Elderly woman rips Jeb in townhall: "I paid into that for years - now you want to take it away?

[haele]

107. You were fortunate with what happened to you during the 2008/2009 period then.

Here's the questions I ask everyone who talks about "the secret to my success"...
These have been modified to pertain to the 2008/2009 period:

When did you retire and do you have a pension or annuity (i.e., Were you already retired at the time)?

Did you have dependents that could not bring in extra wages that could allow you to put 10% - 25% of your household income into retirement, savings, or investments?

Did you have dependent costs during that time period? As in out-of-home-care, food, medical, costs pertaining to size of housing (i.e., 2 or 3-bedroom vice studio or single bedroom home), transportation, clothing, costs pertaining to investments on dependent's talents or future (i.e., school, activities, or lessons)?

Did you have a minimum wage job or a job that didn't pay enough to save or invest with as well as pay the bills at that time?

Did you lose your job at that time?

Could you not find any meaningful work, or work that paid similar to the job you lost when you went looking for work at that time?

Were your wages and benefits frozen and you couldn't find another job that paid as well as the one you were stuck at? (I fell into this category - wages frozen)

Were you disabled, or partially disabled during that time? (Spouse disabled on SSDI, I just came off of worker's comp, had just started over a year previous at half the salary I had prior to 2005 when I was injured)

Were you relying on a 401K, a ESOP/SEP, company stock matching, or Pension Plan for your retirement, rather than buying your own retirement accounts? (I fell into this category)

Did your 401K, ESOP, company stock, or Pension Plan lose almost to over 40% of it's value, and you've now only just caught up to where you were at in 2008? (My parents and I both fell into this category)

Were you invested in mutual funds or stocks for retirement, rather than a safe/stable retirement fund or was the rate on your retirement account linked to market rates?

Did you "foolishly" buy a house at the wrong time, from the wrong lender, or were you a victim of mortgage fraud as your title was parceled out and bundled into a several sub-prime mortgage packages, where a secondary lienholder wasn't getting paid, so they foreclosed on you when you thought you were paying your mortgage to the primary lien holder? (My landlord fell into this category)

Were you forced to move during this time? (We had to "break our lease" and find another rental as the house we were renting got foreclosed on - and it cost us around $5K to move)

Were you or your kids going to College? (I was, but luckily, I was able to get grants)

Did you have unexpected Medical Bills? Did your medical insurance premiums cost go up 25 - 70% between 2008 and 2010? (I fell into this category)

Did you have to dip into your dwindling 401K, ESOP, or Pension fund for an early withdrawal to pay for any of the situations above? (I fell into this category, too)


If not, Congratulations! You were one of the almost 20% of Americans who survived the 2008/2009 with very little economic discomfort at all. Just as there were about 20% of Americans who were never really affected by the Great Depression of the 1930's.

Your "secret" worked...for you, because you were apparently in that "sweet spot" of financial circumstances where you could practice that secret.

But unless I was willing to raise a family in the minivan for a year or so, it wouldn't have worked for me and my family, no matter how hard I tried to make it work.
I lost money on my retirement - 2 years worth of growth, plus the $10K we had to pull over those two years to pay for emergencies we didn't have savings to cover. And being closer and closer to the point of retiring (probably 10 - 15 years), I can't make up those lost years and still pay for everything that, as a family, we need to pay for.
Do I give up healthy food that keeps myself, my husband, and my grandkids healthy and somewhat active, and allows me to continue to work at the level I need to work? That's just trading food costs for health costs.

Do I kick my dependent grandchildren (covered under my health plan),out of the house to live with their struggling and emotionally challenged parents to live out of the cheap room rental they live in now with a single friend who can't handle kids?
That's denying them a stable, loving home they can depend on, which impacts their future as well as ours. I'm just transferring the cost of helping to raise them into value for a retirement that will be worth less in the long run if we want to remain part of their lives. An opportunity cost to me, true - but not everything can be monetized.

I've cut everything I can in costs, but my 401K with it's munificent current amount of $46,000 and outstanding "loan" sitting around $2K to cover the additional cost of the birth of the second grandbaby last year is still only going to get 2% of my paycheck and grow at a snail's pace unless I can either get a government job or my employer decides to give me a 15% raise and cut the cost of the premium on our company medical.

Haele