If things manage to limp along and a crash doesn’t happen, or even if a crash does occur and the government stays in power, you will need to think about a conventional retirement. The chances that the whole system will collapse is a lot smaller than things staying the same but getting worse every year. In other words, all your resources can’t go into beans and bullets. You will need to devote some time and money to supplementing Social Security.
As things stand now Social Security, Medicare and the Free Drug program is going to cripple the economy in a few short years. About 2012 a huge wave, and it’s only the first one, of Baby Boomers are going to retire. No need to panic, this does not coincide with the Mayan calendar ending ( most likely caused by the collapsing society around them being unable to support non-farmers rather than the end of time predictions ). The first wave will panic the politicians in public. In private I’m sure all but the idiots are aware of the problem now. The rates will raise again, probably a few percentage points every few years. Means testing will be introduced where double and triple dipping not allowed.
But mainly we will see more of the same. What is already taking place. The true rate of inflation is being hidden and the cost of living allowances are based on the much reduced official figure. Expect in the future to get screwed over if you are receiving benefits adjusted to inflation. Right now inflation is running about ten percent a year. The government is admitting to about 3%. Remember, inflation is nothing more than an increase in the money supply ( traditionally currency, now mostly credit ). It has nothing to do with anything else. The housing bubble was supply and demand but only after the banks artificially lowered the interest rate to stimulate that market.
So while you will in fact receive your promised Social Security, it will buy a lot less than it does now. Every year it will be harder to make ends meet. Your health care and drugs will be free ( anyone see a push for socialized medicine again after the costs go even higher? ) and unless you are totally without luck you will have some kind of shelter paid off. But expect every other aspect of living to be difficult. Food. Utilities. Transportation. It might get the point where you will be penalized by the lose of Social Security if you apply for Food Stamps or utility payments or a city bus pass because your monthly gross went too high. They will be sure to delay keeping up with inflation on those calculations.
So you are going to have to figure out some kind of supplemental income. Hopefully without working. You don’t want to be a Wal-Mart door greeter. It used to be, back in the day when they actually bought American products, the door greeter was some friendly Granpa type who just greeted you. “Hi, welcome To Wally World! My name is George and if I die while greeting you since I’m 104 years old please notify a superior!” Now, they have that same kindly door greeter but they have gotten younger. Their primary role now is to act as the shoplifting police. When the alarm goes off they all shuffle forward in a swarm and check your receipt. In the future as the economy gets worse expect a lot more shoplifters that are a lot meaner, potentially even dangerous. Not the third career path to get into after your arthritis starts to act up.
My two suggestions for supplemental income are as a room boarder and a trailer park owner. The first one, renting out rooms in your house, involves no extra money invested but also a small return. The second requires some kind of investment but surely not much more than an overpriced home on the coast if you do it cheap. Then the return can be high. Renting out your rooms only requires that your mortgage is paid. It used to be quite common as widows were left a debt free home and the only way to get income was to sell room and board to single men. The arrangement worked well. The widow was comfortable and secure and the work involved was little different than being a homemaker. The men received cheap and affordable lodging. Of course nowadays the arrangement is for kitchen privileges as few of us can cook anymore for ourselves, let alone for others.
A travel trailer park can be as cheap or expensive as you wish. You can make it fancy and charge a lot ( and have large payments ) or have folks rough it and charge little. You just need a piece of land with a road to it. You could be as cheap as having electric only and just one sewer dumping station and one water hook up. After the economy gets bad enough people will stop being so picky and not insist on luxuries. People will be unable to afford apartments and start living out of trailers. Instead of like now where only the retired tourists do. A side business might be buying up cheap trailers now ( once the economy goes bad no one will sell, just live in them ) and fixing them up enough and then renting out both the trailer and the lot. Give a handyman free rent and a low wages under the table for maintenance.
A relatively stress free way of supplementing your retirement income.
Original: http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/retirement.html
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