#retirement-savings — Public Fediverse posts

Retirees With $3 Million Still Can’t Sleep

Northwestern Mutual study finds Americans believe they need $1.46M to retire comfortably; Schwab (SCHW) 401(k) research shows people…
#NewsBeep #News #Personalfinance #90thpercentile #AU #Australia #Business #FederalReserve #Finance #NorthwesternMutual #Nvidia #PersonalFinance #portfolioincome #Retirement #retirementsavings #SocialSecurity #top10AIstocks
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/530078/

The Retirement State Where Monthly Expenses Tend to Feel More Manageable

Michigan usually isn’t considered a top retirement state like Florida. Instead, the Great Lakes State is often associated…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Personalfinance #Business #Florida #Michigan #PersonalFinance #RetirementSavings #socialsecurity #theGreatLakesState #TheMotleyFool #UniversityofMichiganHealth
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/491233/

Smart Ways to Save Money – Tips to Stretch Your Budget

Planning a More Affordable Retirement

Should be about enjoying life — not stressing over bills. But as costs rise, many people are looking for simple ways to reduce expenses without sacrificing comfort.

If you’re reviewing your budget (or planning ahead), you may notice spending areas that can be trimmed. The good news: small changes can lead to meaningful long-term savings.

Here are seven practical ways to save money in retirement starting today.

1. Consider Lower-Cost Cell Phone Plans

Major carriers aren’t always the most budget-friendly option. Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) — like Mint Mobile or Consumer Cellular — often use the same networks but at lower prices.

Potential benefit:

Lower monthly bills Flexible plans No long-term contracts in many cases

2. Cut Cable Costs

Cable TV can be one of the biggest recurring expenses. Many retirees are switching to streaming services or downsizing their channel packages.

Ways to save:

Choose only the streaming services you actually watch Rotate subscriptions seasonally Look for bundled streaming discounts

3. Negotiate Your Internet Bill

Many people don’t realize internet pricing is often negotiable.

Try this approach:

Call your provider Mention competitor offers Ask about loyalty or senior discounts

Even small monthly reductions add up over time.

4. Use Smart Plugs for Energy Savings

Smart plugs automate energy habits by turning devices off when not in use.

Benefits include:

Lower electricity bills Reduced energy waste Convenient scheduling from your phone

This is a simple tech upgrade that can pay off quickly.

5. Install Water-Saving Devices

Low-flow showerheads, faucet aerators, and efficient toilets can significantly reduce water usage.

Savings come from:

Lower water bills Reduced energy costs for heating water Long-term environmental benefits

6. Bundle Insurance Policies

Combining home and auto insurance often qualifies you for discounts.

Before renewing policies:

Compare bundled quotes Review coverage annually Ask about retiree or senior discounts

7. Cancel Unused Subscriptions

Memberships and subscriptions can quietly drain your budget.

Consider reviewing:

Streaming platforms Gym memberships Apps or software services Clubs or organizations you rarely use

A yearly subscription audit can free up significant cash.

A Local Raleigh Perspective on Retirement Savings

For Triangle residents and retirees in the Raleigh area, cost-of-living planning matters:

Utility costs fluctuate seasonally Housing expenses continue evolving Local discounts for seniors can help stretch budgets

Staying financially proactive helps you enjoy everything the Triangle offers — from cultural events to community activities.

Final Thoughts

Retirement savings aren’t just about investments — they’re also about smart spending. Small adjustments across utilities, subscriptions, and services can create meaningful financial breathing room.

Start with one or two changes, track the savings, and build from there. Your future budget will thank you.

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Can You Guess What Percent of Retirees Have $1 Million Saved? Here’s The Average Net Worth Of People 65 and Up

The idea of retiring with a $1 million nest egg has been sold as the finish line for…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Personalfinance #Business #Federalreserve #PersonalFinance #RetirementSavings #retiring
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/360708/

One Generation Has Lower Retirement Savings Than Any Other — and It’s Not the One You Expect

They were the original latchkey kids, raised on independence, resilience and the quiet expectation that they’d take care…
#NewsBeep #News #Personalfinance #AU #Australia #Business #Finance #GenX #PersonalFinance #retirementsavings #Schroders
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/273990/

5 Reasons You Should Downsize Well Before You Retire

Remember that minimalist trend from a few years ago? The one where you were encouraged to send anything…
#NewsBeep #News #Personalfinance #Business #Finance #LeslieH.Tayne #PersonalFinance #Retirement #retirementsavings #soundfinancialadvice #UK #UnitedKingdom
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/189414/

It's all fun and games until somebody loses their retirement savings

https://www.businesslawprofessors.com/2025/03/private-company-trading/

#HackerNews #funandgames #retirementsavings #privacylaw #tradingissues #financialliteracy

:thonk: "Maybe they won't remember our #plundering of their life savings," the kakistocrats are likely thinking.

