tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post75350937656025926..comments2024-03-25T15:17:04.488-07:00Comments on Captain Capitalism: Why Gen Y and Gen X Should Not Save for RetirementCaptain Capitalismhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05620212946121617985noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-45000938922209136392012-09-08T12:43:25.148-07:002012-09-08T12:43:25.148-07:00your words have echoed in my ears for many many ye...your words have echoed in my ears for many many years now:<br /><br />ENJOY THE DECLINE.<br /><br />We can't stop it. So enjoy it!!oddsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-12772198082775989652012-09-01T17:41:25.045-07:002012-09-01T17:41:25.045-07:00I never finished my degree, but had an aptitude fo...I never finished my degree, but had an aptitude for computers since age 6 (1978) and had earned money with them since age 10. I never had student loan debt, but I did run up credit cards during the dotcom days, so I never bought a house or stocks during their bubbles (aside from employer-matched 401k). I guess I just lucked out! In the last year I moved from the liberal coast to TX and got my series 7 to work in computerized trading systems, and have never made more from a job in my life. With that, I am fixing to buy my first house at less than 2x income @3.375%, with a total PITI that's about $200 more than my current rent. If we get inflation I'd rather have cheap 2012 money to spend on stuff now and use worthless 2014 money to pay it off. Plus with an 'owned' home I can do upgrades and prepping that are pointless to do with a rental.Dr. Kenneth Noisewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18331186729038007981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-3878461538228457332012-08-26T08:56:53.036-07:002012-08-26T08:56:53.036-07:00Good post. Seems like most people forget that mone...Good post. Seems like most people forget that money is time, not the other way around. Sure you need some money but you don't need as much as you think, especially if you take the time to take care of your health and avoid all the crappy food products pushed by the food industry giants and the government.<br /><br />Most institutions, public, private, doesn't matter, are there to suck the time out of your time wallet and turn it into financial benefits for them. What you're left with is very often not worth the time you paid for. <br /><br />The best example: wasting years of your life in school to earn a semi-worthless degree that could have been earned in 1/2 the time if you weren't stuck in the mass schooling system. It's a time confiscation racket: the time you waste in school is converted into paychecks for teachers, administrators, public workers, etc. <br /><br />A guy I met recently dropped out of school at 13 and started working in the landscaping business and he's way ahead of me financially. I'm kind of jealous, I should have done something like that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-72925089121933892722012-08-25T06:59:28.024-07:002012-08-25T06:59:28.024-07:00Thus spake the Captain "It is infinitely chea...Thus spake the Captain "It is infinitely cheaper to knock yourself out when you find out your terminally ill, not to mention you'll leave a lot more to your family, or at least not be a fiscal burden on the tax payer."<br /><br />Leave a lot more of what for your family? This implies you saved and put your savings in something. What would that something be? Certainly not securities. Real estate? Mattress padding? Not a business because that's struggling and not Enjoying The Decline.<br /><br />I thought I understood the Captain to say that having a family was a trap for stupid and gullible men.<br /><br />Now I'm confused.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18194867861358564423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-83443259865766976782012-08-24T18:36:10.597-07:002012-08-24T18:36:10.597-07:00This dosen't seem like good advice to me. Peo...This dosen't seem like good advice to me. People have been saying the markets are overvalued since the "courretiers de change." How can Capt. Capitalism say not to save money? Isn't saving one of the rails of capitalsim?T. A. Hansenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09124247983107325609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-57916963516646478362012-08-24T10:13:21.004-07:002012-08-24T10:13:21.004-07:00Health "insurance" encourages wasteful s...Health "insurance" encourages wasteful spending on near-death people.<br /><br />They spend $100k to keep someone alive another 1-12 weeks. You aren't spending your own money. You're spending the insurance plan's money.<br /><br />If you were spending your own money, the elderly person might say "Go ahead and let me die. Give the extra $100k to my children."<br /><br />With "insurance", you're spending other people's money. There's no incentive to keep costs down, because the cost is socialized.FSKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11903396202330950362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-19509527691516720322012-08-23T14:29:39.239-07:002012-08-23T14:29:39.239-07:00Nephrologist 6:49 pm:
