Day: March 20, 2024

Closing Thought–20Mar24

There is new evidence that the up and coming generation have nothing in the bank as they approach that magical time known as retirement…..

A new survey shows just how much of a struggle it will be….

A new survey on the saving habits of Americans reveals some stark truths for a large number of people:

  • 28% say they have saved nothing for retirement, according to the GoBankingRates survey. The breakdown for that by age group: 18-24 (28% have nothing saved); 25-34 (30%); 35-44 (35%); 45-54 (33%); and, maybe the most surprising, 55-64 (25%).
  • 39% do not contribute to a retirement fund.
  • 30% don’t think they’ll be able to retire, period.
  • Previous studies suggest that most US adults figure they will need between $1 million and $1.25 million to retire comfortably, per MarketWatch.
  • In the new survey, 25% of respondents put their retirement goal at less than $500,000; 25% put it between $500,000 and $1 million; and another 30% have it at more than $1 million. The problem is that most people’s savings don’t appear to be on track for these goals. The majority, 71%, would have five-figure savings at best, unless their habits changed. The survey is based on responses from 1,000 people.

This is sad news….but with this economy I can understand it.

I was fortunate that I had a sizeable savings but as the years tick by that wad of cash grows smaller and smaller.

Just thought you should know.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Headed Down The Wrong Path

My readers know I have little faith in the Supreme Court….personally I think most are nothing but party ideologues and political hacks…..I have thought for a decade that the Court was on a terrible path….and now a retired justice thinks the same thing…

Stephen Breyer has a book coming out Tuesday, and between that and a new interview with the New York Times, the retired Supreme Court justice has a lot to say, about everything from abortion and the concept of originalism to the high court bench’s current makeup.

  • Abortion: In his upcoming book, Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, Breyer devotes many pages to the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which in June 2022 held that abortion wasn’t a right under the US Constitution. He now tells the Times there are “too many questions” around the topic. “Are they really going to allow women to die on the table because they won’t allow an abortion, which would save her life?” he notes. “I mean, really, no one would do that. … And there’ll be dozens of questions like that.”
  • Current justices: Breyer appears to poke at Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. “Several new justices have spent only two or three years at the court,” he tells the Times. “Major changes take time, and there are many years left for the newly appointed justices to decide whether they want to build the law using only textualism and originalism” (textualism focuses on case semantics, while originalism looks at a case the way the Founding Fathers would have).
  • Past colleagues: “Sandra, David … I would see eye to eye not necessarily in the result in every case, but just the way you approach it. And Tony, too, to a considerable degree,” Breyer says, referring to former conservative justices Sandra Day O’Connor, David Souter, and Anthony Kennedy.
  • Two cases: Breyer mentions Dobbs and a big gun-rights case out of New York in his book as two examples of originalism and textualism run amok, per the Washington Post. “Originalism says that judges cannot consider … modern developments and practical realities,” he notes.
  • A warning: Breyer is also now “[sounding] an alarm” on the current court’s direction, per the Times. “Something important is going on,” he tells the paper, which notes he thinks the court has taken a “wrong turn”—though he also thinks there’s still time to remedy that.

Little by little we are losing our rights….and at this rate there are not many left to lose.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”