3 Out Of 5 Baby Boomers Don't Have Enough For Retirement

retirement is now becoming a distant dream

We are just "pre-hippy" and guess what! We did plan for the future. Nurse and teacher, not making much money but living within our means. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that you can only spend what you can afford.
We raised a family, have lived in our nice 7 room home for 46 years and have planned for retirement(which we are in now).
The almighty credit card should never have been invented!
Kids get into debt before they get out of school.
The mantra today is don't plan to be in it (anything) for the long haul.............that spells big trouble for all. The stress of wondering if your job is going to be there tomorrow, if you can get health care, if anyone is telling you the truth , is jeopardizing the health and well-being of our youth. Live for today and to hell with tomorrow, because there may not be one!
You can blah,blah, blah about the economy, bad politicians,national debt, etc. but what people need to hear is something positive. They need to be advised on what positive steps can be taken to help us all.

American Despair Grows

Americans’ despair about the economy shows up so often in research studies that the results have become redundant. But, the malaise actually deepens with each new piece of data.
The troubles that US citizens face and fear were on display in a pair of recent Gallup polls.

Fewer Americans rated their lives positively in July than did so in any other month so far in 2010. That takes the comparison back to a period when the country was still in a recession. This information comes from the Life Evaluation Index, part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which classifies Americans as either “thriving,” “struggling,” or “suffering,” according to how they rate their current and future lives

At the roots of these impressions about how people’s lives are going are worries about jobs and the economy, another Gallup survey shows. “Americans of all political persuasions say the economy and jobs are the most important problems facing the country today. These concerns easily outpace all others, thus providing politicians seeking office in this fall’s midterm elections with clear marching orders from their constituents: Fix the economy.”

Thirty percent of those surveyed believe that the economy is the most important issue which faces the nation. That is followed closely by jobs at 28%. No other issue is even close to these.

The government has no ready solutions for these problems and part of the worry of Americans is that they know that. The tunnel is both dark and endless. Americans want no deficits and they want 4% unemployment and 5% GDP growth, but some of the solutions to these problems are mutually exclusive and Americans are acutely aware that these goals may be years or even a generation away.

It is an ugly way to go through life but for most people in the United States there are no other options.

14. The total number of U.S. bank failures passed the 100 mark in July of this year. In 2009, the total number of U.S. bank failures did not pass the century barrier until October.

15. The U.S. dollar continues to rapidly decline in value. An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 would cost you $112.35 today. An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 would cost you $440.33 today.

Any rational observer (and clearly U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner does not qualify) can see that the foundations of the U.S. economy are coming apart. The rapidly accumulating mountain of debt that has fueled our "prosperity" is impossible to repay and is going to progressively choke the life out of our economic system. The good jobs that we have allowed to be shipped out of our country are never coming back. Every single day, more wealth flows out of this country than flows into it.

Anyone who claims that things are getting "better" is either ignorant, completely deluded or is purposely lying.

The U.S. economy is not getting "better".

The U.S. economy is dying.

You should adjust your plans accordingly.

15 Economic Statistics That Just Keep Getting Worse
The following are 15 key economic statistics that just keep getting worse and which reveal the horrific economic plight in which we now find ourselves....

1. The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps rose to a new all-time record of 40.8 million in May. The number of Americans receiving food stamps has set a new all-time record for 18 months in a row. But there is every indication that things are going to get even worse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that the number of Americans on food stamps will increase to 43 million in 2011.

2. The U.S. economy lost 131,000 more jobs during the month of July. But the truth is that the U.S. economy has been bleeding jobs for a long time. According to one analysis, the United States has lost 10.5 million jobs since 2007. Meanwhile, immigrants (both legal and illegal) continue to pour into this nation in unprecedented numbers.
3. Americans who are out of work are finding it incredibly difficult to get back into the workforce. In the United States today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to an all-time record of 35.2 weeks.

4. The U.S. government keeps trying to pump up the economy with debt, and in the process things are getting wildly out of control. According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.

5. The interest on all of this debt is becoming increasingly oppressive. As of July 1st, the U.S. government had spent $355 billion so far in 2010 on interest payments to the holders of the national debt. The total for 2010 should be somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 billion. According to Erskine Bowles, one of the heads of Barack Obama's national debt commission, the U.S. government will be spending $2 trillion just on interest on the national debt by 2020. Keep in mind that the entire U.S. government budget is less than $4 trillion for the entire year of 2010.

6. If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the annual U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion.

7. Social Security will pay out more in benefits in 2010 than it receives in payroll taxes. This was not supposed to happen until at least 2015. In the years ahead, these new "Social Security deficits" are projected to be absolutely catastrophic.

8. There are simply far too many retirees and not nearly enough workers to support them. Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

9. Wealth continues to become highly concentrated at the top. Since 1973, the average CEO’s salary has increased from 26 times the median income to over 300 times the median income.
10. According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck. That was up significantly from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
11. The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10% of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one mortgage payment during the January to March time period. That was a new all-time record and represented an increase from 9.1 percent a year ago.

12. A recent survey of last year's college graduates found that 80 percent moved right back home with their parents after graduation. That was up substantially from 63 percent in 2006.

13. During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.

14. The total

we need productive capacity- can’t print your way out of it.

Big surprise, the hippie generation didn't plan for the future.

I'm not by any means a expert on the economy. But it seems
to me that if the government would give every citizen a
$1,000,000 to spend as they wish the econmy might straighten
out. People will spend that money to pay off mortgages and
therefore there won't be forclosures. People will spend that
money to buy what they want and need and they will keep
business in the black and hopefully they won't take their company
to foreign soil. Instead of bailing out companies that are kicking
back money to the politicians give the money to the citizens.
$300,000.000 to citizens is better than give 800 trillion for bail
outs. Make sense to me but like i said, i am not an expert on
the economy.

The economy is the result of stealing, lying politicians. They steal
from SS and everywhere there is money to be stolen. The Iraq
war is another way for the rich to get richer. There is no need for us
to be over there except companies like Haliburton to rape the
american economy with the help of the president and all the other
politicians. This country is going downhill and will eventually reach
bottom because of our politicians. And that my friends is when some
foreign radical country will destroy us. It is my belief that most if not
all politicians will go straight to hell. There may be some honest
politicians but they are in the very, very minority.

You cannot be the Popliceman of the world, let the CEO greed send your job to China or India ( to increase their profits) and ...expect to have money in your retirement. The new American dream is to 'barely survive in retirement'..while half of you equity has been stollen by the above.