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Why so many Americans can’t afford to retire in 2026 · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:05
  You are listening to the Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:08
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:10
  Well, it turns out the government could um audit people who are on Social Security.
• 0:17
  This is kind of a slap in the face to people who are facing retirement, which if you are aware, I've been talking about this for a long, long time.
• 0:28
  There is a retirement crisis in America.
• 0:32
  I'll break that down by the numbers in this episode and talk about why it's so important to have an awareness of this.
• 0:40
  This was an article that I saw recently that caught my attention, and I thought, well, this is good for us to talk about.
• 0:47
  We need to put all of this stuff on the table and let people know what the IRS is up to.
• 0:53
  Because man, I don't trust them as far as you can throw them.
• 0:58
  And I just, I don't get it.
• 1:01
  My thing is, you know the old song, um the Pink Floyd song, hey teacher, leave them kids alone.
• 1:09
  I think we ought to have a song, hey IRS, leave those retired people alone.
• 1:16
  Uh back off.
• 1:18
  People have worked hard their whole life, and law abiding citizens in America shouldn't be targeted.
• 1:25
  That's just my opinion.
• 1:27
  But here's what could happen.
• 1:29
  According to this article, um, the IRS could audit you, and they could fine you a 25% excise tax on the amount not withdrawn if you fail to take the required minimum distributions.
• 1:50
  RMDs, uh, some retirement accounts have an RMD.
• 1:55
  I'm not a fan of the RMDs, required minimum distribution.
• 2:00
  When you reach a certain age, and that fluctuates a little bit depending on what the uh current laws are, but you have to start taking from your retirement account.
• 2:14
  I think that's absolutely crazy.
• 2:16
  If you ask me, it's your money.
• 2:19
  You worked for it, you invested that money, and now the government's saying you either take that or we're gonna take 25%.
• 2:28
  That is absolutely crazy to me.
• 2:32
  Uh, hey, IRS, leave those retired people alone.
• 2:39
  Leave them alone.
• 2:41
  I mean, uh the the government wastes so much money.
• 2:45
  We're talking about this.
• 2:46
  My family was talking about this the the other day.
• 2:48
  Uh my in-laws were in town, and we were talking about how we stopped minting the penny.
• 2:55
  You know, under uh just recently, President Trump announced, uh, we're gonna stop minting the penny.
• 3:00
  Well, now I was a victim of this.
• 3:04
  I say that in jest.
• 3:06
  Uh I'm not I don't like the victim mentality.
• 3:10
  But I went to Walmart and uh one of my church members had given me cash, and he said, I'm not gonna be there for Easter service, and I want you to buy, I want you to buy bacon with this money.
• 3:23
  So I was like, all right.
• 3:24
  So I I went in the store and I calculated and figured out how much I could buy with what he gave me, and uh I had like $2 and some change extra.
• 3:35
  And on their uh uh on the monitor, I did self-checkout, by the way, on the monitor, it showed that I was supposed to get back like two whatever, two, let's say two twenty-two or two twenty-three, something like that.
• 3:52
  And then it spits out two dimes.
• 3:55
  And I'm like, well, where's the where's the rest of my money?
• 3:59
  And then I remembered because I don't use cash very much.
• 4:02
  I just don't like to carry it.
• 4:04
  I I tried the whole Dave Ramsey cash method, and I just I don't like it.
• 4:09
  It's very clunky and clumsy to me.
• 4:12
  And I'm not saying that I want uh a digital system.
• 4:16
  I I don't.
• 4:17
  I I think we should be able to use cash.
• 4:20
  It's it's legal tender in America, and we should be able to use it.
• 4:26
  So I don't think that should ever be taken away.
• 4:28
  But then I remembered that they're doing rounding now.
• 4:34
  So they'll either round down or they'll round up, and basically the consumer is the one who gets screwed over.
• 4:41
  Um, but um I'm like, this is absolutely crazy.
• 4:45
  But anyway, we're doing the math on it.
• 4:48
  So I I want to point this out to show you just how smart our government is.
• 4:55
  Big government, right?
• 4:57
  They're they're the geniuses who tell us how to live our lives.
• 5:01
  And uh these are the people figuring out our taxes and what to do with our tax money.
• 5:06
  So we stopped minting the penny.
• 5:08
  And President Trump made a big deal about this.
• 5:10
  He's like, yeah, it's such such a waste of money, and uh, we're we're cutting, right?
• 5:15
  Doge.
• 5:16
  We're we're cutting, cutting budget.
• 5:18
  So it costs, I don't know, something like 3.6 cents per penny to make.
• 5:25
  And uh, you know, at first glance, you're like, okay, well, I guess that kind of makes sense.
• 5:30
  It's tens of millions of dollars every year, uh, which is a drop in the bucket for what our government spends, and certainly what they rob from us and waste on stupid frivolous things, including Social Security.
• 5:46
  Um, that's all that is my big beef with how our government wastes money.
• 5:52
  Uh, anyway, so 3.6 cents or whatever to make a penny.
• 5:58
  So then my mother-in-law was like, I wonder how much it costs to make a nickel.
• 6:02
  So she looked it up, and lo and behold, here we are.
• 6:07
  14 cents to produce a single nickel, which only has a value of five cents.
• 6:14
  We're still minting those.
• 6:19
  Like, how does this math math?
