Retirement Plans

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Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
25,101
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#41
There has been inflation like this once before....it was when Jimmy Carter was president. A loaf of bread went from a quarter to a dollar "because of the price of sugar". Actually it was the sugar cartel of Florida rigging prices and the sugar beet producers of sugar going along with it because they were getting richer too. Brazilian sugar was almost banned. Also some lousy wheat harvests in the plains due to drought and a few grain elevators catching fire helped balloon prices too.

Oil prices (especially gasoline) had a 100% price spike almost overnight and then another 100% one as this new cartel decided to almost halt all shipments of oil to the USA. There were lines for gas in CA and you had to alternate which days of the week you could fill your tank.

This also was around the time that new legislation in CA stopped all new home construction in the state and house prices quadrupled in a few years. A once $20k home went for $200K in about 5 years. All the while interest rates for mortgages was around 9%.

Jobs were scarce going into the '80's. Unemployment was high. (Double digits) and a ad in the newspaper for a dishwasher brought long lines of desperate people looking for work. They literally were wrapped around the restaurant wanting to fill out an application for $3.35/hr. (A good career job would pay $10.50/hr or more)

This was mid '70's to mid 80's.....you would have been in grade school to high school during these years. But it was what life was like during the Carter years. Unpleasant to say the least. Minimum wage went up in stages from $2.35 to 3.35 during these years and then were static afterwards for another 20. Median income to median housing ratio was at a 7.5.....it was a 4.3 pre-covid and now post covid it again increasing to 7.2 last time I looked.

Restaurants didn't pay waitors and waitresses...waitstaff paid the restaurant. Usually $5/shift and the bulk of their wages was tax free. People fought long and hard to get these jobs too...it was usually better money than any regular job. And the waitstaff was very professional. Today waitstaff is clumsy dolts who can barely bring you the right food after you, yourself punch it into the table kiosk and pay for it there too. There really is no service in Restaurants anymore and the cooks don't make a living wage either.

Things have not changed for the better in a long time.
Ah perspective.

We like to think we have it tough, for some reason I have not yet figured out. We like to forget history and how tough times REALLY got back in the day.

Then an elder comes along and talks about how tough it really used to be, and we get a sense of perspective.

Just totally RUINS our nice little complaining session! :eek::unsure:
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
25,101
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#42
And even back in the day it wasn't really tough. We weren't going out in the snow to chop peat from a peat bog, to burn in our homes just so we could get our oatmeal cooked and not freeze.

Man, our ancestors in Scotland really had it rough back then.

Don't even get me started about the Highland Clearing. Agribusiness, ala a few hundred years ago, leaving homeless people to gravitate to the slums of big cities...

Nah, we don't have it rough. We just think we do.
 

JohnDB

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2021
5,706
2,233
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#43
I do remember my dad complaining about inflation around the late 70's but I was only in middle school at the time. So what does the future hold for America? I really don't have much hope at all, especially under this current regime.
That God will give us the leader we need versus a leader we deserve.

Joe Biden might get another term in office or get halfway through and have to step down.
Either way the Republicans currently are a joke. They have abandoned ALMOST EVERY principle they used to stand on in times past. Their current infighting is not going to help them at all. They don't have a strong candidate whatsoever. The Democrats are acting more like Republicans than Republicans are currently. So maybe we will get a JFK type out of the deal. (A DINO...Democrat in name only)

The current level of corruption and weaponization of federal agencies on both sides is getting to the point that EVERYONE is disgusted with the two parties.

This actually has happened before in American history. Let's just say that there was such a major shakeup in the political world that neither party existed afterwards.
Voters will put up with some nonsense but not complete nonsense. And their rhetoric is not as effective as they believe it to be. Biden was obviously selling access through Hunter until he got caught. Trump is obviously a belligerent bully and somewhat an idiot. How either got tapped is a mystery.
Now the chickens come home to roost for voting for what people wanted to hear versus needed to hear.
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
25,101
8,251
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#44
Biden was obviously selling access through Hunter until he got caught. Trump is obviously a belligerent bully and somewhat an idiot. How either got tapped is a mystery.
That's an easy one. Douglas Adams explained it quite well. The job of the president is not to wield power but to draw attention away from power.

Trump did the job almost as well as Adams' Zaphod character.

