About 70 per cent of Australians aged 35 to 44 are expected to have inadequate superannuation savings once they reach retirement, with women the worst off, a report has predicted. Despite recent changes to super rules that benefit retirees, most people will still have to rely on the age pension in retirement, according to the report by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).
... and the situation in the U.S.?
Published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), the 2004 survey points out that a significant number of people are off track with their retirement saving ... Why aren't some Americans saving at all for retirement? Is working during retirement a viable way to make ends meet? In a culture where we are constantly told to "spend, spend, spend," is it realistic to expect that people will save for retirement?
How about Britain?
The Friends Provident survey found most people are likely to have a suffer a shortfall of around £10,000 in their pension income compared to what they needed. On average, Britons reckoned they would need between £20,000 to £24,000 each year to maintain the lifestyle they wantd in retirement. But the amount they realistically anticipated they would get was only £10,000 to £12,000.
Why?
1] The cost spiral ... including housing:
Overdependence on home equity loans and lines of credit have economists concerned that consumers are financially over-extended and ready to cut back on spending. Too many costs are gnawing away at consumers' wallets, and while the job market has improved over the past year, wages have not kept up with the cost of living.
Middle-class America also binged on equity credit [in 2005] … equity cash paid ordinary homeowners' credit card bills, college tuition and vacation expenses, among other things, says Yacik.
The rich, however, are taking borrowed cash "and using it to leverage other investments," says George Walper, president of the Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based firm that researches the affluent.
Let alone spiralling credit debt to help pay for everything. 2] It's not only spiralling costs. It's also simple envy:
"It's not the mega-rich we envy, but the people with the slightly nicer house up the road," says Simon Carr, of the Independent.
... and downunder, Adele Horin, of the Melbourne Age, reported on November 30 2002:
Australians have never been richer, says the study report by the Australia Institute. Yet the majority of middle-income households believe they are doing it tough. The report's author, institute executive director Clive Hamilton, says inflated expectations, not inadequate income, are the problem.
"A large and growing proportion of the population wants to emulate the lifestyles of the rich and famous," he says. "Because they can't afford it they constantly feel deprived of the good life."
3] Children's escalating and more expensive demands:
There's a lot more to kids' marketing today than trying to keep brands relevant, hip and cool. Today's kids want two additional things from marketers: brands that are interactive and brands that are instant.
Make no mistake. The accepted wisdom a generation ago was that one saved for retirement. Now the strategy has been all but abandoned in the grapple for a comfortable upper-middle class life and to combat spiralling costs which are being generated by both consumers and credit institutions.
And in the process, men and women have become, not their own bosses, not the parents of the classic saccharine sitcom but in reality - no more than piglets feeding on the teats of a bloated financial mother pig.
Interest rates are being artificially held down and sometime soon, maybe in 2012 or thereabouts, the financial institutions are going to precipitate the crisis, alongside the new SPP and EU initiatives.
Apply this simple test. If all your debts, mortgage, car, credit, mobile phone and others were to be called in today by the institutions - would you be in the black or would you be one of the new class of serfs?
My advice to you is to get out of any form of debt to a financial institution as soon as you practicably can. Get off the grid and live within your "real" means, even though your dollar or pound is fiat money.
The good news is that Tom Paine, of The Last Ditch has graciously agreed to keep an eye on this blog during the two weeks my apartment is being overhauled and all but destroyed and there are some exciting things coming up on this blog.
