Have You Saved Enough for Your Retirement?

This sounds like the opening question of a Financial Planner or Insurance Agent but it’s a question to which most Americans now answer “NO” and it’s only going to get worse.

According to the Northwestern Mutual's 2018 Study, the average American will need $1 million in savings to retire. In 2018 the average social security benefit was only $1,437 per month and Republican and Conservative Politicians think that is too much. Listen to Mitch McConnell!

Until the early 2000’s many medium and large companies included pensions in their benefits package along with vacation time and health insurance. These pensions were called “defined-benefit plans” and the employee didn’t have to contribute. If you worked at the company long enough you could retire and receive your monthly pension.

Then greedy corporate executives and Wall Street invented the 401K. This is a “defined-contribution plan” whereby the employee contributes income towards a managed savings plan, often with some employer contributions, but far less than in a pension. This sounded so good companies were able to discontinue the pensions and Wall Street made a fortune on trading and management fees!

According to Bloomberg News (2/21/2017) only 33% of working Americans have a 401K, however they don’t all contribute enough for retirement and 29% make withdrawals to live on prior to retirement.

If you need that money now what will you live on in retirement?

The 10/2018 issue of AARP Bulletin states that over the past 25 years bankruptcies for Americans over 55 have tripled. They state “vanishing pensions” as one of the primary reasons.

So, if you are a union member or will be dependent on a pension, a 401K, or Social Security you should vote Democrat!

Republicans like Governor Walker in Wisconsin are eliminating collective bargaining and making their states “right to work” states thus taking all the power away from unions. At the same time Billionaires and Company PACs are donating millions to Republicans like Walker nationwide.

NYS Senator Murphy and Assemblyman Byrne are both endorsed by the Conservative Party and they’re running on the Conservative Party line. The NYS Conservative Party clearly states it wants to replace government employee pensions with 401K plans. They want pensions and social security funds to be invested in the stock market (regardless of its ups and downs.) They want to weaken unions by making NYS a “right to work” state. They would, if they could, get rid of every safety net program ever implemented.

By the way, NYS Assemblymen and Senators are part time jobs but they come with pension benefits.

Republicans and Conservatives forget that Social Security was designed to help the economy. With their attack on Social Security and corporations contributing little to our pensions, when will you be able to retire? The retirement health of most Americans is in jeopardy! The policies of the Conservative Party will make things worse.

Do you have enough to live on in retirement?

Vote for Vedat Gashi, Democrat for NYS Assembly and Pete Harckham, Democrat for NYS Senate. They want to protect your retirement!