"DSK" wrote in message
...
... This country has a whole wave of people planning to enter retirement
while their net worth is in the red. Why bother to start saving now? And
if you start with less than nothing, what difference will it make how
long you'll have to "make it" on your savings?

You neoconservatives obviously know nothing at all about finance.


Maxprop wrote:
Right. But if that's the case how does one explain that I can retire
today, draw greater than my current income and never touch the principle,
even if interest rates plunge?


Easy... ever expanding credit.

Not in my case. I have no credit debt beyond my home.

Another explanation is that you aren't including investment returns in
your "current income" (which indeed they shouldn't be under many
circumstances).

Just because I'm not including my investment proceeds in my income does not
imply that my income is not substantial. And I guess I should have stated
that we could draw our current combined family income without touching the
principle. The reason we can do that is quite simple: the principle is
also substantial. Don't always attempt to find the red herring in every
situation. Nothing fishy here--just sound investments. Not bad for a
"neocon," eh?

.... Where in my statement (the one you quoted) did I intimate that
investing for one's future is a bad idea?

Maybe I should have said "you neocons have absolutely no sense of
sarcasm."

That may be true--you've cornered the market in it.

I only implied that the life expectancies were seriously exaggerated to
be utilized as a sales tool in order to convince someone with a realistic
life expectancy of 78 that he's going to live to be 95 and therefore
needs a much larger nest egg. Obviously the larger the nest egg the
better, but to fallaciously inflate life expectancies in order to sell
something is bogus.


Agreed, but obviously it's not working. The U.S. has a negative savings
rate and there's little or no sign it's going up from here.

I heard that the day after I posted that. Not good news for the government,
who undoubtedly will be supporting a substantial percentage of the
population on down the road.

OTOH why not retire on credit cards? You can always shuffle your balance
from one card to the next. This modern world of finance is a freeloader's
dream scenario.

I've no doubt someone (other than yourself) has thought of that as a
retirement plan.

Max