Half Of Americans Spend Their Lives Like Adolesents At The State Fair

And don't even have bus-fare home... 

Since the beginning of human creation, people, with limited likenesses of their Creator, intellectual abilities, talents, and strength, have struggled to survive in a competitive world. Some, who recognize their Creator, as God, and choose to seek His will, and accept His word and redemption, will then be given gifts (talents) of a spiritual nature as well. 

All people, even the handicapped, have something to give, if only love and a deeper purpose for caretakers ... who have needs of their own. These abilities and needs are basic building blocks of a civilized society. I give you my time, talents and labor, to do what you can't do, or don't want to do, for your money, which you earned from someone else for whom you worked and gave your time, talent and labor, to get.  These simple truths contain a less obvious, but important fact that everyone should be made aware of.  Money is only "filthy lucre" when it is loved or accumulated for the purpose of controling other people or feeding our own lusts. 

The good, of money, is that it contains its owners time, talent and labor, required to earn it.  When you spend your money you are spending that part of your life or the lives of your parents, or whoever gave it to you. So don't waste it. Don't spend these paper replacements of your time and life, or your parents lives, for nonsense, destruction of your health, or on some stupid sin. Spend it as you would spend your life... with God looking on. Use it for good as you  would use your life. Don't waste what it took some of your life to acquire; Let God show you how to use it for good, as you would your life. There has never been a better time and opportunity to help those around us who are too young to have much or too old to do critical things for themselves like grocery shopping, than right now under this Coronavirus storm. But be very wise and aware of the dangers you expose yourself to as you go about doing so. Do not touch your face, eyes, nose or mouth until you disinfect your hands or wash them.  Your health has never been more important. 

You young people may survive this virus quite well, but if you take it home to your younger siblings, parents or grandparents, you may kill them.  Youth is often selfish, uninformed or lustful to fulfill their own "riotous living" but then have to live with the destruction for the rest of their lives. Jesus told of a young man who inherited half of his parents' estate and went out into the world and soon had wasted all of his inheritance "in riotous living".  He wasted the years of ' his parents lives they put in to earning that money. He had nothing left for his latter years except hard work, discomfort and hope for someone's charity.  Lk.15:13.
  

A Quarter Of American Adults Have No Retirement Savings

From Forbes Business Magazine

Across the United States, people are struggling to financially prepare themselves for life after work. A recent report from the U.S. Federal Reserve found that nearly a quarter of all American adults have no retirement savings or pension at all. Even though preparedness for retirement increases with age, concern about inadequate savings is also widespread among people approaching the point where they bid farewell to working life.

The data shows that 42% of people aged 18-29 have no retirement savings, along with 26% of Americans in the 30-44 age bracket. Among those closer to retirement, 17% of people aged 45 to 59 report a complete lack of retirement savings and that figure is 13% for those aged 60+. When it comes to self-assessed preparedness for retirement by age, less than half of people aged 60 and over think that their savings are on track. Unsurprisingly, younger Americans are even more pessimistic, with only 42% of people aged 45-59 and 35% of those aged 30-44 feeling prepared.                                                                                                                  ________________________

Having "some" savings for retirement isn't to say it is nearly enough.  Far less than half of Americans, aged 60 and older, actually have enough to retire, and most younger adults have barely started to even think of saving for retirement. In addition to this lamentable commentary, the interest earned on retirement savings is practically nothing, and inflation is constantly eating up the buying power of the principle.  That includes Social Security income as well. 

Prov.18:9 says that the slothful, in his work, and the great waster are brothers. One as bad as the other. RB