Re Jill’s comment hoping that the $$$ will trickle to fund health care…A tip for those poor boomers who did not plan, invest,or maybe partied a bit too much and can’t afford to retire on the back nine… and are too sick to work or really enjoy life…can come to Oregon and participate in the Oregon Health Plan. The plan will even pay for assisted suicide.(When it is cost/beneficial)
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I’m a boomer earning minimum wage; I still have student loan debt.

How much should I have been saving on a minimim wage income?

Most college degrees also have some sort of lifespan, so for those of us with any type of education. If we’re not off a minimum-wage job within 2-3 years, and entry-level positions are few and far inbetween, we’re considered “outdated” and thus back to minimum-wage jobs.

In other words, I have no idea how most people my age will save for retirement. Boomers cashing in might or might not be that last jump before the finish line.

Everyone has problems, serious problems, at many points in life.

Live and love, and give the next guy a break, even if he seem like an arse. After all, you don’t know what ANYONE may be going through.

Keep those cards and letter coming. And be sure to cash any check within 180 days.

Just for the record, I am NOT a CEO, I am an executive vice president, which may sound very grand, and it is quite satisfying to read on a business card, but it means that I’m essentially middle management — there are many, many bosses around me, I have NO pension (it was replaced a few years ago with some bogus crap based on the price of the stock), and while I do report to a CEO I will never become one. If the market was doing well, I would be a lot more relaxed, but as it is, believe it or not, I live on my salary and my writing, and with one wife, one ex-wife, two grown kids (with not-yet-grown incomes) and two step kids with college in their future, I do worry about money a lot of the time. I’m a lot older than you are, and that means I’ve had more time to get myself on my feet, and I’m certainly NOT complaining, but it also means I have less time to do better than I’m doing now, while you, I think, have a lot of time ahead of you to write a different script than what’s going on right now.

Thank God I don’t have the medical issues that I’m sure keep you up at night, not right now at any rate. And that, I think, makes all the difference. When someone you love is sick, nothing is right with the world. Thanks for making me think a little more accurately about things, Josh. You’re a good writer. Maybe you should do something with that. Most people aren’t.

I’m sorry about your girlfriend. One day there will be universal health care and people won’t have to worry about what you’re going through.

Until then, I hope you’ll forgive me my occasional boomerish lapses into navel gazing. It’s a generational thing. And I hope you’ll keep reading as I stumble along trying to overcome my naivete. It’s hard to be naive and cynical at the same time.

The truth is that if you are not rich enough to retire by 40, your chances at being rich when you get older are slim to none. All of the saving and sacrificing will all be for naught.

A person working for 40 years has already lost their health, youth, and ambition. The only thing to look forward to in old age is the end to suffering.

Get rich today, retire today.

You can deposit this check at the bank. The life expectancy of a 55 year old man is 79. What this means is that if you consider 1000 55 year old men, in 24 years 500 of them will be dead.

The markets are more global now making it easier to tap into marks (I mean investors) the world over shoring up our markets.
Baby Boomers have created a baby boomlet. They will help keep the ponzi scheme going.

There is no more indulgent generation than the Boomers. They thought they would never turn 30 they thought they would never turn 60. Now they think that they will never die. So there will be no mass pull out of investments as the boomers all plan to live to be 150.

Retirement? What retirement?

First in and first to cash out, has always been a winning strategy.

The shoulda, coulda, woulda guys don’t do so well.

My feelings about the economy are such that I will feel lucky to be dragged out of my office feet first: it means I will have been able to hold a job in my senior years.

About planning: it’s fine to predict how much cash we will need based upon our lifestyles, inflation, and anticipated return. But future medical expenses and insureability are mostly unpredictable and render the typical “what’s-your-number?” calculations meaningless. I am surprised so little is written about this fact.

The Government is a sovereign entity whose responsibility it is to provide for the public with taxes they pay.

What makes little sense is that Wall Street personnel can be appointed to influence in the Federal Reserve Banking system, and when they decide to resign, they go to higher places in the private sector of Wall Street with propriety information gained in the “FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM”.

Is this not a conflict of interest?

Is this not appointing the “FOX” to be the “SHEPHERD” of the “CHICKENS”?

How can fraud occur undetected until it scandalous? Give the M.B.A. the combination to the “FED VAULT”. Maybe?