The Problem
The average American will retire at age 66 and live until nearly 79. Many will be forced out of their jobs around age 55 and never find meaningful work again (yes, age discrimination is very real). Layoffs and health often force people into an unwanted retirement – your job quites you.
A quarter of non-retired Americans have nothing saved for retirement. 22% have less than $5,000 in savings earmarked for retirement. Another 5% have between $5,000 and $24,999 put away and only 16% have saved $200,000 or more. That means that 84% of Americans have less than $200,000 saved for retirement (the recommended amount is $1 million or more – and only 12% of older Americans have achieved this goal).
Most likely, you are going to end up as a WalMart greeter, stocking shelves at Home Depot, or an Uber driver, assuming you are able to continue working to support your retirement.
The information on this site gives you a better alternative: Work as much or as little as you want, leaving plenty of time for recreation and socialization by running a “Print On Demand / Dropship” Online Store. You don’t have to carry any inventory, so this can be done from home with very little cost and you can make enough money to cover your car payment, mortage, or even earn more than your regular job.
We were all sold a a bill of goods. All the advice we received on how to plan for retirement was wrong. Fees were high and inflation ate away at your savings and the interest rates were too low. Many company pension plans went bust due to globalization and / or it borrowed the pension funds and never paid it back. The last stock market crash destroyed up to 50% of our 401(k) plan’s value and high fees took the rest. Social Security rules have changed and benefits cut.
If a young person wants to retire at 65 and have enough to live off even half of their final salary in retirement, for example, they would need to save 40% of their income over the next 30 years if investments return less than 3%.
“The system is designed to make people feel bad about themselves — everyone privately thinks that they’re screwing up. And yet if everyone is screwing up, then it’s clearly a system flaw.” ~Monique Morrissey