• 6:25
  Uh the government, the US government loses roughly 8.8 cents on every nickel produced.
• 6:36
  Uh, unbelievable.
• 6:38
  So on the penny, they're losing like, you know, something like two cents.
• 6:43
  They're losing 8.8 cents on every nickel.
• 6:46
  It takes just under, it takes 13.78 cents to produce a single nickel.
• 6:55
  Uh I don't get it.
• 6:57
  So instead of stopping minting the nickel, we're gonna stop minting the penny.
• 7:02
  It's not about cost savings.
• 7:04
  It never was.
• 7:07
  And I don't know why they did it.
• 7:09
  I I think I don't know.
• 7:12
  Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think this is one of the one of the big steps to digitize the entire monetary system in the United States and eventually do away with physical cash and coin money.
• 7:27
  Uh I this is not about cost savings.
• 7:31
  I promise you that.
• 7:33
  So, anyway, one of those bizarre things.
• 7:36
  So I'm gonna look at this article here because uh it's I think a little bit troubling.
• 7:42
  Uh, but I want to break these numbers down as this episode unfolds.
• 7:47
  And of course, I always like to talk about what we can do to arm ourselves against this kind of stuff.
• 7:55
  So the article, it's a Fox Business News uh by Eric Revel, and he says American retirees may be done with their working careers, but they may still face the scrutiny of an IRS audit if their tax return raises red flags.
• 8:12
  Data from the IRS shows the tax collection and enforcement agency has conducted audits on fewer than 1% of individual tax returns in recent years.
• 8:24
  In the tax years 2014 through 2022, the IRS reported that it examined 0.4% of all individual tax returns filed, though that figure rises to 7.9% of taxpayers who filed returns with income of 10 million or more.
• 8:46
  So this this is I find this a little bit ironic.
• 8:49
  Right?
• 8:50
  Because you have people screaming, tax the rich, tax the rich, fair share, fair share.
• 8:56
  If you're making 10 million or more, number one, you are paying taxes.
• 9:02
  Uh Elon Musk has been pretty open about that.
• 9:05
  He's like, I pay billions of dollars in taxes.
• 9:10
  Uh they do pay taxes.
• 9:13
  It's a myth to say that wealthy people don't pay taxes.
• 9:17
  Now, individual taxes, they pay very little because they show legally, and I would do it too, 100%.
• 9:28
  They show that their income is, you know, 40, 50,000 a year.
• 9:35
  Their personal income.
• 9:38
  And there's nothing in the world wrong with that.
• 9:43
  Uh, because their business is getting taxed.
• 9:47
  And if they were showing an income of a million dollars in a year, they're gonna get taxed.
• 9:52
  That's gonna shove them into a high tax bracket.
• 9:55
  So their business is going to be paying the same amount of taxes, and they're gonna be taking.
• 10:00
  Paying personally paying a massive amount of taxes.
• 10:05
  And so how do they get around that?
• 10:06
  Well, they uh they allow their assets, they allow their business to pay for their liabilities, their cars, you know, the business buys the car and so forth.
• 10:21
  Uh, and and so it's actually a really smart move.
• 10:25
  And they've certainly earned it.
• 10:27
  Yeah, they're not cheating the system.
• 10:30
  That's just how business works.
• 10:33
  So, anyway, uh, you know, the whole tax the rich, tax the rich.
• 10:37
  Well, it turns out the tax, the IRS audits for taxes target people with an income of 10 million or more.
• 10:48
  Um retirees typically have a simpler tax returns that don't involve the kind of tax credits that warrant additional scrutiny.
• 11:00
  Uh while it's unclear, he says from the agency's data how often the IRS audits retired Americans, there are still some things that can attract the attention of auditors.
• 11:13
  And he goes on to list those things, uh, high-income taxpayers.
• 11:17
  So if you have a big portfolio, and you're earning more than 400,000, that's gonna uh or or can tip off the IRS.
• 11:30
  Retirees who neglect to report all of their taxable income may also face IRS scrutiny.
• 11:37
  Uh you have to submit copies of all tax documents that they receive, including 1099s that cover retirement income.
• 11:45
  Uh so if you're a greeter at Walmart or you know, you're just doing something to keep yourself busy, you have to report that.
• 11:54
  And and I'm okay with that.
• 11:56
  Uh, I I think you should do things legally.
• 12:01
  Uh, but he's just saying this could trigger an audit.
• 12:06
  Uh, another one.
• 12:08
  Charitable contributions.
• 12:11
  Isn't that ironic?
• 12:13
  It's like the Atlantis Morissette song.
• 12:15
  I'm in a song mood today.
• 12:16
  No, I'm not gonna sing to you.
• 12:19
  Uh, but uh it's like the Atlantis Morissette song, isn't that ironic?
• 12:24
  You work your whole life, you get to retirement, and then you give, you increase your charitable contributions, and now you could trigger an audit by the IRS.
• 12:39
  All right, how about the RMDs that we were talking about?
• 12:43
  Required minimum distribution.
• 12:45
  Currently, retirees face RMDs when they turn 73, and failing to take those withdrawals can trigger a penalty in the form of a 25% excise tax on the amount that wasn't distributed as required.
• 12:59
  I think that's so ridiculous because we ought to have the freedom to do with our money what we want to do with our money.
