One wild card that is to the Boomers' benefit is a solid pension.

My parents and my in-laws are both good examples, although they were born in the late 1930s and just barely missed being Boomers.

Neither couple has much in the way of savings, but they all have fat pension checks plus Social Security.  They blow through them each month, but don't worry about saving anything because next month will bring more pension and SS income.

If I can retire in another decade or so, it will be to live off of savings, with a tiny contribution by Social Security.  From my generation onward there are not many pensions (outside of .gov jobs).

If true that is absolutely disgusting.

Yup and thank globalism for the rabid decline in pension benefits.

But hey, us people with stocks made good money off of it..........stupid motherfucking globalists.  Value themselves over their own countrymen and women.

I'm so fortunate to have a government pension.  I stuck it out and now I'm reaping the benefits.

On average though haven't they diminished substantially from the old days with defined benefit types of plans (i.e., think Railroad Retirement types of plans.)??

Not all boomers have "fat pensions."  

By the 1970s and increasingly through the 80s, pensions were phased out by most of US business.  Depending on when you were born, 1946 to the early 60s, your likelihood of exposure to a defined benefit plan decreases rapidly outside of governmental and a very very few private organizations.  

I saved early, the greatest generation taught me to do so.  Best advice, stay in the market every day of your life.  Lows are buying opportunities.

Except, the value doesn't rise.

*sighs* What folks need to understand and in a hurry, Property value assigned by tax assessor is NOT value or equity.

A simple example.
You buy a house for 150k. You do general maintenance. Nothing more. Mowing the lawn, trimming trees, cleaning gutters/valleys in the roof, maybe power wash the exterior, at most a new coat of paint.
That's it. That's all you've done to it.

Along comes the tax man and raises your assesment from 150k to 180k 1 year after purchase.
You've done nothing to enhance or improve the value of the house or property.
Why are you being penalized for doing general upkeep on your dwelling?
With that arbitrary number assigned to your property, your taxes just went up.

It would be like buying a Hi-Point, and paying the sales tax for an LE6290 after year 1

In 5 years time, your assesment has climbed up to 225-285k.
With it, your property taxes. Now that Hi-Point? You just got a tax bill for a Knights SR25 in today's climate
And you've done NOTHING to improve the value of the property or dwelling.

Only a fool confuses this for equity, it is not equity. I repeat. That is not equity. The tax man can make every bullshit excuse in the world to raise your property taxes to cover shit heels spending like Drunken sailors at a whore house. STOP REWARDING THEM FOR IT!

Of course they want everyone to believe this is equity. Well, shit. I didn't have to add an addition? I didn't have to build a pool and patio to get free money?! I didn't have to build a detached garage and breeze way to get free money?! Well sign me up!-Wrong. Retard. No. Stop rewarding welfare schemes, state/local .gov union pension lackeys.

But. But. Muh equityz! That's not equity you house poor! That's arbitrary inflation!

Your "value" climbing up 50k-100k per year? Isn't a good thing.

Unless you bit off more mortgage than you can chew and pay the bank rent to live there for the next... 15-30 years... and the only way out is a hope and prayer that your assesment and market value skyrockets based off the tax man's hearsay and bullshit excuses of Muh demandz, desirabilityz, added value from new housing constructionz!

Further more. For the cunting and crying Karens. If fireworks, loud exhaust, heavy equipment, construction, etc bothers you?
How's about instead of supporting a draconian noise ordinance which will kill hunting and backyard shooting ranges for muzzle blast is far louder than the damn kids exhaust.... How's about you do something which will give you equity and improve the dwellings value? Like. Insulate that shit hole. That way you can sleep through a thunderstorm, the 4th of July when everyone's shooting off mortars etc.

Plus save $ on energy to heat/cool it! 1 time fee up front pays for itself within 2-3 years. I don't know about most, but I don't like giving my money to FPL (power company) just to have a comfortable/cool house. I also don't like having to push a central A/C to its brink either and risk big $ repairs.

Or is that too much like plain logic and common sense, so shit the place up and do the heavy lifting and hard work for antigun liberals through noise ordinance?

