The Average American is Screwed. A Boring Tale part 1

The Average American is saving 1% of their income a year
How much should you be saving? goto

http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/retirement/ret02

Link is a simple retirement calculator. Calculator tells you how much you will need to save every year for retirement. 10 inputs takes 2 minutes.


semi educated assumptions or guesses:
inflation 3%
gov Cd's plan on 4% (current rates lower, not sure this is a good historic number)
stocks pay 10% (historic average going back 1900's)
spent 100% of your current income.


Very eye opening. Biggest effect on savings rate required is rate of return (compound interest is a magical magmatic beast) I found it very hard to retire at a reasonable age using Cd's rate of return (5%) but it is certainly possible to do. Second biggest effect is age of retirement.



At 1% savings rate the Average American is going to be working long past 60.

Love,

the Maven

quote of the day

I was looking at helmets, with my neck brace on. Saw an REI salesman tell another customer looking at helmets "IT IS ALL ABOUT THE LOOKS"

on sale at nashbar for $69, secret code yippee got for $60 this one comes a little further on back side of the head than most (skater style), has a good amount of foam, and not a lot of vents. also it is round with not a lot of things to catch on. It also fit well. Helmets are funny, they can't advertise that they are safe, too hard to defend in court. They can only advertise how many vents, how light, and how low profile they are. All things that remove foam and compromise impact absorption. Was looking at road helmets, they are particularly suspect. Tip of the day, If your helmet is older than 5 years, get a new one.

Vial flying craft proves useful

I'm not a helicopter fan, there is nothing elegant about whirling blades furiously rotating, beating the air into submission. I will concede moving a chairlift pole might prove tricky with a more elegant fixed wing aircraft. Solitude ski resort shuffling some chairs around.

Who likes Roy Lichtenstien?

Didnt know who he was till I clicked the button. More fun with computers.

Andy Warhol Painting of Michael Jackson Expected to sell for Twenty Million Dollars

Computer generated version of Chester expected to go for much less

Hair Cut. Cheap Quick or good? Pick Two.

Haircuts are free, quick, and good. when you do it yourself. A broken neck adds a certain downgrade to the latter two.