• 13:06
  And if you want to sit on that money, say that you want to uh, and and I think this is why they do it, but if you want to uh give that or gift that to your living relatives or charities or whoever, I think the government's like, well, you know, we need to get our tax.
• 13:28
  Only five states currently have a uh an inheritance tax, and so the government wants their cut.
• 13:35
  So the way that they ensure that they get their cut is they force you to take that.
• 13:41
  And if you don't, they can tax you on it.
• 13:43
  They can give you 25% excise tax.
• 13:47
  That's just ridiculous.
• 13:50
  Retirees who are working part-time or own a business, need to ensure that they accurately report that income or any deductions that they're claiming, because those could prompt the scrutiny of the IRS.
• 14:05
  And on and on it goes.
• 14:07
  So this is crazy to me because contextually, we're facing a massive retirement crisis.
• 14:17
  I talk about this very often because it's close to my heart.
• 14:21
  I want to see people retire in peace.
• 14:26
  I want them to do well.
• 14:27
  I don't like to see people struggle at retirement age.
• 14:30
  It's heartbreaking.
• 14:31
  And I've I've sat with many, many people who've shed a lot of tears at retirement.
• 14:38
  Because they had nothing.
• 14:41
  And it's it's really heartbreaking to witness.
• 14:44
  And uh, there are a lot of people at retirement age who are facing evictions.
• 14:49
  And to become homeless when you're in your 60s or 70s or 80s is just so so heartbreaking.
• 14:59
  And I feel like we as Americans can do better than this.
• 15:03
  And so we need to look out for each other.
• 15:06
  So here's a little bit about the crisis that we're facing.
• 15:08
  As of April 2026, the the combination of record high consumer debt and a historically low savings rates created what a lot of economists call retirement scissors effect.
• 15:22
  So on the one side, you have costs that are cutting into savings.
• 15:27
  All right, costs are skyrocketing.
• 15:29
  Look at what gas is doing right now.
• 15:30
  And that's just gas.
• 15:32
  It's all of our utilities.
• 15:34
  It's no surprise, it's no secret that utilities have skyrocketed.
• 15:39
  All right, so on the one side, you have costs that are cutting into savings, and on the other side, you have debt that's cutting into fixed income.
• 15:49
  So the car loans and the home loans are the biggest killers.
• 15:53
  They absolutely are digging into that.
• 15:56
  And I wish this wasn't the case.
• 15:59
  And uh that's why I say there's so much that we need to be doing to eliminate this kind of debt.
• 16:06
  It's absolutely unconscionable how much people are spending on cars and houses on their loans, and they're extending them.
• 16:14
  And banks, as a quote-unquote favorite of people, are now extending their their loans.
• 16:20
  So the average, well, I'll talk about this after the break.
• 16:23
  I'll leave you hanging a little bit.
• 16:25
  Wait till you hear how long the average car payment is now.
• 16:29
  Now, it used to be three to four years.
• 16:32
  Four years was the standard.
• 16:34
  That's no longer the case.
• 16:36
  We're extending car loans a lot longer.
• 16:40
  I mean, a lot longer.
• 16:42
  And uh there's just there's a lot that we need to be doing.
• 16:45
  We need to be proactive, or this is gonna, this is gonna catch you by surprise when you reach retirement.
• 16:51
  And a lot of people are finding out the hard way.
• 16:53
  We are coming up on a break here.
• 16:55
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• 16:59
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• 17:02
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• 17:07
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• 17:09
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• 17:10
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• 17:11
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• 19:06
  This is a new uh, I guess, study that was out, or maybe just an article, but either way, it really got me to thinking.
• 19:16
  Is the IRS really that heartless?
• 19:18
  Well, the answer is yes, because the government does not, by definition, have a heart.
• 19:24
  Uh, the government's made up of people, and it's made up of lots and lots and lots of rules and regulations.
• 19:32
  Rules for thee, but not for me.
• 19:36
  That ought to be the slogan of the American government.
• 19:39
  Rules for thee, but not for me.
• 19:42
  In other words, rules for the American people that the government doesn't have to abide by.
• 19:48
  Look at the insider trading and and all the stuff that happens on Washington.
• 19:53
  And uh, it's kind of crazy.
• 19:55
  If you or I did that, we'd be in jail, but politicians can get away with it.
• 20:00
  Uh how about how about oh here's my other soapbox?
• 20:04
  You ready for this one?
• 20:06
  How about our health insurance?
• 20:10
  Rules for thee, but not for me.
• 20:14
  Obamacare was jammed down the American people's throats.
• 20:18
  And it is an absolute disaster.
• 20:22
  It is a financial disaster.
• 20:24
  It's brought many, many, many Americans to financial ruin under the guise of free or cheap health care.
• 20:31
  That's how it was packaged.
• 20:34
  However, politicians are exempt from having to enter into the ridiculous marketplace.
• 20:43
  They get their own insurance, and it's rules for thee, but not for me.
• 20:49
  So it's it's a terrible thing they're doing to people entering into retirement.
• 20:56
  It's already hard enough for people to retire.
• 20:59
  Uh, and I'll talk about some of the numbers.
• 21:01
  And then there is a crisis.
• 21:03
  And I don't say this to worry people.
• 21:05
  I don't say it to complain.
