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<p>Which is two more than most of our generation will have. I’m into the “smile and nod” zone whenever my mother complains that my father’s retirement isn’t indexed for inflation like many of their peers’ are. My father worked his backside off for his employer for 35 years. He’sbeen retired for 20 years. Smile and nod.</p>
<p>[A</a> Wealthy Nation That Can’t Afford to Retire - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthy-nation-cant-afford-retire-130350690.html]A”>http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthy-nation-cant-afford-retire-130350690.html)</p>
<p>I think this is going to be a big problem in the future… but it’s already a big problem now. I’ve talked to retiree’s who are trying to live on social security of 500 a month and nothing else. It’s sad.</p>
<p>I have had a cash value pension where the company put in x percentage of my income based on my age each paycheck. We also have a 401k which is funded a bit differently then most companies that I have seen. They changed it up this year and are no longer contributing cash to our pension - but money that we have in it already will stay there and continue to gain interest to us. when they discontinued that, they increased the amount that is being put into our 401k’s. Right now, between what I put in and what the company puts in I believe it’s about 15%.</p>
<p>I do have a question about current retirees. What are they doing? Not the ones with big enough pensions, paid off homes, lots of assets, and children who are able and willing to contribute, but the ones who rented, had low paying jobs so all they have is SS or little else, did not save and their kids are scraping by. What are the elderly poor doing in this country? What happens when, say a spouse dies in such a situation and what was barely affordable and very bare bones becomes unaffordable on one social security pension check?</p>
<p>cpt - I am going to PM you about that. It’s not pretty.</p>
<p>Thanks, Fendergirl. I am truly interested.</p>
<p>My mother is very poor, asset/income wise. All she has is a small federal pension and some insurance proceeds and savings that have been gradually depleted over the last 25 years since my father died. It galls me to no end that she has to pay taxes on this measly pension since it is not social security but government. She pays a relatively big chunk towards health insurance out of this pension. What has kept her going has been that my brothers and I with our spouses have supported her since my father died, supplementing this small amount, and she also took a less than minimum age job at a shop for some years for extra money as well. Now well in her 80s, pushing 90, actually, she moved in with DH and me, where she will hopefully stay for the rest of her life. Given that she barely clears $1000 a month, without supplementation, it simply cannot be done as she has no paid home and no place to really call home with a supporting infrastructure of neighbors and family. </p>
<p>My MIL has a nice nest egg, a paid off house that has a low tax bill, income properties, and the maximum socialsecurity check. Lived in the town where she was born where she knew a lot of people and where there was a lot of family as well. Even so, many attempts to keep her in her home failed as getting dependable people around the clock was just not possible Believe me, I tried. And she is suffering from progressive dementia. After some episodes that could have had some bad consequences and a fall that resulted in a broken hip, she is here with us too.</p>
<p>Without family intervention, both mothers would have had some major problems. MIL could go to a nursing home with sale of all assets, however. My mother has little in the way of assets. What would her options have been without children to pick up the slack?</p>
<p>My father had fairly substantial assets left but with the ridiculously low yield on bank accounts and cd’s plus a pension and ss that looked good in 1982 but not so great now, it wasn’t particularly easy.</p>
<p>Wow…you have both moms. Good luck to you cptofthehouse.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, you are setting an incredible example for your children. And both your mom and MIL obviously did something right because they raised people with values that count. Good for you. </p>
<p>Having said that, though, caregivers need care too, so I hope you get the support and vacation/rest time you need.</p>
<p>Does anyone else remember in the 80’s, there was a talk to invest SS in the equity market to overcome predicted shortfall of SS balance? What is the amount of the minimum and maximum SS payout?</p>
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<p>My mother worked from her early 20s into her late 70s (experienced nurses have been in demand for a long time and she didn’t have trouble finding work after retirement age though I think that she eventually stopped working because of the physical demands of the job). She worked two nursing jobs for many years and I’d say that she earned her pensions and social security benefits. I’d agree that her pensions probably aren’t indexed for inflation but she’s pretty frugal overall. Her vacuum cleaner is an old Hoover model that looks like it is 50 years old. It’s all metal and weighs a ton.</p>
<p>I discovered that I have a pension from Hewlett-Packard only a month or two ago. I was looking at my retirement contributions at Fidelity.com and it asked me if I wanted to look at my company or HP. I was pretty surprised. The pension isn’t huge but it’s not chopped liver either.</p>
<p>I think that my mother feels fairly fortunate - she has complete independence, her own home, children and grandchildren in the area (working or going to college) and her far-flung children visit her several times a year.</p>
<p>I’m getting $6K/month from two dividend-paying stocks right now. I could triple my positions and pull in $18K/month and retire right now but I’m having fun working and I don’t need anywhere near $18K/month now.</p>
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<p>I think that this is why people had lots of children in times past - they were part of the retirement program. That and labor to work the family farm. Many have far fewer children today due to the costs of raising them and that means fewer hands to spread the burden to. I think that it has always been the responsibility of family to take care of older members.</p>