The sooner suburbanites and boomers get over their irrelevant making mountains out of molehills approach to loud noises to try and justify piss poor insulated houses, cunt and cry in one breath about others noises disturbing them in their house, Muh good neighborz collectivist bullshit in one breath. Muh freedomz Muh libertyz Muh personal responsibilityz in the next.
Ok hypocrite. Exercise that personal responsibility and insulate that dump so you don't get disturbed or your toy punt mutt doesn't wind up having an anxiety attack. Improve that property value. Save $ over the long run.

Why anyone would allow the tax man the right to charge them more per year in taxes, when they've done fuck all to improve their property/dwellings value, is pants on head retarded. Screams house poor to me-someone bit off more mortgage than they could chew. And their only way out is to sell at the tax man's inflated arbitrary "value".
By the way. Double maybe even triple whammy in the wallet-What is capital gains tax? Of course the tax man wants you to sell at a "higher value". Thats more tax $$$.
Depending on state? That also may affect your income taxes too. Shit holes like NY MA CT NJ VT...

Camaros on blocks as lawn ornaments.
Let the exterior of the house go to shit, not infrastructure wise. Let the paint fade. Let the grass grow into a hayfield. Let it look like the clampets live there.
Enjoy the tax savings, and make the inside fit for royalty. Why anyone would be that God damn retarded to reward Drunken sailors out of control spending at a whore house is pants on head retarded.

I played this game in NY and my property taxes stopped climbing. I suggest others do the same. Unless of course house poor mcmansion/tractville and Muh riff raff.
While the high property taxes brings the riff raff in droves... Muh burbz! Why so many bidet/kameltoe signs!?

Same here.
My dad told me as soon as I got hired by the police department "DO NOT rely on just your pension for your retirement". He had been through the NYC layoffs in the '70s.

I'm in the last group of employees at work with a full pension. They switched over to a 401k plan years ago but kept the pension in place for older workers. They did allow older workers to also get into the 401k plan so I did that also. At 61 it's done, no more will be put into it once you reach that age. It was 62 but it was dropped to 61 last year but the payout remained the same as if you had left at 62.

You can take it all in monthly payments, 50% in cash, 50% in monthly payments or 100% cash out. I am fortunate in that it's funded very very well unlike many other plans. [like the teamsters, those guys are fvcked]

I can't think of anyone my parents age, them included, that have a pension. They were all pretty much phased out well before the vesting date for the full benefit. I think I have a family member that will get like $42/month when she retires. Only one that comes to mind. Also a leading contributor for people dropping a job at a moments notice for one that pays marginally better. No reason to hang around anymore.

I work with a guy that is 60, he has $100k into his jeep, almost a paid off house but not a dollar in his 401k. No pension and he is afraid to go to the doctor because he knows he’s in terrible health. Nice guy but he is clueless.

I constantly tell him his ex wife and son (neither have ever had a job) will move into his house and not pay the property taxes and will sell the jeep at a yard sale.

Not once Biden waves his magical wand and forgives the debt.

FFS - the same will be true for every generation and has been true for every generation.  True for both the bitching about previous generations and the lack of planning by far too many people for their golden years.

Only fools fall for this intentionally divisive generation crap.  Just another facet of being played by our 'betters' who want us divided and weak.  There has never been a generation and never will be a generation that will consist of people that are uniformly financially responsible.  

Wont be long till we are all providing them with the retirement they feel they are entitled to

@Liv_C

Not to be intrusive, but about what percent of your final salary?
How many years of service?
Health care available at same cost as when working?

Have 2 relatives that work for the state here.
One has almost 30 years in and says he'll get around 35% at 30 years. Said the old timers had it better.

His daughter only has a couple in and said she's in newer system, will work til shes 80, then eat catfood. She is loading up her own IRA or 401k while still at home.

It's easy to see how this is your problem.  Just look at box 3 on your W-2.  Don't forget to double it to account for the employer match.

Yikes, no thanks.

But Boomers assure me they are financial gurus.

And according to his daughter, he's in the " good" retirement plan!

She said she ought to be in the state legislature, they get a much better deal. And only work a couple months a year!

  True, but the boomers are far worse then anyone that came before and are encouraging or requiring this behavior in millennials and zoomers. Want to know why all the college debt is out there?

College degrees are now basically required for every job except manual labor, most manual labor is being done by imported people. The desire to inflict college debt on everyone is a boomer idea, backed up by boomer college administrators that want higher numbers and made un dischargeable by Biden, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. The boomer trifecta of financial laws.

