Layout:
Home > Whoa! Not all US male boomers/Gen-X are savers?

Whoa! Not all US male boomers/Gen-X are savers?

December 12th, 2006 at 08:30 pm

A friend sent me this

Text is link and Link is http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-option11dec11,0,4921051,full.story?coll=la-home-business
link to an article about an egregious case of a "pay option loan."

I suspect that newspaper journalists do seek out extreme cases such as these, leaving out salient facts like funding long-term care for parents, or fighting leukemia or AIDS for five years, that may change our sympathies, and we readers ponder: "Golly, how many people are there like this?" Me, I was floored there even was someone like this: a 56-y.o. man, twice-divorced, no kids, in a Covina CA house which he bought 11 years ago for $130K, filled with his stuff, and took $190K out of through refinances. Cowabunga, dude, get a roommate and put the additional rent income into your mortgage.

I took a second job to pump up my Roth IRA 2006 contributions, and told this to a fellow contractor. He confided he didn't have a Roth IRA set up, that the 401(k) thing wasn't a going concern as he had 25 years to retirement. We've got $163K in retirement and about 30 years left to go.

See, I'd have thought the earlier you pay into a retirement plan, the less you have to sock away in future years. These guys being kidless and spouseless have oodles of disposable income.

These are able-bodied and competent men, who've spent pretty much all their lives in the United States. What circumstances does one have to be nurtured in to trust corporate America with its offshoring jobs, layoffs, reduction of benefits, to think everything will be okay, that savings can always wait? Middle-class? Stable? Executive, VP or Board Director?
[hr]
from goldseek.com:
What will almost certainly go wrong is that the homeowners will have to cut back. Then, the lenders and hedge funds will be in trouble too. Get this - the last six years have seen the biggest property boom ever. Yet, the average American homeowner actually has less equity in his house than he did in 2000. What he has a lot more of is mortgage debt. And when his house falls in price, that debt is going to chafe his neck like a noose.


Am I in denial if I want to believe that the average American is not this ignorant or trusting to luck?

5 Responses to “Whoa! Not all US male boomers/Gen-X are savers?”

  1. tinapbeana Says:
    1165956210

    as scott bakula would say at the beginning of every 'quantum leap' episode: "Oh, Boy!"

  2. sarah Says:
    1165961110

    I am spousless and childless and do not have oodles of disposable income.

  3. Broken Arrow Says:
    1165978828

    Insane.

    That's all I can say about that.

  4. LuckyRobin Says:
    1165981325

    People are really and truly out of their minds!

  5. baselle Says:
    1165984593

    The commenters on the housingbubbleblog had a field day with this guy. The basic opinion was: cry me a river.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]