A sobering letter from the Social Security Administration

[Edward764]

The mistake you made, which is one many people make, is to trud along when clearly the math doesn't pan out. If you made $15000 a year for most of your life... then why didn't you adjust your living standards and save money? I made around 20k in dollars a year (although hard to estimate over all those years due to EURUSD being all over the place) and often on benefits for 14k. I thought I was going to "move up" at one point and make more. That never happened, so I adjusted my living standards and started saving money. I didn't just go along and think things were magically going to get better and I would be saved by the circumstances, rather than to prepare for the worst, which is that things are about as good as they are going to get. And that's exactly what happened in my case. The only thing going well for me are investments, but I never got over like minimum wage +10% (which, honestly, is still quite a lot in Europe).

I know this won't really help you now, but it might be handy for people reading this that still have time. The only thing you can do now is do what you should've done 30 years ago, only far more drastic. No fancy Cauliflornia apartment, you are going to have to find a cheaper place that you can afford off $1000 in benefits, or continue working. Continue working would also be smarter in a cheaper area so you are not going to be working until the day you die.

Fortunately, I began saving money beginning with allowance at age 12. I survive today because I have been gifted money over the years by my parents and late grandparents and put most of it in mutual finds in 1995.
Although I do not ask for it, and actually complain about it, my 86 year old mom still gives me $60 a week.

I currently earn about $23,000 a year, and I plan to work until age 70 if i can stay healthy, which is a challenge with diabetes. If I work until age 70, my SSA benefit would then be $1320 a month. Conversely, if I were to retire at age 62, I would get only $750 a month.

I also did not move out of my parents house until I was 34, hence saving much in rent for many years. My main mistake with details beyond the scope of this thread, was that I foolishly tried to succeed in STEM where I did not belong.
I would have much more money today had I dropped out of high school and went straight to work.

 

[AloneNotLonely]

Everyone would have more money today if they dropped out of school, with the exception of some highly paid people that actually required their piece of paper to get their job.

If you put money in mutual funds in 1995 and didn't touch it you should have increased that money 6-fold. Where is that money now? How are you not retired already? This is something you can do in 20-30 years even with very little income. Assuming 10 years wasted in school until say, 30, you should already be retired by 50-60. Trying to succeed at your passion for a decade is a minor mistake when compared to sheer financial irresponsibility and lack of planning.

 

[Edward764]

I never tried to succeed at my passion, although I tried to convince myself it was my passion for reasons beyond the scope of this thread.
I was never aggressive, and my mutual funds were limited, so they have not make me rich. I also wasted far more years than merely the years in school. My jobs outside of these wasted years are a consequence of the little knowledge and few skills learned during the wasted years.
I don't think many would agree that " everyone would make more money today if they dropped out of school." This might be true in some cases if someone dropped out of a graduate program, but likely not for those who drop out of high school, which is what I had alluded to.

Everyone would have more money today if they dropped out of school, with the exception of some highly paid people that actually required their piece of paper to get their job.

If you put money in mutual funds in 1995 and didn't touch it you should have increased that money 6-fold. Where is that money now? How are you not retired already? This is something you can do in 20-30 years even with very little income. Assuming 10 years wasted in school until say, 30, you should already be retired by 50-60. Trying to succeed at your passion for a decade is a minor mistake when compared to sheer financial irresponsibility and lack of planning.

.

 

[Fino]

I'll make significantly more money if I finish my Master's degree. I must be misunderstanding the statement that I would make more money by dropping out.

 

[Edward764]

I'll make significantly more money if I finish my Master's degree. I must be misunderstanding the statement that I would make more money by dropping out.

In most cases, the odds are that you, and most folks who continue in education will indeed make more in the long run by staying the course.
" Alone not Lonely" seemed to imply that a masters degree could just be a piece of paper, and earning it could be taking away time from monetary earnings. This could be true in a few cases, but is not the norm.
Only in my specific case, with 43 years of hindsight, am I convinced I would be richer today if I had dropped out of high school, but I am not a normal case.
Of course, if I could start again, I would not have dropped out of high school, I would have made a choice more commensurate with my abilities, and made more assertive choices to neutralize the distractions.

