I hope you saw this video I posted this morning.
The title is “This Proves Retirees Are Going Bankrupt”. When you watch it you’ll see that there is absolutely no evidence at all that retirees are going bankrupt. So why do I use a misleading headline? To laugh at the naysayers. It’s fun to mock these people because I think their intentions are bad.
Where is the evidence that people are running out of money in retirement? Point to it please. Don’t just point to a survey that says people don’t have $400 in their checking acct. Don’t just point to an article that says people aren’t saving enough. That’s not evidence of retirees going broke.
You could argue that is evidence people WILL go broke. But then I’d throw that evidence right back at you and say “you’ve been saying this same stuff for years and yet there is NO evidence of retirees going broke so why should we believe you now?”
At some point your “evidence” has to come to reality, no? Kind of like the Climate Change crazies, who keep predicting doom and yet it never happens. “We only have 10 more years left!”, they’ve said for literal decades and yet here we are. “But it was record heat this year, Josh!” Oh, for the love of all that is good, true and beautiful. Tell me most people aren’t still falling for this, right?
Anyway, if your evidence never emerges into actual proof than at some point we can say your evidence is faulty. Which is exactly my problem with the retirement scaremongers, as well as climate doomsdayers. They make their living pushing fear and scaring people. It’s a very profitable business plan.
Governments and Foundations will fund your “research”, which of course, will lead to more evidence of a pending collapse and thus Governments and Foundations will continue to provide you money to come up with ideas on how to fix things.
Let’s take a look at the sponsors for the Center For Retirement Research at Boston College. A litany of groups who most certainly have your best interests at heart, right?
Next let’s go over to the New School’s Center for Economic Policy Analysis. This is the place run by one of the premiere retirement fear-mongers, Teresa Ghilarducci. Wait a second, did I see the Economic Policy Institute is one of the sponsors? Yes, I did. Let’s take a gander and see who’s on the board of directors of this esteemed organization. A definite who’s who of people who only want the best for you. Just look at ’em: Keith Ellison, Randi Weingarten, Robert Reich. Julianne Malveaux. Nice work if you can get it, indeed.
80% of EPI’s funding comes from Foundations. Did I see Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund as a donor? Yes I did. The Gates Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network. Cracks me up to see the Peter Peterson Foundation, that guy was supposedly a capitalist, eh? Nothing but the best of the DC swamp here. (But hey, don’t you dare suggest we tax these Foundations. We are conservatives after all!).
Hopefully, you can see the silliness of all this. It’s a big racket, my friends. Very lucrative, mind you. But should your retirement planning rely on these people, especially when the actual evidence is so contradictory to what they say? Of course not.
Does this mean YOU specifically can retire? Man, I’ve no idea. But doesn’t it at least warrant a second look to see if maybe things aren’t as bad as what you’ve been told? I certainly hope so. But that’s your choice. You are free to choose the path of despair if you want. I imagine if you were that person, though, you’d never be here in the first place. Because I like optimism. I have four kids after all. You can’t have kids and think the world is going to collapse. Why on earth would you bring kids into a world like that?
And, let’s be honest, you can’t love The Lord and be a scaredy-cat either. If God truly loves you, as I firmly believe He does, well what else do you need? Be of good cheer and recognize the battle has already been won. Now it’s up to you to go out there and spread the Good News!