Seniors going bankrupt in soaring numbers

Work hard.
Work smart.
Don't buy it if you don't have the money.


And don't live in Toronto.

I think we will reading a lot more of these stories.

Obviously these people need the option of euthanasia if their quality of life is hurting due to financial pressures.

At this stage all that nonsense of a debt-free life and a terrific fully-funded retirement should be put down as a fantasy existence of a tiny handful of baby boomers. It won't happen for most Gen-X'ers because we were the ones caught in the transition of the economy, where the old jobs that built the middle class were shipped overseas or gradually eliminated altogether. It won't happen for the Millenials either because even if they're a lot more hip to the gadget/computer economy of the future they're coming out of school with massive debt loads that for decades after graduation are going to interfere with their ability to either buy homes or build up their own savings plans.

Ah, what the fuck, eh? Just another example of the only consistent rule in this world is that somebody always gets to lose.

Capitalism requires a permanent underclass. At the moment it seems to required that underclass to go. Maybe we'll know we've reached the terminus of capitalism when one guy owns everything, including all the humans.

So many people nowadays, including a lot of older people, continue to live beyond their means. They like to shop and buy shiny new things and live a lifestyle they can't afford. Then something bad happens (illness, debt, job loss), and they crash hard.

You have to live within your means as much as possible. Stop trying to compete with the Jones' or be someone you're not, or having to run out and get that shiny new device to fill a void.

Myself, as long as the fridge and freezer are full, I'm happy. I don't need all sorts of crazy tech or a luxury car to keep me happy. I don't give a damn how many TV's the neighbour has.

Besides......I'm going to be working into my nineties anyways

-J.

The hilarious hypocrisy of the smarmy "well, you should have saved more" crowd is endlessly entertaining. You get told your entire adult life that spending is the key to the economy, that by buying that house, or that car, or those other items that's you're told are an absolute necessity to have, is your contribution to capitalism. By spending you're keeping that capital flowing, you're making sure that the other guy has a job by building and selling to you. Technically you're doing everything correctly and right according to the system itself. Keep that money in motion, baby, and eventually some of it will trickle it's way down to you!

And then when things go completely plotz, either through your own fault or (far more likely) from events and decisions that are made elsewhere that were never ever under your control in the slightest, what do you hear from them? "Why didn't you save more, loser? Didn't you learn anything from the Great Depression?!?!?!?!?". It's a no-win scenario, from beginning to end, and the foundations it's all built on is nothing but quicksand. You either win at this sick game, or you don't, and there's sweet fuck-all of anything else between the two results.

Well, spending on a house is different than on cars and vacations. And many people overspent, using the equity in their house, then have nothing for retirement. But as you say, shit also happens. Jobs disappear and people can't find another one at the same pay scale. People get sick, and that can be very hard to recover from. They watch the Wall street boys make out like pigs, and they decide that's what you're supposed to do, not realizing the money the Wall street boys make has to come from someone. Etc.

Yep, it's everyone's fault but your own. If you spent half of the time you do on the "poor me" routine, your miserable life would be far better off.

I looke forward to retirement and now WalMart is using 18 year olds for door greeters!

Hey I hear you - as the old saying goes, life sucks and then you die!

I've spent most of my life yo-yoing up and down with a couple good years here followed by a few crappy years. I've also had to re-invent myself four or five times in the past 20 years, which is hard as hell on both myself and my family.

Some days, I think the only way off the hamster wheel is to win the lotto (or something along those lines). I know they call it the idiot tax, but I figure $2/week gives me some tiny bit of hope for the future - and seeing that I don't buy coffee everyday at Starbucks/Timmies or smoke or have any other vices, it's not a big deal. Until that happens, save what you can when you can and keep your head down. While it doesn't help the economy, it'll cover your ass when the greedoids get out of control again and fuck the rest of us over again.

As for being a senior and declaring bankruptcy, I know that I won't be retiring at 55, 60 or even 65. Odds are I'l be working FT until at least 70, with PT work after that. My inability to save during my 20s due to crappy job prospects and student debt means I've lost tens of thousands of dollars in interest I'll never get back.

Thanks to the antics of the Wall Street crowd in 2008, followed by a bad injury in 2010, I lost my entire savings to events that were beyond my control. So I didn't end up in this situation by being some spendthrift willy-nilly jackass who never tried to save a dime. I wasn't flying to Vegas once a year, or buying a new car every year, or being a yuppie and buying new skis/golf clubs/whatever every year just to stay fashionable. I did save, and for a long time too, only to lose most of it to a bunch of white-collar American criminals.

I'm 48 now. I'm not recovering from this one. I have no idea at all anymore on how to re-invent myself. And there's no way of starting all over again in a labour type job. Too old, too out-of-shape, and too many nagging leg/back/hip injuries. IMO hope still kinda belongs to the young, some of them anyway, but as far as I'm concerned it's just another thing that's now entirely owned by the already-rich. The rest of us are completely disposable. We're no more important to the system than a single dried-up and dead skin cell is to the overall mass of the body. We're just here to be sloughed off and forgotten.

Quit snivelling! I know a few people who were older than you & came back from bankruptcy. Watching a couple now he's 69, she's 70. They filed last year for most of the reasons listed. They sold their house and put some of the proceeds-the trustee allowed them to keep about $40 K- into a secure investment fund which they are not allowed to touch until they get their discharge. They took a job as manager/caretakers of a couple apt buildings. Not great $$$ but it 'pays the bills' and leaves them with a few bucks each month.
The only thing you seem to be missing is the will to improve your situation. Quit whining, get off your ass and go get a couple of jobs. Do what is needed!

Temper the OP with this article:



http://business.financialpost.com/perso ... pending-it

The people who demanded low university tuition, living wages, affordable real estate and generous pension plans took all those for themselves and then turned around and burned the bridge for all the generations behind them in a self-righteous rage.

"I've already graduated university, why should my tax dollars pay for it?? Raise the tuition!" "My pension is fully funded, why should young workers'pensions costs reduce my stock returns? Close the pension plans!"

And then the self-righteous "young people today are complainers. I paid for university with a summer job, bought a house with 25% down when I was 23, and retired with full pension at 55, if they can't do it then they're just lazy!"

On top of all that, as the article mentions, a lot of them refuse to retire so they hog employment from the next generation. Or as bad, they retire with full pension AND then have full seniority rights to come back and fill open positions before its offered to other employees or new hires so it's double whammy of job hogging plus now they collect pension and salary so they're even richer than before!

Say hi to Andy for me the next time you see him!