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A special edition: Money Through the Ages
If you listen to Marketplace Money with any regularity, you know we like to say it's never too early to start thinking about your money. How to manage it, save it, spend it, and understand it so you can control your money and not have it control you.
So when Ron Lieber and the Your Money staff at The New York Times approached us with the idea of collaborating on a special project about how money issues change through the decades of our lives, we thought it would be a great opportunity to go in-depth "through the ages." And that's just what we did on the show this weekend.
Host Tess Vigeland, and a team of reporters working for The Times, including Ron Lieber, Tara Siegel Bernard, and Paul Sullivan, traveled around the country for the coverage. Their profiles ranged from 18-year-old Mino Caulton, trying to carefully chose college to minimize his debt later, to 70-year-old Susanna Wilson, who's worked her whole life, but never saved for retirement.
Some interesting themes emerged - like the fact a lot of us just don't like thinking about money that much. Also, issues don't end from one stage of life to the next. In fact, if you don't deal with them, they can simply compound.
We added a decade to our version of the collaboration - 83-year-old E. Danby Brandon, a working financial planner who still has a dozen clients in their 90s. So I guess if the bad news is that it's never too early to start thinking about money; the good news is it's never too late, either.
You can read the print stories at NYTimes.com/ages and listen to some extra web audio elements. Plus, don't miss the cool interactive checklist that helps you navigate finances through the ages, produced by NYTimes.com and also made in a special section on our website.
Let us know what you think and enjoy this weekend's show.
I just finished listening to the broadcast - very informative for people of all ages.
I'm 51, divorced, with two daughters in their 20s. One is married, and is a meticulous budgeter and saver. I have no worries for her and her husband. The other one is 22, a bit of a spender (although she does look for bargains, etc.); she will graduate college in December of this year with a degree in marketing, but also with around $40K in student loans. She IS a go-getter - I sort of worry about her...I don't believe that she will move back in with me as she does not consider my house her "home"...she grew up in Dallas and is in Nashville for college. I moved to Oklahoma (closer to family) when my divorce was final 3 years ago.
My biggest problem, though, is myself. I do have around $50K in retirement accounts, a $13/hr job, around $30K in PLUS loans, a 13yr old car, etc., etc...and I'm 3 years out from a divorce. Needless to say, ex-husband is making quadruple the amount I am AND he managed to get his credit card debt of more than $100K totally written off at the time of the divorce. I'm just thankful I was not legally liable for any of it.
I don't worry about when I'll retire...I figure I will NEVER be able to retire, but I am concerned about becoming disabled and not being able to work. My parents are in their 80s and holding their own for the time being. I pray that they are able to stay in their own home and that they pass in their sleep when the time comes...I cannot even imagine having to try to help them financially, should the need arise.
How do I find someone that can help me figure out what sort of planning I should be doing (if I have any flexibility in planning at all)?? I cannot afford to pay someone, and I do not want to be "taken" by their financial products...I just need good, sound advice before I end up like the woman at the end of your broadcast.
Thank you.
Who runs your retirement account? My 401(k) plan sends counselors regularly to my workplace to talk to people about their situations.
Find a directly government-sponsored financial workshop. As you said, finding a free workshop is tough because in some cases it is actually a selling session. I was about to mention workshops run by nonprofits, but I remember attending a session some time ago run by a nonprofit. It was actually a recruiting and fundraising function for the nonprofit, which wasn't mentioned anywhere in the session's flyer.
Did you really mean the 20ish young woman living with her parents is surprisingly nonplussed? She sounded more nonchalant to me. If she is not worried about the money she owes she is hardly in a state of continued perplexity or bewilderment.
If you need an extra editor on staff, I'm a technical writer who could use the some part-time income. :)
I listened to a couple of the stories over the weekend and would just like to point out that these are all examples. My wife and I are in the "Boomerang" group but her experience doesn't look like ours, or most of our friends, at all.
I attribute our current situation to three things; taking the job that pays the bills now, saving for the sake of saving, and our parents contribution to both of our Under-Graduate Education.
Neither of us had the perfect opportunity right when we got out of college. I ended up teaching English in China for a year, then taking a Sales job (not ideal but I made of it what I could and am now in a career). My wife got done and moved home for a few months while working at a fitness club. She was always looking for the next step, taking some very difficult jobs while she figured out what she wanted to do with her life and looking for a little bit more money. I think there's a certain attitude of wanting the perfect career now, and not just paying the bills (woman in article dropped a $25/hour gig? Really? $52,000/year while working with kids was a good start?)
My wife and I save for the sake of saving, not to buy something or take care of a "Bucket List" (weird to be thinking about a bucket list in your 20s). We are constantly monitoring monthly reoccurring expenses to make sure we are saving at least 10% a month. If an expense puts us less than that, we don't do it. Good-bye Cable TV, hello Hulu and Netflix (Yes my generation is cutting the cord).
Finally, and enormous amount of credit goes to our parents who successfully planned their own financial lives so that they could do for us what their parents did for them, they helped us pay for our Undergraduate Education. Not starting out deep in debt was the greatest gift our parents could have ever given us. We have now worked up some debt of our own with Graduate School, but we are prepared for it. We will, of course, pay for our kids' educations also, which will give them a heads up on those who had to saddle themselves with debt, and we will send them out to the world ready to do what they want.
I just wanted to put this out there because my story is more common in my group of friends than her story. I pass no judgement, but I feel like the responsible part of our generation isn't getting much credit at all. We've learned from others' mistakes and have made the sacrifices necessary to live a secure and independent lifestyle. I think that there are more of us out there than any program has given us credit for.
All the information presented in this piece was exceptional. As a 30-something, it prompted me to reassess our own financial status. However, after plowing through gobs of articles linked to this piece, and learning a great deal, the only thing I found that was sadly missing is simple advice on how to create a basic budget. As this piece identifies, it is clearly not intuitive and I'm surprised more advice is not given on how to create one. Maybe I overlooked it?
Just finished listening to the 3/26 broadcast and want to thank you for excellent analysis of the perspectives at different ages. This quality radio work brings a realism and sensitivity that print-only cannot. The 70-something former designer's sad tale recalls the fable of the happy grasshopper who did not put away for the future, and awoke too late to realize winter had come. I have worked with a financial planner for 25 years to put away the book royalties from my 44 books in stable and safe investments that will assure sound funding for 20 more years (I am 63), and I encourage your efforts to promote careful coordination with CFP's. Thank you! --Jim O'Reilly
