Posted on 01/08/2015 8:42:01 AM PST by drypowder
Before reading the information below, I'd like to share an incident that happened to me a couple months ago at a Walgreens. My husband had a new prescription that cost over $200. I have the Balance Rewards card from Walgreens, which honors prescriptions as well as other purchases. So, I asked for the Balance Rewards for this prescription to be added to my Rewards account.
The pharmacist said she couldn't because I was paying for it with an entitlement. I explained that we have never been on any kind of entitlement program. She stated that Social Security and Medicare are entitlements. I tried not to come unglued, but told her nicely that my husband and I had earned our Social Security and Medicare with money paid into these accounts each and every payday. She said she understood, but it was now called an entitlement, and I couldn't get the Rewards points. I could care less about the Rewards points, but was livid that the government now called Social Security (that we paid into all our lives) an entitlement!
To be fair to Walgreens, the pharmacist said that this was a federal law -- that no one on entitlement can benefit from those payments in any way...getting reward points. Wow! The government has their hands in everything! Anyway, now please read the item below...
If you get any Social Security at all in any manner, you might want to read. Did you know this?
Unfortunately most did not, and I am one of those whose Social Security funds are direct deposited to my bank, thus, I never see the checks. Once again, our beloved congressmen are playing fast and loose with vernacular. What motive did they have for changing the name of our Social Security? Iâ?Tm sure they have a plan, and it won't be to our betterment.
Here we go. JUST REALIZED THAT WITH REQUIRED AUTO DEPOSIT, I NEVER GET TO SEE THE CHECK ALERT EVERYONE YOU KNOW. THIS AFFECTS ALL OF US.*
*Subject:* SOCIAL SECURITY becomes FEDERAL BENEFIT CHECK. Have you noticed, the Social Security check is now referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment"? I'll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you. Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it...
The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a Federal Benefit Payment. This isn't a benefit. It is earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes. If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 Invested in Social Security.
If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security( $375/month, including both your and your employers contributions) at a meager 1% Interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved! This is your personal investment.
Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month . That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration.
( Google it - itâ?Ts a fact).
And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.
Instead,the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (Knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And theydidn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently, they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer. But is it our fault they misused our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they'recalling it a benefit, as if we never worked to earn every penny of it. Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!
Let's take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government. Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going, for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.
*Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.*
9% of people won't forward this. Will you? *You can bet I WILL!* I THINK WE SHOULD DEMAND THAT THEIR SALARIES AND RETIREMENTS BE CALLED FEDERAL BENEFIT PAYMENTS. THIS WOULD BE MORE HONEST THAN WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO OUR SOCIAL SECURITY.
I seem to remember that EVERY PAYCHECK I EVER GOT IN MY LIFETIME, had a portion of it deducted and sent to the Federal Government....now it is treated like a Welfare payment! We are made second class citizens by our own government! What a slap in the kisser!
You can go online and type in the name of the medicine, and look up RX Coupons, and use those at the pharmacy...just get ones that apply to your pharmacy....or change pharmacies, if you find coupons that give you lower costs on a consistent basis, and those are not affected by entitlement benefits.
I had an experience with Walmart changing suppliers and a $14 prescription with insurance for a family member went to $100 with insurance....
I found a coupon for $34.00 and got the prescription changed by the Dr to the other pharmacy, because during the deductible period in Jan it would have been over $200 per month until Ins kicked in. All that money for a drug I could get with a coupon for $34. cash ,and insurance not necessary.
Your Progressive Government of the Commie State of Amerika in action! Folks, learn the parable! Commie dimocrats and Idiot RINOcrats ARE THE SAME!!! There is no difference. You could elect Ronald Reagan today, and with the fools in congress, HE couldn’t get a danged thing accomplished!!!!
What the liberal news media hides from individuals is that anyone can become a millionaire by just investing $400 every month for 40 years. The media constantly bombard us with “news” and propaganda to distract us from this knowledge and other knowledge to keep us small and dependent on government. the media want also to fool people into thinking “that capitalism doesn’t work”. It does anyone just working 2 extra hours everyday being and frugal can become a millionaire in the capitalist system. 2 hours x $10 an hour is 20 dollars a day . that’s 600 dollars a month. invested with compounded interest that’s a million $ in 20 to 30 years. Knowledge, hard work, discipline , planning , budget, investing 600 every month anyone can become a millionaire. to democrats: “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”. So we don’t need government for anything except military and border patrol and courts.
