Why Is It Good To Save For Retirement?
5527 POINTSview profileMarlin McKelvyPresident, Consumer Directed Benefit Solutions, Memphis, TennesseeSeriously? If you are Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or some other super rich person then you probably have no realistic reason to save for retirement. If, however, you are like the 99% of other people in the world then unless your plan is to commit suicide after your last day at work you need to be thinking about how you are going to afford to live for the years and perhaps decades after you stop working. Social Security retirement benefits are highly unlikely to come close to replacing your income during your working years and Social Security was never intended to be a person's sole source of retirement income. In addition, the financial viability of Social Security itself is being seriously questioned so it may not be there in the amount you would have expected and in the worst case scenario may not be there for you at all. For this reason a person needs to be saving money and investing it over the course of their working life in order to build up a financial nest egg for their retirement years. When you retire from your job your working income will cease, your expenses will not.Answered on October 5, 2014flag this answer
21750 POINTSview profileJim WinklerCEO/Owner, Winkler Financial Group, Houston, TexasThat is an interesting question! The best reason is because Social Security and Medicare may not be there for you like it was for your parents. With the workforce dwindling because the baby boomers are entering retirement at the rate of nearly 10k a day, there are less workers to pay taxes into the trust funds that support it. Each of those 10k/day Elder Citizens now stop (or greatly reduce) the amount of taxes they pay in, and each becomes available for the benefits. Add onto that the increasing life spans, which means longer payouts, and a smaller pool now has to go a longer way. Then add into that the massive boom in disability payments, for those who would otherwise work, but are physically unable to, (up 73% since 2000, according to the Federal Reserve of San Francisco) and now that smaller pool is stretched even thinner. The average American on SSI draws approximately $1100/month, and nearly 55% of them are living in poverty as a result of their belief that Social Security would be there to protect them. The Disability trust is expected to go belly up as soon as 2016; Social Security by 2024, and Medicare by 2029 (Obamacare created extra payments to that trust that extended it by nearly 10 years.) Even the politicians in office now are not stupid enough to let them disappear altogether, but they've shown no guilt about letting them shrink to the point that an Elder Citizen lives in poverty. What do you suppose those payments to you will look like when your time comes? Me? I'm not counting on any, and I'm planning and working the plan like crazy. I suggest you do too, unless you are one of the 1% who won't need to...Thanks for asking!Answered on October 7, 2014flag this answer
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