It is still possible for those working in the Bay Area to live there. But, once retired the cost of living is too high for many retirees and they are forced to move. Maybe if they had not voted for the radical politicians they could have stayed. But the cost of having a Pelosi and Feinstein in office is moving to survive when retired.
For “bright” people, they have created the conditions that will harm them in retirement. Karma?
“Wells Fargo found that about 40 percent of Bay Area residents say they’ll need a one-way ticket out of town when they retire.
Only 59 percent of survey respondents in the nine-county Bay Area said they’re confident that when they retire, they’ll be “able to afford to stay in the Bay Area.”
The San Francisco bank didn’t say why so many of the region’s residents plan to pack their bags when they retire, but the cost of living and need to cash in home equity are likely key factors.”
CA News & Views
Wells Fargo says many will kiss Bay Area goodbye at retirement
Mark Calvey, San Francisco Business Times, 2/27/14
Wells Fargo found that about 40 percent of Bay Area residents say they’ll need a one-way ticket out of town when they retire.
Only 59 percent of survey respondents in the nine-county Bay Area said they’re confident that when they retire, they’ll be “able to afford to stay in the Bay Area.”
The San Francisco bank didn’t say why so many of the region’s residents plan to pack their bags when they retire, but the cost of living and need to cash in home equity are likely key factors.
Almost half of Bay Area respondents say the Great Recession that officially ended in June 2009 has “significantly” affected their retirement strategy. (With the recession ending almost five years ago, I wish the bank had asked a follow-up, “How did the recession change your retirement strategy?”)
“Half of local residents report that the biggest barrier to saving more is knowing the best way to save or invest,” said Katherine Dean, managing director of wealth planning for Wells Fargo Private Bank in San Francisco.
The bank’s latest survey underscores Wells Fargo’s (NYSE: WFC) warning last year that a national retirement crisis is approaching.
Yesterday, I saw the dichotomy of the American economy and retirement planning. My day started off with Joel Kurtzman, author of the new book, “Unleashing the Second American Century: Four Forces for Economic Dominance,” who told Bloomberg TV that Americans are too pessimistic and don’t fully appreciate the powerful fundamentals of the U.S. economy. And yet by nightfall, I was at San Francisco’s historic Balboa Theater for the San Francisco premiere of “Broken Eggs,” a film about the nation’s looming retirement crisis.
“The film takes a rare look at one of the gravest social issues facing an aging America — the grim irony that even as we live longer, a growing number of Americans are falling short of a secure and comfortable retirement,” according to the film’s website. Chad Parks, CEO of the Online 401(k) service in San Francisco, is the film’s executive producer.
The movie is based on a road trip that Parks and his team took across the country to assess American readiness for retirement. Suffice it to say that the road trip found many are in for a bumpy ride.
“There’s a lot more awareness on the retirement issue than we were led to believe. But people are not acting on what they know,” Parks said in reflecting on the road trip at the premiere. He urges people to take action to secure their retirement years rather than waiting on the government to do something.
Broken Eggs’ interviews include a 72-year-old woman working a couple part-time jobs to make ends meet. And the future of America, in my opinion, was captured by a couple suffering setbacks in the form of the wife’s battle with cancer that generated hefty bills despite Medicare picking up $2 million in medical costs and the 65-year-old husband suffering from chronic unemployment. Those are factors most retirement planning doesn’t take into account.
The husband spoke briefly after the movie’s premiere last night to say they’re selling the “underwater” house purchased at the peak of the housing bubble in 2005, to take advantage of the housing market’s rebound. (Signs of a housing slowdown don’t bode well for other boomers hoping to cash out of their homes to finance their golden years.)
Some might look at the unfortunate circumstances of this couple and simply hope they fare better. But their story is more common than many realize. And with 10,000 boomers hitting 65 every day, there will be a growing pool of homeowners seeking to downsize, selling the family house and embracing frugality.
That bodes ill not only for those who didn’t save and invest for retirement, but also for those who expect their home equity and a rising stock market will make their golden years shine.
“Most Americans who were middle class when they were working all their life are going to be poor or near-poor retirees,” Economist Teresa Ghilarducci with the New School of Social Research, says in the film. “We’re going to have massive downward mobility.”
