Do you save for retirement?

[Deja Q]

Poll question: Do you save for retirement?

For example, I currently save some, but am increasingly thinking it's a waste. I likely won't live to make it to 65 (I'm 32 and have already noticed a decline in my health) and I could use the money now.

[skooooo]

1. wow...32 is awful young.

...to be feeling that way. I hope you're ok.

[Sirveri]

2. HAHAHAHA!

Yeah right, like I actually make enough money to save for retirement. I can't even make enough to cover rent!

[bearfan454]

3. Hell yes.

I put the full 15 percent in my 401k. These neocons could fuck up SS at any time.

[Booster]

5. You better save....

even if it's small. I just retired in December and am lucky that my company offered a 401K plan and matched 50%. There's a website called sharebuilders.com that I would recommend you check out if your company doesn't offer a plan. When I was your age I also thought I would not live to retirement age, but surprise, surprise. At any rate, check out a few funds like smallcap funds, etc. where you pay a very small amount monthly and they invest your money for you. You may live a very long time.

[Deja Q]

7. There are external factors...

Peak oil alone is a concern, but let's say there is no problem until 2032. I still wouldn't be old enough to collect.

I just don't think there's a point.

If the whole ME becomes unstable or if the terrorists destroy the Saudi oil installations, we're all boned.

I see my current job at a point where I won't have it in a couple years and despite my experience, creativity, and so on, there are no openings worth taking...

One way or another, it's a reminder about how finite everything else. I'd rather live. The candle's going to snuff it anyway, so why not burn it at both ends?

[Sandpiper]

4. Save for retirement?

I'm barely making enough money to live.

[theivoryqueen]

6. save what?

My bush economy dollars are few and far between and don't go as far as they used to.

[LoZoccolo]

8. I've stopped to pay off debt instead but I keep thinking...

...that shit is gonna go so downhill in this country if things keep going the way that they are so I like, keep thinking that it may be no use when month after month I don't reactivate my 401(k) deductions and keep spending money on stuff like a new PowerBook. I don't wish to encourage anyone else to get like that, but that's what I've been thinking.

[LoZoccolo]

9. To give you an example...

...I put the link to that story about that (albeit worst-case scenario) report about global warning leaked from the Pentagon in a local chat room I hang out on and people started making fun of that...stuff like that makes me think, well maybe we'll just fuck up things so bad it won't even matter how much my 401(k) has in it.

[BrotherBuzz]

10. Some of us are forced to spend our retirement savings now

I choose to think of it as taking retirement in installments.

[Radical Activist]

11. I'll just sell-out when I'm close to retirement age

After a life of making little money in activism and public service through politics I'll cash out at the very end by writing some books or being a lobbyist for a Union or left-leaning consulting firm. hehe Is that cynical?

[Lorien]

12. I've been thinking along the same lines

I'm nearing 40, and I've still got so much debt from six months of unemployment in 2001 that I'm thinking of cashing out my savings just to pay everything off. The future isn't looking very bright, and somehow I doubt I'll make it to retirment. :-(

[Philosophy]

13. I had to empty my retirement account because I was unemployed

For 2 years. I still have over $15000 of debt to pay off before I can even think about saving anything.

[smada]

14. Saving some, spending some

I save more than most I guess, but I'm also sitting on a great piece of property that I plan to sell when I retire. That should cover my retirement all by itself.

[Wapsie B]

15. Yes, but only through the 403b at my work.

n/t