I forgot. My two closest Childhood Friends both died at age 61. They made a pretty good living and I’m sure they paid over $250,000 into the SS / Medicare System over ther Lifetimes just as I have.
What did they get for having all that money “excised” from their hard earned Wages, NOTHING.
As an aside, I had our Financial guy run some numbers based on what I paid into the SS / Medicare Systems over a working Career of nearly fifty years. Of course he had to make some assumptions for the last ten years since I was in my mid fifties at the time.
He figured that I would (conservatively) have had a nest egg of well over $2,000,000 at age 66 and he never imagined the Dow would ever reach $25,000. The Miracle of Compound Interest and buying Apple at $15 I assume.
This would produce only an average income of $52,500 annually based on annuity of 7%, which are fairly easy to buy these days and still give the seller a hefty commission.
And these are among the poorer retirement investments, though I don't think it is a bad idea to put $25K or so in them just as a safety valve.