• 21:07
  I'm just saying we need to have an awareness and realize that there is a crisis that we're facing, and we've got to be proactive.
• 21:16
  All right.
• 21:16
  We've got to be proactive because the government is not looking out for your best interest.
• 21:22
  I promise you that.
• 21:23
  So here's some of the killers of the retirement accounts.
• 21:28
  Again, it's the uh it's the scissors effect.
• 21:32
  So you have the cost on one side, and you have debt on the other side that are cutting into retirement.
• 21:38
  Auto loans and home mortgages are the two biggest issues that are uh that are keeping people from retiring.
• 21:46
  It's keeping people from living free.
• 21:49
  And I'm saying this is somebody who is uh I practice what I preach, I am debt-free.
• 21:54
  My wife and I have zero debt, none, nada.
• 21:59
  And uh the freedom that comes with that is absolutely fantastic.
• 22:04
  Uh my father-in-law was asking me, uh, we're going on vacation.
• 22:09
  And he said, Did you factor in the gas prices?
• 22:12
  He said, How many miles are you going to be driving?
• 22:14
  I was like, I don't know, somewhere around 2,500 miles, give or take.
• 22:18
  And he said, Well, did you factor in the the price of gas whenever you planned your vacation?
• 22:23
  I was like, of course not.
• 22:24
  That was before the war.
• 22:26
  And uh, you know, we already had it planned.
• 22:29
  We've had this planned for a long time, and uh, yeah, it's gonna cost us a lot because of gas prices.
• 22:36
  And he said, um, you know, basically, like he was hinting around, how bad is that gonna hurt you?
• 22:42
  And I was like, uh, it is what it is.
• 22:45
  And he's he was like, What?
• 22:48
  Like, yeah, that's we budget for our vacation and we give a pretty big cushion.
• 22:53
  And I mean, I can't change the gas prices.
• 22:56
  So it is what it is, but we budget for it.
• 22:59
  So it's to us it's not a big deal.
• 23:02
  It's that I don't love it, but but it's not a big deal.
• 23:06
  So there's a lot of freedom that comes when you are debt-free.
• 23:12
  And a lot of Americans have this proverbial uh rope tied around their their neck with all this weight, the weight of debt.
• 23:23
  So the auto loans, as of 2026, this year, excuse me, the average new car payment is 767.
• 23:35
  So I want you to think about this for a minute.
• 23:38
  If a 35-year-old started investing that car payment, essentially that car payment, $767 a month.
• 23:47
  If they invested that into a 401k with a 7% return, which is not to be honest, that's not great.
• 23:56
  7% is very conservative.
• 23:58
  Um, I like to aim for 10 plus.
• 24:02
  The more the the more the better, uh, the more the merrier.
• 24:07
  But a 7% return is pretty slim.
• 24:12
  But if they're investing that $767 car payment into a retirement account instead, if they do that for 30 years, they would retire within an additional 900 plus thousand dollars.
• 24:28
  That's a 7%.
• 24:31
  Most accounts you can hit 10% uh pretty easily, in my opinion, uh if if you really do your research.
• 24:39
  So right there, well over a million dollars.
• 24:42
  Well over, and that's for one individual.
• 24:46
  Well over a million dollars.
• 24:47
  If you would have taken that money, that car payment, and put that into a healthy 401k or some other kind of retirement account.
• 24:58
  You'd literally be a millionaire.
• 25:00
  And then there's the mortgage trap in 2026, and there's been a big shift in recent years.
• 25:08
  41% of homeowners who are age 65 to 79, almost half, still carry a mortgage.
• 25:18
  That is a massive jump.
• 25:21
  Just 30 years ago, 24% of people age 65, 79 carried a mortgage.
• 25:28
  Now it's 41%, almost half.
• 25:30
  That number will continue to climb.
• 25:34
  So for low-income seniors who make under 25,000 income, 97%, almost 100% are cost burdened.
• 25:46
  Meaning more than more than 30% of their fixed social security or pension goes entirely to the bank.
• 25:55
  And now the IRS, they're like, oh, yeah, if you're if you're given charitable contributions, we're we're we're gonna audit you.
• 26:05
  And then you have the whole tax.
• 26:08
  People who are taxed who are receiving Social Security.
• 26:11
  I think the people receiving Social Security should be taxed zero on social security ever.
• 26:20
  We've paid into Social Security, all of us.
• 26:25
  Now, my generation, we're not even gonna see Social Security.
• 26:28
  I am very confident of that.
• 26:31
  I am very, very confident that we will not see Social Security whenever we retire.
• 26:38
  Or if we do, it's gonna be some really anemic version of Social Security.
• 26:43
  They're gonna push the retirement age to like 97 and a half, and they're gonna give you peanuts, and they're gonna act like it's a big deal, like they're giving you all all this money.
• 26:55
  So it is a trap.
• 26:57
  It's an absolute trap.
• 27:00
  So the mortgage companies, the banks, the lenders, and the people who are given out these car loans, they're they're they're giving the American people a quote unquote favor.
• 27:14
  And they're extending these big time.
• 27:18
  So the average, the average length of a car loan.
• 27:24
  You ready?
• 27:26
  Is 68.9 months.
• 27:31
  5.7 years at $767 a month.
• 27:38
  That's for new cars.
• 27:40
  For used cars, it's not any better.
