If you want to frighten Baby Boomers, just show them the list of statistics in this article. The United States is headed for a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude, and we are woefully unprepared for it. At this point, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching the age of 65 every single day, and this will continue to happen for almost the next 20 years. The number of senior citizens in America is projected to more than double during the first half of this century, and some absolutely enormous financial promises have been made to them. So will we be able to keep those promises to the hordes of American workers that are rapidly approaching retirement? Of course not. State and local governments are facing trillions in unfunded pension liabilities. Medicare is facing a 38 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years. The Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years. Meanwhile, nearly half of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. The truth is that I was being incredibly kind when I said earlier that we are “woefully unprepared” for what is coming. The biggest retirement crisis in history is rapidly approaching, and a lot of the promises that were made to the Baby Boomers are going to get broken.
The following are 35 incredibly shocking statistics that will scare just about any Baby Boomer…
1. Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States. By 2050 that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.
2. According to one recent poll, 25 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no retirement savings at all.
3. 26 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no personal savings whatsoever.
4. One survey that covered all American workers found that 46 percent of them have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.
5. According to a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, “60 percent of American workers said the total value of their savings and investments is less than $25,000”.
6. A Pew Research survey found that half of all Baby Boomers say that their household financial situations have deteriorated over the past year.
7. 67 percent of all American workers believe that they “are a little or a lot behind schedule on saving for retirement”.
8. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
9. More elderly Americans than ever are finding that they must continue working once they reach their retirement years. Between 1985 and 2010, the percentage of Americans in the 65 to 69-year-old age bracket that were still working increased from 18 percent to 32 percent.
10. Back in 1991, half of all American workers planned to retire before they reached the age of 65. Today, that number has declined to 23 percent.
11. According to one recent survey, 70 percent of all American workers expect to continue working once they are “retired”.
12. According to a poll conducted by AARP, 40 percent of all Baby Boomers plan to work “until they drop”.
13. A poll conducted by CESI Debt Solutions found that 56 percent of American retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.
14. Elderly Americans tend to carry much higher balances on their credit cards than younger Americans do. The following is from a recent CNBC article…
New research from the AARP also shows that those ages 50 and over are carrying higher balances on their credit cards — $8,278 in 2012 compared to $6,258 for the under-50 population.
15. A study by a law professor at the University of Michigan found that Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States. Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12 percent of all bankruptcies.
16. Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.
17. What is causing most of these bankruptcies among the elderly? The number one cause is medical bills. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.
18. In 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits. Today, that number has fallen to 2.5 workers, and if you eliminate all government workers, that leaves only 1.6 private sector workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits.
19. Millions of elderly Americans these days are finding it very difficult to survive on just a Social Security check. The truth is that most Social Security checks simply are not that large. The following comes directly from the Social Security Administration website…
The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker was about $1,230 at the beginning of 2012. This amount changes monthly based upon the total amount of all benefits paid and the total number of people receiving benefits.
Could you live on about 300 dollars a week?
20. Social Security benefits are not going to stretch as far in future years. The following is from an article on the AARP website…
Social Security benefits won’t go as far, either. In 2002, benefits replaced 39 percent of the average retirees salary, and that will decline to 28 percent in 2030, when the youngest boomers reach full retirement age, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
21. In the United States today, more than 61 million Americans receive some form of Social Security benefits. By 2035, that number is projected to soar to a whopping 91 million.
22. Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.
23. As I wrote about in a previous article, the number of Americans on Medicare is expected to grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.
24. Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.
25. Today, only 10 percent of private companies in the U.S. provide guaranteed lifelong pensions for their employees.
26. Verizon’s pension plan is underfunded by 3.4 billion dollars.
27. In California, the Orange County Employees Retirement System is estimated to have a 10 billion dollar unfunded pension liability.
28. The state of Illinois has accumulated unfunded pension liabilities of more than 77 billion dollars.
29. Pension consultant Girard Miller told California’s Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have 325 billion dollars in combined unfunded pension liabilities.
30. According to Northwestern University Professor John Rauh, the latest estimate of the total amount of unfunded pension and healthcare obligations for retirees that state and local governments across the United States have accumulated is 4.4 trillion dollars.
31. In 2010, 28 percent of all American workers with a 401(k) had taken money out of it at some point.
32. Back in 2004, American workers were taking about 30 billion dollars in early withdrawals out of their 401(k) accounts every single year. Right now, American workers are pulling about 70 billion dollars in early withdrawals out of their 401(k) accounts every single year.
33. Today, 49 percent of all American workers are not covered by an employment-based pension plan at all.
34. According to a recent survey conducted by Americans for Secure Retirement, 88 percent of all Americans are worried about “maintaining a comfortable standard of living in retirement”.
35. A study conducted by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research found that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.
So what is the solution? Well, one influential organization of business executives says that the solution is to make Americans wait longer for retirement. The following is from a recent CBS News article…
An influential group of business CEOs is pushing a plan to gradually increase the full retirement age to 70 for both Social Security and Medicare and to partially privatize the health insurance program for older Americans.
The Business Roundtable’s plan would protect those 55 and older from cuts but younger workers would face significant changes. The plan unveiled Wednesday would result in smaller annual benefit increases for all Social Security recipients. Initial benefits for wealthy retirees would also be smaller.