<p>I hope that you have a very big house.</p>
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<p>I don’t recall this but the early 1980s would have been a very good time to start this as it was the beginning of an 18-year secular bull market. Of course ending it in 2000 would have been prudent.</p>
<p>“I’m getting $6K/month from two dividend-paying stocks right now. I could triple my positions and pull in $18K/month and retire right now but I’m having fun working and I don’t need anywhere near $18K/month now.”</p>
<p>Which two dividend stocks?</p>
<p>I don’t know how serious they were. I do remember coolheads cautioned that SS should be a safe investment that people can fall back on. Another objection was that doing so would let gov have too much influence in the market.</p>
<p>Cpt,</p>
<p>what you wrote is exactly what I meant when I wrote on another thread that I feel like you are very compassionate person. I did not know about your situation then, but from your previous posts it was very clear to me is that you are very kind and generous.</p>
<p>Those who don’t have anything more than SS, probably have access to government’s resources - like food stamps, section 8 vouchers and in-home care hours. I know this because I have 82-year old grandmother like that. </p>
<p>Last year her health turned to the worst, we believed she was going to die soon. In order to avoid moving her to nursing home, my mom basically moved in with her and took care of her after work and on weekends. State also provided 26 hours of in home care, which allowed my mom to continue working while the caregiver was taking care of my grandmother. </p>
<p>It was tough several months, but my grandmother fully recovered now and is ready to live independently again (within reason - my mom still spends weekends there and buys all food and cooks). It is amazing how just couple of months ago, the doctors were insisting that my grandmother would never recover and she should go into the nursing home.</p>
<p>My grandmother cannot move in with my parents because they don’t have a bedroom on the main floor and she cannot use stairs at all. This is why my mom has to spend so much time at grandmother’s apartment.</p>
<p>I think when push comes to shove, the children help the parents one way or another: money, time or shelter.</p>
<p>“Without family intervention, both mothers would have had some major problems. MIL could go to a nursing home with sale of all assets, however. My mother has little in the way of assets. What would her options have been without children to pick up the slack?”</p>
<p>Assisted living facilities, or nursing homes if they are that needy. Paid for by Medicaid. My grandmother just went to an assisted living facility, and it’s a very nice place, they take care of most every possible need. Paid for by your tax dollars. No wonder we’re going broke as a nation, as most people don’t want to pick up the slack like you are, so we’re paying tons of money for someone else to take care of our elders.</p>
<p>Both mother and MIL, cptofthehouse, you are a generous person. I hope you get to go on some great vacations. Just realize that when you are no longer able to take care of them, there are some very nice places they can go to.</p>
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The average is around $1200/month.</p>
<p>The maximum depends on your retirement age. Currently it is $1923, $2414, and $3350 if you retire at 62, 65, and 70 respectively.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a minimum, it depends on your work history.</p>
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<p>I’ve mentioned PVX (Provident Energy Trust) many times in investing threads over the years and they were bought out by PBA (Pembina Pipeline) last year. The combined company does pipelines in Western Canada (including Alberta), natural gas and natural gas solids and shale oil. The dividend yield is in the 5s now.</p>
<p>The other company is PSEC (Prospect Capital). They are a business development company. They loan money or provide capital to mid-size companies in the US and Canada that most people have never heard of. A friend recommended this to a private board that I am on last November and I picked some up in December. They have around an 11% yield right now. I have spent a few hours studying the company and it seems to me that they are like a bank. Every once in a while, their stock price tanks because they issue more shares - but the issuance is so that they can get cash to invest in more companies so the stock price generally recovers. I’m looking for one of those spikes down to add more shares. There is one thing that bugs me in that the companies that they invest in are almost all private so I can’t financial information on the companies that they invest in. Basically I’m betting on how well they manage their assets. One other thing that another friend told me (he invests in several other BDCs): these companies are riding on the Fed’s low interest rates. When interest rates rise, these companies can suffer quite a bit. The BDCs that he invests in typically borrow money from the SBC and loan it out to other businesses - clever way to take advantage of government business benefits.</p>
<p>We’re having a discussion on high-dividend stocks on another board and it’s something that I need to look at but there’s never enough time to research companies.</p>
<p>busdriver - I agree that medicaid paid nursing homes are where the poor elderly without family support go. My dad was in one (he was full pay due to savings, but literally everyone else in his wing was medicaid supported). I fear that there will be significant rationing of this option going forward. Most likely quality of care will go down. With the deficit and the demographic shift (too few young to support the old), it cannot persist.<br>
We keep our expenses low versus income and have LTC insurance for this reason. We are big savers and have not paid for college out of retirement targeted funds. We are fortunate to be able to do so, but also live frugally and both work full time.<br>
My inlaws have two defined benefit pensions, two social security checks and had big car company platinum health care paid for until a couple of years ago. FIL worked for 20 years and is enjoying his 32nd year of retirement with full benefits and a great pension thanks to a sweet early retirement plan. We should all be so lucky!</p>
<p>“Which two dividend stocks?”</p>
<p>The two you refer to that generate 6k a month</p>