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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (117116)	5/30/2005 7:38:50 AM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793756

not sure housing was the problem with most of my co workers but living beyond their financial means certainly was a problem. new car, vacations, eating out, entertainment. Most didn't save or take maximum advantage of 401k contributions and always felt secure in their jobs. Most when asked ,, the response was i got that last ten or fifteen years to bank 20/40% of earned income before retirement. Then came the wake up call, mass layoffs in large companies that never let managers etc go before. Out sourced departments at random, more mergers, closing down marginal business operations. What i found was most lost their jobs, could not find salaries to compare with what they had been paid for last twenty, thirty years, and most had little or no savings. They spent their higher than average incomes during the prime working years on social activities , vs putting a little more away for a rainy day. not much has changed today. i heard some stats on 401k savings where the % of participants was very low. ps i expect housing prices has bought them a lot of eqity now but where do they go if they sell?