A friend of a friend is a Major League pitcher whose career started out very promisingly but over the last few years he has struggled with injuries. I am friends with him on Facebook (the FB account actually appears to be his wife’s) and I follow him on Instagram. I don’t know if he would remember me or not but he gave my brother and me a great tour of Fenway, including the clubhouse, dugout and onto the field, a few years ago when he was with the Sox.
He was in AAA for all of 2014 and spent a good chunk of 2015 in the majors but has not been signed yet for 2016. A lot of his Instagram posts have to do with how hard he is working out and the effort to be in shape so that when he gets the call he will have the best stuff possible. The pictures and videos are not showing off, he doesn’t bench 500lbs, more like a marketing campaign.
I have no idea what his financial situation is but he is doing what he has to in order to give himself the best chance at the outcome he wants which of course is to continue his major league career.
I think this is a drive that more people need to have and is especially relevant for retirement saving and planning.
Social Security certainly has issues and while there is plenty of debate about the magnitude of those issues I think it makes sense to be prepared for a worse outcome than what you expect to happen. Great for anyone who gets the payout they expect but I believe in being ready for not getting the full expected amount. Imagine a scenario where you’re off by one year such that the way it turns out everyone born one year before you gets their FRA as promised and starting your year there will be reductions and means testing. Not a prediction so much as a Murphy’s Law type of thing.
The country has a savings problem. There may not be a great way to accurately quantify this problem as some articles imply no one has $1000 to pay for an emergency, 401 balances average $12,000 and other numbers that seem difficult to believe but just about everybody is on the same page of Americans being undersaved.