I can tell you how to sharp...Nephrologist 6:49 pm:<br /><br />I can tell you how to sharply reduce medical costs. The first paper reporting the need for low starch (carbohydrates) for health was printed, not in 2004, nor in 1973, but in 1804. Others in 1864.<br /><br />In the early 1970's, about the time Atkins proved one needed low carb to be healthy, a group of influential idiots in the AMA decreed they were going with low fat; high carb. Since then their clever work has destroyed the health of an entire nation.<br /><br />I bought a 2005 physiology text book used at some medical schools, Guyton and Hall. That book describes perfectly the low carb; low protein; high fat diet. Yet the doctors who used that textbook will preach to their grave, low fat; high carb, because that is what they are told.<br /><br />When you go low carb, and take a few vitamins, your need to go to a doctor virtually disappears. Type II diabetes; gone. Infarctions; gone. Alzheimers: gone. Cancer; mostly gone.<br /><br />But, mention low carb to a stupid doctor and they whine, "Oh, that is an extremist diet."<br /><br />An extremist diet is a diet which has destroyed the health of an entire nation.<br /><br />Another thing we need to do in the US is let people die when it is there time. A fortune is spent on people who are ready to die. Here in Mexico when an elderly person achieves "train wreck" status, they tell the family, "Here are some pain pills. Give them if she needs them. But, keep her at home, and let her die in her own bed with her family around her." That is how any thinking person wants to die.<br /><br />There is no CODE BLUE for elderly people in Mexico, and there should not be in the US either.<br /><br />Code Blue among elderly people means their body knew it was time do die, not write another check for $100,000. Code Blue is for otherwise healthy young people who can be cured and live another ten or fifty years.<br /><br />Anonymous age 70<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-89933829953810338012012-08-23T14:12:18.855-07:002012-08-23T14:12:18.855-07:00If you expect the financial system to completely c...If you expect the financial system to completely collapse, any savings plan is useless. You have to buy gold and silver and hide it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.realfreemarket.org/blog/2012/06/20/gold-outperformed-the-sp-500-1995-2011/" rel="nofollow">Over the past 10-15 years, the stock market has not kept pace with true inflation.</a><br /><br />If you invest in the stock market, you get robbed by corrupt CEOs. If you invest in money market or bonds, you get robbed by inflation.FSKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11903396202330950362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-31607000410585214012012-08-23T14:08:28.116-07:002012-08-23T14:08:28.116-07:00I get a modest SS check. In my opinion, they are p...I get a modest SS check. In my opinion, they are paying us too much. It really irks me to see a gigantic motor home on the highway, pull into an eating place, and the owner demands a senior discount, while the just-above-minimum-wage employees pay full price. I have tried to refuse senior discount, the day I can't pay the same as anyone else means I don't buy it. They won't let me refuse it.<br /><br />It is true SS is one of the very few payouts that were totally funded by the recipients, and yet it is the first program everyone wants to stop, even before baby mommas. <br /><br />Yet, reality is the legislators did steal around a trillion dollars from that fund, and there is no way to pay it back. So, now we have to deal with the fact of successful and final theft. Don't cancel the program. Each month have the computers pay out to recipients what was taken in the previous month, not a penny more.<br /><br />Oh, and put the legislators who stole the SS money on SS, not a cent more than SS recipients get.<br /><br />Anonymous age 70<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-12920542843560949662012-08-23T12:04:22.191-07:002012-08-23T12:04:22.191-07:00I'd really love to see how Anonymous liberal a...I'd really love to see how Anonymous liberal arts major has been so successful.<br /><br />I won't get a liberal arts degree 'cause they worthless, but if some dude can be successful with one, maybe there's a secret young folks like me can use.