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I spoke the other day about rich people whingeing that they don't have enough to retire in luxury. In today's news there is a 67 year old man who hates his job and wants to retire. However the poor thing only has $700K saved up. This only gives him $28K a year in interest. 
Poor old dear still hasn't paid off his mortgage so how will he manage on that?
How the other half live.
Everyone is acting like this guy is in some horrible situation but I'll never have 700k and the planet will be an inferno by the I'm 67. I think he's doing okay.
Honestly sick of hearing about retiries at this point.
I understand that a lot of people look at those numbers and think that's an obscene chunk of money, but $28k/yr as a retiree (especially one who doesn't have fully paid off housing) is not liveable. This person still has property taxes to pay, utilities, groceries, and above all else massively inflated medical expenses (which may very well wreck their body to the point where working is a literal impossibility).
Also, for retirement money you're not taking the interest but instead slowly doling out what money you have saved up year over year, so the amount you could sustainably take out will shrink over time... which means if you live longer than you expected, now you're in a position where you have no money at all at the point in your life where your support network has quite literally died off and you have no ability to work anymore.
4% rate of withdrawal is supposed to be "safe" for 30 years, but that's only a 90-95% chance. So based off that around 1 in 10 or 20 people end up with nothing but social security even before the 30 years is up
$28k/year
my rent alone is about half that and I live on a postage stamp in the boonies. This is not very much money especially when you consider that it is a fixed income and inflation will continue to make things more expensive while this person is in retirement.
28k a year in interest. That's not counting annuity payments on the principle itself being withdrawn.
A 67 year old man can expect to live to 81 years old per actuarial tables. That's 14 years of withdrawals, or $50,000 per year on top of the 28k.
And what happens when they turn 82 years old?
Assuming your time of death is a serious gamble in a country with such few safety nets.
Then he will rejoin the rest of us in the prole boat, welcome to America
Yeah I'm sure an 82 year old will definitely be able to physically work a full-time job at the same salary he had before he retired.
In fact, I'm absolutely positive being retired for 15 years wouldn't affect getting hired or keeping up with modern technology at all. Stay at home moms famously have no issues getting right back into the work force for great pay after the kids are grown and their ex-husbands leave them for someone a decade younger. I don't see what the big deal is??? 
As leftists you do realize our ultimate aim is to improve the material conditions of the working class right?
I'm pointing out how shit the American retirement system is that you are just dumped in the cold when the money runs out. I was also just pointing out people's math is just wrong in this thread, $28k/year is based on 4% withdrawal and a 30 year expected life span. This 67 year old man doesn't have a 30 year expected lifespan so the amount would be higher. Sorry for just pointing out that your math is wrong in this thread
Nowhere did I say this was "no big deal" or that this man should be thrown to the streets. You are reading into things that don't exist and tilting at windmills. This man is in a fairly comfortable position, better than 90% of the American population and all of us will be in at his age. The median amount of wealth Americans have at retirement age is $200,000 according to this, or less than 1/3 of what this home-owning man has. I'm just not weeping for the middle class boomer's plight when literally everyone else has it worse.
I mean, that much money comes out to around $1,000 into his retirement each year working (backtesting with testfol.io, assuming he's a boglehead), which really isn't a huge amount of money. It's entirely possible to do that while making less than median American salary ($48,000/year).
Median savings at retirement is $200k, less than 1/3 of what this person has. They're not only "above average" they're triple the median and in an extremely comfortable position relative to most of their peers
That makes sense, financials tend to be skewed, so mean is a lot higher than median.
Depending on his family arrangement, 28k a year would put him in the bottom 20% of Americans, and only 4k-8k above the American poverty line.
Admittedly, his savings are a bit above average.
real crabs-in-a-bucket hours. love to vilify someone for being a fat cat who put $85/month into retirement savings over their working life. love to criticize the wealthy "other half" who have enough retirement savings to... checks notes live just above the poverty line.
Intersectionality and solidarity?
Fuck that, let's shit on the elderly and burn bridges!