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The purpose of this post is simply to illustrate that the world of retirement planning and living is vastly different than that of many, if not most, in the HumbleDollar community of writers and readers. No judgement intended.
While we debate, saving, budgets, annuities, investment and withdrawal strategies, the real world, doesn’t or can’t save or invest adequately let alone accumulate wealth.
According to the Federal Reserve, the median retirement savings for individuals age 55-64 is $185,000 and the average $537,560. It is only slightly higher for those 65-74.
We discuss on HD how to use the 4% or other withdrawal strategies, but for most retirees it doesn’t matter much – because 4% of $185,000 is $616 per month possible income. Plus Social Security provides a big chunk, if not most of their income.
The median net worth for those 65-74 years old is about $410,000 and $334,700 for those 75 and older. Given that includes their home and all assets, most seniors have little flexibility to work with – including emergency savings.
According to the Pension Rights Center the median income of individuals age 65 and older is about $29,740 and for households $50,290 which of course, means half have lower incomes.
The SSA reports as of August 2025, the average benefit for “retired workers” is $2,008.31, no median is available, but it is less for sure.
For approximately 39% of men and 44% of women who are Social Security beneficiaries aged 65 and older, the benefits represent 50% or more of their total income. For about 12% of men and 15% of women in the same group, Social Security accounts for 90% or more of their income.
I don’t know about you, but these sobering numbers raise a feeling of guilt. My property taxes and HOA fee are nearly equal to the median retiree income. While most retirees rely heavily on Social Security, we are busy planning how to give our RMD to charity, children and grandchildren.
I can make the case we earned what we have and were prudent with money for 56 years, but so did others and we can’t discount our tremendous good fortune and absence of misfortune.
Thanks Mr. Quinn for an important perspective.
I agree that it’s easy to feel guilty, or somehow unworthy of your financial comfort.
I’m trying to turn that into gratitude and recognition of our good fortune, which in turns prompts us to be generous with donations, support for family etc. I was thrilled when my wife offered to pay for painting of her sister’s house recently.
We took our kids to Disney World, and I’m sure credit cards were involved. I’m unapologetic about that. But when I’ve done income taxes the last few years at Goodwill, I have experienced some guilt when I compare my husband’s and my income to that of many of the clients. We did work hard, got lucky when I started reading Jonathan’s WSJ columns, and then followed his advice. But I can’t rationalize our good fortune as “we deserve it.”
I think the country provides opportunities for success. I think biases exist that make it difficult for some to succeed. I think that broken families make it hard as well. Many deal with physical and/or psychological issues. And of course many suffer self-inflicted wounds.
I get a bit rankled when I read about some CEO’s compensation and the lousy pay and working conditions of some workers. However I feel no jealousy of those who earn more, and no guilt for what good fortune and hard work has provided for me.
When you get rankled over CEO compensation keep in mind that in most cases 60-70% of it is at risk equity compensation that workers probably don’t want.
In addition, if you divide the compensation by the number of workers, you will find the value to each worker is insignificant.
Workers are not affected by CEO compensation, but shareholders are.
increasing that lousy pay means increasing prices for customers. A 10% pay raise means quite a bit more in actual cost increases.
Guilty, I used to negotiate executive compensation contracts.
Dick, I understand the math, I truly do. And I could have written your remark for you. Still, I’m heartened when I come across a company like Costco who brings value to the consumer while treating their employees well at the same time.
PS: I didn’t red arrow you, we don’t have to agree on everything.
No reason to feel guilt. You didn’t take anything from anyone. In fact, you, more than most worked at trying to get people to save.
But, as you said, they either can’t or won’t. I don’t know if we’ll ever fully understand why. Those of us who have worked hard at saving were foregoing immediate pleasures for the hope of a long-term payoff.
We didn’t spend our money when our friends, neighbors and relatives did. And now we reap the rewards. Perfectly just result.
True, our grown children still remind us we never took them to Disney when they were children while all their friends went. There just wasn’t money back then.
Connie and I have always been obsessed with not buying anything we didn’t have the cash to pay for. We saved for a year toward our annual family vacations.
I have experienced similar thoughts when perusing such data, however I do not feel guilt, but I do feel gratitude. I think its wrong for me to feel smug about my success and scorn for those who are not as secure, because its easy to discount or overlook my good fortune and relative absence of misfortune. Many were not as lucky as I.
I think young folks would benefit from analyzing this data, which emphasizes the vital importance of starting early, and aiming for an affordable lifestyle which allows for a sufficient allocation to their future retirement savings.
It’s a life lesson for sure. But seeing past the present is not easy for many, perhaps most people. Connie accuses me of being too concerned about the future and I guess at our ages she has a good point, but it’s a lifelong habit I find hard to break.
great