  If you care about pure practical effects how is a young middle class couple supposed to start a family, own a home, have the wife stay at home for at least a few years and pay off their bizarrely useless collage debts.

 The boomers have destroyed this country because they were only ever concerned about themselves.

What's the bad plan?
You have to put in 50 years and then they kick you in the dick?

Austerity is coming for those state .gov pensions, either for the pensioners or the taxpayers. It’s going to hurt.

My wife and I were chosen for a "in-depth" census during in 2000 census.  They go in touch with my wife instead of me first or I would have told them to FO.  Anyway,  the sent a census worker to our home and he asked us questions about our income, savings, investments, what gov't programs we take advantage of, etc.  We both have worked our asses off to save for our future.  At that time our only debt was two car notes and a mortgage that we were working to pay off early.  Between the two of us we didn't have a 6 figure income but we didn't spend money like a drunken congressman either.  Based on the the fact that we had investments and cash savings in excess of multiples times of our annual income the census worker said that would really hurt people in our area for government programs.  The census audits are used to determine which areas of the country have enough economic need to get access to govt programs for that area of the country.  Evidently being responsible with our income shifted a bunch of money from our district to other parts of the country.  I have no doubt this kind of data was used to attack productive areas of the country instead of using it to actually help anyone in economically depressed areas.

Not sure.
She said age and years in had to total 90, but also had to have 30 in.
Then you got less than the 35% that is the " good" plan!

PS: She's a traditional girl, so no dick.
Sorry!

I think we have to have 80 points minimum [age plus time] but the payout keeps rising until 61 years of age at which point it's capped.

I give credit where credit is due.
You're forgetting the sword they went and fell on.

Do good in school junior! That way you can go to college!
Many of the boomers I know? Sold off toys, refinanced their houses, cashed out savings/investments to give their kids a free ride to college.

And like the ignorant arrogant fools that they are, they by and large, not all, but most, still believe a degree is some end all be all...


Boomer logic-(hears hannitys 10-15 years too late)
Colleges are liberal indoctrination centers!
Next breath.
In order to make it these days, you need a degree!

I'm over here
Are you retarded? Why in the fuck are you willing to reward leftist indoctrinating colleges? Why are you shilling for degrees and college education for all the things!? Do you have any fucking clue how stupid that sounds?
Do you realize if we keep this stupid shit up, it won't even be in 1 generation, may be in a couple years at this rate, in order to become a janitor to scrub shitters and floors, the damn kids will have to get an associates in occupational studies. Spend 15k at the community college for 2 years to come out and earn 25-30k. THAT'S EVEN IF! They're considered for employment for not having the corporate commies degree AND 3-5 years experience...
And boomers wonder why the damn kids seem "entitled" wanting 6 figures+ when they didn't "earn it"...
And because of political correct woke shit it won't be janitor. Sanitation technician. Participation trophy for the feelz. Everybody is a technician, because calling it what it is just seems bad/depressing and doesn't appeal to the feelz.

Well... those that didn't have parents pay their way through college? They're stuck in a financial rut. A debt which can't be defaulted on, a debt which may be equal to, or greater than the boomers mortgage...
How the hell are the damn kids supposed to
Own a car, maintain, fuel it, and insure it.
Secure a place of their own when Muh property valuez caused landlords tax bills to be clown shoes, thus he's charging 2k per month for a shit hole studio, add requires renters insurance because his section 8 lackeys trash the place.
Buy groceries.
Pay for utilities.
When employers don't want them for they can get a visa/migrant worker for minimum wage to do that.
When starting out low guy on the totem pole is maybe at most 30k per year...
And ya'll wonder why kids, kids 18 right now, that are being sold the shady used car salesman tactic of what a deal! Pushed into college because, corporate commies and our retarded their business, their rules used against us...
Are coming up embracing socialism, communism, and demand/"entitled" 100k+ salary their first year upon graduating...

Could it be boomers, your lust for a degree, this fallacy end all be all piece of paper, didn't produce productive proficient "smart" capable independent prospects in the job market?
Signs point to, Yes.

We all got conned, hence the generational division. You pig headed ignorant set in your ways knew best. Told the kids to be obedient. Put their noses to the grind stones. Well. Snowflakes be the end result. Regardless if you raised them proper or not.
They weren't groomed to be rugged individuals productive and proficient independent and capable...

