How ready are you for retirement? Here are 7 assumptions about retirement many of us boomer males make. The question is: are they valid? Our friends at U.S. News & World Report give we boomer males some perspective in today’s post.
7 Assumptions about Retirement: True or False?
“You don’t really know how you’re going to live in retirement until you start doing it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t plan ahead, start to envision your retirement lifestyle and begin to put pieces of the puzzle together.”
-Tom Sightings, U.S. News & World Report
There’s lots of advice, and many guidelines, to help you chart your way through retirement. Here are seven common assumptions, and the reasons why some of them are true, some are false and a few of them are in between.
1. Social Security will be there for you. TRUE. Many workers in America have lost faith in Social Security, thinking the system will be bankrupt by the time they become eligible to collect their benefits. But the fact is, the current system is sound, just the way it is, for another two decades.
2. Social Security will pay the bills. FALSE. The average Social Security retirement benefit is currently $1,331 a month. That’s $15,972 per year, which happens to be the poverty line for a couple with no dependents.
3. Inflation is no longer a worry. MAYBE. The pundits have declared that inflation is dead, and now actually worry about a decline in the cost of living. Last year the average consumer price index went up barely 1 percent. But remember the 1970s and 1980s, when inflation routinely came in at 5 percent or more?
4. The stock market will pump up your income. MAYBE. The stock market has been ratcheting up since 2009, and it’s produced a lot of wealth for retirees who have invested in stocks and mutual funds. But, as recent events remind us, while the stock market is a good place to invest for the long term, it can put a pretty painful dent in your finances in the short run.
5. You can always keep working. MAYBE. But the fact is, only a small fraction of retired people are actually working. Why the discrepancy? Jobs are not that easy to get for people over 65, and as we hit our 70s we may find that we don’t have the interest or the stamina to continue in the labor force.
6. You’ll receive an inheritance. MAYBE. But even the most affluent aging parents can be bled dry if they end up in a nursing home, especially if they don’t have long-term care insurance (LTC).
7. You can live on less money. TRUE. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you’ll have less money in retirement than you did when you were working.
Read the whole post by going here. Let us know your thoughts. If you’re already retired, do these answers hold up. Share with your fellow boomer males below.
Do well.
