Haven't they learned to stock up yet?

“http://robots.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/10/26/wilma/index.html

Yes, I know that some people waiting for supplies are waiting because they lost it all. However, the majority of the people in these lines didn't loose it all and should know by now to have supplies on hand for post-disaster survival.

Didn't they read about post-Katrina conditions? Or any of the other massive disasters we've had in the last year? Or the last 100 years?”

“Thank you! This is what I was trying to say on the other "bltchin' about FEMA" thread.”

“Hee Hee Hee @ Nigal.

You just said it wrong on the other thread. ;-)

People that have been spoonfed by 'the government' for generations have learned to expect 'the government' to supply all needs at once.
last edited: 10/26/05 12:39:03 PM”

“I can't wait for this same response in 30 years from people that are today ignoring 401K benefits their companies are offering (and IRA's, etc.) and are instead blowing all of their paychecks on unnecessary $hit like $200 cell phones, $40,000 SUVs and 4000 sq. ft. homes. And when it comes time to retire in 30 years they'll scream that Social Security isn't doing enough to support their lavish lifestyle in their Golden Years - when they should have been saving 15%+ of their income for the 30 years they were working.”

“Some of us can't afford to put 15% of our income into an IRA. Although I do put what I can afford into it. Then again I still have about 35 years before I can retire.”

“lumberjack - I was in your same boat when younger. What I did is as I got pay inceases each year, I slowly upped the % going into retirement funds.
That way my takehome pay I was used to living on stayed about the same, but my retirement % went up.
I pay 15% into my retirement currently.”

“That's actually what I figure I'll do, although the next pay increase I get will help get my car paid off sooner. Which will be one less payment I need to make a month.”

“Don't wait to much longer. Retirement may come sooner than you think.
I may be able to retire in another five years.”

“woo hoo for 150% company matches!!!! :oD”

“Woo Hoo is right, Y2! That's great!

My company only matches the first 5% of my salary, so if I was only doing 5% myself, I would get 100% matching from the company.
I have 15% withdrawn from my paycheck. The company adds their 5%, so I have 20% of my salary going to retirement savings.”

“That's the way to do it SS. If ya put your increases away you don't even miss them plus you keep your standard of living within your means. My wife and I are looking at retiring around 57.”

“20% is great G4

too bad you're an old fart now!

just think, if you were able to put 20% away when you were in your 20's you'd prolly be retired by now.

of course, no one can afford to put away enough when they're in their 20s.
last edited: 10/26/05 1:18:36 PM”

“"of course, no one can afford to put away enough when they're in their 20s."

The only thing I was putting away in my 20s was beer and I had hard enough time afording that. LOL!”

“LOL @ Sacco
Yep, I went to a retirement class a couple of weeks ago. Learned all kind of good things I sure do wish they have taught me about 10 years ago. They wouldn't let me go to the class before. I wasn't 'old' enough!

My biggest problem was a marrage in my late 20's and divorce in my late 30's that wiped me out. LOL
last edited: 10/26/05 1:23:42 PM”

“just think, if your parants had the foresight to put $5,000 away for you when you were born, you'd be all set now.

blame it on mom and dad!”

“My Dad was in the Navy and my Mom was a 17 yo housewife so no way did they have $5000.
They did pretty dang well for such a modest start. Mom raised four kids, all when to college, and my Dad retired at 55.”

“There was more damage than they expected?

WTF did they expect? Mr. Toad's wild ride? Whew, that was a cute ride, let's go get a waffle cone now.”

“accepting responsibility for your own actions G4?

how very unamerican of you

blame the guberment, mom & dad, whatever...”

“"blame it on mom and dad"

Yeah, that will be the same group that will complain about Social Security, too. Its never their own fault.

I started putting the full 15% away when I got my first "real" job that offered a 401K, I think around age 22. Others in my age group thought I was nuts. But now I'm planning on retiring around 52 when my youngest graduates from college. I know those same people that laughed won't be retiring at 52. Or 62.”

“LOL, saccoDeadHeads beat me by a half minute.”

