Millions of baby boomers are moving into their senior years with empty pockets and declining choices to earn a living. And right behind them is a younger generation facing the same challenges. In this deeply personal talk, author Elizabeth White opens up an honest conversation about financial trouble and offers practical advice for how to live a richly textured life on a limited income.
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I need help with my finances for sure.
10 to 1 odds little Rosa will find as her solution to attach herself to a white man that will pay her bills for her.
Dave Ramsey has a system for that if you want to look up his YouTube channel or books.
Learn to trade. Can make $1300 passively every month with just 10k. Yes I’m aware most people don’t have that money, so save. Get rid of the cable, phone, blah blah and save. Once you have money and teach yourself how to trade, your job becomes extra cash and can just do whatever job you want because the money is meaningless. I taught myself all about trading and would spend easily over 8 hours daily studying and increased my knowledge on the topic, if i can do it so can you.
are u serious fam? i wnat to do itbut trading is very risky
Just gotta teach yourself the basics, not too difficult. All about risk management and portion control. I personally never risk more than 2% capital a trade, and 10% total capital risk is my max hold any given moment. Once you got that, decide the form style of trading and follow the rules so you don’t let emotions get in the way. Personally I love short selling because you profit when the market is crashing.
Itâs a struggle getting a good job nowadays.
FunBotan Then what they said was not wrong. If you cannot read properly, you’re not qualified to analyse the economy.
FunBotan What? Who is wrong?
Sorry for misunderstanding, above post was a reply to Heatwave. I mean that saying the economy will be at least this good is wrong because we are still in a bubble, and it’s gonna be even worse when that bubble pops.
FunBotan That’s not what they said.
Markets are ahead of economics by approximately 8 months seeing as the last crash was around 9 years ago we are due soon, and the signs are showing. However short selling protects us, its all in cycles just the basics. If people just learned to save more they could make tons of money short selling this next major “financial crisis”.
Even I am look for money making ways ..
Gayatri luck India would love to connect – please send me your details
I rent out ad space on my forehead, and give foot rubs for money.
I reuse toilet paper and eat cockroaches.
My retirement plan involves a complicated bank heist, and I chase squirrels away from acorns I find in the park.
Sounds like a hella plan you got there, Morty.
Monty Sanchez- Just because you’ve got it made there is no to brag , some dream of your luxury .
dunoze
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lol
Iâm sorry but 1st impressions are everything! Iâm wondering if you wear your hair so care free in an interview! People are so judgmental! Competition is brutal the 30 year olds are really going to be dumped on. It just takes one parent in a nursing home and it can wipe you out!
Such a great analysis of the problem, what got us here and how we can survive!
We do not need or want your Monterey system it is a form of control I’m infinite consciousness experiencing reality please stop
Titch Grant are you tripping rn?
If Grant were to move to Venezuela he would have his wish of no money realized – because he would be eating out of a garbage can.
Lol
You may lol but changes nothing iam we are infinite consciousness experiencing reality Love is all
Honestly itâs just a matter of not giving up. I just moved to a completely different state and the opportunities here are so much better. My advice is to keep looking and research! Trust me! You can do it!
There are more people than there are opportunities. Not everyone can do it.
and the more people steers the “job market” downward in “what the market will bear” in the “job market”….so they can pay “competitive wages”….which means “as low as everyone else will pay
Why did you move? Why is this new state offering better opportunities?
Where did you go?and where you coming from?
Thanks for the positive message for us who have it tough out of college. I needed that today. đ
A Hardvar graduate is telling the story of her financial crisis.
This is the thing; the problem. It’s not about failing to live within means anymore. It’s why are so many people putting in hard time and effort not prospering. I have a graduate degree, fortunately work in my intended field, live by the law of frugality, and still fall into her described category of “broke.”
Can someone give us an executive summary? This poetry format is hard to follow
Yes, there is a cadence to her speech that’s different than reading an executive summary. But I invite you to give it a shot. After the first few minutes of prose poetry, I think White makes her points in eloquent yet concise terms. You’ll appreciate the “bullet points” once you get there. Trust me on this one.
“We baby boomers are blamed for not saving for retirement.” We are accused of being poor planners or being dead beats. All that money we spent on lattes and bottled water.”
Basically she’s complaining because she spent all her money and now doesn’t have money saved.
LokiTheTrixter I was wondering if I heard that right. Did she start off by saying she had to cut back from Chardonnay to mineral water? Why eating out at all? Financial Planning 101: if you need to save money, stop eating at restaurants. Entirely. No exceptions.
This is a personal reflection, not a sound bite, or an article. It is a 360 of where this women is, not why, not how.
dorgesh that makes sense… Reminds me of the Steven Levitt retirement commercial. And it does become a typical good Ted talk after the 4:12 mark
Basically old people want to take future earnings from the young.
