A group of four German Senior’s, known as the “Old Rage Pensioners,” is in court now for kidnapping and torturing their financial adviser because he took their money and “took them for a ride.” They are formally charged with an accomplice of kidnapping, illegally confining and causing grievous bodily harm to their 56 year old financial adviser. The police found out about the case when the adviser wrote an SOS on a fax that he said he needed to send to get the group their money back. Read all about the story here.
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According to a New York Times article, with evidence from Nielsen’s third quarter report retirees are spending more time on the internet than young people. The report reflects that more people are staring at screens than ever before. While TV watching accounts for 99% of video watching, there is considerable growth in video watching on DVR and online. The report even shows that people over the age of 65 spent 47 percent more time than the previous year watching video embedded within social networks, a medium that had almost a 100% growth this past year. Truly amazing data, but we’ll see what all this video viewing does to our eye-site in the future.
According to Robert Frank, a Cornell University Economist, running a a budget deficit in a deep economic downturn is a good decision. In his article in The New York Times, he goes on to state that it is “absurd” to think that a budget deficit will in any way bankrupt future generations. In his words, if we make the correct fiscal decisions and in fact use the deficit to invest in the future then our grandchildren would become richer rather than poorer. He goes on to state that we should come to eliminate budget deficits with increased revenue from placing taxes on activities that cause harm to others. He argues that “such levies create a burden that is more than offset by the reductions they cause in costly side effects of everyday activities.” He concludes, “taxes on harmful activities would be justified quite apart from any need to balance government budgets. But such taxes would also generate ample revenue for the public services we demand, quieting the ill-considered commentary about deficits.” What are your thoughts on this issue?
According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, more Americans than in the past are at risk of failing to maintain their living standards in retirement. The Center just recently revised their National Retirement Index, a measurement that reflects American housing, changer in Social Security benefits, and household’s financial assets to determine retirement preparedness. The new Index reflects that 51% of Americans will not be prepared to retire at 65, up from the 2007 number of 44%.
While you may think these numbers are surprising, Paul Ballew, Nationwide Mutual’s senior VP of customer insights and analytics says that if we included the cost of health care and/or long term care in the Center’s Index, that number could jump up to as a whooping 70%. Remember, never forget about retirement planning, your future is too important not to! Use a trustworthy retirement calculator to ensure that you can not only retire on time but have enough money to last throughout retirement.
Just recently and here in San Francisco five social innovators in Encore Careers over 60 years old received $100,000 each in Purpose Prizes. Additionally, five social entrepreneurs each won $50,000 “. . . for using creativity and experience to solve long-standing social problems.” Marc Freedman, the co-founder of The Purpose Prize notes, “It’s reassuring to note that as America ages, we have creativity in greater abundance in greater abundance. Purpose Prize winners show that experience and innovation can go hand in hand, that inventiveness is not the sole province of the young.”
This Purpose Prize program is the nation’s only venture in assuring the continuation of social innovators who are in the second half of life. Over its six years it has provided $17 million in prize money to the 60 year old+ groundbreakers from all over the United States. The five 2009 $100,000 winners include:
- A 68 year old doctor and special education teacher couple who treat victims of terrorism around the world
- A 73 year old engineer who creates “green” bricks out of fly ash, the residue of coal-fired power plants
- A 61 year old telecommunication executive from Rutherford County, N.C. who delivered broadband to his home county and produced an online ordering system that allows local farmers to sell produce directly to Charlotte restaurants
- A 69 year old psychiatrist who recruit mental health professionals to provide counseling to military veterans, active-duty service men and women, and their families
- And last but not least a 66 year old computer executive who generated a nationwide substance abuse recovery program based on Native American beliefs and traditions.
To see the other winners of the Purpose Prize or to learn more about the program please visit encore.org. NewRetirement wants to congratulate this year’s winners for their hard work, determination, creativity, and noble action in making the world a safer, cleaner, more productive, and better place. They should serve as role models to us all. Please provide us with some other 60+ people you know who are seeking to tackle social problems facing their community, country, or world.
The Seattle Times reported Sunday on this year’s federal deficit of $1.42 trillion:
“It’s more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the republic [cumulative], more than the economy of India, almost as much as Canada’s, and more than $4,700 for every person n the United States.”
And that’s just for one year!!!!! Just watch what will happen during the next decade!!!!
Here is a wonderful and helpful article in Usnews.com about the advantages and disadvantages of a reverse mortgage.
With 401k automatic enrollment gaining increased popularity in the past year, it appears not only are more employees increasing their retirement savings but also increasing U.S. savings by as much as $8 billion a year, according to the Retirement Security Project, an advocacy group partnered with Georgetown University and the Brookings Institute. Automatic enrollment allows employers to provide a 401k plan as a default; an employee must “opt out” of a 401k plan if they (foolishly) decide not to take part in it. According to the aforementioned organization, automatic enrollment could boost 401k contribution rates from 75% of eligible employees to as much as 95%. These stats are sure signs that 401k plans are getting spread across the board, but according to the Profit Sharing Council of America’s President David Wray, automatic enrollment “will be standard practice but not universal.” For example, large employers like Starbucks and FedEx have suspended their employee matches, but despite this fact it appears that 99% of employees have kept their 401k plans. To supplement the fact that more employees are signing up for a 401k plan, a recent Watson Wyatt study shows that 82.7% of eligible employees have balances in their 401k plans, up from 81.9% in 2007.
And now to add to yesterday’s blog, as a recent businesswire article, “Americans Dramatically Underestimate Health Care Costs in Retirement, First Command Reports” states that retirees need to show some foresight and put extra money for the rising costs of healthcare and clear deficit in Medicare and Social Security spending. So ensure you and your financial advisor discuss and plan on having enough money for rising healthcare expenses and the rising taxes required to fund the government stimulus packages.
Dusting off some Milton Friedman from 1979 on Phil Donahue. Worth watching to get his perspective on how self interest and greed can drive positive change. I don’t think that taxing wealthier investors and businesses and giving those resources to bureaucrats to use is going to fix our current situation. We need to innovate our way out of this mess and get people incented to invest and work hard vs. hunker down just focus on how to protect their dwindling assets and resources. (Some redistribution of wealth is probably required, but at a certain point it’s counter productive – see Laffer curve