• 27:44
  The average is just about a month less at 67.7 months, still five over five and a half years.
• 27:54
  Five and a half years at 537 for a used car.
• 28:01
  That is wild to me.
• 28:03
  And then leased cars, the average lease is $613 a month, and that's a three-year, basically for three years, you're renting a car.
• 28:14
  You get no equity in the car.
• 28:16
  You literally get limited on how many miles you drive it, and then you have to turn the keys back in with absolutely nothing to show.
• 28:24
  So that's for three years, you're renting a car at $613 a month that you don't get to keep.
• 28:32
  There's also the rise of what's called the forever loan.
• 28:37
  That's loans that span $73 to $84 months.
• 28:42
  Seven-year loans are now the normal for, I think it's about um uh oh, here we go.
• 28:50
  Here's a number 32% of all new car financing.
• 28:55
  32% are getting a seven-year loan.
• 29:01
  Seven years for a 700 plus dollar loan.
• 29:08
  Some of these loans are are a thousand dollars.
• 29:11
  A thousand dollars a month, they're carrying that for seven years on a car, and these cars are junk.
• 29:19
  I mean, they're not worth anything.
• 29:21
  At the end of seven years, you your car is not worth uh but a fraction if it still runs.
• 29:28
  And a lot of them do not still run.
• 29:32
  So this is financial suicide.
• 29:35
  And the government now, they're gonna audit people going into retirement.
• 29:40
  So this is the kind of thing, you know, there's there's very little regulation on this.
• 29:44
  And so the banks are laughing, literally.
• 29:47
  There's the saying people laughing all the way to the bank.
• 29:49
  Well, the the banks are laughing all the way to their front door, their own front door.
• 29:56
  They're like, we can't believe the people keep falling for this.
• 30:00
  And it's unfortunate.
• 30:01
  I'm not making fun of people.
• 30:03
  I'm saying it's an unfortunate system where the banks are acting like they're doing the American people a favor.
• 30:10
  And it's keeping people enslaved to debt.
• 30:14
  Now are you ready for this?
• 30:17
  There's what's called the 84 month trap.
• 30:21
  More and more lenders are offering a 90 six month loan.
• 30:28
  96 months, eight years.
• 30:32
  Uh the president Trump was touting this 50-year mortgage for homes.
• 30:41
  50 years.
• 30:45
  Please don't ever get a 50-year mortgage ever.
• 30:48
  Please don't do that.
• 30:50
  The average age that people are buying houses now is in people are in their 40s.
• 30:58
  Right around the age of 40 is the average age that people are buying homes, which means if you're getting a 30-year mortgage, which is the standard, it's something like 90% of people get a 30-year mortgage.
• 31:11
  But there is an interesting trend.
• 31:14
  People only keep their mortgages for about 11.8 to 12 years before they either sell the home or refinance the loans.
• 31:23
  So people are not holding on to their houses, and then they start all over again.
• 31:27
  And that's, in my opinion, another troubling trend.
• 31:32
  Uh, because you lose you typically lose a lot of money.
• 31:36
  And I know people look at houses as an asset.
• 31:40
  Unless you have an asset that's paying for for your house, like some other asset, a business or a rental property or something like that that's paying for your mortgage, your house is a liability.
• 31:53
  And there's there's a big debate about this, but I am firmly in the camp that a house is a liability.
• 32:02
  Now, I I love owning a house.
• 32:05
  My wife and I own our house.
• 32:06
  I love it.
• 32:07
  We love our house.
• 32:08
  We love everything about it.
• 32:09
  It's a beautiful house.
• 32:11
  It's it feels like home.
• 32:12
  We've done a lot of renovations ourselves to it.
• 32:15
  But we've put a massive amount of money into that house, just in fixing things, not even talking about the renovations, just in upkeep, fixing the roof, and a major major things that have gone wrong with the house.
• 32:32
  We've pumped a massive amount of money into that.
• 32:36
  So even if we sell it at its current market value, we basically may be broken even.
• 32:44
  And then we have to start out by buying another house that has skyrocketed in price.
• 32:50
  So it's a liability.
• 32:52
  At the end of the day, a house is a liability unless you're paying for it with another asset.
• 32:57
  So we need to be aware of these things.
• 32:58
  And I'm not discouraging people from buying a home.
• 33:01
  I'm just saying be aware that all this, all this um hype about your house being a it's just this wonderful asset and it's gonna make you rich, and it increases your net worth by X amount of dollars and all that stuff.
• 33:17
  Uh it's all hype.
• 33:19
  I mean, for the most part, there are certain areas.
• 33:22
  I mean, a few pockets of areas in the United States where it could be considered an asset, and you know, you might get lucky, like what happened in Nashville.
• 33:33
  If you bought a house 15 years ago and you sell it now and you move out of Nashville and move out into the country somewhere, yeah, you've you've done pretty well for yourself.
• 33:44
  But for the most part, your house is a liability.
• 33:48
  And that's really really eating into retirement.
• 33:52
  So I want to look at the retirement statistics, and then again, talk about what we can do.
• 33:59
  So this was really interesting to me.
• 34:02
  In 2025, retirees thought that they needed 580,000 dollars 310, 580,310 to retire comfortably.
• 34:18
  Um that number jumped from 580,000 and two just last year, 2025.
• 34:28
  That number jumped to 823,800 just this year in 2026.
