On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:06:02 -0700, Hawke
wrote:
snip
Most people don't throw away their earnings on frivolous
things, they spend it on life's necessities. With wages as low as they
are most people save nothing. It's a real shock for most people to find
out how little most people have after working a lifetime. Just check on
the number of people who leave estates worth over a million dollars.
It's really low. If you don't have even a million dollars in your
portfolio then how can you expect to live very well?
snip

This appears to be a world-wide problem.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...etirement.html
Remember that the UK has universal health care [NHS] so
medical costs are not an issue.

While the amount of capital accumulation required for a
secure retirement is indeed at least a million dollars U.S.
[or local equivalent], what never seems to be mentioned is
*HOW* such a huge sum is to be accumulated. When median
income is assumed, this "retirement fund" represents 50% or
more of an individuals gross pay, and considerable more than
that when compared to net disposable income. Falling real
wages/benefits, rising inflation and taxes, excessively low
interest rates, minimal dividend payments, and pension fund
fraud are yet more adverse factors.


Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).