, 01/31/2015 - 14:08 | 5729129 IronShield
IronShield's picture

If you like Pina Coladas, getting caught in the rain...

Never know, could be her.  ;-)

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:18 | 5726536 Byte Me
Byte Me's picture

The Creek might rise, but the kriek goes down just - fiiine.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:19 | 5726537 Creepy A. Cracker
Creepy A. Cracker's picture

The nightmare known as Obamacare will kill you first.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 18:36 | 5727322 BeansMcGreens
BeansMcGreens's picture

You got that right. Just read up on Ezekel Emanuel.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:21 | 5726541 eddiebe
eddiebe's picture

Yeah, we know the man has been screwing us since what? 1931? So now what do we do? Is there any consensus, any organisation, any backbone? Greece maybe, Russia? I don't see it in North america. A total dumbed down sell out is what I see.

Good job banksters. Kudos. 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:23 | 5726547 FreeShitter
FreeShitter's picture

Hopefully WWIII will bring about my quick demise instead of dying of cancer or some other unexpected illness, who the fuck wants to live till 91 anyways.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:24 | 5726560 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

After you catch cancer, go on a rampage.   Free meds while waiting for a trial you won’t live to see anyway. 

 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:31 | 5727137 D-liverSil-ver
D-liverSil-ver's picture

 "who the fuck wants to live till 91 anyways"

People that are 90 yrs. old

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:24 | 5726550 cigarEngineer
cigarEngineer's picture

Financialization reduces friction (in transactions). Friction is how many companies and individuals make money. Financialization therefore reduces costs. Don't hate on financialization, but on the free money being doled out by the Fed that juices the leverage of market participants and introduces perverse incentives.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:23 | 5726554 besnook
besnook's picture

you have no right to retire unless you create that right yourself. you can claim .gov is responsible. you can claim your employer is responsible but only you are responsible for making that happen. the ww2 population has been the only generation to have successfully retired. the boomer generation is trying but the numbers are not good. genx and y are fucked. they are the true welfare generations when retirement comes around.

the curse of living longer through the miracle of pills is working longer to pay for them.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:37 | 5726620 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

You don't think it was a systemic attack on the Middle Class & a lengthy scheme for global government.

Remember Lou Dobbs work showing the attacks on the Middle Class? It is actually not bad work to review IMO.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:20 | 5726813 estebanDido
estebanDido's picture

Boomers get out of the usa, come down to the caribbean. With 2,000 dollars you will be fine, with  a nice beach close to the appartment and other goodies.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:33 | 5726601 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

North American Union is in the news Today, part of a long scheme, everything makes sense now: huge federal debt without end, huge MEDICARE/MEDICARE Costs without complaint, Huge Demographics problems with Social Security, Open Borders, Treacherous Free Trade Agreements Touted as Victories, Deconstruction of US Industries...

U.S. passports on verge of elimination?
Soros-funded plan champions 'North American Union' by Jerome Corsi.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/u-s-passports-on-verge-of-elimination/#I8I7Du...

EW YORK – A Soros-funded group arguing to replace the U.S. passport with a North American passport appears ready to take up the mantle of championing the concept of a European Union-style regional government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, Mexico and Canada, fulfilling the dream of the late American University professor Robert Pastor.

The future of the U.S. lies in North America, not in the United States as a sovereign nation, contends the New America Foundation, a Washington-based leftist think-tank with ties to Jonathan Soros, son of famed leftist billionaire George Soros.

Appropriately named “New America,” the foundation believes the U.S. passport should soon become obsolete and replaced with a European Union-style passport issued for all citizens of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Citizens would be redefined by their regional identity as “North Americans,” echoing President Obama’s claim in Spanish in his Dec. 17, 2014, announcement of his executive actions to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, “Todos Somos Americanos,” or, “We are all Americans.

-------------------------------------------------------------
-- Get Ready for Full & Formal Suspension of US Constitution
-------------------------------------------------------------

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:38 | 5726632 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

"Wing Nut Daily" is still around? 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 19:32 | 5727467 Lin S
Lin S's picture

I need some convincing, I guess.  Whenever I hear him talk on Noory's program, he seems to be parroting the NWO global warfare meme: "confronting Russian aggression [sic]," "dealing forcefully with the the ISIS threat," and so on.

Am I missing something?

Please advise (sincere question, I want to know if I'm wrong).

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 22:13 | 5727834 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

You may be right Lin S. I usually stop reading if the headline is bigger DoD, More Military Service Members, more Funding for Weapons.

Corsi probably is careful about his wording, but I missed out on his drumming for War on ISIS & the War on Terror.

Sorry about that.