"But unlike welfare recipients, we paid into it."Welfare is paid with your taxes too?
I meant of course, welfare is NOT paid with your taxes too?
You don't have a SS investment account. You've paid SS taxes, just like you pay income taxes, and that tax money has gone to pay current recipients. Just like income tax money goes to pay welfare recipients. The money SS collected over what it paid out was just loaned to the government by buying bonds, and can only be repaid out of other tax revenue.
SS is an entitlement not an investment.
I received my statement a few weeks ago. Maybe it’s because I am nearing “full retirement age.”
While I concur with the anger over the changes and the dirty way that the government has 1) previously promoted, 2) utterly misused, and 3) obfuscated and lied about the changes they were making; Social Security is and has always been a Tax that was setup to provide an entitlement. Yes, they lied and said it was a retirement account. Yes, they lied and stated it was earned. Doesn’t matter - they reason they can use the money for what they want is because it was a Tax. They can continue the tax and stop providing the benefit at any time - with a simple piece of legislature.
It’s coming - because the number of the people of retirement age are going to be much less than those working very shortly just from a generational size gap, let alone the loose way they’ve handled the funds. Just a matter of time.
If it is called “Earned” it will soon apply differently under IRS rules and be taxed as wages. You’ve got to be careful what you wish for.
They missed one thing. If you get *any* SS benefit, with or without requesting it, you are *automatically* enrolled in Medicare and cannot leave it.
Nope, no definition problem at all. You paid into Social Security exactly the same way you paid into the general fund with your income taxes. The money you paid in SS taxes was never meant to go into an account with your name on it. Instead, it went right back out to pay for the old age welfare payments of your parents' generation. Now, the current working age population pays for your old age welfare check. This is the way the program was designed and always has operated.
Oh no, that would include me. :(
We are already treated as though our SS checks are earned retirement income. We pay income tax on it.
???????
Nothing - just pointing out people are not getting “their money back”.
Not many notice just how much they pull out of SS when they start drawing.
It is funny to look at the records and my first year working when I was in High School. Working in the Dish Room at the local Hospital for minimum wage. The SS paid in was almost comical.
But one thing about privatizing SS. At least then it would be my money - and when I kicked the bucket the kids could get what remains.
“If you get *any* SS benefit, with or without requesting it, you are *automatically* enrolled in Medicare and cannot leave it.”
And yet another quirk of the system is that if you are still working at age 65 and enroll in Medicare (or you are forced by your employer into Medicare as your primary insurer), you cannot have a Health Savings Account.
Yep. Much of SS D in my opinion is not legit. Free money for them. Also, they claim mental issues. I see them walk in here and get their money out when they should be out looking for a job, but that’s just one little financial institution.
Thanks to Algore and Clintoon....
I know that.
That's true! My wife and I made preparations in our twenties, realizing that SS was a joke. Now in our sixties, the SS payments to us are extras on top of our investments. We know many friends and relatives who did not prepare for their senior years despite us telling them to do so. SS payments are not enough, and they have to continue working into their senior years to make ends meet. One day, you wake up realizing you're old but have no savings; it's too late. Be smart, invest and plan while in your thirties or younger.
There aren't too many investments that throw off that kind of increase, guaranteed, year in year out, over 40 years. If there are, lemme know so I can sign up, immediately.
The author of this piece has a small nugget of truth, wrapped up in a thick blanket of hyperbole and BS.
>>>Most people get far more out than they contributed<<<
That is true if there is no Investment of those funds over a Working Career spanning 45 Years or more.
I had our Financial guy work up an estimate of how much money I would have had all that money (including the matching Employer funds which is considered part of my compensation) was invested over my projected Working Career. For me, that is age 18 to age 65.
He had to make some assumptions, since I was only 55 at the time. Even then, he made sure to only use conservative investment vehicles in his estimations.
The result surprised even me. At age 65 he estimated I would have had approximately $2,500,000 and my Wife would have approximately $1,500,000.
Doesn’t matter anyway. I will start collecting at age 62 simply because I have Leukemia and my Lifespan will be somewhat limited. In other words, they will profit from my early demise. My Oncologist gave me a “survival’ window of age 67, but that is a fluid number. Better safe than sorry.
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