Happened under your watch, but you wouldn't listen to us and wrote us off as rebels without a cause...
You didn't know the curriculum nor how it was presented. You wonder why so many are worthless and lazy...

Leftists hold education, and they went out of their way to undermine you. Like fools you helped them achieve it too.
Muh property valuez funds it.
Never questioning what's going on, or taking legitimate gripes serious enabled it.
Believing the schools had our best interests first turned the dial of degeneracy all of the way up.
Giving them the authority to take advantage of "possible child abuse", this social media shit that's going on now?
Boomers, it's been going on for the last 15+ fucking years. Schools have been spying on kids social media pages to find out about parties, drugs, they've overstepped their bounds as educators and became another branch of authority tied to both social service/child protective services/state and local law enforcement.

You may have had good intentions... but that went to shit rather quick. Especially when the left gets to define what is and isnt...

Staying 2 steps ahead of their game is the only thing that kept my parties from being raided. Kept me from getting charges too. But you knew best...
Now? Xers kids go and post a video or picture at the range with their dad/grandfather? Kids labeled a potential threat, and the leftist shit heels will send cops and social workers. You're putting the kid at risk... potential abuse... home grown terrorists...

That genie can't be put back in the bottle...

I wish ya'll had foresight. You didnt. You knew best.
You supported the shit directly/indirectly through Muh best intentionz.

Just made every uphill battle damn near vertical with everything you supported. It can/might be over turned... but it'll take quite the determination dedication and effort to do so...
Lesson learned, listen to the damn kids. Don't require/demand degrees. Grow your own productive and proficient work force. Stop telling the kids to make it they need a degree. Take their complaints about school serious. Ask questions to admin/principals.
Don't write them off as rebels without a cause. And stop rewarding them with asinine property taxes. Force their hand to operate on a budget for once.
Shit we all have to live work and play on a budget. They don't have to?

Can’t speak to boomers since my parents were born in the 30s but I can tell you that the much older generation was led to believe that Social Security would be all you would need in retirement even though that’s not how it was designed pr marketed. It was designed as a supplement not a single source of income but a lot of people believe that it’s supposed to be and it just isn’t, so they squandered any savings they had or never bothered saving to begin with and now they are fucked. Luckily my parents were smart and don’t fall in that category but a shit ton of older folks out there do and it’s sad to see how misled they have been.

There were a LOT of pensions 50-75 years ago to go along with SS. Between the two, you could retire knowing you would have income that would cover your needs and some of your wants IF you didn't croak at 50 from a heart attack.

Almost every family member that worked for a company and retired  had a pension when I was a kid. A lot of them worked for Ma Bell. Even small machine shops offered pensions, plenty of old timers were or sill are collecting pensions from several different plans. By themselves they might be small but add 2 or 3 together and they do OK on them, especially if they also saved for retirement themselves.

People who’ve made sound financial decisions tend to be proud of themselves and happily share their success stories.

They other half who haven’t a pot to piss in.... not so much.

That’s not really how it works.

I was grandfathered into the old .Gov pension system.

Depends on what it was in. If the company didn't survive then it was lost. People with GM stocks got absolutely Fvcked with a capital F. And that was 100% government manipulated so as to screw over ''small'' investors'' and the law be damned.

Having all of your eggs in one basket isn’t the government’s fault.

the american economy is based on consumption. not on saving.

boomers parents came home from wwii and converted the manufacturing infrastructure from war materials to consumer materials, cars, air conditioning, washing machines, dryers, kitchen appliances etc etc etc. and boomers grew up in this economy and took consuming to heart.

boomers love mcmansions, big suvs, 2nd homes, boats, and so forth. and you can barrow on anything so thats how you roll.. and dont save. not to mention that a lot of boomer parents also signed with their kids to get huge loans so their kids could go to major party schools and get worthless (or incomplete) degrees.

boomers parents knew how important it was to save and to be careful with spending because they grew up during the great depression before FDIC insured savings and social security and similar. these lessons were not learned by their kids because when they grew up, this country was overflowing with milk and honey and government guarantees.

im a boomer, but my grandparents (who came through the depression successfully by working hard and paying attention to spendnig) had a big influence on me. so im ok. i learned the importance of living below my means.

