4 ms·
My perspective is $75k a year (or whatever your number is) is all fine and dandy until something bad happens. I'm sure there are far far worse stories than thi
by greggman 14y ago
My perspective is $75k a year (or whatever your number is) is all fine and dandy until something bad happens.
I'm sure there are far far worse stories than this but for example, my father, an eletrical engineer, left a job at a big company for a small start up at 50. The company went bankrupt 10 years later. His gamble to make it big failed. At 60 no one would hire him. (a) they expected him to retire at 65. (b) health insurance premiums are like 6x to 10x for the company for him vs someone 20-35 years younger.
So, he now drives a delivery van at 67. No retirement for him. Let's hope he has no serious medical bills.
My point is of course that $75k or whatever is fine day to day but you need a lot more to survive retirement.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement/
At 47 myself I find it a much harder choice to choose a job with less pay knowing that I risk the same fate as my father. I'm not saying I won't take that risk. I might. But it's not as easy as choosing happiness today for less money. Today effects tomorrow. It might be better to try to find happiness in the higher paying job so that you can be happy for longer than to trade short term happiness now and possible suffering later.
Yea, there's no guarantee either way. YMMV etc. Again, all I'm saying is it's over simplifying to say the only thing to consider is "will this life style make me happy today even though I'd be making less money"
- GuiA 14y agoThe more I read this sort of insights, the happier I am to not be a US citizen.
- FrojoS 14y agoWhat are you then? All my (little) retirement money got either paid into the German or Swiss system. And no, I don't think my retirement is safer than that of my US friends. Frankly, my plan is to just never retire. But of course that's just the naive idea of a 20-something.
- flyinRyan 14y agoThey're probably talking about the whole "let's hope he never gets sick" part.
- GFischer 14y agoIndeed. Here in Uruguay, in a similar circumstance as greggman described you might get a U$ 400 pension (once a month), which is below subsistence level... but you're entitled to the same healthcare as the 98% of the population, up to and including expensive cancer or AIDS treatments. (the top 2% do have additional levels of coverage available by spending more money).
- krschultz 14y agoIn the US, at age 67, he should be getting Social Security and Medicare. That's a pension and healthcare. It might not be enough, but it's something. Social Security will pay ~$1,800 a month assuming a birth date in 1945 and a maximum salary of $65,000. Medicare covers most things - including serious medical. My grandfather and grand mother both had massive hospital bills due to Alzheimer's covered by Medicare. The major exception is nursing home care - that is not covered by Medicare. [1] http://www.socialsecurity.gov/planners/benefitcalculators.htm http://www.socialsecurity.gov/planners/benefitcalculators.ht... [2] http://www.medicare.gov/navigation/medicare-basics/medicare-benefits/medicare-benefits-overview.aspx http://www.medicare.gov/navigation/medicare-basics/medicare-...
- GFischer 14y agoDo those cover "serious medical bills"? If so, greggman's argument is no longer valid.
- flyinRyan 14y agoMedicare is not bad, but that only counts for people who are retired. In this specific case the OP might be wrong about the dangers to their dad, but for most people this is a huge scare.
- amalag 14y agoHe could leave the country and live like a king on a limited fixed income. Probably still have enough for 1-2 yearly trips to visit family in USA.
- doktrin 14y agoOne of my primary objections to privatized health insurance centers around the fact that employers are left footing the bill. We see time and again that this does hamper hiring and employment. It's no coincidence that health insurance remains one of the primary sticking points in a shocking number of labor union disputes.