“Down right unamerican, isn't it?? LOL”

“My only worry is when the $hit hits the fan in 30 years and they have to pass emergency legislation to keep the 75% of the retired folks out of the bread lines... and they set some kind of Social Security payout cap for anyone that has any kind of money saved up. Basically a penalty for 30 years of hard work for the few of us that did save up.

Or they implement some new withdrawal tax on the 401K/TSP/203B plans for anyone that has any decent amount of money saved. Again, a penalty.”

“You got it tech.
We will be the 'rich' and it's our duty to have our savings taken from us and given to the 'poor' deadbeats.

I hope by that time I will have spent all my funds. ;-)
last edited: 10/26/05 2:01:21 PM”

“Or they implement some new withdrawal tax on the 401K/TSP/203B plans for anyone that has any decent amount of money saved. Again, a penalty.”
techntrek
2:54:30 PM



that is exactly what i expect but i don't like to think about it much.

It angers up the blood!”

“I should point out that with all my talk about retiring early, maxing out my retirement savings, and having big $ in those retirement funds...


... when I left home I had 3 things to my name:

- beat up used car
- beat up used computer
- beat up used clothes

No furniture of any kind, no job, or college degree. I slept on my roommate's sleeper sofa for a while. I put myself through full-time college while working full-time in jobs that sucked.

No inheritance, no lottery winner here. Basically, I took responsibility for myself.”

“umm helloooo people, have we forgotten what "fuego" threads are for? you guys are supposed to be ripping each other's throats out, not chit-chatting. see, i'll start it off...Sacco smells like a bulldog and his unicorns dress him funny! there, now that wasn't so hard, was it?”

“my inlaws piss me off to no end.

they have zero retirement savings. zip, zilch, nada.
he's worked his whole life under the table.
in a couple more years he's just not gonna be able to work anymore. then what?
is she suppose to let her parents starve?

helping out your parents late in life is one thing, but their complete irresponsibility disgusts me.
i could never imagine being a burden on my children like that.

EDIT: even worse, they voted for bush.
(better lyra?)
last edited: 10/26/05 2:21:33 PM”

“Good for you!
I drove a 1963 Ford Fairlane I got in 1974, till 1982, when I wrecked it.
I too worked my way thru college.”

“I gotta say:


I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments on this thread.


that:

1. the people in FL should have known to have some bottled water on hand

2. that some of those folks in line, and undoublty some of those in New Orleans, are used to have the govt safety net there and get indignent when its not

3. That folks are gonna be screwed when they retire and have spent their money everywhich way but saved in their 401(k).




My ONLY "LIBERAL" comment here is that potential phenomena (that people haven't saved responsibly for retirement) is my BIGGEST qualm about "prvatizing" social security as mr. Bush had proposed. I think that people would F-it up, and we'd ahve to bail their butts out anyway.

Social Security may not be the most efficient thing, but it is all that some of these folks will have.”

“Sacco, they plan to live and eat off of you!”

“Sacco, encourage them to buy a motorcycle.”

“Better yet, tell them to buy a fishing pole and live off the land.”

“This thread reminds me of a post I made last year about the store shelves being stripped of flashlights every time there's a hurricane down there...something like "Do they import a whole new batch of people to Florida every year?"”

“It’s like up here when everyone has to buy a snow shovel before the first big snowfall of the season.”

“Dang!

You all want to retire aweful young.

Watch a bunch of lazy ne’er do wells.”

“It does amaze me that people had a week to get things like water and a few food supplies in, and they're there having to hand out water.”

“I can understand consumables flying off the shelves, but radios? Generators? Flashlights? Does a whole new set of people move to Florida after every hurricane or something?”
bitpusher
12:16:26 PM
9/02/04

Then, a few days later, HPM posts this:

Bitpusher
“This ones for you.

My brother and I went on a quest to find ice when our power had been out for a couple of days and we wandered into the local super Walmart. Walmart I'm ok with but super-anything I try to avoid.

Anywhoo we wander back to the camping section and find the place where the flashlights used to be.

