WARNING: If you are concerned about not having enough money to live on by the time you retire, you may find the following totally shocking:
According to the Social Security Administration, if you took any 100 people at the start of their working careers and follow them for 40 years until they reach retirement age, here is what you will find: only 1 will be wealthy; 4 will be financially secure; 5 will continue working, not because they want to but because they have to; 36 will be dead; and 54 will be dead broke- dependent on their meager Social Security checks, relatives, friends, or even charity for a minimum standard of living. In short, only 5 out of 100 will be successful but 95 out of the 100 will be unsuccessful!
I don’t know about you but to me, this is pretty disturbing. What the above is saying that unless you are dead by the time most people reach retirement age, chances are you will be dead broke! Choose one or the other: “dead” or “dead broke”!
Consider the situation of the following couple, both in their mid 40’s, 3 children- and working average jobs. They take home about $6,000 every month. Their monthly income barely covers their living expenses which include their mortgage, car payments, insurance and other basic necessity for daily living. They have about $30,000 in credit card debts which require minimum payments of close to $1,000 per month. Income is always short and most of the time, they need to use credit cards just to buy groceries. Because they are always late in paying their bills, the credit card companies keep increasing the interest rates on their credit cards and are always adding late fees and over-the-limit fees. The balances on their credit cards never go down. As a matter of fact, the loan amounts keep going up. They have zero savings and obviously cannot put away even just $100 a month for retirement.
The above situation is very typical of the cases that I see every day as a bankruptcy attorney. Imagine this: If our couple above remained in the same situation for the next 20 years, what kind of retirement can they look forward to? What’s scary is that experts are telling us that our current Social Security system is bankrupt and may not even be there by the time most of us retire. So let me ask you this: If the government won’t take care of you when you retire, who will? Remember the statistics I mentioned at the very beginning of this article? About 54% of people who reach retirement age will be 100% dependent on their Social Security checks, relatives, friends or even charity just to achieve a minimum standard of living! Is this is the kind of life you want to have when you retire?
My point is that your failure to plan for retirement could be a serious mistake that you will later regret and by then, it will be too late. If you still have time on your side, the time to start planning is now. In our couple’s situation above, it looks like the only way they can have some money left over at the end of the month is to either make more money, reduce their monthly expenses or have a plan to either reduce or eliminate their debts- or any combination of the above that will result in having some money saved. Your goal should be to save at least 10% of your monthly net income. Financial security is not achieved overnight. It can only be achieved by regular, consistent saving over a period of time.
If you are so buried in debt that you have no option but to file bankruptcy in order to be able to start over, we can help you understand this process and help you recover financially if that is your last resort. Of course, you should avoid bankruptcy if at all possible but sometimes, it may be your only choice. For a free consultation, you can call my office at Toll-Free 1 (866) 477-7772. We have offices in Glendale, Cerritos , West Covina and Valencia.
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None of the information herein is intended to give legal advice for any specific situation. Atty. Ray Bulaon has successfully helped thousands of clients in getting out of debt. For a free attorney evaluation of your situation, please call Ray Bulaon Law Offices at TOLL FREE 1 (866) 477-7772.