What’s the typical income of a U.S. retiree? $40,000? $50,000? Higher, lower?
It’s $31,157 as of 2008.
That’s the median income of households age 65 and older as reported by Pat Purcell of the Congressional Research Service. The median means that half of older households had a higher income, half lower. Technically, it’s not the income of “retirees,” because it includes the income of older households whether they are fully retired or still working. Still, it’s a good metric of the income of retired Americans.
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In June 1997, Chicago Tribune writer Mary Schmich penned a now-famous column titled “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.” In short, the column served as the speech that Ms. Schmich would give if she were asked to make a commencement address. The following year, the column went viral, if you will, in the form of the music single “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).”
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I recently attended a conference in Washington on the question of retirement income—how baby boomers will generate income from their 401(k) accounts once they retire. Read more »
I’ve never heard this discussed by men, but some women carry the worry that they will end up old and alone, with no money and no home. It’s not generally ever-present, but rears up as reports on foreclosures, unemployment, plant closings, and law-firm and hospital layoffs proliferate in the press. It’s often termed “bag-lady syndrome”.
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A new poll from Gallup says that Americans expect to depend more on Social Security when they retire—and less on 401(k)s, IRAs, and part-time work. I don’t believe it for a minute.
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