My Dad was pretty well diversified and he still got screwed over in the GM bankruptcy. What  was done was 100% illegal and criminal.

Singling boomers out for not saving is disingenuous and borders on being obtuse in these "gimmee free shit" times when they actually worked for their money...carry on.

It's the American way. Buy and spend all you can, live for today. With Biden at the helm all of us who saved will be paying for the idiots and those who won't work.

That's because the boomer's sorry ass children and grandchildren bilked them out their money/savings. See it done way to Many times by the asswipes.

I'm so glad I never had children. Everything I own is paid for and I actually have a retirement. Because I did not have beggars.

That's all and unsubscribed because the only ones that post and birch and complain about boomers are losers. They blame everyone but themselves for being F'ed up assholes.

Go cry in your pillows and blame boomers some more losers

My dad went into assisted living at 88 with around $60K net worth, social security and a VA pension as a WWII vet were his only income.
He died at 91 with $600 in the bank just as I was finishing up the application for Medicaid.

If he didn't have the VA benefit, he would have needed Medicaid a lot sooner.


Cost of living starts to rise dramatically in the last few years of life.

My mom was constantly refinancing her house.

I know everyone is piling on the bloomers in this thread, but I think the harsh reality here is that by and large people just tend to be really poor with money in general regardless of what generation they’re in.

I know it took me going broke in a bad way to pull my head out of my ass. I’m glad that it happened to me while I was still in my 30s.

Divorces, not saving, and constantly financing everything seems to be a lot of the boomers downfalls from what I’ve witnessed. At least in my area which is a very heavily agricultural influenced area, the lack of people truly investing is quite staggering. I know a lot of baby boomers that have been building houses and doing mortgages in their 60s, which seems completely nuts to me.

What really chaps my ass though is that a lot of this property in my part of the world could’ve been bought for peanuts 30 years ago, and now is worth an absolute fortune.

A lot of people took their ass kicking him in 08 and then cashed out, and never got back in. That crowd seems to be doing really rough from the people that I know.

Overall the equation just isn’t that complicated, but we make it complicated I guess. Live below your means, invest 15% of what you make, don’t be up to your eyeballs in debt. That’s all I got.

I agree, that lure of easy money seems to suck people in. Keeping up with the Joneses a fools errand, the only way to win is not to play.

Yep, the people I know personally who are the worst with money are Gen X like me.

Ah........IIRC that is pretty close to the Railroad Retirement types of plans..........those might be the best I have ever heard of.

So your assessment is Boomers were shitty parents that raised shitty kids and have shitty asset management.  BUT, totally shouldn't blame that on the Boomers themselves?

That's more than recovered.
Unless you cashed out in 2008 and never reinvested.

I am a boomer. Retirement has always been seen as a three legged stool: SS, pension and savings. My father had a decent but not great pension. Mom had a small pension/profit sharing,  a few thousand dollars, that she took as a lump sum. They also had savings and a mortgage free house. Growing up we seldom went out to eat, had a decent car and food on the table. They even managed to help with our college education. Between my sister and I working, school financial awards and working we both got through school without student loans. We all knew the value of money.

Companies did away with fix benefit pensions and went to defined contribution plans like a 401k. You had to put your own money into the plan and the company made a contribution. Many people did not contribute to their plan and only got the company contribution. Others only contributed enough to the plan to get the company match assuming the company did not contribute if you did not. They also did not save money for their retirement because they planned on living on SS forgetting that SS was only one leg of their retirement. To further compound the problem, everyone wanted to go to college and could go using student loans backed by the government. College became a four, five and more year paid vacation living on government money. People borrowed $100s of thousands to get a degree in a field that would never lead to a good high paying job. Don’t worry, Biden will forgive the student debt and we will pay for it.

"After Gorbachev's resignation, the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States assigned him a respectable pension of 4,000 rubles a month  approximately four times the average Soviet salary at the time. However, the pension was not indexed to increase with inflation and by the summer of 1994, Gorbachev was receiving less than two dollars each month"

Eventually they increased his pension later on post collapse, but think about it, even the former leader of the USSR was screwed by inflation.

A lot of Americans counting on underfunded pensions are going to be screwed as well. I would not consider a pension money in the bank.

. . .