The Future of Retirement In America: Is The Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

Are we on the brink of a retirement renaissance or stormy seas ahead? On this episode, we jump into the pressing issues of Social Security, healthcare, taxes, stock market trends, and long-term care. Whether you're an eternal optimist or cautious pessimist, this episode will equip you with perspectives to plan your retirement years with confidence as we ask the longstanding question, “is the glass half full or half empty”.

 

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Transcript: 

Marc:

Are we on the brink of a retirement renaissance or stormy seas ahead? On this episode, we jump into the pressing issues of Social Security, health care, taxes, stock market trends, and long-term care. Whether you're an eternal optimist or cautious pessimist, this episode will equip you with perspectives to plan your retirement years with confidence, as we ask the longstanding question: Is the glass half full or half empty?

Welcome this week to the podcast, folks. Thanks for tuning in with Tony Mauro and myself, here on Plan With The Tax Man. As we get into this week's conversation about the future of retirement America, is that glass half full or half empty? So we're going to dive into that with Tony this week. What's going on, my friend? How are you?

Tony Mauro:

I'm good. How are you?

Marc:

Doing pretty good. So did you like that little intro tease? That was pretty good, yeah?

Tony Mauro:

That's a good one.

Marc:

Yeah.

Tony Mauro:

Yeah, it's interesting because I tend to be on the more optimistic side, but I need to point out some of the other stuff too, today.

Marc:

Okay, well, I was getting ready to ask you. So yeah, I was going to say: Do you find yourself more of an optimist or a pessimist? And does it change on the topics? I think some of us can be optimistic about some things in life but pessimistic about others.

Tony Mauro:

True.

Marc:

So you never know, so yeah, I think that's a great point. Let's analyze both sides of it a little bit. I'll let you debate with me the pros and the cons or the hows and the whys or however we want to go, but we'll start with a biggie. The big ticket item that people often are concerned about, especially if you're getting near retirement age, and of course, our politicians and our lovely, lovely leaders do not do a whole lot to ease our woes about the stability of the Social Security program, right?

Tony Mauro:

Yes, as we're taping this, of course, the political season, it's going to be getting under way here in Iowa, I think, in January.

Marc:

It's under way.

Tony Mauro:

And so I'm sure this topic will come up, and it always does, and as it should, because the whole issue with Social Security is that it's slated to, depending on how you phrase it, run out of money or start paying more benefits than it's taking in at about, I think, 2033 or 5, somewhere right in there. So people are concerned that when they get to that point, "I keep paying in. Am I going to get any benefit out of this?"

Marc:

Yeah, for sure.

Tony Mauro:

And you ask the politicians. They tend to kick the can down the road.

Marc:

I was going to say, yeah, it's a hot potato they don't want to touch, right?

Tony Mauro:

No, they don't want to deal with it. Eventually, it will probably end up being like everything else they do, which is last-minute and patching.

Marc:

Of course.

Tony Mauro:

The optimistic view, in my view, is I don't see how they could let it fail. They may need to make some changes for the viability, because people are living longer, and we're all putting in the same, yes, but it isn't like there's the same amount that people that are drawing on it. But I believe that somehow they will end up with some kind of fix. Now, whether we're all happy with it or not, that's a different story.

Marc:

Yeah, of course, we're never going to all be happy with it, right?

Tony Mauro:

No.

Marc:

But I'm with you. I think the optimistic view is that they're not going to just let it die. They're going to keep it going in some fashion. I guess the pessimistic view would be that there's going to be changes, and what those changes look like could be different, depending on your age group. I feel fairly optimistic though, Tony, that people over 50, such as you and I, we're over that age group now, probably may not see any changes to it. They may grandfather that in, so to speak, but my daughter, at 25 or 26, the thing's going to change for those folks: 20s, 30s, 40s. Maybe they do something as simple as pushing it back. There's no early retirement at 62; they move it to 65. Who knows?

Tony Mau