34 percent of Americans financially carry the country: Those not in the labor force hits another record at 93,194,000.
The unemployment rate is calculated by those in what is deemed the labor force. With the unemployment rate dropping you would think that somehow, we’d be back in a glorious economy where everyone was financially moving up. That is definitely not the case. Every single day we have 11,000 Americans hitting 65 years of age and many are approaching retirement with the “work until I die†mentality because they are financially ill prepared. We also have a gargantuan number of Americans not in the labor force. These are people able to work but are simply not doing so for a variety of reasons. Many of the reasons are legitimate like old age, college, or a disability but millions are on here that should be counted in the unemployment rate. While the market was cheering the unemployment rate dropping to a level that takes us back to pre-recession levels, we now somehow have a record number of Americans not in the labor force. The number is downright shocking.
Low wage America: People think minimum wage is for young workers but the average age of someone on minimum wage is 36. Half of Congress is made up of millionaires.
People have a hard time understanding the vast number of Americans working in low wage jobs. There is a very real reason why dollar stores paint the heartland. We also have 46 million Americans on food stamps. One of the big issues that we will certainly hear about during this campaign season is the erosion of the middle class. Even though the stock market is hovering near all-time peaks, the regular worker is feeling like the economy is pulling past them. Since the recession officially ended in the summer of 2009, a large portion of the jobs added came in the form of lower wage segments of the economy. There is now talk about boosting the minimum wage. I think most people think that minimum wage only impacts teenagers trying to pocket some money for going to the movies on the weekend. That is absolutely not true as the figures will highlight.
The death of the American pension: How older Americans are entering their golden years with a lack of retirement savings.
Listen carefully to the sales pitch from Wall Street. In the late 1970s and the early 1980s there was a push to get Americans away from pension plans and into 401k style retirement plans. The notion was that Americans would save enough on their own and would have the financial wherewithal to play in the Wall Street finance game. Well here we are a generation later and for most Americans, the self-directed retirement experiment has been an abject failure. We have now learned about a litany of mutual funds that have charged high expense ratios that basically ate into a good chunk of savings. The ETF and index fund world is new for many since it isn’t heavily marketed. And these are the options for the savvy people that actually dive in. Pension plans used to be commonplace. Now, they are rare and are headed to extinction. For most elderly Americans, the number one source of income is coming from Social Security. What happened to the pension plans of America?
What are the top 10 financial worries of Americans? Two of the most common themes include paying for children’s college and saving enough for retirement.
Financial worries are a big concern for many American families. In spite of a booming stock market and a resurgent real estate market, most Americans don’t seem to be feeling financially better. A large reason is that many Americans did not partake in the rise in the investor driven real estate boom and also, many Americans own very little to no stocks at all. Is it their fault? For some, yes. But for many the growing low wage economy simply leaves little left to save after paying for daily expenses. Having enough for retirement is becoming a growing issue since 10,000 Americans per day are hitting retirement age. Are they fully retiring in the traditional sense? No because many will have to work deep into old age. Many retirees are fully reliant on Social Security as their main source of income. With this as the backdrop it is no surprise that the big political theme for 2016 is going to revolve on financial and economic inequality. Gallup conducted a survey and asked different subgroups of Americans what their biggest financial worries were at the moment. Let us look at the data.