Mark, this is an older and pretty responsible crowd, so I would posit our poll results wouldn't be exactly representative of..... everyone.
I had several of those myself this year, and helped out a couple of family members to that figure also. And just wrote my mom a check today (though she said she didn't need it, she needs it more than me). We all hope to live long lives, but she's lived long enough to outrun the annuity table on dad's 401K payouts.
But retired on small pension and SS, I live as a pretty cheap hermit. That's why I can help them.
That source is not a beacon of integrity, but it might still be true (I dunno).
This is about what I expected.
Most of us are older and pretty fiscally responsible.
Most of us also know what it is like to experience some lean times.
We have learned that our wants don't rule our lives and tend to live within our means.
4 out of 10 sound right to me.
One problem is with the younger people in last 5 -10 years. They were all told to go to college they'll make more money. Turns out you just have a lot of people who went to college not making that much money yet have big student loans. Many people haven't even had a real job but basically they have already bought a house.
Next problem is FICA, 20 -30 years ago FICA was a much smaller percentage of your taxes and know one can avoid those taxes. About 10% right off the top of your earning today. Think it was more 2-3% 20 years ago? Not sure on that figure but it was much lower 30-40 years ago.
Another problem is health insurance. I'm self employed and if I had the insurance I had 10 years ago it would cost $20K a year. I have kids and they cost the same as adults now, everyone has to pay their fair share or so they say. End result there, is I know more then one parent who just doesn't insure their children. It's at the point where if you have 3 children it isn't worth it to get insurance unless you have a sickly child. Literally if you get a $20,000 bill every 3 years with 3 kids that's cheaper then buying insurance. The young people are the same way health insurance costs way to much, a 25 year old doesn't need much for insurance and to my knowledge there is no cheap insurance for that age group?
It all adds up. You add up the costs for people in their 20's or 30's and they simply don't have as much money to spend as people decades ago. Most of them are broke. The scary part is they will stay broke for a long time.
I'm shocked at how many people in their mid-20's are living with their parents???? Sorry but in my generation you were pretty much complete loser if you lived with your parents in your mid 20's are older. Unless you had some good reason. It seems to be very common now.
Many have been sold a bill of goods about a college education.
The push has been that everyone needs to go to college and get a 4 yr degree.
This is probably why every university that I see is spending millions of $$$ building new buildings.
The truth is that not everyone needs to go to college.
There is no shame in being a tradesman.
Plumbers and Electricians are needed and paid well for their work and they don't owe $100k or more on student loans.
There's also no shame in going to Community College to get the prerequisites out of the way for a lot less $$ and getting an online degree while you work a real job.
Health insurance is high.
Insurance companies control every aspect of our health care whether we want to admit it or not.
The ACA was written by insurance companies with the sole purpose of increasing their profit margins.
Well Cuomo shut me down by 80% but yeah as long as I can find another buried mason jar should be able to handle it
And he just put on another 60 day stay on evictions. Most of my clients are not likely to recover
ever
Wait till real estate taxes go up in July
Now I hear the bar assn is going after Guliani for free speech
Only a matter of time till I need to take the bar in North Carolina
Oss
But seriously even when I had nothing I could not turn down family in need or true friends, So far have been happy with the ROI. Hate credit cards but sometimes they are the short term answer to a money problem. Unsecured line of credit though is better and less interest
On the plus side hear Twitter lost 6 billion today If I owned that stock or American Express or Shopify I would sell them now Censor free speech and I will cancel your ass
Oklahoma Oss.
It is the only state where neither Obama, Hillary or Biden didn't win a SINGLE precinct.
We REALLY need to get more people to vote like that!
Poll