• 34:39
  People are realizing comfortable means basically paying your seven, eight hundred dollar electric bill every month.
• 34:50
  Right?
• 34:51
  That wasn't the case just last year.
• 34:54
  At the beginning of last year, things have skyrocketed so much.
• 34:58
  Now, here's where it gets really scary.
• 35:01
  The average amount, that's average, not median.
• 35:07
  The average amount currently sitting in retirees savings and investment accounts is only 288,700.
• 35:16
  That's basically two to three years worth of money.
• 35:22
  That's what's actually in people's accounts.
• 35:26
  So it's I if it sounds like I'm an alarmist, then I'm sounding the alarm really loud.
• 35:34
  I am.
• 35:35
  But it's with just cause.
• 35:38
  It's with good reason.
• 35:40
  These accounts are at dangerously low levels, and people are realizing holy cow, and and keep in mind, these are not people in their 20s who are saying, yeah, we think we need 823,800 to retire to be comfortable.
• 35:58
  These are people already living in retirement.
• 36:01
  So they're feeling the crunch.
• 36:03
  In other words, they're feeling the pressure of having to pay their bills and make their mortgage.
• 36:09
  Keep in mind, almost half of people in their 60s and 70s in their mid-60s to mid-70s.
• 36:18
  Almost half of them, 41% carry a mortgage right now, currently.
• 36:25
  So they're feeling this pressure, and they're realizing uh we're in pretty big trouble right now.
• 36:33
  So we need somewhere in the ballpark of a million dollars just to be comfortable.
• 36:39
  So this is the reality facing America.
• 36:42
  We've got to wake up.
• 36:44
  We have got to wake up to this.
• 36:47
  All right, we're coming up on another break.
• 36:50
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• 36:55
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• 38:57
  So the IRS can audit people who are in retirement.
• 39:01
  And there are certain things that will create red flags where the IRS could target you once you're in retirement.
• 39:07
  What's scary about that is that it's hard enough to retire in America.
• 39:12
  All right.
• 39:13
  A lot of people have lived under this, under this uh false assumption that the American dream is to just buy stuff stuff stuff.
• 39:21
  Get the newest car, the nicest car, the best looking car, buy the biggest house that you can get.
• 39:27
  Stret yourself super thin, and big government will take care of you once you reach retirement.
• 39:34
  After all, 15% of your paycheck has gone into social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and uh and Social Security will take care of you in retirement.
• 39:47
  The problem is people didn't run the numbers.
• 39:52
  All right, they didn't run the numbers, and numbers don't lie.
• 39:56
  That's what I love about numbers.
• 39:57
  Numbers are not emotional.
• 40:00
  I think about the the astronauts who went to the moon who circled the moon, right?
• 40:05
  Numbers are vital.
• 40:10
  Calculations have to be exactly precise.
• 40:13
  So they can't get all emotional and be like, well, we'll get up into space and we'll just kind of figure it out.
• 40:19
  You know, the government will uh the government will take care of us and uh we'll we'll just figure it out and we'll kind of aim for the moon, we'll get it in the uh, you know, in the crosshairs, and we'll just kind of aim our vessel towards the moon, and and it'll all just work out.
• 40:38
  You can't do that.
• 40:42
  In order to reach your destination, and in order to get that proper orbit around the moon and to make the return trip back to Earth.
• 40:55
  Everything has to be precise.
• 41:00
  And you can't be emotional about it, and you can't freak out and say, oh my goodness, we're not gonna make it, we're not gonna make it.
• 41:06
  Or you can't do the opposite and act like you're just gonna prop your feet up and cruise, and you know, we'll just kind of aim her towards the moon and everything will work out, right?
• 41:17
  Those two extremes don't work, those are emotional responses.
• 41:21
  Numbers matter, calculations matter.
• 41:25
  And so going into retirement, uh, we can't be emotional about that.
• 41:30
  We can't, we can't say, well, you know, we can't prop our feet up and be like, well, it'll all work out.
• 41:37
  Life is always worked out, and it's it's just gonna kind of work out.
• 41:41
  We have Social Security, and uh, I didn't really run the numbers, but yeah, it's Social Security, it'll it'll it'll work out.
• 41:50
  We can't do that.
• 41:52
  No, we have to use precise numbers.
• 41:56
  We have to use precise numbers because numbers are not emotional.
• 42:03
  Numbers don't cloud our judgment.
• 42:06
  Numbers are what the numbers are, it's math, it's just simple math.
• 42:11
  And so there are ways to do the calculations where we can figure out what our exact target is, and we just work to make it there.
• 42:21
  And so, and you're constantly making course corrections along the way.
• 42:26
  And that's what Orion is doing on the way to the moon, right?
• 42:29
  On their way to the moon, they were making these constant little course corrections to make sure that they were absolutely 100% on target.
• 42:39
  And those little course corrections are vital.
• 42:43
  And they're constantly being monitored back in Houston, right?
• 42:49
  Houston is monitoring and making sure that all the numbers are right and that the numbers on Orion are the same numbers that they're seeing back in Houston, and there's just a lot of accountability built into it.
• 43:03
  So this article, this is uh list with cleaver.com.
• 43:08
  I'll link to this article in the show notes, and it's absolutely phenomenal.
• 43:11
  It's so, so good.