#tariffs #navarro #newFeudalism #disruption #dismantlement #theDismantlement #PublicDomain #publicSavings #publicInvestment #retirement #retirementplanning #retirementsavings #plunder #plunderingamerica

Anti-Trump protests in the US shift focus to economic policies and tariffs, with middle-aged participants increasing and concerns over retirement savings rising amid aggressive economic measures.
#YonhapInfomax #AntiTrumpProtests #EconomicPolicies #Tariffs #RetirementSavings #SeaLionAttacks #Economics #FinancialMarkets #Banking #Securities #Bonds #StockMarket
https://en.infomaxai.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=57730

(continued from previous post on thread)

This topic is very apropos in the current market. We may be about to enter another recession, perhaps a depression. 401K's are down. So the claim that we could do better investing on our own is uncertain, but is again certainly going to test a lot of ordinary citizens, postponing their ability to retire.

And I emphasize that the choice f when to retire is not just a whim. Even ignoring age discrimination, age wears on a person, and some people do physical jobs (read: ACTUAL hard work, as opposed to metaphorically hard work done by rich executives) that leave them depleted. So delayed retirement is not just an inconvenience, it is in some cases torture and in some cases impossible.

But even as we are potentially entering a depression, the billionaires are salivating. They are looking forward to "buying low". They're treating this roller coaster as a buying opportunity. They plan to get rich on this depression. Even as others suffer and probably many die. They are gleeful.

This is the time when Social Security should be doubling down and assuring people it will increase benefits to cover rising costs (although it wouldn't be terrible if we just impeached the President who's causing those rising costs artificially with tariffs that really no sane business people think are a good idea). Because Social Security is again a contract with the population about what our priority is. And if we need more money, we should be bumping the tax on those gleeful about what a great buying opportunity this is.

They, the rich, would probably whine that this singles them out. That people are jealous. No one should stand for such rhetoric. The ones making the noise did not get their power by dealing honorably with us citizens. This is not jealousy speaking, it is a desire for justice. Be glad I'm not suggesting (as some are) that we just eat the rich and be done with it. Proper taxation of accumulated wealth (not just income) works for me.

No one needs that much money anyway. It's CLEAR from their observed behavior that one can only buy so many gold toilet seats before one starts to wonder what the point of excess riches is, and really it seems the only thing that one can find to spend such wealth on is buying governments. And then, apparently, running them badly and cruelly. No, I'm not going to feel sorry about suggesting taxation.

2/2 (probably the end)

#SocialSecurity #Privatization #USPolitics #Politics #SocialContract #justice #inequality #poverty #SafetyNets #tariffs #401K #RetirementSavings #retirement #AntiPoverty #dignity

I often hear people say that Social Security should be eliminated, that we'd do better with our own 401K's.

There are a lot of problems with that argument.

First, it turns us into gamblers. The argument is that people could invest their money better. Maybe. But they can also invest their money worse. So it's a very uneven policy. And that is ultimately cruel. That's just gambling, and experience shows that gamblers are often a lot more confident than is warranted.

The sociopaths among us often say, "Too bad. Individuals should take responsibility for their lack of saving. It's not my fault that some people don't plan." Those same people, though, are telling us that we should eliminate the minimum wage, that if the market doesn't want to pay someone enough to even live, why should it have to. So exactly where is the savings supposed to come from? On the one side, people work hard for hardly any money. On the other side, they're told their failure to save is a moral failing. Where is the discussion of moral failing in having more money than God and still being unwilling to help raise people out of poverty? That seems the biggest moral failing.

Moreover, a lot of what makes the difference in who succeeds or fails is one's parents. Dynastic fortunes. Better schools. Better connections. Sometimes even just better health or better clothing. The narrative is spun that the rich worked hard for their money, but in my experience, poor people work much harder for the scraps they are thrown than rich people ever do, and the notion of "meritocracy" is nonsense because the people who get ahead are just those who get to start ahead of the others.

