Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.
Retirement advice tends to assume you spent decades contributing to a 401(k), buying stocks and watching compound interest do its thing. But what happens when someone reaches their late 60s with no investment portfolio, no pension and barely any savings?
That question recently sparked a discussion on Reddit. The most popular answer wasn’t a clever budgeting strategy.
“They keep working, move in with family members, or go homeless,” one commenter wrote. Another reduced the situation to six words: “Social security and work till you die.”
-
Warren Buffett once said, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”Here’s how you can earn passive income with just $100.
-
AI Needs More Power Than The Grid Can Easily Provide.This Startup Is Taking A Different Approach To Energy Storage.
For Some People, Retirement Never Comes
Several people shared stories of people working well past the age when Americans traditionally expect to retire. One person’s sister worked until she was forced to retire at 74. She then had to sell her home and move to another state to live with her daughter.
Another described a 79-year-old neighbor who worked more than 10 hours a day and didn’t stop until he collapsed one morning. He was diagnosed with advanced cancer, moved in with his previously estranged niece and died about three months later.
Of course, working at 70 isn’t automatically a tragedy. One 70-year-old commenter said she has plenty saved but keeps working because she loves her job and would be bored otherwise. Another retired engineer reportedly took a retail gardening job simply because he enjoyed talking about gardening.
“There is a difference between working and having to work,” one commenter captured the distinction perfectly.
Trending: There’s More Than One Way To Put Cash To Work.Some Accredited Investors Are Looking Beyond Savings Accounts.
For people who still have time to build retirement assets, that distinction is also why starting at any age matters. Take control of your retirement with a Self-Directed IRA from Advanta IRA. It offers Self-Directed IRAs that allow you to diversify retirement funds into assets including real estate and crypto, giving people another way to build a retirement portfolio beyond conventional investments. Open an account today.
Social Security Becomes the Retirement Plan
For people without investments or pensions, Social Security may become virtually the entire retirement strategy.