DC I guess she is actually saying that future earnings are not garanteed.
You might not realize this but the system is rigged against us and the vast majority of all money goes to the top 1%. Unless you are in the 1% the problem applies to you too.
I agree, but that is because we have a private company in control of our money supply, just printing up currency and giving it to the 1% , mostly through banks.
Baby boomers lived their lives at the expense of everyone else, and through wars, trillions in debt etc – and now they want some more handouts?
Where is this money going to come from? Do you think politicians are going to allow billionaires to be taxed – no- they will just take their money and run.
What is going to happen is what has been happening, real estate will be artificially kept high at the expense of the young, as will stocks. Their earnings will be taken, and instead of being invested in something useful will be given to the same people who destroyed this contry- the baby boomers.
Do any of you guys think that maybe the relentless accumulation of wealth by the richest 1% has anything to do with there being less money for the rest of us?
Wealth is not a zero sum game. If others have more does not mean you have less.
+LokiTheTrixter
Statistically, half of the population earn less than average. The majority of people in poverty have full-time jobs. The cost of everything only increases, yet wage growth for working-class people isn’t growing with it. You’re wrong.
+Eli Nope
I can cope with bread costing 5% more if it means people don’t need to starve anymore
So how come people get poorer whenever the rich get richer? By lowering wages, they increase their own salaries with the money saved. That’s literally what happens.
LokiTheTrixter I agree with you. Let’s remember average doesn’t equate to all.
I’m from one of the most impoverished communities in Kingston Jamaica. I’m a minimalist and I still find it very hard to save US$100 a month. I still find it hard to get a job to pay me $2000 a month. I run a startup, I have a consultancy and I don’t eat out.
I am afraid that the level of consumerism has cause a profound distraction to people around the world. But its still not the main reason for the financial crisis faced by our elders.
This is the truth… Though I come from canada. My and my partners parents never taught us about finances… They never taught us budgeting and never taught us how to properly plan for our future. Everything here is so expensive and jobs here pay enough for the bills and barely food for the kids. We are happy… But our kids will not know about the hard times that we are going through now. We are strong… But breaking slowly. Pretending for the kids… Family and friends have their own problems and refuse to help us. We go on, life doesnt stop for the poor. We still teach our kids the values of life. I know that we are not alone in this situation… And to those who are also in my situation know this. You are not alone! Love you…. Xoxo
Alice Dubois please send me your contact details – would love to have a connect with you.
I would disagree to a point. I think the majority(<50%) of people are short of retirement because of overspending. I still remember in 5th grade my teacher, probably having a bad day, said that there is no safety net and to save every dollar you can. I have, pretty much, had two jobs for most of my 20's and am doing well now.
You call it "smalling up", I call it minimalism. It is becoming more and more popular.
There is too much of "I am not doing that" in the country. Look at a group of immigrants. They do whatever they need to survive, live many to a house, work two jobs, do overtime whenever available, etc.
This presentation said a lot of "retirement changed", People live longer and things like pensions are a way of the past, True. The thing about this is people's expectations have also changed dramatically. When I was trying to buy a house I couldn't find nor would a builder make, a 2 bedroom house. Nobody wants them. People have come to expect to much and try to hard to keep with the Joneses.
I agree, I think most people stay in low income due to overspending. I used the first 3 years of my work career saving as much as possible, never bought a car and kept my monthly expenses sub $500. It was hard but with all the money saved I’ve taught myself to trade and am now doing very well with little financial worry. By age 30 I will be financially free and plan to have my dream job afterwards. However I don’t think its anyone’s responsibility to pay for those who did not properly plan and enjoyed their luxurious ways growing up. People nowadays need to learn how to increase their passive income and have some discipline. If you make low wages then maybe you shouldn’t have a iPhone, new car, house, TV, etc. They need to learn to discipline themselves for a couple of years and save, then use the money to make money work for them. Anyone who thinks otherwise probably also expects the government owes them or feels entitled to nonessential things, and needs to accept responsibility.
From what you have wrote here we have the same view.
However, I think I believe poor budgeting had a bigger effect than you do. I am not retirement age yet. The rules have never changed for me. The same system I started with is the same system in place now. But I know I will be fine.
I routinely provide insight on savings and retirement, most people save very little. Not because they can’t but because they don’t want to.
Rylee Cherrington Yes.
Rylee, I’ve seen a few of your comments on here and I think you are way too focused on the “walmart welfare” type who definitely overspend, but that is not the norm at all. I just busted out of homelessness, which I became after suffering major depression after my deployment (I had bed sores from being physically unable to move). I got out of homelessness after building a tool to help people with disabilities with no expectation of return; Google came and helped bail me out.
