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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (212715)	12/5/2004 1:56:01 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573402

"Why is your generation so cynical?" I can't speak for AmyJ, but the SS system has been in some form of crisis since I was in high school, and that was in the mid-70s. Every time there is some breathing room, something happens to take it away. And the most rational solutions are usually placed out of bounds, like means testing. So my retirement plans don't include SS. Heck, my plans don't even include retirement for the most part, although I contribute the max. I can into my 401(k) if available. Which is why I am going back to school when most of the students are less than half my age and even the profs. are younger than I am. As long as I can keep it up, that is what I am going to do. I don't think it is cynical, especially now. Given the debt we are piling up, we are facing an inflation scenario of Weimar Republic proportions. Ain't no way that SS or savings will be able to keep up. We have our investments in the market and in our house, which is mostly paid off. We are considering moving into overseas investments to try to minimize the effects of inflation, but that decision is probably a year out. And whether or not we can afford it, rest assured we are going to face even more debt. I don't remember any administration that isn't willing to even give the concept lip service...

To: Road Walker who wrote (212715)	12/5/2004 10:24:20 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1573402

Speaking of economics and SS, its funny how none of the Bush supporters brought up the latest jobs report. It seems we are back to an anemic growth pattern. msnbc.msn.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (212715)	12/6/2004 8:03:29 AM
From: Amy J	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573402

RE: "I've always expected to get the benefits. Why is your generation so cynical?" The answer to your question is actually partially in your statement below: "we simply can't afford any more debt, which I think will become very obvious in the next several years (if not months). " That's great you expect to get benefits. I can't think of anyone from my generation that does. RE: young people at your company not saving At my company, we had I believe 100% contribution level to the 401k plan. But at the moment, 100% of the young employees contribute while only 50% of the older employees contribute due to the downturn. It appears many young people may have lower obligations (read: no families to support), so can save a lot more - and they do. You mentioned you have a hard time convincing young people to save, so far I have a 100% success rate in convincing young people to save. I don't focus on the "$20 if you save $40 thing", what I think works better is a spreadsheet that always convinces people to save money: it shows that $1 saved when you are 20 is (off the top of my head) about $8 when you retire (corrected by inflation too). I also tell them the average cost of a wedding is $10,000 in America, but if you instead put that money into an IRA on the day you have your first child, your child would have $1,000,000 million dollars (corrected by inflation too) when your child eventually retires. I tell them, "that would nip the SS and retirement problem - and isn't it amazing there is no law set up to encourage this solution." Regards, Amy J