Picked clean, nothing there but hair and skin remnants from some unfortunate soul who fought and died for a $4 flashlight.

I then remembered your comment asking if a completely different group of people move to Florida after every hurricane.

I laughed so freaking hard.”
humanpackmule
2:32:30 PM
9/10/04”

“retire today at 62 yo.

30K yr = $687 mt S8,244 yr
40K yr = $823 mt $9,876 yr
60K yr = $1095 mt 13,140 yr
100K yr = $1401 mt $16,812 yr
400K yr = $1477 mt $17,724 yr

Double post, but what the hey.

Up that retirement % peeps.
Do you really want to try and live on $1000 a month?”

“Yup, that's my point, G4S. As I've pointed out several times on the Social Security thread, SS is NOT designed to be a retirement fund. Period. (yet another reason Bush' plan is stupid). It is insurance, with a small plus of getting some money on the back end when you retire.

As for those parents that have no retirement savings - I would have to show some tough love and support them very little in their retirement years. They need to live with the choices they made - and certainly the children of those parents need to save for their own retirement instead of using that money to support the parents. Full financial support? No way.”

“Quote from an article I just read:

On Wednesday, the governor accepted blame for distribution troubles that have forced many to wait in long lines for free government water and ice, he also suggested that some residents failed to stock up adequately in advance of the storm.

"People had ample time to prepare," Gov. Bush said. "And it isn't that hard to get 72 hours' worth of food and water ... just to do the simple things that we ask people to do."

http://robots.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/10/27/wilma/index.html”

“It seems kind of odd that Deerfield Beach city workers can drive out to FEMA staging areas for supplies, but FEMA can't get the supplies to them because the roads aren't clear.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-26-wilma-cleanup_x.htm”

“Do you really want to try and live on $1000 a month?”
GreasyGrimyGopherGutsStomper
3:03:12 PM
10/26/05

it can be done assuming you have no house/car note, no credit cards..basically no bills except for the normal monthly ones like water/electric/gas. You would have to save for property taxes, insurance on car/house/medical.

I can't wait till my son gets out of college. The ex and I split his college cost. Some people disagree with doing that but we made that decision to do it. One down one to go and then I will have some money to save.”

“The Boy Scouts were right!

I have enough food, fuel and water at all times to go up to a month off the grid. I rotate my stock of food and fuel as a part of normal living. I always expect the worst so I am never supprised.

I currently save about 40% of my income for retirement and for my childrens education. Stovie and Techntrek gave some great advice on how to increase savings. I started out saving 50 bucks a month in a no-load mutual fund. As pay increases went up and bills went down, I increased my contributions. The number one thing to do is keep your debt low. If you don't have the cash to buy something then don't. Your $40,000 SUV or boat is worth half that in a year or two. Stay out of bars buying $5 drinks. Buy yourself a bottle of something and build a camp fire. Learn to cook and invite friends over instead of eating and drinking out. For $20 I can cook a Gumbo that would make 10 people slap their momma! Save going out for special stuff.

We hikers by our nature are very conservative (not the political definition) people that hate waste. We hike for a week on a pint of fuel. We clean up behind ourselves and are able to stand on our own. I guess that is why I love you people so much.
last edited: 10/28/05 11:26:36 AM”

“The fella does make some fine gumbo.”

“i've never eaten food so good that i smacked my mom.

that must be some dam fine gumbo.”

“This is the real deal! Stay alert and stay alive!


http://gmagic.com/katrina/”

“I have a 401k, but there's no way I can put away the % you guys do. Having kids to pay for makes it more difficult for some of us that don't have the bigger bucks jobs...”

“

Toilet Paper.......................................check

Bud Light...........................................check

Keystone Ice........................................check

Budweiser............check

Red Dog.............................................check

Misc. other bottles of alcohol......................check

Piece of plywood to float your old lady and booze on...check

Next time let's all be more prepared.
last edited: 10/28/05 12:22:24 PM”

“That's the same design as the ARK I just finished building and stocking.”