I had a cop complain to me that NJ was reducing Social Security payments to retired cops, firemen, etc.; I thought he was lying about that because it is a federal program and I don’t understand how a (prior) NJ governor could do that. I don’t doubt that any government program will be adjusted due to “need”; that is how they will keep the programs solvent. For cash flow purposes I stopped contributing to my 401K (the money is still there, but I don’t add to it). I saw no point in having debt while paying into a program that I believe in the long run will be used to reduce my SS payments.
Good points. I think the SS the cop was referring to might be a state pension fund that’s being raided.
The problem that states and cities have is that it’s a lot harder to steal from future taxpayers, and it’s impossible to print money. They can do the stealing to some extent, but not much. It’s just criminal that the same was never required at the federal level.
As to 401k’s, I cashed out an IRA, took the tax hit and all (and it was pretty beefy). I’m like you now. The only POT OF GOLD left for the government to seize are retirement accounts (IRAs, 401k’s, pensions). There is REAL MONEY in most of those accounts (other than public-sector pensions), and soon, very soon, the government will have to take that money to keep the Bond Vultures (i.e., the ones that won’t lend to Greece anymore, for example), at bay.
So we are stuck...the government will take our money and then give us some kind of annuity in its place. Obviously the annuity might be worth, maybe, half of the present-value cash amount - so not playing the game has A LOT of merit.