Luke Thomas, an owner-operator who’s been driving for almost 25 years, half-jokingly replies, “Put it in the back yard in a Mason jar.” You can’t blame Thomas for his slightly wary attitude; he lost quite a bit of his savings when the market crashed in 2008. He also doesn’t see his fellow drivers able to set aside much money, because their extra cash is wrapped up in their livelihood. “Most of them I talk to, all they’re thinking about is keeping their truck from being repossessed and how they’re going to pay for fuel.” And many of these drivers expect to work well into retirement age because, as Thomas puts it, “They can’t afford to retire.”
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You really have to advocate for yourself now. You can’t fall back on Social Security. You have to be the one to advocate and do the footwork for yourself.
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Noel Synder
planning ahead “H
e who fails to plan, plans to fail,” is an old proverb that seems like it was written specifically about retirement. Retirement is often treated as an afterthought, especially for those with a couple of decades before they hit that golden age. There is no road map on how to successfully reach retirement. Few people save enough to be comfortable in retirement and too many think that Social Security will be their main source of income. That false hope in a deteriorating system, as well as lack of specific financial goals, is leaving many hardworking Americans in dire straits come retirement.
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by: amanda jakl
Dorrie Nienow, president of Schneider Community Credit Union, has worked in financial services for more than 30 years and has seen her share of customers struggling to make ends meet after retirement. “I’ve seen people retire on their Social Security and aren’t making it because they didn’t plan ahead or think about their future retirement,” she says. “Do we know that Social Security is going to be here in the next year or next five years? We don’t know, so you have to prepare.” The average savings rate in the U.S. is just 3 percent, nowhere near enough for the average person to retire on. When asked where people should invest their money,
But Nienow points out that there is still hope, regardless of your current age, to educate yourself and plan for a successful retirement. For those who own their own business, there is no human resource department making sure you have a retirement plan in place. The 401(k), the favorite buzzword in retirement, is usually limited to businesses, so owner-operators have to create their own plan. “You really have to advocate for yourself now,” says Noel Synder, office manager for Schneider Community Credit Union. “You can’t fall back on Social Security. You have to be the one to advocate and do the footwork for yourself.” It can be difficult to know what to do in order to fund a comfortable retirement when you’re the one in charge. Thomas, who is about 20 years from retirement, points out that the market is recovering more slowly than he would like. “It’s starting to come up some,” he says, but reluctantly adds, “I have no idea. I’ve been trying to figure out the last year or two what to do because basically right now, most owner-operators will work until we die.” It’s easy to feel helpless when it comes to the future, but let’s walk through some of the initial steps to starting a retirement plan. Whether retirement is 10 years away or w w w. p t c c h a l l e n g e . c o m