Can anyone retire????
July 13, 2008
– Comments (9)
“Mary Kleiss missed a mortgage payment for the first time in her life in June. Now she has missed July’s, and expects to soon lose the house she has lived in for 30 years.”
“The death of her husband two years ago started a chain of events that pushed Kleiss into a financial crisis. It culminated with the loss of her job in February, just before she saw a spike in her flood insurance.”
“‘I’m heartbroken to walk away from this home; I see the plants that Joe and I put in in 1991,’ Kleiss said. ‘Whatever Joe did I would like to take with me. Not the new stuff, the memories.’”
“Kleiss is among a growing number of traditionally self-sufficient people plunged into a new world by the steep economic downturn. They are skipping their mortgage payments, standing in line at food banks and reaching out to social service agencies for emergency aid.”
http://www.thehousingbubbleblog.com/index.html
As home values drop. Stock values evaporate. Food and fuel prices skyrocket. Savings accounts deplete. And jobs lost. Those in or preparing for retirement are learning the hard way they are as not as prepared as once thought.
As more and more people head toward retirement age, this problem will grow and grow. Right now many seniors and teenagers are competing for the same part time jobs.....the teen unemployment is the highest in over 40 years.
The study, set to be released tomorrow, finds that Americans will have to drastically reduce their standard of living before retirement to live comfortably, or even avoid destitution, later in life. Middle-income Americans entering retirement now will have to reduce their standard of living by an average of 24 percent to minimize their chances of outliving their financial assets, the study found. Workers seven years from retirement will have to cut their spending by even more -- 37 percent....
About 77 million baby boomers are expected to retire over the next few years. The study warns of an impending national crisis if workers, and lawmakers, do not react now to the changing pension structures in corporate America.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/12/AR2008071200143.html
Less money means less consumption. Less consumption means less sales. Less sales means less profits and less taxes. Less profits means more contraction leading to less money.
Round and round she goes........
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