• 43:12
  I mean, really, really good.
• 43:15
  But they break everything down by the numbers, and they show that we're actually in pretty big trouble, but but they show why.
• 43:25
  More than one in four retirees have zero retirement savings.
• 43:31
  None.
• 43:32
  Twenty nine percent of people living in retirement have no money saved for retirement at all.
• 43:44
  For over half of that group, the reasons are simple.
• 43:49
  They didn't make enough money to do so, or so they say.
• 43:58
  But it is what it is.
• 44:00
  That's that's what they say.
• 44:02
  They didn't make enough money, and and there's a possibility.
• 44:06
  But if we don't make enough money, we need to work to make more money.
• 44:11
  And that's where you do the side hustles or do whatever, do whatever do whatever you gotta do to make this work.
• 44:18
  Roughly 58%.
• 44:23
  Over half, almost three quarters, say that they lived paycheck to paycheck before retiring.
• 44:32
  Almost three quarters live paycheck to paycheck.
• 44:36
  And this is what Ramsey talks about all the time.
• 44:38
  Like, we can't afford to live paycheck to paycheck.
• 44:43
  And what causes people to live paycheck to paycheck?
• 44:46
  Well, we have the math on it, and the math doesn't lie.
• 44:52
  The number of Americans who carry a mortgage, uh 41% of people in retirement, actively in retirement, 41% carry a mortgage right now.
• 45:06
  They carry that mortgage into retirement.
• 45:12
  A vast majority of Americans have car payments.
• 45:15
  We're now extending those to up to eight and even nine years.
• 45:22
  A car payment with an average payment of $767.
• 45:27
  Uh, Houston, we've got a problem.
• 45:31
  35%, this is what's heartbreaking to me.
• 45:34
  35% said I thought I'd be able to live entirely off Social Security.
• 45:39
  That's why they didn't invest.
• 45:43
  They didn't invest into their own retirement account, their own personal retirement account, because they thought that they'd be able to live entirely off Social Security.
• 45:52
  Translation, they did not do the math.
• 45:57
  They didn't crunch the numbers.
• 46:00
  That was the, well, we'll get up into space and we'll just kind of aim her towards the moon and um, we'll just be able to coast there based on goodwill and and the good nature of the the federal government.
• 46:13
  Guess what?
• 46:15
  Social security shouldn't even be factored into retirement.
• 46:22
  Yeah, at least for those of us who who are a little bit younger, you know, maybe for the people currently receiving it, yeah, that's fine, but uh there's way too much that's unknown.
• 46:36
  And the federal government is screwing literally everything up that has to do with money, they're just messing it up.
• 46:45
  So it shouldn't even be factored into retirement, in my opinion.
• 46:51
  Now, if retire if uh Social Security is around in say 20, 30, 40 years, then I'll bite my tongue and and we'll just have a little bit of a bonus.
• 47:05
  But you're not going to be able to live off of Social Security alone.
• 47:10
  It's not gonna be possible.
• 47:13
  And this is my alarm for the younger people.
• 47:18
  For the younger people who are in their 50s or younger.
• 47:24
  You will not be able to live on Social Security alone.
• 47:28
  I promise you that.
• 47:31
  Inflation is too high, and the government is actively looking for ways to cut Social Security.
• 47:38
  We are out of money.
• 47:39
  The government's out of money.
• 47:41
  All right, 31% of people who have nothing safe for retirement said, I had poor savings habits.
• 47:50
  I think that number's actually a lot higher.
• 47:53
  I think people are just afraid to admit it.
• 47:57
  And again, that's not judgment.
• 47:59
  That's just human nature.
• 48:01
  We tend to not want to take blame ourselves.
• 48:05
  And so only 31% of people said that they had poor saving habits.
• 48:09
  I think the reality is it's it's much higher than that.
• 48:14
  29% said I had to pay for unexpected expenses, whether it's uh medical or legal or whatever it is, all the more reason why we need to plan from a young age.
• 48:28
  Unexpected things happen all the time, constantly in life.
• 48:35
  I uh this is a die hard and fast rule.
• 48:41
  Unexpected things will come up in life.
• 48:45
  There will be medical emergencies.
• 48:49
  There will be legal issues that some people face.
• 48:55
  Cars break down.
• 48:57
  I just had another, another thing that happened to my car that cost me almost 500.
• 49:07
  And I I joked with my in-laws, and I said, well, I, you know, it has 208,000 miles on it, and uh, I'm keeping it.
• 49:15
  I love it.
• 49:16
  I was looking back at pictures from 2018 when when my youngest was just a baby.
• 49:24
  He was a toddler, and we still had the same vehicle.
• 49:28
  And he's like, Dad, we had the van back then.
• 49:30
  I'm like, oh yeah, and we're gonna have it until you graduate high school at least.
• 49:37
  You know, so I I was joking about that, and I said I have about 30% of the car in the past two months has been replaced and is all new parts.
• 49:46
  So basically, I have a 30% brand new car, and I'm okay with that.
• 49:51
  I'm perfectly fine with that.
• 49:53
  I'm actually proud of that.
• 49:57
  I'm perfectly fine with that.
• 49:59
  But unexpected.
• 50:00
  Expected expenses and all the all these repairs were unexpected, by the way.
• 50:03
  That's my point.