<br /><br />Either that or he's a troll.Derrick Bonsellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10624976943924251694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-74066685001638660042012-08-23T11:15:34.675-07:002012-08-23T11:15:34.675-07:00Ah, you're too young. Go get a long term chart...Ah, you're too young. Go get a long term chart of the Dow - back to 1913 - and look at it. You'll see six rough periods - expansion from 13-29, contraction from 29-46, expansion from 46-66, contraction from 66-82, expansion from 82-00, and contraction from 00-12. Do you see a pattern here, boyo? <br /><br />As stock market watcher Joe Granville once said "You can't just breathe in; you have to exhale sometimes". So it is with markets. As new technologies are introduced, markets fly up; as those technologies are absorbed, markets go sideways (which, if you factor in inflation, is down). It's a cycle.<br /><br />By my count, we have 4-5 years left in this down cycle. Then, some new technology - whether it's transportation, health, or something else - will appear, and things will start to move again. Of course, it will be rough four years in the meantime, with markets crashing everywhere, turmoil, dogs and cats living together, etc. But at the end, we'll survive and better days are ahead. That's the <i>real</i> virtue of capitalism. <br /><br />Where I feel sorriest for this generation is there is no frontier left for them. Even up to the 70's, you could still move to the southwest or northwest, which were relatively underpopulated. Not any more. (Newt may be a fool, but his moon base wasn't as off base as some think; at least it would have given people something to yearn for.) Frontiers mean opportunity, hope, and growth. The lack of them stifles all. <br /><br />Saving during stagnant markets always seems stupid (unless you're a nimble trader, a profession now made extinct by HFT's). On the other hand, anyone who bought the Dow at 1,000 in 1982 feels pretty good today. Timing is everything.<br /><br />My elder daughter starts university this year. She may watch as the world stumbles while she learns, but I'm willing to bet she'll have great opportunities when she gets out. <br /><br />Like the new layout, Cap'n. Much easier on the eyes. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-90062687575390669662012-08-23T10:20:00.113-07:002012-08-23T10:20:00.113-07:00Sounds like the captain discovered YOLO!
Sounds like the captain discovered YOLO!<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-83024669267730992012012-08-23T09:13:30.459-07:002012-08-23T09:13:30.459-07:00Very good stuff.
I agree, some form of confiscato...Very good stuff.<br /><br />I agree, some form of confiscatory taxes are likely on retirement accounts. <br /><br />Even more likely is means-testing of Social Security: if you're "rich" enough to have a nice 401(k), you don't deserve any Social Security.<br /><br />I recommend putting your retirement in gold and silver OFF THE GRID. The government doesn't have to KNOW you're rich.W.C. Varoneshttp://www.wcvarones.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-56310749438659237652012-08-23T06:02:14.363-07:002012-08-23T06:02:14.363-07:00I just wanted to say I'm so glad I came across...I just wanted to say I'm so glad I came across your blog. I'm a college student and I always felt guilty for not saving for retirement when everyone told me I should. But I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. <br />And by the way, I read worthless and it changed my life. I'm studying Management Information Systems and I convinced a friend to go into Nursing. You are reaching people Cap. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-30877530252149016092012-08-22T18:49:30.987-07:002012-08-22T18:49:30.987-07:00Here is something to ponder if one is under 40 yea...Here is something to ponder if one is under 40 years of age and is wondering if all these social programs passed over the past 80 years will be there for him when he retires:<br /><br />One thing to remember about Medicare--the average beneficiary, to date, gets about $100,000 more out of the program than he ever paid in through payroll taxes. I'm a nephrologist, and most dialysis patients are Medicare beneficiaries--CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) has paid for dialysis since ~1973. The average hemodialysis patient costs ~$80,000/year; the average peritoneal dialysis patient costs ~$60,000/year; and the average transplant patient costs ~$25,000/year. While the total end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patient population is <1% of the total CMS patient population, the ESRD population is very expensive. Approximately 6 to 8% of the total CMS budget pays for dialysis and transplantation (~$30,000 billion/year). This is just one illustration why anyone who isn't already elderly is completely screwed. By 2022, the CBO estimates that Medicare/Medicaid expenditures will be ~$1 trillion, and unfunded liabilities (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) are estimated to top $100 trillion. I expect major cracks in health care to appear in the next couple of years. Death panels will be a way of life in the very near future (aka Independent Payment Advisory Boards). Things always go full circle--before CMS starting paying for ESRD care, dialysis was rationed through death panels.