MN? perhaps many are moving from the West or East coast or some other higher-cost area? New homebuilders have a very good handle on these trends.
Say it aint so, Joe.
Those are fair worries. I believe that SS will be around as long as the gov't is in its present form. As much as we have problems in this country, we are still doing better than the rest of the world.
Me too. I don’t like coffee, my car is a 2001, and I go to movies on the cheap day. But my kids sure do
Agree, I recall the homes the doctors, bankers, business owners lived in when I was growing up: three bedroom ranch home with finished basements
We've had personal retirement "accounts" for many decades - they are called annuities. You can buy them at any age. No tax deduction. Either as single premium (pay the money in once) or as yearly bills. The inverse of life insurance, sold by the same companies.
Cars do last a LOT longer nowadays. I still drive a 2007 Ford, bought new.
What I mean is we need to convert SSI over to personally owned accounts - dedicated personal retirement accounts like what Sununu proposed. The fundamental basis of the structure of SSI is no longer viable for various reasons. When SSI was first created, there were 15 people paying in for each retiree - and the average lifespan was such that the average retiree only drew against SSI for a few years before passing away. Nowadays, we're at a 3:1 ratio and falling, and the average retiree draws against SSI for a decade or more, so it's no longer sustainable to use a system that uses taxes to fund current retirees. It's a wealth redistribution system at its core - it takes monies from those currently working, and pays it out to retirees. I'd much prefer a forced retirement system whereby at least a portion of the forced taxation is put into dedicated, willable, personal retirement accounts (that the owner could also contribute to pre-tax if so desired). Many other countries have moved to this type of retirement system over the past few decades - and by and large they are all much better off for having done so. It would take about 15 years to convert from the existing system over to the new system so as to preserve the existing SSI benefit for existing retirees - after which the entire system would be converted over to personal retirement accounts. Had we done what Sununu proposed (and granted it wasn't perfect - but what system is?) back in 2005 - we'd have been done the conversation in 2020. I've never understood the fearmongering associated with converting over to a true wealth building system for SSI that has been leveraged to prevent this type of conversion.
Yes, the average age of vehicles is up around 13 years now I think - it's been rising for the past 20 years as vehicles have become more reliable, coupled with the fact that new vehicles have become so expensive.
We did the same with the last Honda Accord we purchased, a CPO 2017 model EX-L with 28k miles on it for $20k back in 2020. Three years later when we sold it and bought my wife's Tesla MY LR - I sold that same Honda Accord to Carvana for $19k with 66k miles on it - not bad - only paid $1k for three years of use.
Exactly what I do.
So... I did the same thing recently with a 2020 Lexus ES350. However, I need to get my kids a new car, after one of them had an accident and totaled their old car (Thankfully no one is hurt). I just leased them a new car because I want all the modern safety features that were not in cars 3 or 4 years old (automatic braking to help avoid accidents in particular).
