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by missedthecue 326 days ago
Retirement is not an age, it's a financial position. Both my parents and grandparents were able to retire before qualifying for social security payments (and neither ever earned top 30 percentile incomes at any point in their lives).

Diligently save away and invest a portion of your income and you'll be alright.
1 comments
danaris 326 days ago
Retirement used to be an age, when we had defined-benefit pensions.

As long as you were at least (say) 65, if you retired, you got $X/month for the rest of your life.

None of this "you only get to retire if you were lucky enough to make enough your whole life to save enough that it won't run out before you die—and don't guess wrong about when that happens!" None of this "too bad, the stock market crashed just when you were starting to pull out benefits."

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schrodinger 326 days ago
Yes, this. I know this type of comment is discouraged by Hacker News but I really want to help you emphasize that retirement used to be a guarantee by the US government after paying into social security all your life. Now… I don't know.
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nradov 326 days ago
Social Security is still guaranteed by the US government.
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schrodinger 325 days ago
Will it be in 20-30 years when I'm of retirement age?
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nradov 324 days ago
Yes, as much as anything is ever guaranteed in life.
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schrodinger 316 days ago
I know I'm nitpicking, but sure — nothing is guaranteed, but it's also not like everything is the same risk.

From my limited understanding the government hasn't been responsibly saving and investing social security withholdings your whole life in a special account for you that invests in index funds and is sitting there for you when you retire.

Instead it works something kinda like a ponzi scheme meets an insurance company. They keep a float of cash that's enough to pay out, and then put the money to use for all sorts of government costs because they won't need it for 30 years. Which works fine until the 30 years is up and they don't have it…

Probably won't happen I assume, they'd probably just print money to pay it back in an inflationary move but regardless — it's a risk that is not the same as every other risk.

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