Planning For Retirement For Emotional And Practical Terms Essay

Baby boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964. The baby boomer generation will turn 65 by the year 2030. One-fourth of the entire population, will be seniors. With so many medical advances, many Americans are living longer, 5.8 million of seniors are expected to be older than 85. With so many baby boomers living longer, and the United States facing a growing rate of chronic diseases, we could be facing a health care crisis.

The majority of people age 65 or older in the United States are still working in full time positions. This opens the question if they planned for retirement, or what if anything went wrong while working? How do they feel about still having to work? Have they taken proper steps in preparing for retirement? Are they only working to pass time? These are the questions that everyone should be asking themselves about their own retirement plans, and what they have done to financially prepare for that stage in their life.

The Baby-Boom generation is nearing retirement and it is clear that millions of aging Boomers are financially under prepared. Reasons are many - poor savings habits, rising medical costs, the demise of guaranteed corporate pensions, and the dreaded squeeze faced by many: i.e. having to pay college costs for their children, care for their elderly parents, and save for retirement, all at the same time.

In more detail, much of their savings are tied up towards retirement due to the serious financial crisis of 2008, which means they lack of sufficient retirement funds, even basic living expenses. According to the research of Boomer Expectation for Retirement 2016, which is from the Insured Retirement Institute, illustrates that 25 % of boomers have no retirement savings and 76 percent of baby boomer generation are unconfident about whether their savings can last through retirement (Insured Retirement Institute, 2016). This appears to suggest that boomers might not be prepared for their retirement plan and that they have never tried to figure out how much they will need for retirement. Moreover, they are concerned about not being able to maintain their standard of living. For example, according to a newspaper report from Star Tribune, Judy Davis, 57, of St. Paul, who works for a nonprofit agency, discusses her difficulty of retirement, “If I had to retire I would be broke pretty soon. I could probably survive six months to a year” (Read, 2015). With this in mind, it proves that Davis still works for a nonprofit agency because she does not have any preparation for her retirement or enough money to last through her old age. Furthermore, the lack of retirement savings will reduce their standard of living. Therefore, baby boomers experience significant financial stress because of

Twenty or so years ago, the question of personal growth in retirement hadn't really entered the mainstream consciousness. To most people a generation ago, retirement was an ending, not a beginning. But as with everything else they've encountered, the Boomers are challenging that view of retirement.

Younger generations think they have plenty of time to plan and retirement seems too far in the distance future. But the earlier they begin saving for retirement, the more financially stable they will be at retirement age. Saving a little over a longer time accruing interest over the persons working years would develop into a nice retirement nest egg. Youth today will need to work harder at saving, in comparison to their grandparents and even their parents, due to economic factors and because social security and pensions lack reliability.

Firstly, a key influence on retirement is gender. James M. Henslin, author of “Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach” uses the term gender age to describe how gender has influence on retirement. Gender age can be portrayed as the relative value assigned to men and women by their length of life (Henslin, 372). Symbolic interactionists use four factors to determine whether a person is considered old or not. These include biology, personal history, gender age, and societies idea of old (Henslin, 372). This is significant since gender age plays a crucial role in determining when age cohorts, or people born at around similar time and progress through life in conjunction, are considered old in societies standards. In addition, not only gender, but

This demographic trend deflects on the stabilization; decline and fall in the United Sates rates in fertility since the generation of the baby boom are given birth. More importantly this demographic trend speculates on the secular increase in the life expectancy and entry of the large baby boom cohort joining in to the normal projected age of retirement that is between 2010 and 2030. The census bureau expects arise of the share population over 65 after the 21st decade short pause (from 13% presently to 20% by 2050 and 23% in 2100).

Retirement in the United States of America, officially when an individual turns 66 or 67 years old, depending on their year of birth, is a time span that many look forward to in their latter years before they pass away. It is a time of relaxation and enjoyment that is usually spent with their friends and family. It seems to be that the main concern of retirement has to do with financial security once the pay checks stop. The amount of benefits in Social Security received depends on how much someone works and their annual income. Another important factor that contributes to the amount of benefits is their actuarial projection, a plan that has been set forth by someone who examines the amount of time that a person is expected to live,

In the 2005 documentary The Open Road: America Looks at Aging director, Nina Gilden Seavey defines retirement in the perspective of potential or current retirees. For some people, retirement lives up to their expectation of what is coined as “the golden age,” while others struggle or may never [willingly] see retirement in their future. Having parents that make up two out of the 77 million baby boomers, I think the documentary did a good job representing the perks as well as problems that the age of retirement can bring; being financial or the exposure to age-stereotyping (ageism).

When you are young you always hear people saying it is never too early to start saving for retirement, but at that age the last thing you want to do is put your money towards ending the career you are just trying to start. It is hard to imagine a time where you won’t have to go to work on a daily basis, to make a wage, in order to pay your bills, but the ultimate goal is getting to that time in your life where you don’t have to go to work and the bills are already taken care of. The hope for everyone is that the bills are taken care of and you are able to focus on leisurely things you did not have an opportunity for while employed. What we fail to realize is that the longer we wait to save the more we have to be concerned with the pressure of time running out and not enough money saved. Not to mention the sooner you start saving the more time you give your money to grow.

We all are currently aging. We live in an again paradox. But, it is what we choose to do with our time while we have it that counts the most. As a young adult, and before this class I was very unaware of the importance of planning your retirement as early as possible. There are many things that go into planning for a successful retirement. Such as, but not limited to: Where will I choose to live? What will I do to stay mentally active? Or even, when will I choose to retire. In this paper, I will go over a plethora of aspects for my personal plan for aging.

Planning for retirement should not be based on Social Security alone, but rather by saving portions of personal earned wages and putting finances into long-term investments. Depending on Social Security as the only income after retiring is an unsafe and undependable way to prepare for retirement. People who contribute to Social Security are mandatorily putting money into the Social Security Reserve; this money is used for older generations that will file for these benefits before the younger people working, in the early 21 century, ever receive a chance. Money controlled by other’s hands will never be a guarantee for a secure future, yet money saved by an individual to put toward personal goals will reward greatly. By taking the time to

Although mandatory retirement is not largely popular, it still has an effect on many older workers and how they plan for retirement. "Mandatory retirement involves less than 1 percent of the work force and so opens up only a small fraction of the total jobs", because

Some people cannot wait till retirement. The prospect of taking a break after 40 years of working is very tempting indeed. Everybody envisions sitting out on the backyard porch sipping tea, working on our rose bush and other non-stressful activities.