Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Fools and Their Money Make for a Tough Retirement

It is amazing how many retirement news articles focus on the how a majority baby boomers will face a gruesome retirement.

Now, this is not that surprising considering how most baby boomers were fools were their money.
These are the same baby boomers who thought they were so special.
Ever notice how people who think that they are so special are usually cool and broke. In other words they don't manage money very well.
"People who don't respect money," said J. Paul Getty, "don't have any."

What's more, the U.S. Government has not managed money any better.

This comes from Flood of Retirees Nudges Social Security to the Brink (February 23, 2010 on theTrumpet.com)
    “Congress fiddles while the budget burns.”

    Since Social Security was adjusted in 1984 to collect more money in payroll taxes than it paid out, the program accumulated a $2.5 trillion trust fund. But those surplus dollars were diverted into other programs, and are now long gone. The collapse could not have come at a worse time for Washington. Not only has Social Security’s lending pool evaporated, but the program has deteriorated into a vicious drain.

    So, for the first time in 25 years, Social Security is on the brink. And analysts forecast that the situation is still far from the nadir of its descent. The diseased system may seem like a recent phenomenon, but the collapse has been long in the making. Politicians have been borrowing from the surplus fund for decades, and using creative bookkeeping to avoid registering the deficits into our fiscal imbalances. The foundation of this severe deficit crisis was dug by years of spending reserve funds that were already spoken for.
Here are some quotes about money to put money in proper perspective:
    You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you.
    - Rajesh Setty

    No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather.
    — Michael Pritchard

    How easy it is for a man to die rich, if he will be contented to live miserable.
    - Henry Fielding

    “We have a balance of $0.32 in the bank … Which made us four-and-a-half trillion dollars richer than the federal government.”
    — Jim Borgman

Here are some retirement resources to help you retire happy, wild, and free:

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