What you’re failing to take into account is that 19% (56M, 1 in 5) of the US population has a disability of some kind (https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/miscellaneous/cb12-134.html). Now whether or not you believe you/the government should help these people is up to you, but I’m pointing out that your underlying assumption that most people are struggling because they overspend on “iphones [etc]” is demonstrably wrong.
Every article I have read shows money management 2nd only to illness as leading factor of debt. Out of those 19%, how many are unable to work because of it? I have a disability and I still work. I am guessing the number is closer to 10%
I don’t need help with finances I just need more income
psp785 would love you connect with you. Please send me your contact details
This is a great talk. After looking for more info on the author I am left with questions. It seems everything around the book “55 & Faking Normal” stopped over a year ago, no blogs, no speaking engagements, no links to any social media channels, and yet, the author is featured doing a TED talk. The reviews of her book are really good, so, why did things just stop?
That’s great to hear. Didn’t see any social media channels on her website and thought it could help expand her audience for speaking engagements etc.
Gary Stockton She may not want to deal with the trolls on social media
Yeah, so many of them out there.
@ Gary, It looks like the new book is an update, thus the title “Underemployed” vs. “Employed.” That interests me too because I’ve rarely worked a single job at a time in my life.
Teresa White thatâs good, very timely with whatâs happening in the labor market and with so many fields being automated with AI, I heard financial advisers were one such job that will see many positions eliminated and replaced with algorithms.
I can’t stand financial illiteracy. People destroy their lives with 36% interest credit cards. Just don’t buy that shiny thing. Live in a smaller apartment. But, no.
It’s, “I want a nice crystal vas. I’ll just put it on credit.”.
Lets drop the income to 40k and you can still make it work. And that’s 70% of the country. Meanwhile the other 30% gets money from the government ontop of their wages.
Orton Next I completely agree, and all of the solutions are basically to have law makers create laws for society to pay for those who overspend, complete BS. You have your whole life to prep and save up and if you cant do it then why should someone else pay for your overspending.
+Rhylee Cherrington
Amazing how just trying to spend money on food to eat is “overspending” to people like you
People are literally dying out here and you don’t want them to have a single penny in aid
Yet you’ll happily put real money in the hands of people who need it the least?
We don’t all do that or live that way. It can be tough even trying to make ends meet. My gross is around $50,000, my debt under $1,000 and after the bills of life And 10% savings. I still struggle to make money reach. No unexpected expenses please. My retirement numbers suck. I know what to do. I don’t have enough resources. I love my life . Money enough for life but retirement might be a pipedream. The problem might not be all about illiteracy, there might be some systemic problems.
They are not my concern and have brought it on themselves. I earned my money through hard work, and dont want to spend it on them, and Im wrong? Lol thats like saying I owe prior prisoners a job because they cant find any due to their past actions. NOPE, they got what they deserved.
Yes to everything White says. I came off of my throne. It was both a necessary and a very positive step. It hasn’t lead to nirvana, but honest work is honest work, and as White says, money is green. The trick has been to find dignity in what I do regardless of what I do. One payoff is that I feel younger by having to do things that mostly younger people do. It helps keep me feeling vital.
We Indians are quite lucky in these terms. We have been taught to save money since the beginning. I’m not trying to put someone down but this is how it actually is in India.
Wow, that’s still a lot! If I locked away a large amount of money for two years minimum, I’d get 0.75%. It seems Indian banks encourage saving and make it a better deal, maybe I can buy Rupees đ
DeoMachina no, it’s not about encouraging saving. Emerging markets will have greater interest rates than developed markets. There will be greater returns in all areas but greater risks too.
3% on saving account is literally nothing lol, barely covers inflation over 20 years. People need to learn to trade CFDs if they are that concerned. Knowledge is out there, especially with modern internet, those who fail to properly retire is all their fault no one else. But of course everyone feels like they are owed everything and to be granted as such. Good thing my taxes will help pay for them.
In Argentina the annual rate is 36% because of inflation (this year it will be around 30%). As said before, developing markets have higher risks and the risk here is that if you don’t save in dollars, your pesos may be worth nothing in a couple of years. Dollars, on the other hand, have a much lower annual rate: around 1%.
Exactly, so what are you going to do? I have seen this through traveling other countries and first hand experienced FOREX gaps. I taught myself how to trade and became successful. Now currently live in eastern Europe where my dollar goes a very long way. If people know this is a problem and are not willing to change, then its ultimately on them.
I’m lucky that I have good parents who managed my finances until I was ready to do so responsibly.
Must be really tough for people who have to figure out everything by themselves.
School’s should definitely teach personal finance – it’s really odd that they don’t.
But the good news is that you can learn the basics by just reading a book or two, and hopefully you get to do that before making any major mistakes.