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118 Can you afford to retire?

Last updated almost 5 years ago
13 questions
Note from the author:
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from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/retirement/hand2.html

STUDENT HANDOUT

HOW MUCH WILL YOU HAVE WHEN YOU RETIRE?

Part One: When you are young, it's can be difficult to make decisions that effect next year, much less ones regarding your retirement. But the following exercise will show you how saving each month will grow to a large sum.

  1. Go to this link. (if you hold and drag it to the right, it will open in a new window)
  2. Consulting the link, calculate what you might have in your 401(k) retirement account if you start working at age 27 and finish at 67.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When entering your answer to this formative, please use the format $nnn,nnn (dollar sign and commas)
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  1. Were you surprised by your findings? Why or why not?
  2. What was most alarming; or, what was most reassuring?
  3. Note especially what happens when you save for 20 years rather than 40 years.


Part Two: Use what you just found to reflect upon retirement income.

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What is the starting salary of your dream job? (you can Google that)
  • Investigate three different situations for your future. For each, make some decisions (fill in the boxes)
  • Go back to the retirement calculator link, and use your starting salary to determine some values of your hypothetical 401(k) at retirement.
You can write, or insert text boxes and type the numbers.

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Do your findings make you more or less secure with the idea that, at the moment, it looks as if most of your retirement income will come from 401(k)s or retirement accounts of this sort? Why or why not?

The calculator didn't take into account Social Security. Do you know why?

Skim through
  • https://www.forbes.com/sites/catherineschnaubelt/2018/05/30/social-security-past-present-and-future/#750e289c59ab
  • https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/30/social-security-not-going-go-belly-up-near-future/1279971001/

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Skim through
  • https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/05/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-retire.html
  • https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/agereduction.html

At what age are you likely to retire? How much money do you think you will need to retire comfortably?

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Play with the numbers at: https://www.nerdwallet.com/investing/retirement-calculator

Use what you have found so far:
  • how old you are = when you should start saving
  • pre-tax income = expected starting income from your dream job
  • current savings = 0
  • Every month I save = % you think you should save
If you hit Optional, you can change:
  • your age of retirement and
  • life expecancy

  1. How much money does this calculator say you need to retire? Where did it get that from?
  2. What percent of your salary should you save? Keep in mind, this calculator does not include employee matches. How might that change your answer?
  3. At what age should you plan to start saving?
  4. Any final thoughts?

The US Department of Labor has much information about this: https://www.savingmatters.dol.gov/employees.htm

Should you be interested, here are some links to PBS videos about retirement:

https://www.pbs.org/show/retirement-revolution/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/retirement-gamble/