Letters to the Editor
-
Real Income overall is down
4%/year every year since 2001. Smart people have adjusted to this already and are just waiting for the bottom to fall out. If I can get my credit card load down 50% then I'm good to go. Everything's in cash or near cash, the mortgage is 4.7% fixed 20 year (15 remaining). One car is paid off. All kids are or will be instate public university students. Second home/condo purchased for cash.
I'm 100% sure my Fortune 50 employer will for the 5th year in a row cancel annual increases and bonuses. Benefits costs have increased 15-17% per year every year while the benefits themselves get weaker and thinner. Plus the stock is down 35% since 2001. My CEO makes about 45 million per year.
By the way, last year (CY 2007) Wall St. paid out 69 billion dollars in compensation, 39 billion of which was bonus money. Now that's a sweet gig.
I fully expect to work until I drop in the harness. I believe my parents generation will be an historical anomaly in that no one before or after will retire the way they could. And by the time I'm that old the US will, economically be a 2nd tier country or worse so it really won't matter where I live: South America is a good option.