Hard Times See More in Debt, Delayed Retirement 10/14/13

[hvactec]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGDQaXchJMg]Hard Times See More in Debt, Delayed Retirement - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Flanders]

Hard Times See More in Debt, Delayed Retirement - YouTube

To hvactec: Parasites will not have to work after they “retire” because they never retire. If they have a parasite job in the government their pensions are a continuation of tax dollar incomes.

Speaking of debt, Americans are still paying for the Spanish-American War. The tax is hidden in your telephone bill only it’s called a fee. Now I learn from Judge Napolitano that Americans are still paying for World War One:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qP4Z8vQ-8&feature=player_embedded]Judge Napolitano on the Debt Deal: 'We Still Owe Money for Fighting World War One!' - YouTube[/ame]​

 

[waltky]

World population living longer...

AP IMPACT: THE WORLD BRACES FOR RETIREMENT CRISIS
Dec 29,`13 WASHINGTON (AP) -- A global retirement crisis is bearing down on workers of all ages.

Spawned years before the Great Recession and the financial meltdown in 2008, the crisis was significantly worsened by those twin traumas. It will play out for decades, and its consequences will be far-reaching. Many people will be forced to work well past the traditional retirement age of 65 - to 70 or even longer. Living standards will fall, and poverty rates will rise for the elderly in wealthy countries that built safety nets for seniors after World War II. In developing countries, people's rising expectations will be frustrated if governments can't afford retirement systems to replace the tradition of children caring for aging parents.

The problems are emerging as the generation born after World War II moves into retirement. "The first wave of under-prepared workers is going to try to go into retirement and will find they can't afford to do so," says Norman Dreger, a retirement specialist in Frankfurt, Germany, who works for Mercer, a global consulting firm.

The crisis is a convergence of three factors:

- Countries are slashing retirement benefits and raising the age to start collecting them. These countries are awash in debt after overspending last decade and racking up enormous deficits since the recession. Now, they face a demographics disaster as retirees live longer and falling birth rates mean there will be fewer workers to support them.

- Companies have eliminated traditional pension plans that cost employees nothing and guaranteed them a monthly check in retirement.

- Individuals spent freely and failed to save before the recession, and they saw much of their wealth disappear once it hit.

Those factors have been documented individually. What is less appreciated is their combined ferocity and their global scope. "Most countries are not ready to meet what is sure to be one of the defining challenges of the 21st century," the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, concluded in a report this fall.

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SOME WITH ALZHEIMER'S FIND CARE IN FAR-OFF NATIONS
Dec 29,`13 -- Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade of water with their caregivers, in a swimming pool ringed by palm trees and wind chimes. Susanna Kuratli, once a painter of delicate oils, swims a lap and smiles.

Watching is her husband, Ulrich, who has a heart-rending decision: to leave his wife of 41 years in this facility 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) from home, or to bring her back to Switzerland. Their homeland treats the elderly as well as any nation on Earth, but Ulrich Kuratli says the care here in northern Thailand is not only less expensive but more personal. In Switzerland, "You have a cold, old lady who gives you pills and tells you to go to bed," he says.

Kuratli and his three grown children have given themselves six months to decide while the retired software developer lives alongside his 65-year-old wife in Baan Kamlangchay - "Home for Care from the Heart." Patients live in individual houses within a Thai community, are taken to local markets, temples and restaurants, each with three caretakers working in rotation to provide personal around-the-clock care. The monthly $3,800 cost is a third of what basic institutional care would come to in Switzerland.

Kuratli is not yet sure how he'll care for Susanna, who used to produce a popular annual calendar of her paintings. But he's leaning toward keeping her in Thailand, possibly for the rest of her life. "Sometimes I am jealous. My wife won't take my hand but when her Thai carer takes it, she is calm. She seems to be happy," he says. "When she sees me she starts to cry. Maybe she remembers how we were and understands, but can no longer find the words."

Spouses and relatives in Western nations are increasingly confronting Kuratli's dilemma as the number of Alzheimer's patients and costs rise, and the supply of qualified nurses and facilities struggles to keep up. Faraway countries are offering cheaper, and to some minds better, care for those suffering from the irreversible loss of memory.

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[f252863]

Set aside money when you young, that will take care of 95% of your problems when you are older. My Dad was very frugal and had a lot of money saved up when he got older.