Sometimes you need to be startled into action when it comes to investing. It’s easy to come up with excuses not to begin placing money in the markets and saving for retirement. Armed with the right information, however, most people would likely choose to invest rather than stay on the sidelines, or play some games from www.casinoadvice.io while they are at it.
Perhaps it’s time to digest these eye-opening facts and realize that waiting to invest could be a big mistake.
The average retirement savings is measly
According to a 2016 survey from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, baby boomers have an average retirement savings of $147,000. Those from Generation X have an average of $69,000, while millennials have $31,000 saved. Those figures have probably risen slightly in the last two years, but are still well shy of the totals necessary for a comfortable retirement.
Older people approaching retirement age may have held off investing in their earlier years and are now playing catch up. Younger people have more time to invest and get to where they need to be — but the longer they wait, the harder it gets. They also invest in games from machines a sous en argent reel in hopes to double their income.
You may be retired longer than you worked
Imagine starting work at 21 and retiring at 60. That’s 39 years in the workforce. If you live to 100, that’s an additional 40 years — longer than the time you spent working! People are living longer these days, so it’s not uncommon to see retirees still kicking it well into their 90s and beyond. In some cases, retirements are stretching past 40 years. Are you doing all you can to allow your money to last that long? Smart investing may be the only way to accumulate enough cash to support a retirement of that length.
Very few people get a pension these days
Defined benefit plans, in which a company guarantees workers a specific amount of money each year in their retirement, have been going away fast. Today, only 13 per cent of nonunion private sector workers have access to a defined benefit plan, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Instead, most companies now only offer defined contribution plans, such as a 401(k). With these plans, workers must invest their own money, and companies may offer to match a certain percentage of contributions (some don’t). If you’re in the workforce, it’s likely incumbent upon you to take charge of your retirement savings.
Half of the workers say they’ll probably work during retirement
Isn’t the entire idea of retirement to stop working? For many people, ceasing to work entirely just isn’t in the cards. The Transamerica survey revealed that about half of all workers — including baby boomers, Gen Xers, and millennials — expect to work at least part-time during retirement. Working is fine if you want to, but if you dread the idea of punching a clock in your old age, invest now.
The market rarely has bad years
Everyone remembers when the market crashed about a decade ago during the financial crisis. And there have been some high-profile bad years in the past. But consider this: Since the end of World War II, the S&P 500 has recorded a negative annual return just 15 times. That’s 15 bad years out of 72. The New York Yankees have won 17 World Series titles during the same period! Only once since World War II — from 2000 to 2002 — has the market had three bad years in a row, and there’s only one other instance of back-to-back negative annual returns. So even if you had no idea what year it was and still chose not to invest, you’d likely be missing out on positive returns.