But while on the topic of morality, let's also look at the structure of Social Security itself. People like to compare it to a 401K, but it's not like that. It's not a bank account. It's a very different beast.

As an example, you become suddenly unable to work, it kicks in right away, even if you didn't pay for a long time. That's very different than a bank account. If you live a long time, it continues to pay you.

There may be issues with cost of living adjustments, but the only reason we don't do those more often is that the aforementioned rich sociopaths insist it's better to give tax breaks to the wealthy. They'll tell you that Social Security is intended only to supplement your retirement, not to be the full amount, and yet they'll back penalties for trying to draw money out of Social Security if you're also getting other income. That's not really how supplements work, and it's a disincentive to additional work.

But my point is that the contract is not for a specific quantity of money. It is a social contract, that you pay into it while you're able and you are paid when you're not able. We could do better on the getting paid part, but the point is for it to keep you from falling into poverty, to add dignity.

It's worth noting that Social Security did not arise in a vacuum. While people COULD invest their money, a lot of people didn't, or else were losers in that gambling. Before Social Security, in the 1930s, the elderly poverty rate in the depression was something like 70%. So there is an objective way to understand what this did for the public. Some have called it the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of the US.

And if we were really worried that investing in the market were a better bet, we could arrange for the Social Security trust fund to do that. That's just an implementation detail and has nothing to do with the overall social promise. If DOGE wanted to do something HELPFUL, instead of aggressively dismantling all of the US government's ability to provide value to the public, they could analyze whether there are better ways to manage the funds.

But, ultimately, government is not a business and social security is not a profit & loss center, even if it's popular for some who don't like it to portray it that way. It mostly pays for itself, but from a moral point of view, its real purpose is to say that we as a society need to have a commitment to our sick and elderly, to assure they are taken care of, BEFORE we declare a profit. If we as a nation are able to give tax breaks to rich citizens only by cutting social programs, then the rich are preying on the poor. The health and welfare of all citizens is our first priority as a nation. We should not be preferencing the already-preferenced before we have attended to that.

1/2 (continued next post)

#SocialSecurity #Privatization #USPolitics #Politics #SocialContract #justice #inequality #poverty #SafetyNets #tariffs #401K #RetirementSavings #retirement #AntiPoverty #dignity

The President’s #Tariffs Have Erased Over $8000 from the Average 401k – Liberation Day is Liberating You From Your Money… #economy #401k #retirement #RetirementSavings #finance

https://congress.net/the-presidents-tariffs-have-erased-over-8000-from-the-average-401k-liberation-day-is-liberating-you-from-your-money/

Private Equity Is Coming for America's $12T in Retirement Savings

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-25/retirement-saving-private-equity-comes-for-america-s-401-k

#HackerNews #PrivateEquity #RetirementSavings #FinancialNews #InvestmentTrends #America

"This is the #DOGEplaybook. It's all about #plunder:take something that was carefully built up over generations & burn it to the ground, warming yourself in the pyre, leaving nothing behind but ash.
Trump's a plunderer…elected by the #plundererclass—like the #cryptobros who want to run wild, transforming workers' carefully shepherded #retirementsavings into useless #shitcoins, while the crypto bros run off with their perfectly cromulent #fiatmoney."
@pluralistic
https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/07/broccoli-hair-brownshirts/

A new report by a leading economist warns that using super for a housing deposit would drive up home prices, make home ownership harder for young Australians, reduce retirement savings, and create long-term costs for the federal budget. The independent report, commissioned by the Super Members Council, labels this the worst possible option.
#superannuation #housingdeposit #housingcrisis #australianeconomy #homeownership #retirementsavings #federalbudget #supermemberscouncil #economicreport #youngaustralians

https://www.9news.com.au/national/super-for-housing-deposits-a-bad-idea-top-economist-says/e2f8dc6b-e614-478f-adb9-c0a0b286cff4

Realistically, I suppose we should make sure to have enough #RetirementSavings in case our house burns down in a wildfire and we need to buy a van for our new lives as #ClimateRefugees. Gas and water will not be cheap in our #PostApocalyptic future, so we'd better shovel as much money as possible into our 401ks now!