But considering the fact that there aren’t nearly enough jobs for all Americans already, perhaps that is not such a great idea. If we expect Americans to work longer, then we are going to need our economy to start producing a lot more good jobs than it is producing right now.
Of course the status quo is not going to work either. There is no way that we are going to be able to meet the financial obligations that are coming due.
The federal government, our state governments and our local governments are already drowning in debt and we are already spending far more money than we bring in each year. How in the world are we going to make ends meet as our obligations to retirees absolutely skyrocket in the years ahead?
That is something to think about.
So what do you think? Do you believe that there is a solution to our retirement crisis? Do you think that we can actually keep all of the promises that we have made to the Baby Boomers
This article first appeared at The Economic Collapse.
government hoarding food supplys, Fema camps, Prison cars, Martial law, Obama, Eric Holder, Harry Ried, did I mention Obama. Good advice, If you can’t garden, hunt, or have the balls to kill a person you had better learn becuase your life will depend on it sooner or later.
Henry,
You know you can substitute long pig for pork in most recipes. Just prepare it the same and cook it long and hot. Gotta be careful when it comes to the uncleanliness, you never know where they have been.
This is not news the government has been milking the social security ponzi scheme since it was started. They need to cut everyone a check that is not yet collecting for the amount they paid in plus 1% and then figure out how to pay everyone thats already collecting until death. and stop the damn program. The country is super inflating and will bust this year for sure. So if you don’t have a plan on how to feed your self your screwed. Germany is not taking there gold out of the United States for no reason. The hand writing is on the wall stay locked and loaded .
Henry,
It was not quite that way. It was set up as a good system for many years then the government broke it. Now it is a ponzi scheme. We the People complained and them the government did not care. We the people did nothing but let them screw us.
Now We the People have to get up off our butts and take back America to return to the principles of the US Constitution. We have to evict the Seditionists and traitors and deal with those who committed treason.
you guys going to bring more illegal alliens to work and you parasites can get your social security benefits remember that illegals pay money to the social security and they receive nothing. what you guys waiting for bring them all to usa.
JP from what I have seen few illegals pay any taxes because the most of them work under the table paying no taxes at all. But they are sure do know how to claim 30 dependents in the tax returns they file.
This is not a problem. They intend to kill us all off before this ever happens. It is the Elite Agenda.
Follow the Flemish example and start saving .
Saving is good as long as it is not in an account as zeroes and ones digitally. Nor as paper money sitting in a safe somewhere. Silver and gold may have some value as long as they do not confiscate it like the did the last time.
Let’s get real.
The social security benefit plan was to give money to be “SAVED” by the government till that person reaches an age of retirement.
The damned fed gov wants you to think it is the retirees that are taking your money when it is their filthy stinking thieving hands that have stolen the money out of the SS retirement fund and anywhere else their damned demonic hands can find to steal.
satan wants all the money and control and we “baby boomers” know this and have fought lies and deceit all our lives.
Most of us are from the “Hippie Gen” and grew up with love peace and rock-n-roll. We grew up spending days on hillsides and lying on the ground at night looking up at the stars.
We have accustomed ourselves to be self sufficient living on the land enjoying what the heavenly Father has given us.
We knew that the SS benefits wouldn’t be there for us.
We are what the fed gov have been afraid of for almost an century!
We are strong because we have truth justice and the American way in our blood and the pathetic theiving murdering fed gov are weak because what they have is physical and soon to decay!
Peace be unto you
Just like anything else an illegal government gets their hands on. They have stolen from the people and made BS excuses at to why and to where. Now they call it a benefit instead of an entitlement.
Just more taxation without representation.
When you get down to your last $50K in assets, consider selling them off, buy a used 1 Ton Truck and a 5th wheel or large trainer and go find a piece of dirt for $5K and live on it. $50K is but one or two years of minimal subsistence in any city in America. But if you are in the middle of no where with 500 Watts of solar, a well, and a piece of dirt, you can grow your own foods.
The medical industry is raking in the dollars along with insurance companies.
Get a grip on the cost of living, and bring jobs back to America. Quit faulting people for growing food whether in the front yard or back yard. Tax the oil and gas industries who continue to report record earnings. Drill in America and jump start the economy. Stop fixing and building other countries problems and fix ours. Stop illegals from drawing benefits. We can go on and on with things America needs to do. But will they??
It´s a wake up call. It´s not a bad idea if we all start to live more modestly and save a portion from each check. Why not?
I have been living modestly for years and when I could I saved. The business (a medical supply) closed shop and my daughter lost her job. They have lived with me for years so my savings are now gone as I support two families. She is a diabetic and cannot get medical care. Her girls are 15 and 16. No real jobs are available and minimum wage does not cover 1/3 of her costs. Poor kid works her ass off for nothing. No future. She has college and it does nothing to get her a job. Interviews do not pay.
I pay cash for everything and if i cannot afford it we do not buy it. I will no longer use the enslavement tool called credit.
So what do those like myself supporting multiple families do? There are no jobs and few benefits for those actually working. The lady at the aid office said if my daughters name were Hernandez she would qualify for many more benefits. Yes she admitted that. Laws are laws, illegals are illegals and billions go each year to support people who are not legally here. Then the Federal government pushes amnesty.