Biden, not so much. He's not entertaining at all. Next term we will need someone much more flamboyant and/or controversial.
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
7,178
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#45
Not something I think about at this stage. In nz retirement age is 65 but you can continue working after that if you are able, though it will be more part time work or voluntary work.

The lump sum or access to funds you'll receive from your savings is up to you to spend how you want, a lot of people here sell their homes and go live in retirement villages and then travel etc.

I have worked in a few retirement villages, those or generally for richer people who dont need or want to look after grandchildren (because otherwise they might live with them in a granny flat or something) but as they come into health issues and need looking after themselves, they eventually need to move somewhere else where they can have more care, or as what happens a lot of the time they drop dead and the ambulance carries them out.

Im just being blunt as thats what happens. When the flag is at half mast you know someone had died.

I think for health and wellbeing its good if you have a hobby to carry on with. for a lot of oldies this is gardening, but if you come to it too late in life you may not be able to handle it.

Other retirement hobbies include knitting, bowls, group walking, woodwork (making coffins/caskets!) zumba...trainspotting or model trains, teaching Bible,

I would not recommend buying a bigger house or gas guzzling show off car, though many do buy an RV and go places. Im not sure what my former school principal did when she retired we asked her and she said she didnt have big plans, the plans would have just been to enjoy life I suppose and not have to worry about going to school ...time to visit and catch up with family, spend time with them. She did tell me she had a garden so I think she may be doing that.

I know one teacher retired and she moved to be with her family, she had an autstic son to look after so I dont think that everyone is ever entirely free of their responsiblities and family obligations. Unless they have abandoned and disowned their own family of course or kicked their children out which some sadly do. Lots of estranged families who dont care about each other and dont see each other.

But there are others that remain close, while others hate their families and prefer to live apart, in apartments they can lock up and leave. I talk with all kinds of oldies and you often never really know their family situation that influences the choice they make and where they live. Widows sometimes flat together like the Golden Girls
 

proutled

Active member
May 9, 2023
558
214
43
texas
#46
HELLO EVERYONE, There's a old Jewish custom that the lord put in my spirit, is when a person reach's 50 plus its time to stop the physical work, and become Teacher's ,so maybe,,,,,,,,,,,
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
25,101
8,251
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#47
HELLO EVERYONE, There's a old Jewish custom that the lord put in my spirit, is when a person reach's 50 plus its time to stop the physical work, and become Teacher's ,so maybe,,,,,,,,,,,
An interesting custom. What will you teach?

Much as I would love to take part in this custom, all I can teach is cooking burgers on a grill. That takes... maybe an hour and a half to learn all the official procedures. Yeah, I'll have to just keep working. :p
 

proutled

Active member
May 9, 2023
558
214
43
texas
#48
we can teach the new and youg how to live godly lives, teach them the word and how to apply it in there life, teach them how to love ,and honor people, we can teach them how to walk with God, You know things like that,
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
25,101
8,251
113
#49
we can teach the new and youg how to live godly lives, teach them the word and how to apply it in there life, teach them how to love ,and honor people, we can teach them how to walk with God, You know things like that,
That's nice and all, but it doesn't pay very well. You better have a good retirement plan.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
15,154
5,439
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#50
An interesting custom. What will you teach?

Much as I would love to take part in this custom, all I can teach is cooking burgers on a grill. That takes... maybe an hour and a half to learn all the official procedures. Yeah, I'll have to just keep working. :p
Keep up the hard work and you may move up to fries.
 

Zandar

Well-known member
May 16, 2023
1,261
497
83
#51
I'm in my 40s and I'm still learning, so I guess maybe I need to wait on teaching till a little later. Maybe 55,lol.
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
25,101
8,251
113
#52
Keep up the hard work and you may move up to fries.
Way past that. The people who stay on fries are the ones who can't be trusted to do anything else right.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
15,154
5,439
113
62
#53
Way past that. The people who stay on fries are the ones who can't be trusted to do anything else right.
I like your thinking. You'll be on the ice-cream cone machine soon. Or is salads next?
 

MichaelZ

Active member
Jun 11, 2023
112
88
28
#55
I am retired a little over two years now. I keep very busy! Once a week I help lead a bible study at the county jail. And I help with AWANA and VBS through our church. And endless projects in and around the house, lawn, and garden. But I think the best part is a mid-day nap on most any day! Now that I am retired I wish we lived closer to town as I could get involved in perhaps some other ministry. But my wife’s parents live next door so we are committed to staying where we are.