However, if a time traveler came to me and offered me ONLY two choices, you can go back in time and either repeat exactly what you did, or if not, you must drop out of high school and take your chances, I would choose the latter.

 

[Fino]

Many jobs require particular degrees.

 

[AloneNotLonely]

99% of the jobs that bring in the big bucks don't require a degree and 99% of degrees are worthless. The idea that you would've made more money if only you had a Master's (which is what most people think) shows just how deep the brainwashing goes. This is false unless you are an RN, Health professional or lack certification for accountancy. But these types of jobs are the exception, not the rule. Obviously I'm not saying that an Anesthesiologist wasted his time in school when he's bringing in half a mil a year because he stayed in school for a decade, but for every one of those there's 5 that failed that wasted those years and a lot of money.

Most people stay in school because it's what the programming tells them to do, when staying in school is not a situation of "Either you are a failure or you study". Self-made billionaires and millionaires are not all dudes that were good little boys that stayed in school. Debt is easily the worst possible thing you can get saddled with, the amount of money some people pay for their degree is enough to retire on with sensible investing. The way you get financially set is to get paid for having money, paying for not having money is obviously running in the opposite direction.

 

[GadAbout]

Accumulating degrees is only financially realistic if you are employable (in the field your degree should qualify yourself for). If you are unable to get or hold a job at all, then higher education is a waste except in the sense of training you to think correctly (i.e., logically and fruitfully) and for personal satisfaction.

If you end up underemployed, like so very many with autism, then the degree probably doesn't help you financially and might even hinder you from getting jobs (in the case where you will be seen as overqualified ... like, an MBA seeking employment in a day care).

 

[Edward764]

99% of the jobs that bring in the big bucks don't require a degree and 99% of degrees are worthless. The idea that you would've made more money if only you had a Master's (which is what most people think) shows just how deep the brainwashing goes. This is false unless you are an RN, Health professional or lack certification for accountancy. But these types of jobs are the exception, not the rule. Obviously I'm not saying that an Anesthesiologist wasted his time in school when he's bringing in half a mil a year because he stayed in school for a decade, but for every one of those there's 5 that failed that wasted those years and a lot of money.

Most people stay in school because it's what the programming tells them to do, when staying in school is not a situation of "Either you are a failure or you study". Self-made billionaires and millionaires are not all dudes that were good little boys that stayed in school. Debt is easily the worst possible thing you can get saddled with, the amount of money some people pay for their degree is enough to retire on with sensible investing. The way you get financially set is to get paid for having money, paying for not having money is obviously running in the opposite direction.

Things have changed quite a bit over the decades. So it is true that one should not pursue a four year degree or a masters degree today unless they have a clear direction and goal. Nevertheless, I don't think that 99% of them are worthless for career advancement, but about 50% probably are.
Back in the 70's, I paid $160 tuition FOR A WHOLE YEAR! Also in the 70's, only 22% of all people over 25 had a four year degree or more. So in those days, a degree was more valuable and lucrative. Today, with 35% having a four year degree or more, and tuition being up by about 2,000%, some degrees are less meaningful and more wasteful.
Had I been born 30 or 40 years later, I would have not wasted all these years in school because i could not be saddled with this debt. I would have been forced to forego my futile attempt at academic satisfaction for something more practical.

I was also was very ignorant of college obtainment statistics back in the 70's. I actually thought that about 75% of all adults had at least a bachelors degree. Since my dad had two masters and a PHD, and my mom had a masters, I would have felt like a highly inferior disappointment had I not gone to a four year college.

My poor 87 year old dad has dementia, so he has forgotten what a gross underachiever I became.

 

[jleanne]

Hi, @Edward764 . I'm recently diagnosed at 55, with zero retirement and over 100K in student loan debt from the 80s and 90s. At least half of that is interest. I'm making only 25K myself; never more. I was a hard-headed, impractical, substance-abusing dummy in my college years, not one to take advice from folks paid to give it, and as such, flailed away in the liberal arts and later nursing, graduating with only a BA in English, some 400 level writing and poetry 2workshops, and a metric ton of resentment.

