So few of us are saving $$. What future is there for us?

[Ms. Toad]

22. I've been saving for retirement since I was in my teens

My tastes are modest. We've never had cable. We bought a home about half the size we could afford (according to those pushing us to buy more). Didn't get a cell phone until ~2003, and then shared a dumb phone between 3 of us until 2008, then 3 dumb phones. Got my first smart phone last year - on a $0 monthly payment plan. We drive cars which are 12 years old (at the youngest).

All else being equal, I'd sacrificed enough to save for a comfortable retirement. But things aren't equal. My spouse and daughter ended up with chronic illnesses and unable to work - my spouse for 10 years now, and she is only now approaching retirement age - so now my (60% lower as of a year ago) income is supporting both of them.

I'm now looking at not retiring until 72 (if they'll keep me) so that I can max out my defined benefit plan, to partly offset the double ding I get because I have the plan in the first place. ($0 income is figured into my Social Security for each year I contributed to a defined benefit plan - so I already take a hit on my SS benefits and on top of that, my SS benefit (based on 15 years at max payment +25 years at $0 payment) is reduced a second time because I will be receiving income from a state sponsored plan based on the years I contributed to the state plan. One hit or the other - hitting me twice is not cricket.)

But - for all my grumbling, I'm better off than most. I was lucky enough to always have employment that paid well enough to allow me to be able to save if I sacrificed the present for the future. I have never, since I was 12, been voluntarily unemployed. I know that is a luxury many don't have. My sister has nothing in the bank - and her work is much more physical than mine (house cleaning and cosmetology). Because both are tipped and she - like most tipped employees - didn't report a substantial portion of her tips, her SS income will be proportionately lower. Her body has taken a beating & she will have no choice but to work as long as she lives.

And my daughter - at 25 (a time when I already had several thousand dollars banked towards retirement) has not yet finished school or started working because her illness makes her too unpredictable as an employee - and as a student. .