Posted on 01/10/2018 8:07:57 AM PST by Oldpuppymax
If you’re counting on Social Security to finance your retirement, you’re in for a big surprise—and not the good kind.
Let me give you two reasons why.
One: Social Security is going broke.
And, two: Even if it weren’t going broke, it couldn’t possibly cover the cost of a decent retirement.
Let’s look at these two reasons in a little more detail, and then I’ll propose a solution.
Social Security is going broke.
When this government program was set up in 1935, the average life expectancy was 60. But you couldn’t collect your first check until you reached 65. In other words, most people didn’t live long enough to receive Social Security. And most of those who did, didn’t collect it for very long. Today, the average lifespan is 79. So now, most people do live long enough to receive Social Security—for 10, or 20, or even 30 years.
Here’s another important piece of information: When the program started, the ratio between worker and retiree was 159 to 1. That means for every one person drawing benefits, 159 were paying in. Today the ratio is 2.8 to 1. Get that? We’ve gone from 159 workers supporting every retired person to fewer than three workers supporting every retiree. And it’s going down.
You don’t need an advanced math degree to figure this one out: Social Security is spending more than it’s bringing in. Far more. Its own Board of Trustees has said that it will be bankrupt within twenty years.
That doesn’t mean it won’t exist. It means that either the government will pay you less than it promised, or it will have to raise taxes to make up the shortfall. Most likely, both.
Sounds about right for an entitlement program...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...
Nope. I figured in those who will die. In fact, I would not be surprised to find the Government trying to find some way to kill off the oldsters.
They have already found a way in Europe with “euthanasia” in which old people are afraid to go to the doctor as the doctor may decide on his own that the old person has “no quality of life left” and kill him.
The first Social Security beneficiary, Ida Mae Fuller, worked for three years under the Social Security program.
The accumulated taxes on her salary during those three years was a total of $24.75.
Her initial monthly check was $22.54.
During her lifetime she collected a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits.
I can’t find a citation for the 2.05. Heritage is using the 2.8. Bad enough.
Took my Social Security at age 62 since I was diagnosed with Leukemia when I was 52. My “Expiration” Date was estimated to be ten to fifteen Years at the time of my diagnosis.
My Social Security covers 3/4’s of our Obamacare era $2,100 Monthly Health Insurance Premium. I’m just a pass through, like the old Bucket Brigade.
Since I still work, part of my SS is taxable on my 1040 because of our Income level and I still pay SS Payroll Taxes.
My mother paid into SS from roughly 1940-1945.
She started collecting at age 65,about $2000.00 per year.
She collected that amount for 26 years,approx. $50,000.00
No wonder we’re in trouble.
.
“allowing a TINY % of SS to be invested by the owners”
That’s the best solution. However, the “problem” is one of control. Once a person can invest the money themselves, the government can’t touch it.
The frigging solution is so damn simple, but, again, the problem lies with the powermongers and knownothings that are infinitely more wise than you’ll ever be! (sarcasm implied)
You do understand you retire in an area where the cost of living is low.
And my annual real estate taxes are about the same as one car payment. Further, they will be cut in half once we turn 65. :)
Oh, and though this is an income tax state, it doesn’t apply to SS.
Lastly, it is absolutely beautiful here.
i.e. I moved here on purpose. :)
Amen!
You didn’t recover after 20 years?
Also, the divorce actually made me a little crazy in the following way: I don’t trust the government. I have a deep and sorta subconscious “background noise” attitude that if I build up any kind of wealth it will simply be taken from me. So my retirement plan is to own my real estate free and clear (I fought the background noise), have assets that can’t be tracked down by others, drastically reduce my cost of living, and go from there. It’s actually working out pretty well. We live very comfortably and enjoy a quite nice lifestyle that can easily be supported by SS alone if it actually came to that.
However, we are very healthy for our age thanks to genes, partly (my father just stopped playing in a softball league five years ago, and my wife’s father passed away last month, the first of our parents to die), I’ll be working and able to work for some time if necessary. and the work I do (IT) pays well.
I am tried of people telling me SS is an entitlement program. It's not welfare.
The only part that's an entitlement to it is that I am entitled to it because it is my money.
I am also tired of people calling me an idiot for drawing SS. It is my money and I am just getting some of it back.
Nobody is forcing anyone to draw their SS benefits. If some people don't want it, fine with me but I don't deserve their derision because of my choice.
And finally, this author is full of BS.
Saying SS is not a retirement plan or that it doesn't provide "security" is moot to those of us who are drawing our benefits and living on it already.
My wife and I live comfortably on our SS income raising beef cattle on a farm. Our new home and 30 acre farm in Florida and three others houses we own in South Carolina (rental), Arizona (rental) and a lake house second home 10 miles away from here, are all free and clear of mortgages. We don't owe money on our credit cards and we travel three or four times a year, as well. Pretty crappy retirement living on SS.
We're not "rich" but we are not "poor" either. We managed our finances, saved our money and minimized debt when we worked and raised our kids. We didn't party it all away. Not sure what kind of retirement some folks want but the idea put forth by many financial advisers that one needs millions of dollars to retire comfortably is BS.
Amen!
DING...DING...DING...You win todays award for seeing thru the politicians scam
It's in a "lock box" that idiot Al Gore informed us in one of his debates with GW Bush.
Al never did tell us where this infamous "lock box" was nor did he admit that the federal government was the only one with a key to this so-called "lock box" and that they managed to pilfer all of the money away by mixing it in with operating funds received from the taxpayers.
All i know is i am screwed, you will see me in 2053 greeting Walmart shoppers at the age of 85...
I see the retirement advisors commercials and wince.
Folks are doing the watusi on the beach, jumping out of planes, whitewater rafting, climbing Mt Everest. LOL
Do it now because when you retire you be old. lol
At that point a fire and a friend makes me happy.
If the federal government can play games with our money, we can play too.
You know what is not and never was intended to be a retirement plan? 401Ks. They were intended as a supplement to a retirement plan.
Markets rolling right along right now, YEEHAWW!!
Hate to be the fool who is forced to retire when the bubble pops!
I had friends who waited to retire and they died in the meantime. So much for wise financial planning.
When I turned 62, I grabbed my SS and moved to a cattle farm in rural Florida with my wife of 42 years.
We love it and have no regrets.
Never put another dime into the stock market after that. Didn't have enough time to start over and lose it again.
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