Blessed are those that plant trees for the shade they will never see.
This mentality is why we are in the position we are today. If we all fail to try to build a better future today the next generation will suffer more than us and it will be our fault then.
Hum, that's on the people that make the next gen. I cut my tubes when I was 20 exactly because I think the world is too shitty. My bloodline ends with me.
Yeah blame the victims...
For making more victims? Yes. Fuck em. Being fucked over by the previous generation does not give you the right to fuck over the next generation.
The only victim of not having a retirement plan is yourself, surely. And for everything else... Genuinely what are we supposed to do? It's impossible not to feel powerless today because despite all the efforts we go to, everything seems to be going more and more wrong with time. The far right is taking over and setting fire to the world for fuel. Alone no matter what noble actions I might take as an individual are meaningless, and even if by some miracle I manage, along with my fellow Brits, to vote in the progressive government of my dreams... Is that going to stop America's swing to the right? Or China's mega industrialization and carbon output?
Look, for the sake of me and the younger people here in the UK I won't stop trying, you aren't wrong that we shouldn't, but I'm also sick of people blaming the crushed and despondent people of the world for their own situation.
The only victim of not having a retirement plan is yourself, surely.
The conversation is also about a) the likelihood that when (surprise surprise) the world does not end and these people have no retirement savings, they will demand public assistance funded via higher taxes on younger working people. And b) the idea of not taking action to make the world better, out of a sense of hopelessness and frankly laziness.
It’s impossible not to feel powerless today because despite all the efforts we go to, everything seems to be going more and more wrong with time.
Seems to be but isn't.
Helplessness is propaganda. You are being lied to by people who want you to feel this way.
You can start doing your part in the easiest way possible: argue against and shut down Russian propagandists on this very site trying to convince Americans not to vote for Biden. That's an important job if saving the world is your goal. Forums and social media are battlegrounds of ideas, and you can be a soldier in the army of truth and good.
While I can understand the sentiment, this is a REALLY bad and irresponsible thing to do and detrimental to yourself and society as a whole.
Lemmy, please do everything you can to set yourself up for a successful retirement. Even just a small contribution to a retirement account really will make a big difference when you're older.
The best thing I can do for a successful retirement is commit some crimes and get arrested. A "small" contribution is still outside my price range. You gotta be putting away hundreds a month at least. Retirement simply isn't something you can plan for if you make below average income.
Fun fact: you can withdraw from your 401k. While there is a hefty tax penalty, you still can do it. Maybe you can get a down payment on a house or pay off student loan debt. Just make sure you withhold taxes from your payout. Don't get caught with that bill at tax season
Especially handy if you have a job with good matching and instant vesting. Of course, this is not finacial advice, but it is an option that exists.
You can use $10k from your 401k for a down payment on a house with zero penalty. If you're married, then your spouse can do the same. So now you have $20k for a house down payment! With an FHA loan you can buy with as little as 3.5% down, which your $20k should cover. Weee!
Heh, here in Australia I’d need over $100,000 for a down payment.
Many are 20% here, so really I’d need over $200,000 just to make the initial payment.
You can also borrow against it sometimes. Basically b3ing a low interest loan to your self with the fees being lower than the penalties
Pretty telling that so many comments here immediately blame the proletariat. The fucking power of propaganda. Christ, we're so fucked.
If everyone else wasn't so lazy and evil, I could retire sooner and more comfortably.
I'm uniquely underpaid, overworked, and unlucky. No one else is like me. No one will ever sympathize with me. So its just me against the world.
The only thing I can do to change my lot in life is to throw in harder with a high profile ultra-wealthy industrial captain in the eternal war against foreigners, corporate rivals, and the unemployed.
I quietly take a truly unhealthy regimen of stimulants before I go to the gym, and every man in my lineage either died of or was diagnosed with heart problems.
A heart attack at the gym sounds like an admirable death, "they died trying to better themselves" kind of thing. Bonus, I look good now.
Its bullet proof gym motivation too, the worse day I have, the harder I cardio. It's like depression aikido.
Me having a morbid thought: "I just want to be dead."
Also me, in Morpheus voice: "Show me."
Ten years now with that mindset, barely ever miss a gym day.
Things never work out the way that you plan.
It's a fine line between a clean noble death and being the guy who strokes out on the treadmill, falls, gets his nut sack wrapped up in the belt.
Don't be the guy stroking one out while getting their nuts tugged, got it.
That’s funny, thinking that people get to retire at 65. For me it’s 68.5 years, but that will probably be pushed backwards before then.
With climate change and fascism in a dead heat, I like my chances.
Huh, my reasoning was always I'll probably be dead before I reach 65, but I guess this also works
My retirement plan involves laying down in a ditch off a highway in Colorado with an amazing view of the Rockies during a freezing winter night and just falling asleep. Social Security will not exist when I reach retirement age. I have a pension through work, I contribute to a Thrift Savings Plan, none of it will be enough, and I refuse to contribute more to either (as my Boomer parents both (of course) suggest), because to me I am literally throwing that money away. I will never see that money, the markets will crash, I will be left with nothing anyway, there's no point.
My retirement plan is a cyanide pill to avoid the torture of roaming dystopian gangs of armed militias when they ransack my place because law and order has largely vanished and I'm their next stop.
Na, I'm just kidding. I enjoy the pain.
In 60 years all you dumb fucks are gonna be old and broke as fuck and demanding the next generations pay for your stupid asses through higher taxes.
Save your fucking money. The world might not end.
Holy cow, how did I never think about saving my money? It's such an obvious solution! I can save so much by just saving! Sure, after rent, bills, and other expenses I only make about $100 of profit every month, but if I just save that $100, I'll only have to work 16 years for every year I'm retired. By the time I hit 96, I'll have enough saved to live to the age of 100! And then when you factor in high interest savings accounts, I could even retire at 95!
The world will be fine. Its human society or specifically the working class who are fucked. Mostly by food scarcity due to drought and/or climate collapse.
We are already in the age of mass die offs, and low level extinctions, by the early 2030s mass extinctions will be the norm and by 2050naround 50% of all crops globally will fail on average. And that's only if thing stay the same trajectory as they are now. Major events like the gulf stream collapsing could make things much worse much quicker.
So I think I will just spend my money enjoying life while I can, before the global famines happen :)
So... what's currently happening and has always happened? The current average social security payment is $1800. Which isn't even enough for rent and bills in most places. There are a lot of old people that worked blue collar or service jobs, payed taxes their whole life, saved what they were told and could. But they retired at 65 and planned on dying at 75, the average life span. Now they're 80.
I hope I'm gone before the crumbling even starts.
65 is too optimistic of a number for zoomers like me. 50 seems more reasonable.
I’ve been very slowly getting more open and candid with the idea that I’m not going to be around to retirement age. The men in my family have incredibly rough odds, starting at 50, and I don’t think I’m going to be the one to beat the odds.
Healthy or not, constantly rolling this knowledge around my head—even voicing it —has helped to put a lot of things in perspective—even if it hasn’t yet instilled a YOLO mentality.
Did that for my student loans, unfortunately society didn't collapse... But I learned If you ignore it long enough they go away 😅
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