Saving (for) a future

"What I do know is this. With pensions all but gone, and the interest on savings to be way less than 5%, most have their money tied up in the Wall Street casino. My biggest fear is another hit to our financial system, which would turn that casino upside down." 

Oh - oh. The Bird is going to talk about money again. Another gloom and doom story, I bet. Well, maybe. Then, why talk about it? For a country awash in money, for everybody being wealthy (compared to the rest of the world), why should there be any money worries at all? Simple answer - we are all on this merry-go-round together, and most of us have a unique life circumstances which make us different than the rest.

Some of us are doing very well. Some are doing just okay. Some are living paycheck to paycheck. Some are one step from the poorhouse. Now I am going to get generational. This is an interesting fact which came from an publication known as Credit Donkey. The average savings rate for baby boomers is 13%. That is very good. However, the savings rate for a Millennial is a negative 2%. As the saying goes, that is a big a** problem!

Here is more disturbing news from Credit Donkey. Almost 8% of Americans have no savings at all. Almost half of us have less than $500 tucked away for an emergency. And almost 40 million of us, live literally paycheck to paycheck. Again, for a country which has this roaring economy, for a country which is awash in money, what gives?

First off, health insurance. It is like having a hole in the bottom of the boat. A "good" family policy these days, has monthly premiums of $1,000 or more a month, deductibles close to $5,000, and huge co-pays. And that is for a good policy. Tack that on to a house payment, stubborn student loan payments, and all of a sudden, you have a nice family income, with a family who is living paycheck to paycheck - with little or no savings.

I feel for our young folks today. I really do. They are living in a world which is alien to one my generation grew up in. Sure, I paid the medical insurance for most of my working career. But those costs were manageable. I had no student debt (thanks to the GI Bill), and my wife's student loan was paltry. We did had some lean times in the beginning where we only had checking with no savings. But for the most part, we had both. My Dad had drummed into me since I was a young lad how important it was to save part of what you earned. I never forgot that lesson.

The biggest favor we can do for our kids and grandies is to fix ObamaCare. It really "screwed the pooch" with our health insurance. Rather than getting us a $2,500 reduction in rates, it put most people's health insurance rates in orbit. It made health insurance so expensive, very few people were able to retire before 65 - the magic age of Medicare. Somehow, we need to fix this - and I am NOT talking socialized medicine like "Medicare for All".

What I do know is this. With pensions all but gone, and the interest on savings to be way less than 5%, most have their money tied up in the Wall Street casino. My biggest fear is another hit to our financial system, which would turn that casino upside down. That would be a mess beyond comprehension, and many who have been doing "okay", would be doing way less than "okay" in a heartbeat. 

Sorry for the gloom and door this morning. I will blame the weather. Crappy weather like this always puts me in a funk.