What kind of a life have me made for ourselves when articles like this are all too true?
Lifestyle – US;Retirees hit by longevity risk
Tom Brown
MIAMI (Reuters) – Like many other elderly Americans, Edie Stark has been hard hit by the meltdown in U.S. financial markets. She is 84 and has been worried a lot lately about outliving her savings.
A retired nurse, Stark is a prime example of what financial planners coldly call "longevity risk," a reference to the need for a secure income and lasting savings at a time when growing numbers of Americans can live for 30 years in retirement.
Life expectancy in the United States has already reached a record high of 77.8 years, up from 70.8 in 1970, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. Fueled by continuing health gains, the U.S. Census Bureau projects life expectancy in the world’s wealthiest country will reach 79.2 years by 2015. .. read the rest of Tom’s honest, but depressing article on how a long and happy life turns into a risk here.
Here’s a lady who has taken a pretty good cut at explaining the ‘whys’ of the situation and incidentally some good thoughts at correcting the problem … ourselves, the way we were meant to … rather than sitting around whining about when ‘the government’ is going to ‘make things right’. (hint … they ain’t going to) Recommended reading:
Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It
Take a Hummer full of average self-made millionaires. Strand them in the desert. Strip them of their money. Take away everything they own. Rob them of their connections, their networks, their families.
Ten to one they’re millionaires again in less than five years.
Can you be a millionaire in five years?
As it stands right now, probably not. So what is it that’s different about John Q. Millionaire? Why can he take his kids to Euro Disney and you can’t?
Because he depends on himself and the rest of the world depends on, well, the rest of the world. I(my emphasis)
… see the rest of Naomi Dunford’s excellent post on why we’re broke and how to fix it.
(Note, it really pains me to have to write this but my on frickin’ country has become such a nation of whiners and namby-pambies that I suppose if I don’t add this disclaimer someone will try to sue me. Sigh. Naomi is over the age of 21 and she occasionally tosses out a four-letter word or two … OMG in some of her other posts she even mentions the word s-e-x … so ‘bold’ as we say here in the Philippines … so if you’re a Ted Haggard fan from Colorado Springs, do not click on the link, kneel and Pray Away the Gay instead.)
OK, you have been warned and you have been given the keys to the Kingdom for solving the problem. Now, what will you do? Take action and empower your own retirement, or wait for government help that will only make you broker and less secure? You already know what I am doing with my retirement, the question is, what will you do with yours?