• 50:04
  Unexpected repairs come up on your cars, on your house, on ourselves.
• 50:11
  I'm taking my daughter to the chiropractor.
• 50:14
  She also has to get a physical for her license that's upcoming.
• 50:20
  We're gonna have a skyrocketing insurance, auto loan insurance.
• 50:26
  Like these things happen in life.
• 50:31
  And a lot of people are saying we had these unexpected expenses and we just didn't plan for them.
• 50:37
  And so we weren't able to save her for retirement.
• 50:41
  And then 28% said I didn't take the initiative to properly set up my finances for retirement.
• 50:49
  13%, this is where it's this is heartbreaking to me.
• 50:54
  So heartbreaking.
• 50:56
  13% said I didn't think I'd live this long.
• 51:01
  And here they are.
• 51:02
  They expected, they expected to die.
• 51:08
  And for whatever, for whatever reason, they took care of themselves.
• 51:11
  They have good genetics, whatever it is.
• 51:14
  They lived to be in their upper 70s, 80s, even 90s.
• 51:20
  I didn't think I'd be around this long.
• 51:23
  And I didn't plan for that.
• 51:24
  Folks, we ought to plan to be around till we're at least 100 years old.
• 51:30
  And I'm not saying that to be funny.
• 51:31
  I'm not saying that to joke around.
• 51:33
  I'm saying that like we must math the math.
• 51:37
  We've got to plan.
• 51:41
  At what age did you start saving?
• 51:43
  Most retirees didn't start saving until after 30.
• 51:48
  That's late in the game, but it's but it's not for me, it's not that bad.
• 51:53
  I didn't start till I was around 30.
• 51:56
  You know, I was right around 30.
• 51:59
  And it wasn't much.
• 52:00
  You know, when I started, uh, it really wasn't much.
• 52:03
  I was only able to squeak maybe $100 a month in a retirement.
• 52:08
  I had nothing before age 29.
• 52:12
  I had zero.
• 52:13
  I had nothing.
• 52:16
  So I want to say this to encourage people and say you can do it.
• 52:22
  It's never too late.
• 52:24
  It's really not.
• 52:25
  It's never too late to start.
• 52:26
  So I'm not saying all this to discourage people.
• 52:29
  It's quite the opposite.
• 52:30
  I want to encourage people and say, you can start at any time.
• 52:34
  You can start when you're in your 60s.
• 52:37
  Now you got to work a little bit harder, but you can do it.
• 52:42
  A majority of retirees, 57% were 30 or older when they first began to stay for retirement.
• 52:52
  Almost a third, 31% were at least 40.
• 52:58
  And the article says a shocking 32% were 50 or older or never began staving at all.
• 53:07
  This delayed start robs many retirees of the benefits of compound investment growth, which is a critical factor in growing a substantial nest egg.
• 53:17
  That's according to List with Cleaver.
• 53:22
  19% said they never started saving for retirement.
• 53:27
  Two-thirds of Americans say the U.S.
• 53:29
  has a retirement crisis.
• 53:32
  With half worrying, they'll outlive their savings.
• 53:38
  Man, this is this is hard.
• 53:40
  It's hard to read these numbers, but the numbers are what the numbers are.
• 53:45
  64% say the United States is in a retirement crisis.
• 53:51
  51% say that they have no plan if their retirement savings run out.
• 53:57
  Can you imagine?
• 54:00
  Over half of Americans say they have absolutely zero plan if their retirement savings run out.
• 54:08
  45% worry that they'll outlive their retirement savings.
• 54:12
  45% say they didn't prepare adequately for retirement.
• 54:18
  43%, man, this is heartbreaking.
• 54:21
  43%, almost half, would rather die than run out of money.
• 54:29
  Yet the reality is most people will run out of money before they die, long before they die.
• 54:37
  This is heartbreaking.
• 54:39
  41% believe retirement will be possible for the typical American in 25 years.
• 54:48
  So a little bit of good news mixed in there, but man, this is just uh it's uh it's a note to ourselves, to your kids, to your grandkids, talk to them about planning.
• 55:04
  Retirement.
• 55:05
  This ought to be integrated into every aspect of school, beginning an elementary school, uh, carrying through graduation.
• 55:16
  Uh, every person who graduates high school ought to have some kind of a plan, a financial plan where people sit down and actually run numbers with them, help them crunch numbers, and figure this out.
• 55:28
  Before students take school loans, they ought to have a financial planning course.
• 55:35
  Because I promise you, the government is not standing there with their arm around your kid's shoulder saying, we're gonna help you.
• 55:43
  Now, with that said, I still go back to the Trump accounts.
• 55:47
  I love them.
• 55:48
  I think they're smart, I think they're uh they're genius.
• 55:52
  And it's one of the few things in the one big beautiful bill that I actually really like.
• 55:59
  But we have to take advantage.
• 56:00
  We have to put money into those accounts.
• 56:04
  For those of you who have kids who qualify for the Trump accounts and do your homework, there's zero excuse not to do your homework.
• 56:12
  Do your homework and find out if your kids qualify and if they do, do everything in your power to help your kids be established to succeed.
• 56:22
  That, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
• 56:25
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the mini navigation bar at America Outloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 56:34
  You'll be in the know.
• 56:35
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
• 56:38
  When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 56:45
  Join me in being a light.