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Post by jeffolie on May 13, 2008 16:17:38 GMT -6
Survey: 1 in 10 boomers borrowing for everyday expenses By ELLEN SIMON, AP Business Writer Tue May 13, 12:06 AM ET NEW YORK - The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses and to seek help from family, friends or charities, according to a survey released Tuesday by the AARP. In the telephone survey of 1,002 adults 45 and older, nearly four in 10 said they had helped a child pay bills or expenses. Among retirees, one-third said they'd helped their children pay bills. Eight percent said they'd helped a parent pay bills or expenses. The survey's margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. One-third of survey participants said they stopped putting money into their 401(k) or retirement account and 14 percent said they had cut back on their medications. "We have patients coming in fewer times," said registered nurse Tucky Franz of Salisbury, Md. "They'll cut back because of the copay." The majority of baby boomers said they were finding it more difficult to pay for essentials and utilities, and six in 10 said they had cut back on eating out and entertainment. Compared with older people, a greater percentage of younger baby boomers, those 45 to 54, said they were cutting back on medications, prematurely withdrawing retirement funds and postponing paying bills. "For the younger boomers, it's been an especially rude wake-up call," news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080513/ap_on_bi_ge/economy_survey;_ylt=At1Y34F7hIzn4lTtlBGKu52yBhIF 10% boomers borrowing for everyday expenses
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Post by jeffolie on May 13, 2008 17:37:21 GMT -6
The real problem here isn't the instant impact, it is what it does to boomers who have most of their net worth tied up in their house. The hopes and dreams of these people are being smashed to dust as many of them have "lived larger" by pulling HELOC and cash-out money for the last several years and are now seeing their equity position be destroyed wholesale. Ultimately this is a very ugly phenomena as it will leave them reliant on social programs that cannot be sustained (e.g. Social Security) or keep them from retiring at all. Down that rabbit hole of course lies decades of slower consumer spending and productivity - not a good macro-level trend at all, but it is a reality we cannot avoid. market-ticker.denninger.net/
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Post by judes on May 13, 2008 18:24:20 GMT -6
...... Down that rabbit hole of course lies decades of slower consumer spending and productivity - not a good macro-level trend at all, but it is a reality we cannot avoid. market-ticker.denninger.net/But we can avoid it, by bringing back all the good paying jobs we have outsourced.
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on May 14, 2008 5:45:46 GMT -6
But we can avoid it, by bringing back all the good paying jobs we have outsourced. And we could do that by withdrawing from every single one of our free trade agreements, and immediately start imposing tariffs--at least on all goods from China. There are plenty of American workers who have been replaced by cheaper Chinese workers overseas. Those American workers are still available for work to produce the same American goods they used to produce in previous years. Tariffs will make Chinese goods more expensive, thus reducing the cost differential between American labor and Chinese labor.
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Post by whoswho on May 14, 2008 12:13:11 GMT -6
...... Down that rabbit hole of course lies decades of slower consumer spending and productivity - not a good macro-level trend at all, but it is a reality we cannot avoid. market-ticker.denninger.net/But we can avoid it, by bringing back all the good paying jobs we have outsourced. I think it has been the inevitable outcome of two pervasive social trends. It IS partly from unbridled spending habits (gotta have EXACTLY what I want, and gotta have it RIGHT NOW.... can't delay it, or find another way). And it is, as you say, because our "normal" incomes have been castrated. For some reason, the powers that be have expected us to spin gold out of straw, and I think a lot of people tried to do just that, and meet those expectations. So what you have is denial of reality from the masters, and mirrored denial from their servants.
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Post by Cactus Jack on Jun 6, 2008 10:09:41 GMT -6
i'm a retire boomer, with a military pension and living on personal investments, so in some aspects i'm better off than those this thread mentions. unlike many of my fellow boomers, who never saved for the future, got bogged down with credit and the gota-have-now mentality, many are so terribly in debt, few realy kno how to live on reduced earnings associated with fixed incomes, annuities, or the spiraling increases in medical care, property taxes, and cost-of-living necessities.
before retiring, i had fallen vicitim to many conveniences - e.g satellite/cable tv which kept rising with alarming annual rate increases. no longer. we dropped that service, returned to the old analog (now digital age converters) and since there's very little worth viewing, have relearned to do other things, read books, tinker in the workshop, get back to basics survival and living skills, and spending more time with family and friends. in doing so, we've suddenly got just over $70 per month more than had when was on satellite, with its 500 channels (with still nothing worth a flip to watch or listen to).
point is, with a little thot boomers who are having a hard go at it, can better themselves by doing away with a frill they really don't need, better budgeting, a putter in the veggie garden, or even a 3-wheel bike (with basket) to keep heart pumping and reduce the rising cost of fuel.
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