Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
Having paid into it for 34 years my state retirement should be ok.
How many here are concerned about their retirement accounts?
- Thread starter Alobar
- Start date
Yeah I would guess you are! That being the NEBF, and the IO (beer money). My main one, the local union pension has a larger monthly payout than the other 2 and social security put together, and it is the one I'm most concerned with because it is being supported by only 30K members in one geographic area (Alaska) and when that area's economy goes down hard like its doing now with oil prices so low, it looks like it will be impacted. As for the NEBF, while they are underfunded slightly more as of the last statement they are spread out nation wide, so may not be impacted by regional recessions.Although anecdotal and probably not very comforting, if you are IBEW, I'm still working long hours and contributing to(I think) two of your pension plans.
I voted moderately concerned for no other reason than I might not be smart enough to be very concerned.
Yeah, my main local pension is from the 8th district which encompasses Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.
This is what concerns me. I do believe it's essential to get everybody through the crisis, but there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Next year or the year after, I won't be surprised to see double digit inflation - and a few years of that will turn all the savings we've scrimped for during our working lives into pocket change.
They will never show you double digit inflation, they have good math
that says 2% year over year. Actually it's been more like 10-15% year over year, if you weight commodities to the USD. I remember back in 2010-11 when they where freaking out because hamburger meat was going over $3.50 a pound, today it's like $5.00, can't even buy beef stew meat for less than $5.00 hear now.This is the problem when everyone is screaming they don't make enough money. Well if your at a job and they give you raises for service and cost of living increase. Well they base that on the inflation numbers, if they raise it 2%, but the real inflation is 10-15% your actually keep getting deeper in the hole. The same with your savings, the interest they give you could be lower than the inflation. In other words the purchasing power was higher when you put it in, your not earning anything on it but really loosing money.
It's to bad, I went through 9 or so years since the housing crises very stagnant, and really worried all the time around 2014-16 about money and covering the high cost of living here. I'v always lived here but the tech industry made this area really expensive and my earnings where not keeping up. Well since 2017 things started getting a lot better, 2018-19 where the best years I'v had and started not worrying so much right up until march 2020.
I'v been paying my rent with savings, and the money I was going to pay my taxes with. We can not do what was done in 2008 that screwed the country for 8 years.
petes'picks
Super Member
My retirement account couldn't get me and family through a year before virus hit so no real changes for me. State and city budgets are taking a beating so some State pensions may take a beating which would effect my Wifes retirement.
Economy and markets has been cyclical since the beginning of time so this is nothing new, it was long over due for a correction before the virus hit because of the previous 12 year run up. Safest bet if your still in markets is to put your money where the billionaires like Buffet put theirs that way you have their machine doing all the work for you, when they sell you sell, when they buy stock in GM you do the same because they are surrounded by really smart people with important information.
Real estate is all relative because if your home loses $100k in value then its likely the next place you purchase will also be cheaper so its a wash. You could sell a home in high rent district and move to low rent district and pocket the remainder if needed. It will affect those that use their mortgage as ATM because their value may drop below threshold for lending options. I worked at IBM and there were people working there for 30 years that still had 25 to 28 years left on their mortgage, that's on them not the virus.
My plan has always been to move to a cheaper area of the US once wife and I retire and put the housing savings into our retirements. We are at least 10 years from that so pretty sure it will be fully recovered by then.
I live a meager lifestyle so I doubt much will change for me. I was eating peanut butter or ham sandwiches for lunch and hand pressing my own hamburgers for supper so no change there. I have a couple of 12 year old cars but may upgrade my minivan to a 5 year old one if used car prices plummet this summer as expected. My home is smaller than average so no need to downsize here.
One nice thing about not being well off is I dont have to worry about losing my house in the Hamptons or anything.
Economy and markets has been cyclical since the beginning of time so this is nothing new, it was long over due for a correction before the virus hit because of the previous 12 year run up. Safest bet if your still in markets is to put your money where the billionaires like Buffet put theirs that way you have their machine doing all the work for you, when they sell you sell, when they buy stock in GM you do the same because they are surrounded by really smart people with important information.
Real estate is all relative because if your home loses $100k in value then its likely the next place you purchase will also be cheaper so its a wash. You could sell a home in high rent district and move to low rent district and pocket the remainder if needed. It will affect those that use their mortgage as ATM because their value may drop below threshold for lending options. I worked at IBM and there were people working there for 30 years that still had 25 to 28 years left on their mortgage, that's on them not the virus.
My plan has always been to move to a cheaper area of the US once wife and I retire and put the housing savings into our retirements. We are at least 10 years from that so pretty sure it will be fully recovered by then.
I live a meager lifestyle so I doubt much will change for me. I was eating peanut butter or ham sandwiches for lunch and hand pressing my own hamburgers for supper so no change there. I have a couple of 12 year old cars but may upgrade my minivan to a 5 year old one if used car prices plummet this summer as expected. My home is smaller than average so no need to downsize here.
One nice thing about not being well off is I dont have to worry about losing my house in the Hamptons or anything.
The thing is the problems that caused the 2008 Great Recession still exist today except even worse.
With a sovereign fiat currency we can print money to infinity, in a few years the Dow Jones could hit 100,000 but I don't see that as the real economy.
And things I did back then are still in place, but I wasn't going to have or live in fear, as stated it's a wast of life. What happens happens, we can't stop it, if people would really wake up we would change central banking. Get rid of the Federal Reserve bank, and the US print their on currency interest free and back it with something of intrinsic value.
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
I'm blessed to live in the gorgeous state of SC where my dollar goes further than in 48 other states.
Folks retire, sell their 500K house in Ohio move here and buy the same house for 200K. Hard to beat our low taxes and warm winters.
Folks retire, sell their 500K house in Ohio move here and buy the same house for 200K. Hard to beat our low taxes and warm winters.
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only my IBM pension - they are doing their best to take it away as our age band of retirees dwindles...
All of us probably. I don't know what my financial future holds. I took some money out of a TD Ameritrade account as the market was crashing, to avoid any further loss. I have less now than I put in five years ago. I just bought a house on a 30 year mortgage, I'll be 80 in 30 years... 
petes'picks
Super Member
Count your blessings. I worked at IBM plant for 18 years, 5 as contractor, 7 as IBM regular on new 401k plan and 6 working for the company our division was sold to. After 18 years there our group was shutdown and I walked away with less than one years pay in my 401K.
Working 25 or 30 years and collecting retirement for 30 years isn't a sustainable business model any longer, not with executive pay and profit margins the way they are these days anyway.
Lost a third of my 401k due to the Covid crash - it started dropping on a Friday before I was going to cash it out,
and I thought it might recover after that late February weekend. Bad guess on my part.
Its recovered 15%, and will come back some more, no doubt, but I was hoping to be 2-4 years from retiring.
I think I'll work longer, if I can ... changing jobs in the midst of 100% telework right now - not for the timid.
and I thought it might recover after that late February weekend. Bad guess on my part.
Its recovered 15%, and will come back some more, no doubt, but I was hoping to be 2-4 years from retiring.
I think I'll work longer, if I can ... changing jobs in the midst of 100% telework right now - not for the timid.
Splatter Pak
High-End Scrounger
My 401k already went <poof> in 2008.
So sorry to hear that..
