I like to give Two-Minute Retirement Solution viewers a wake-up call every once in a while. Here’s the latest… The vast majority of Baby Boomers will live at or below the poverty level in retirement.
This is not a guesstimate, the numbers say it all. It is unavoidable for most.
According to Barron’s, we now have 4.4 people working for every one receiving Social Security benefits. By 2040, that number will drop to less than 2.3 paying into the system. In 1975, when I graduated from college, it was a seven-to-one ratio.
According to The Wall Street Journal, as soon as 2023 we will reach critical mass in the system and our national debt – which is already at the unmanageable amount of $16.5 trillion, on its way to $22 trillion – will explode under the weight of the huge number of retired persons drawing on a dysfunctional retirement system.
If nothing is done, it will bankrupt this country.
In the last 30 years, the number of retired persons in this country has grown from 18% to 22%. By 2040 – that’s just 27 years – it will be almost 37%. That’s a 68% increase.
The baby boom of the 50s and 60s has become a debt explosion.
A single-income household takes out of Social Security six times what they paid into it. A two-income home takes about three to four times what they paid in. That doesn’t include Medicaid costs.
No matter what your political affiliation, these are unsustainable numbers.
If you plan to have anything similar to the lifestyle you enjoy today, you must act now!
You must reduce the risk in your portfolio and shift to a more stable investing style – income-producing stocks and a select low-volatility bond portfolio. That will minimize fluctuations and losses and allow you to grow your money at a more stable and predictable rate.
You must take a serious look at how you are funding your retirement, and calculate how much you will need if Social Security benefits are cut by 25% to 50%.
While a benefit cut sounds unlikely now, if means testing is implemented on those with real assets – not just your investments or cash, but all your assets – you will almost certainly see a reduction in benefits. It is one of the few ways available to reduce the demand on the system, and it is going to happen.
The investments required to get you to and through retirement? Nothing new here:
- Long-term trends in essential industries
- Energy: natural gas, oil, pipelines, drillers, refiners
- Food: fertilizer, food processors, farming equipment, seeds, farmland
- Medicine: medical equipment, big pharma, medical real estate, biotech
Life at the poverty level isn’t what any of us imagined in retirement, but that’s exactly where most are looking at. Be one of the exceptions. Do something about it now.
[Editor’s Note: The key to a rich retirement is the ability to lock in an above-average income stream. For most folks, it’s an impossible task. That’s why Marc Lichtenfeld created his 10-11-12 Income System. It allows any investor to easily generate superior income in any market.
You can get all the details of this unique system in a report Marc released earlier this week. To see why he says the very best time to add this technique to your portfolio is between now and April 4… click here.