No I don’t think I do. So you are saying that retires are all rich. Yet they all got bailout checks...
I assume you're referring to so-called stimulus payments, more properly referred to as Economic Impact Payments. EIPs are payable in full, at $600 per person and $600 per qualifying child, to anyone reporting income of up to $75,000 in 2019, or $150,000 if they were married filing jointly. Assets are not a factor, nor is wage income. So, if you're a retired married couple reporting an income of $150,000 or less you got a payment of $1200. I would guess that many tens of thousands of retirees with assets of over $1M got a payment. However, these payments are not bailouts by any common definition of the term, they were supposed to stimulate the economy. Don't like it? Bitching about it here is a waste of electrons. Write a letter to your congressperson or senator. They wrote and approved the legislation that defined the payment parameters.
As for all retirees being rich, let's examine that premise. Let's assume that the median retiree income, meaning those people between 65 and 75 years old, is about $55,000/year. I got the data here:
Average retirement income 2023– find out how your income compares to averages and get tips for boosting your income. Read now!
www.newretirement.com
They got their data from the US Census.
Since all of this income is presumed to be from Social Security or other government programs, pensions, or income from investments, we can calculate the approximate value of the assets (or those behind the pension payments and SS) by making assumptions about the return on investment of the underlying assets. Note that if the retiree couple owned a home or other (non-rental) properties, they are not included in this calculation, because they don't create income. Assuming a very conservative 5% return on assets generating the $55,000 in retiree income, and assuming the underlying capital is not paid out at all, the value of the assets = 55,000/0.05 = $1,100,000. That looks high, but I've included Social Security income. Just for this discussion, let's assume the annual Social Security gross income (meaning I'm not subtracting the Medicare Part B premium of $148.50 per month) is $25,000. So that would mean that the private assets of the retiree couple with income of $55,000 per year is really only 55,000-25,000 = 30,000 / 5% = $600,000. That seems quite high to me, so either the $55,000/yr is too high, I've underestimated the returns on invested assets, or the Census numbers include income from retirees with part-time jobs who consider themselves retired anyway.
My conclusion is that most retirees are not rich. I think the majority of retirees are living on a relatively tight budget to preserve their wealth for what could be a 30 year retirement. I don't think all retirees aren't rich, some are, but I doubt it's more than 20% of the entire retiree population.
