I agree. Many of those people are the ones that put the current administration in office, frustrated and hoping that something would be done for them. They are going to be really angry when they realize they were conned, other people are prospering even more, and they are being left even further behind.
If you don’t own real estate, aren’t in the market, or are in a well paying industry, you are/have been left out of the gains. And the cost of living keeps increasing on top of it.
The funny thing is, they won’t be angry, because they will want to blame someone else, not their vote. There is a subset of the country that votes against their economic interests, year in and year out. It could be argued that I also voted against my economic interests, but let’s leave that question aside, since I did it with eyes wide open.
It is stunning how they’ll repeat a mantra as though it was wisdom. They apparently don’t have the sense God gave a goat, because they still think that things are better for them and don’t do the math. I am reminded of the sign in a crowd some years ago: “leave government hands off my Medicare.” You can’t make this stuff up.
@doschicos, you’re always welcome in my basement, but I have to warn you, it’s unfinished. We do have a nicer room that you’d probably prefer. Being aggressive is okay; my non fixed income has a large PRIMECAP component, but I’ve resisted buying bitcoin :)) Good luck.
“It could be argued that I also voted against my economic interests”
I may be seen as voting against my own interests as well however I like to think long term and factor in less tangible things. What’s good for our country as a whole, across the socio-economic strata will be good for me and mine. What’s good for our environment and therefore our planet, will be good for me and mine.
In addition to those just not thinking, too many think selfishly and greedily with little thought towards the future. Very short-sighted. Reminds me of a banana republic where those at the top are just out to line their pockets.
Did we run $9 trillion deficit over the last 8 years? I know they had a good reason to. Not complaining. Just a bit curious about people’s reaction. So somehow social security and medicare were safe when we ran over $1 trillion deficit per year but suddenly we should get worried that they will be gone since we are running that much deficit over 10 years? What happened to smart people?
@igloo, I think people are worried that the same people who are now willing to increase the deficit 1-2 B for corporate tax cuts at arguably the peak of the economic cycle were previously worried about the size of the deficit when fiscal stimulus was proposed during the depth of the recession. I am worried that they will use the increased size of the deficit for “entitlement reform” when we get to the next recession.
What happened to smart people indeed?
Ah, so we are now long term planners looking to future. And somehow we also know the same people will be in power in the distant future. I am sure you can do better than that. I have more immediate worries. BTW we do need entitlement reforms so as not to burden our kids with our longevity.
The people calling for “entitlement” “reforms” are currently in Congress and have quite a bit of power.
Everyone is calling for an entitlement reform since SS will run out without it. It’s not just GOP thing.
Agreed, but I suspect what ‘entitlement reform’ could mean varies dramatically; from Ryan’s privatization to no limit on SS wages. Both would fix the insolvency. We probably can’t discuss this much more without getting too political for the conventions of this thread.
Come on over to the tax proposal thread…
Mentioning just two extreme measures makes me think you are more interested in whining.
And perhaps @Iglooo, your tone makes me think you are interested in picking a fight. Perhaps we should table the politics for more retirement talk.
We talked about SS before at length. I don’t see what politics got to do with it unless you want it to be political. The way we did that was by not naming names. We express what we think needs to be done without any attribution to any particular party. We discussed means testing, raising the benefit age, reducing benefits and raising SS wages. Does that sounds political to you? Dave above named names and winked that it’s becoming political. Yes, it ticked me off, he was making it political when there’s no need for it and coyly bailed out of conversation citing “politics”.
Perhaps you have some advice for me. I work at a company with about 100 emploees. There was a 3 year vesting schedule for the 401k plan and because I thought of myself as a fairly short term employyee, I did not enroll. I have been there 4 years now and hope to be out by the end of 2018 for various reasons. But of course, I am not volunteering that info. I just rcvd an email from HR that starting in 2018, the 401k plan automaticaly enrolls you with a 6% of salary contribution, unles you opt out. I find this very annoying. Might work for millennials, but I am 54. I can request the form to opt out, but I wonder if that will tip my hand that my goal is to leave next year. Thoughts?
“So somehow social security and medicare were safe when we ran over $1 trillion deficit per year but suddenly we should get worried that they will be gone since we are running that much deficit over 10 years?”
We will be running a deficit of a trillion or so per year with this administration. The 1.4 trillion from the tax bill is just more on top of that mountain. It’s “in addition to”.
@rockvillemom Why do you want to opt out though? Vesting schedules only apply to the employer contribution, right? Regardless, I don’t think it would signal anything. I’m sure others opt out or opt to reduce the amount for a variety of reasons.
I just don’t see the point if doing it when I hope to leave next year and we are working very hard towards being completely debt free. I want to use every dollar towards that goal. Paying off debt is very concrete with a guaranteed return. I prefer that to stock market vacillations, particularly as we get closer to retirement. I also hate the nanny state feel of being put into a plan and required to opt out - way too controlling for my taste. Hopefully HR will just hand me the form to sign, no questions asked.
Auto enrollment allows companies to sidestep the non-discrimination tests which can limit how much some people can contribute. AFAIK there are no enrollment targets or anything like that.
If they question you, which I doubt they will, tell them what you said above, or just say “I already have sufficient retirement funds”. It’s really none of their business.
Rockville:
At our government work many people did not contribute to the thrift savings plan. There was only 2 of 8 in my department that did. We did not have to opt out but they would have. Usually the reason is they want to have the money for other things. We did have to opt out the donations for combined federal campaign however. I never gave a reason just said I decline. It irritated me that planned parenthood, schizophrenia association, etc was not in it.
@Iglooo, I apologize.
I didn’t mean to cause offense, but if offense was taken, I’ve offended and I’m wrong. Sorry.
To other thread readers, I apologize because I didn’t mean to derail the thread. I’ve learned a ton from this thread and hope to learn more.
In that spirit, does anybody know how to short bitcoin long term from a taxed deferred account? Don’t really want to short because I’d like to limit my losses, but is anything like a reverse ETF yet?