Let us say that you are 45, you want to retire at 67, you put your money into an extremely conservative fund with a predictable 5% interest, you make $12,000 a year and save 10% of your income ($100 a month) and start with $1000 in the fund.
In that time you would have *saved* $27,400 and you have $23,590 built in interest. Is $50k enough to survive on for retirement? Absolutely not. Will it keep you more housed and fed and cared for than $27,400? YES.
Let us say that you are 35 and you are just letting your money from your 401K sit at a low interest of 1.5%; you are saving for 32 years to retire at 67, you start with $1000 and you save 10% of your income (same as above, $1200 a year).
In that time you have saved $39,400 and gained $11,500 in interest. Is that better than not saving? Yes. Is it going to be enough to survive on for retirement? Absolutely not.
Now, let's say that you're doing everything exactly the same as the 35 year old in the above example except you put your money into an index fund with a very modest return of 7%.
THAT'S A LOT FUCKING BETTER. You've still saved $39,400 but the interest is now $112K. THAT'S MUCH BETTER.
Now: same example - you start with $1000, you make $12,000 a year and put $1200 a year into your 401k, you invest in a fund with an average over time of 7%, but you are 25 and you are saving 42 years to retire at 67.
You have only saved about $11k more, but you have collected over a quarter million dollars in interest. Is $320k enough to survive on? Well, let's say you expect to live to 87, almost 20 years after retirement. You get $16,000 a year, which is more than you were making during your working years in this example.
Now. Let's say you're 25 and you're broke as fuck, you don't have a thousand dollars a month income, you don't have a hundred dollars a month to put in the fund. What happens if you just do twenty dollars a month with no padding up front at 7% interest for 42 years?
You ended up with more than the 45 year old who saved for 22 years at 5% interest, more than the 35 year old who saved for 32 years at 1.5% interest by saving at a rate of $240 a year.
Now, let's say you're thirty, you're making $35k a year, you are going to be saving for 37 years, and we'll still be cautious and say you're getting 9% interest. You're contributing about 5% of your income, $145 a month, paid directly to your 401K automatically from your paycheck, before it ever hits your bank account, because that's what "pay yourself first" means.
You retire with half a million dollars.
Let's say you get a tax return every year, and you take $300 of that tax return and put it in your retirement account.
Let's say you're 25, like the person up there who is convinced they won't ever be able to retire, and you have 47 years to save. You figure out a way to save $50 a month for retirement and you put $200 of your annual tax return into your 401k, which has a 9% yield:
I am begging/pleading: PUT SOME FUCKING MONEY INTO YOUR 401K AND INVEST IT IN AN INDEX FUND THAT IS SYNCED TO THE YEAR YOU PLAN TO RETIRE.
THIS IS NOT LIKE THE BOOMERS SAYING YOU COULD BUY A HOUSE IF NOT FOR THE AVOCADO TOAST, THIS IS PLANNING FOR LATE LIFE HOUSING AND CARE FOR THE COST OF ONE FAST FOOD MEAL, SPOTIFY, NETFLIX, AND GOING TO THE LIBRARY INSTEAD OF THE MOVIES OR THE BOOKSTORE.
You already don't do any of those things? Cool, this is about 1/8th what you can make selling plasma per month put into a retirement fund to make sure you aren't homeless when you're older.
I am a big believer in mutual aid and not trusting the government. You know what's going to enable you to help more people later in life? If you don't have to rely on your younger family members to support you in your old age. If you make 35k a year (which you might not now, but may in 5 years) 5% of your income means having the means to continue helping your family, and helping your community, and not relying on community resources that other people might need because you put your oxygen mask on first.
I know fifty bucks a month is hard. I know twenty bucks a month is hard. But it's not as hard as leaving your home when you can't afford it at 70 or becoming a walmart greeter at 75 would be.
Also "Social security is going to run out of money" is a pretty egregious oversimplification; if no changes are made by 2035 social security beneficiaries will only receive 83% of the benefit that they would have if it had been fully funded. Here's how a financial advisor describes that (while advising that you invest for retirement):
It's likely that Social Security will be around when you retire. However, you may not receive the full benefit offered to current retirees. The Social Security Administration's 2024 annual report found that the program is likely to be able to pay 100% of the current benefits through 2035. After that, retirees would receive 83% of their scheduled benefits.
What could that look like? As of January 2025, the average Social Security payout is $1,976 per month. If you were to receive 83% of that, it would drop to $1,640 per month.
Being an anarchocommunist does not absolve you of the responsibility to do some planning for the future. I know you want to give to every support post that comes across your dash and that is something that you should plan for and budget for. And you should plan to treat your own retirement savings as though you are a 70 year old writing a post on tumblr to try to raise money for rent
Part of recognizing that a better world is possible is recognizing that you have to have some agency in making that better world and nobody wants to do a revolution with people who don't have the ability to do basic math or plan for the future.
Save for retirement now so that the money people would have used to support you can go to strike funds, or can provide dental care for low income families, or can be used to provide housing for someone who wasn't able to work, or who DID have some disaster that wiped out all their savings.
And then fuck it if you want, plan on dying at 80 (or using less of your income annually after retirement) when you retire and give fifty grand to someone to put a down payment on a house or to pay for two years of rent for a family that needs help.
I'm in my late 30s now and I deeply regret not setting up better savings in my 20s or early 30s because it's *HARD* to catch up. If you're young, and you're reading this, and you have twenty dollars a month that you can put into a 401K I am speaking directly to you. Don't be me. Be smarter than I was. Please please please please just invest and provide a stable senior situation for yourself, or at least do what you can to make that situation more stable.
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