<br /><br />http://www.aei-ideas.org/2009/08/have-seniors-really-paid-for-their-medicare-benefits/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-552632761320325912012-08-22T17:39:46.921-07:002012-08-22T17:39:46.921-07:00As the old sayimg go, no man on his deathbed wishe...As the old sayimg go, no man on his deathbed wished he had spent more time working.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-34613103673982603852012-08-22T17:36:27.950-07:002012-08-22T17:36:27.950-07:00How does the saying go. No man on his death bed lo...How does the saying go. No man on his death bed look back and wished he had spent more time working.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-81416468708579779812012-08-22T17:23:27.443-07:002012-08-22T17:23:27.443-07:00This is one I realized a while ago, even though I ...This is one I realized a while ago, even though I am burdened with a humanities degree.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-71492274125705385242012-08-22T17:21:44.023-07:002012-08-22T17:21:44.023-07:00Cappy,
Not only have South American countries got...Cappy,<br /><br />Not only have South American countries gotten into the act (of seizing retirement accounts); European nations have as well. You can read this <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Adam-Smith-Institute-Blog/2011/0102/European-nations-begin-seizing-private-pensions" rel="nofollow">Christian Science Monitor article</a> about it. It's happened there already, so it's only a matter of time before it happens here...MarkyMarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02710045100037253902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-47403789114110103012012-08-22T16:32:58.870-07:002012-08-22T16:32:58.870-07:00The government is not going to confiscate 401k pla...The government is not going to confiscate 401k plans.<br /><br />It's simply going to inflate the debt away by printing more money.<br /><br />Just like they've been doing for the last 100 years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-90049593035984369252012-08-22T15:59:01.425-07:002012-08-22T15:59:01.425-07:00Saving up a pile of gold and burying it like a pir...Saving up a pile of gold and burying it like a pirate isn't a good retirement plan??? It's pretty hard for the government to confiscate what isn't in their system. I won't put another penny in a retirement account in a bank, but you have to save for a rainy day somehow. I don't want to have to activate that "Smith and Wesson retirement plan" before I'm ready...PersonofInteresthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05004513986233168966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-54138094509042017162012-08-22T15:17:38.815-07:002012-08-22T15:17:38.815-07:00Atta boy John! Tell friends about Cappy and Worth...Atta boy John! Tell friends about Cappy and Worthless. Make sure you youth have it better than we did!Captain Capitalismhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05620212946121617985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-64450909913956925182012-08-22T14:47:27.663-07:002012-08-22T14:47:27.663-07:00Great post. On top of the very significant threat ...Great post. On top of the very significant threat of peoples' 401(k)s and IRAs being confiscated as part of some Social Security overhaul (click <a href="http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/senate-hearing-seizure-of-401k-accounts-may-be-reality-soon_10112010" rel="nofollow">here</a> to read some rumor-mongering), we have the specter of inflation eroding our savings as well.<br /><br />In an environment like this, it is difficult to find a safe store of value.<br /><br />Why indeed should Xers and Millenials adhere to such bourgeois values like saving and delaying gratification, if confiscation and hidden taxation is their reward?Elusive Wapitihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16825547465295622621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-75107205463251852552012-08-22T14:44:02.330-07:002012-08-22T14:44:02.330-07:00im 19, and so far made up my mind about: not ownin...im 19, and so far made up my mind about: not owning a house (being stuck in one area is risky), not saving for retirement (if i cant hold an easy part time job, hell i dont wanna live), not compete with the jones (my life, not my things, are more important ex: career success and happiness), not get married (50% divorce). Every time i read your blog, i read more about my life that i never knew. Thank you alot captain. Oh and also, going through for accounting, no liberal arts crapAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07734425737542150733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358039.post-27915067123254967442012-08-22T13:05:49.774-07:002012-08-22T13:05:49.774-07:00Exceptional anecdotes don't disprove statistic...Exceptional anecdotes don't disprove statistical trends. I'm guessing philosophy and logic weren't part of Anonymous' liberal arts education.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17883031035089847149noreply@blogger.com