I guess we are all trying to figure out why we lost the US Constitution. Probably it is greed, corruption, self interest, old boy networks, crony capitalism (simplest answer). I figure all the old money from Europe and the Wealthy from 19th century USA are continuing to scheme against the middle class.

Soros is an Odd Ball, and apparently there is no Ethos in doing business in the USA or Europe regarding questionable characters.

Probably I don't believe in any Communist Conspiracy in the USA or by Barack Obama. I see Dems & Reps are the same. But the EU is a disaster. The USA is a disaster. We no longer have Conservative Business or Government Practices (requirements where accounting is concerned).

So the future is probably going to be USA Led by Technocrats like in Europe.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:12 | 5726766 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Boehner will be opening investigation into Benghazi anytime now....

 

Dimwits.

 

 

 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:55 | 5726697 Fun Facts
Fun Facts's picture

The ZWO plan is for you to work until you die.

For them.

Donkey.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 15:59 | 5726705 world_debt_slave
world_debt_slave's picture

So much for my planned retirement at 85.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:03 | 5726725 B2u
B2u's picture

Damnit...I really screwed up.  I retired comfortably 3 years ago at age 54.  I am an idiot.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:04 | 5726737 Mike Honcho
Mike Honcho's picture

The idea of retirement is a sample of how people use religion, the promise of better days.  People that still believe in SS have doubtfully ever read about the programs funding and liabilities.  Or the old 401k(iss it goodbye), how can the market be trusted now, neverless in my case 30 years from now.  No way the US system makes it that far and has any resemblance of the good ole days.  Being a realist in my opinion.  And this idea of living to the fullest once your youth has passed is backwards logic.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 18:27 | 5727306 dsty
dsty's picture

being a realist

you might think of consequences

and make the right choice

Sat, 01/31/2015 - 17:34 | 5729767 Clesthenes
Clesthenes's picture

Collecting “retirement” checks from the SSA is also a means by which to recover stolen property.

 

Incidentally, are you interested in REDUCING your biological age (up to 50 years)… as I have done?

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:09 | 5726753 Leraconteur
Leraconteur's picture

I just do not know what to say to OP such as this any longer.

You live in the USA. You can take $20,000 USD and sit in most countries for years, but you don't want to change your life but instead want to be able to play 18 holes at Pebble Beach every morning, drive a new SUV every 3 years, and travel 6 months of the year to Zurich, all on your ''comfortable retirement"".

There is no hope for you, for you are brain washed. 

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:30 | 5726854 FreeShitter
FreeShitter's picture

Dead from the neck up.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:31 | 5726859 Clesthenes
Clesthenes's picture

“I should be able to retire [comfortably] at age 91 – assuming I can work another 30 years…”

Actually, there is a better alternative.

For the past 30-50 years, the SSA has collected more taxes than it has paid in benefits.  The surplus, each year, was “lent” to the US Treasury, which promptly spent the money on current expenditures; the total loaned now stands at some $2.7 trillion.

In 2-5 years, bureaucrats tell us collections are scheduled to fall short of benefits, and remain that way for 75 years.

To “fix” this problem, options bureaucrats have put on the table are 1) raise taxes, 2) cut benefits, 3) cut general expenditures or 4) issue more debt.

An option conspicuously absent is an investigation and recovery of $9-$11 Trillions that went missing from DoD, HUD and SSA (among other agencies and amounts).  See, SSA Redress.

Or what about the $2 to $5 Trillions in surpluses that show up on books of cities and counties, special districts and state governments.  These surpluses are held as cash and bonds, real estate and stocks, domestic and international; they represent taxes over-collected… for who knows how many years? When I did my research on this (about 2000), such surpluses for California divided out to $20,000 for every man, woman and child in the state; then I factored in amounts hidden in footnotes, the “dividend” ballooned to over $40,000 for each individual.  See, for example, “Who Owns City Hall?“ and Of Lords and Cattle.

These surpluses lead to a couple of questions, at least, ‘Who owns them?’ and ‘When do I get my dividend?’

It seems to me that recovering this booty would be more sensible than authorizing more debt.  It would enable the government, for example, to cut taxes in half, or even collect no taxes for several years.  It would make it easier for men to raise their children; for, when money is taken from men without an equal exchange, men are less able to provide for their children.  The government has even acknowledged this in the Supreme Court, yet it still imposes confiscatory taxes.

Ah, the mind spins with possibilities.

Recovery of this plunder will favorably impact some 130 million Americans: 50 million private retirees, 60 million who work in the private sector and probably another 20 million who are looking for work.  ACTIVE private workers will benefit from lower taxes enabled by recovery of such booty.

