Can someone explain to me Mexican perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards RETIREMENT?

Question

Interested in any details at all about Mexicans in Mexico and how they approach retirement and plan for retirement (related laws would be helpful).

(There is no Culture - Mexico Yahoo! category so I put this in Travel)

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Michael and Sparks are correct.  Even those who do get their tiny gov´t pension, work till they die or cannot work.  Only politicians and the very wealthy retire.  Families stay together and the little old grannies gather firewood and cook til the day they die.

Answer 2

Racist!

Answer 3

Retirement for Mexicans ? They can barely hold thier head above water day to day much less retire.

Seriously they work until they die or a child takes care of them. Most own a conv. store or have a little resturant at thier home. Some beg , some jump on a bus and play music and ask for donations.

They really do not have retirement that I've seen. These are some of my day to day observations to answer your question.

Answer 4

what are yours?  Could they be the same?

Answer 5

Mexicans sadly still don't understand what planning for your retirement really is and why it's so d**n important. Like so many things of the culture, they leave such things to plain luck and in the better of cases, seriously think their children will take care of them (haha).

Truth of the matter is, as the mexican population is starting to age, it's starting to become pretty common that children abandon their parents in the street. Legally children don't have any reason to take care of their elderly parents and usually only do it to save face towards society. But even in those cases where they take the old person in, they don't take good care of them.

I've seen my fair share of 70 year olds hospitalized in the hospitals I take classes in because their careless children don't give them their antihypertensive and antidiabetic drugs. Sometimes children dump the poor person in a public asylum to their own luck like garbage. The asylum of the Hospital Español which isn't cheap is filled with old people that were dumped there by children that got sick of them. At least in this case, the children still have to pay for medical attention which is indeed better than leaving them in home with no treatment at all. And in some cases, children will visit their parents a few times each year. I even saw a case or two of dedicated children who would visit their parents almost everyday even if their Alzheimers was so advanced, the parent didn't even recognize their kids anymore.

And this is the middle to high class mexicans we're talking about.

If you're from a low socioeconomic group, unless your children are very good and do take care of you, you'll probably end up in the street begging for coins until you can't anymore and god only knows what will become of you then.

Luckily, Mexico has introduced the Afore system which forces all legal employees to sacrifice part of their paycheck to be deposited in the Afore account which is untouchable until you turn a certain age. You can even change the quantity of cash you enter the Afore, but there is an obligatory minimum of cash that must be entered. When you become of age and wish to spend all of the cash on one thing, that's your problem, but while you're young and working, you can't touch the cash and nor can anyone else.

As such, there is no such thing as public Social Security in Mexico. When you turn 60, you become eligible for an INAPAM card which is basically a senior discount card. Yaay! Free pubic transport for life!! The card gives you juicy discounts in medicines for life and since most mexican meds don't need a prescription, you could abuse the card at pharmacies as you wish. jejeje ¬_¬''

I think the Afore is a smart thing because if mexicans don't willingfully want to think about their future, the Afore makes them save money kicking and screaming (if you ask any 20 something on the street whether they have serious plans not to end up as a street beggar when they turn 70, I doubt they will believe such a thing will happen to them in the first place.. but will have no retirements plans. Chances are they are so naïve they think their kids will take care of them. haha).

There's a few seniors that do get monthly paychecks from the government, but you have to sign up and it's barely enough money to survive. If you already had Afore money saved, the cash would still be useful to hap you live decently. The DF state pension gives about 700 pesos a month.. but it has serious loopholes. The cash given is a fixed amount. You could be dirt poor and need cancer treatment or something and get 700 pesos, or be a multimillionaire and get 700 pesos.

However, as such, mexicans just don't think about retirement as such. However, if you ever threaten a camillero at the IMSS that he isn't eligible to get his pension cash when he turns 45.. oh boy, god forbid that would ever happen. ¬¬

Answer 6

Mexicans mostly depend on 'the family' when too old to work.   Even then they'll send old folk out on the street to sell stuff if they are able.

There is a sort of Social Security earned if they pay into it and many discounts to elderly.   Medical care is inexpensive

Answer 7

Hi there, well, the opinions you have so far are true for a lot of people, however, not every old person depends on their relatives or begging!

I'll give you an example my family is middle class and my parents live perfectly well, independently and a great life with their retirement plans. My mom worked for 40 yrs for the local government and now gets a monthly payment. My dad was an indpendent contractor and has some a nice amount in the bank to live comfortably. Their own their home and cars, so no doubts are great.

Retirement homes are not common, and are still considered a nasty way to get rid of elders, rather than a way to provide them with the care they need... but I hope this will eventually change; my mom says she wouldn't mind going to one in the event she couldn't take care of herself. I wouldn't mind living in one myself either.