Had I known I was as neurodiverse as I am, I would have pursued something like research psychology or neurology, both fields saturated with curious oddballs. But I did not. So I feel you. And I'm scared. Just needed to say that.

 

[jleanne]

@AloneNotLonely
Hiya. Communal living among older single folks has been a thing for some years now, as well as RV/van life, if they are physically up to it. At 55, with zero savings and underemployed af, I've been investigating this. I will likely have to work until the age of 70 for reasons I can't spend time on here, and that is terrifying. Lifelong loner; not a misanthrope by any stretch, but sensory issues can make shared living in tight quarters pretty hard. If you or anyone else here has additional information, post away. Thanks, comrades.

 

[Aspychata]

Okay, wake-up call. l guess l will be working. A 100 grand dissapeared out of the retirement fund when l divorced. But l am moving to a town where l can work a 40 hour week. So l am enjoying the last of my vacation currently until early next year. But l live in a place where many seniors work and l feel much better about my self. l lived in California where you had to be under 25 and bilingual to get a job. My friend's son just graduated from good university there and is having a tough time finding work. Pensions are gone, employers who care are gone. It's totally different out there.

So it's just one day at a time, one foot in front of the other.

 

[AloneNotLonely]

@AloneNotLonely
Hiya. Communal living among older single folks has been a thing for some years now, as well as RV/van life, if they are physically up to it. At 55, with zero savings and underemployed af, I've been investigating this. I will likely have to work until the age of 70 for reasons I can't spend time on here, and that is terrifying. Lifelong loner; not a misanthrope by any stretch, but sensory issues can make shared living in tight quarters pretty hard. If you or anyone else here has additional information, post away. Thanks, comrades.

First off, if you want a reply it's best to quote. Standard settings on the forums inform someone when being quoted (or rated), but not when their name is used in the way that you did. This was quite an old thread, and it's hard to notice normally. I'm only here because Apsychata gave me a rating on an old post and that gave me the hint that there were some replies here to read.

RV/Van sounds nice and romantic, but it doesn't work. The problems are with law, municipalities and water connection. In some countries it's easier, but that usually means living in squalor (Trailer parks). You don't want to be an old lady stuck in those parts. Or an old man for that matter. The best solution is small apartment or house in the middle of nowhere, with a store nearby.

This is a bit outside of my scope of knowledge, beyond basic budgeting. You don't have the time to invest, and investing in risky assets is very bad now, because assets can drop in value for 10-15 years easily. You first need to do extremely aggressive budgeting. No fancy stuff. Find out how to eat healthy with the minimum amount of cost. Rice & Beans as Dave Ramsey puts it. I go one step further and say Pasta & Beans because pasta here is 1 EUR per kg and rice is 2 EUR per kg. Beans are a little bit more expensive than rice but we aren't budgeting away our health here. Obviously cheap veggies and fruit as well, the in season stuff. I live off of 150 EUR/month, everything included except clothes and bills. You can do cheaper because I'm eating organic now (long story, I'm starting to look more and more like a hippie these days...).

How much is your heating bill? If it's any substantial amount, start lowering the heating. 50 bucks worth of clothes saved me around 300 bucks a year worth of heating. Yes I'm crazy because I want to be, but in your situation it might be essential. Just make sure you don't lower it too much, water pipes can freeze and that's something that is really bad for your wallet. Car costs? If necessary sell it and buy one with the cheapest recurring costs. And no fancy stuff like eating out or Starbucks, all of this doesn't mean anything if you still buy fancy stuff because fancy stuff easily adds up to 500 a month. Saving 20 a month is nothing in that case.

You add everything up, and start paying off debts. Get the highest interest rate first and put everything in there that you can. Interest is just another cost you are getting rid of. After all debts are paid off, start saving. Once the economy goes in the trash can, buy a cheap house/apartment that's not in a bad neighbourhood but just a rural kind of area. No clue where you live, but even in my (seriously expensive) little country this could be done with around 50-60k EUR. So you have a lot to do, you have to make up for 30 wasted years in maybe a decade so it's not going to be easy.

 

[Aspychata]

Where l live trailer parks are by the ocean and very nice and some are affordable. Lower taxes the apartments too. No assessments to worry about.