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Maybe I should have worded it a bit differently. By productive, I didn’t mean folks that just did their job and not much more than was expected of them. I meant folks that went way beyond their job description. I know very few folks that were highly productive in their working years that are...

^^^ The above article seems to point out that a lot of the folks that are still working after their first retirement are doing so not because they have to but because they want to. I realize that there are folks that have to work because they can’t get by on just their retirement money, but...

The first thing that I’d recommend is that folks learn their spending habits - know where every dollar of your income goes. This should be done prior to building a budget. Why? Because if you just start by building a budget on paper, way too often it won’t be realistic and you’ll end up...

How is suggesting that folks think about the impacts of their current decisions, avoiding debt, and trying to make wise decisions with what income you have saying what you should have done in the past? I would think that for folks on a limited fixed income it would be even more important to do...

These are valid points. Everyone has different situations which can lead to different actions. However I would still strongly suggest developing some means to simulate what the results will be of the actions that you take now. Your goal should take actions which are best for you and running...

I believe strongly that it is very wise to create simulations of what your situation will be prior to making any financial decision. Spread sheets are a good and fairly inexpensive way to do this if you don’t have a great fiduciary to work with. I know that I spent a good year running...

I was fortunate to have a good job which I could do remotely and which also provided a lot of benefits. I was considered a highly productive employee so received a lot of promotions. I continued with my job until I was 66. During my last couple of years at work I had some bonus options I had...

Maybe, but I doubt that any politician is going to touch ROTH. It’d be easier to collect FICA on capital gains, and I suspect that would actually raise more money. But even that would get really complicated. What about options, short sells, capital losses, etc…

No, but the surplus can dry up. And that means in a weaker economic year with higher unemployment, there will not be enough to make benefit payments. Or they could reduce the benefits indirectly. Already SS benefits are taxed if a person’s AGI is over a given amount. In 2022 taxes on the...

Where do you propose the money come from when the fund dries up?

I’m not sure I would agree. I really think that 401Ks are far better for the employee than pensions ever were. The biggest problem with the 401K is that folks are not forced to put money into it. They are totally under the control of the individual and it takes a bit of looking ahead for an...

I personally think that pensions are a very risky plan. Often companies when belly-up and the pensions went with them. Also frequently a company with a pension would do a cash-out when the person retired and that person would have no experience in making a nest-egg grow enough to provide...

That’s a good question because during my working years the majority of my managers and colleagues were minorities.

If the message of the importance of being self-sufficient is not getting across, then why isn’t it? Race may have been a factor in the past, but during my working years I had too many colleagues and bosses who were minorities to buy into that now. I can sorta buy into lack of education, but I...

OK - I’ll change the adage a bit. Feed a man an ear of corn and he eats today - teach him to grow his own corn and he eats a lifetime. ;-)

True, but I suspect a key component is being content on only spending on what is needed and not on what is just wanted.

As do I. Each month I give a lot of money for food and housing of folks in need. But I also hold as truth that if i give a man a fish he eats for a day, but if I teach him how to fish then he has food for a lifetime. I’d much rather see folks comfortably living on their own rather that being...

Maybe, but understanding the reasons help break the cycle.

It’s not a judgement. It’s trying to understand where we are failing. Don’t we want improvement for the future? For instance, I was told many times while growing up that SS would only prevent the bare minimum in your retirement years - maybe enough for meals of rice and beans. So why do so...