What I aim at here, is a tad bit more complicated and comprehensive than what I did before: the establishment and operation of a gold-based banking service.  Here, I aim at nothing less than a re-establishment of ideals confirmed by the American Revolution, and immediately lost by lethargy and ignorance.  The nation of America, as known today, is irretrievably lost (governmental debt is the means and measure of that loss).  It is corrupt beyond recovery; after all, what less can be said about a nation that voluntarily, and ignorantly, allowed its following generations to be so badly used (by taxes made necessary by government debt), as I have described many times in other places; for example, Bad News….

The vast majority of affected following generations are not even born yet; they had no voice in the transactions that doomed them to a birth without promise; no voice, that is, but ours.

Then there is the problem of aging.  What good is a retirement if you have bad health?  Perhaps you should consider a health regimen that has REDUCED – not slowed – my biological age 50 years (it also un-does the damage done by medication and indoctrination).  This health regimen has given me the coordination, health and physical condition of a professional athlete around the age of 20; I’m 70 years of age (for validation, video and webpage – each leads to the other).

No, I’m not offering to make you a professional athlete; but rather to give you the health and physical condition you should have had as a teenager.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:45 | 5727195 max2205
max2205's picture

Not worse than being born in Africa this week

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 22:04 | 5727815 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Clesthenes; would love some links for posterity here:

" These surpluses (now about $2.5 Trillion) were loaned to the US Treasury for general disbursements. "

Seems I never found great links on SS Borrowing. Started in Vietnam didn't it?

Sat, 01/31/2015 - 17:28 | 5729747 Clesthenes
Clesthenes's picture

This link will take you to the index page for Financial Reports for the US Govt (frusg); choose a year; and then search for “Social Responsibilities”, “Social Security” or related.

Or study my article, ‘Redress for SSA’; it will give the requested info plus a link to the particular page of the frusg.

 

I’m sure it started the year of enactment: when established, it only collected taxes, benefits became available 4 years later.

Sat, 01/31/2015 - 19:42 | 5730056 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Yeah, I think these issues are a red Herring, HUD, DoD, and Social Security.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/02/1166681/-Should-Americans-Forgi...

DoD always has problems, who knows who is stealing money, CIA or other agency, or a defense contractor. But the amount is not what Don Rumsfeld said after 911. Don and Catherine Austine Fitts are talking about tracking funds that very well may have been spent properly. Tracking is important, paper trails should all be there, but down to under funded small organizations the paper is not getting into electrons. This is a big excuse for more funding for modernization with more computer systems that may or may not deliver on the scope of work.

Anyway, the old system is paper trail, the new systems are incomplete sometimes, computer interfaces, legacy computer systems...

I had heard that we started stealing or borrowing from SS for the Vietnam War, but it would not be $2.5 Trillion. My mistake.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 19:51 | 5726862 malek
malek's picture

 The average full-time earned income in the U.S. is around $50,000

You might want to look at the Median Income to get a better idea what's average in the US.

Update:
Oh, Michael Snyder just posted the link https://www.socialsecurity.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2012

So in 2012 the Average Income of individuals was $42,498.21 (skewed by a few rich),
while the Median Income of individuals was $27,519.10

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:34 | 5726868 Vinividivinci
Vinividivinci's picture

Been calling it "freedom 95" for quite a while now...
Them there NWO guillotines are startin' to look mighty welcoming.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 16:46 | 5726914 BouncingCat
BouncingCat's picture

The problem is not the securitization of mortgages, but the fraudulent lending practice fostered by the left wing that seeks "fairness" for those that can't afford them.  Then guess what?  They can't repay them!

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:18 | 5727083 monad
monad's picture

Obama inheritance plan: Cowards inherit all the debt and none of the property. Grow a pair or live on your knees, kids. Either way, its short and hard.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:19 | 5727093 pipes
pipes's picture

"My advice is to focus not on retiring comfortably, but on working comfortably."

Why? So that I can continue on this hampster wheel, feeding the banksters?

Fuck that.

I intend to "shrug".

Sooner than later.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 17:20 | 5727096 The Shape
The Shape's picture

All the retirement calculations are based on fat slobs who've never been able to run a budget, resist an impulse purchase or they have to renovate the house every three years. And these are the lucky people who've never suffered job losses etc

That's why plenty of people are fucked at retirement.

Fri, 01/30/2015 - 18:20 | 5727297 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Now we have a negro asking for +50K to enroll in (Obamacare), a new Ponzi scheme or face IRS fines. Egg or flies on this experimental US Presidential negro face.

 

No one is going to revamp a Social Security Fund that we have already paid into by proxity of ACA taxation to fill the coffers. What happened to all baby-boomers money that contributed to the fund? All interest accrued trust fund monies under the Federal Reserve guidance. How did the trust fund get depleted? See, those folks were guaranteed ROI. You (Banking twats, fucked them over). Why should we trust you with our money? We are going to be the next generation retiring, without your paper bullshit investments or hopeless promises.

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