And herein lies the problem. Even Freepers think that 20+ years of social security is their due “because they paid in” their entire working career. Yes you paid in, and Yes you are due. BUT, you are due what you paid and all accumulated interest. Once you calculate that out you will get social security payments for about two years. After that you are getting other peoples money just like a welfare recipient. If we can't convince our own, how do we convince anyone else?
What about those that only served 20 years in the Military and get expect retirement benefits for the rest of their lives?
Why?
Because you choose to use a low interest figure to calculate return on investment.
If I would have been able to do nothing but purchase annuities with the 15% taken from my pay for the last 45 years, I would have a lot bigger monthly payment that what SS is providing.
If I wold have been allowed to use the 15% to buy gold and many other stocks, I would be far better off.
There are all kinds of investments where my money could go and I would be far better off than the return from Social Security.
That's true for people who retired decades ago, but I've been paying the max Social Security tax for the last 30 years, and there's no way I'll get that back in anywhere near two years.
You might want to revise and extend your remarks, friend.
For discussion purposes, let's consider the SS taxes contributed by one who averaged $50K for 30 years:
Employee portion = $50K * .062 = $3100 * 30 years = $93,000.
Double that to include the employer portion, and you come up with $186,000.
Assuming a payout of $2500/month from SS, or $30K per year, that results in a term of over 6 years, without any consideration of accrued interest over those 30 years.
A quick check through an annuity calculator yielded a life annuity of nearly $15K per year.