Thread: Social Security

Well do the best case scenario..

Let's say hypothetically that a teenager of 18 years would be able to put $2000.00 (I never knew too many 18 year olds that could afford to plunk down $2000 unless it was for a car) into an account if he could find one that paid that much of 10%...and let it do it's thing for 65 years..then the kid would be 83 years old at that point, or if you use the 70 year mark..then the kid would be 88 years old..I guess the money would come in handy to pay for his nursing home, if the kid was still alive.

My point on SSA is that it’s almost totally hand to mouth. You can’t pay out more than you take in and today you have the bulk of the baby boom generation cashing in on SSA. The government wants us to believe that the answer is to bump up SSA tax yet again and also bump up the retirement age. If you believe that’s the solution, I have some beachfront property I could sell you in Arizona. My point on retirement is, we need to move the burden of retirement back onto the individual. The government should begin to phase out SSA. I vote put all of my SSA contributions past and present into my current TSP account and I would be one happy camper.

Originally Posted by Aviator_Guy

My point on SSA is that put all of my SSA contributions past and present into my current TSP account and I would be one happy camper.

I like that or let me invest it into my own IRA, etc.....but the trouble with that idea is;..most or let's say, a lot of individuals would squander their SS money on other BS (living for the day mentality) and then when they are of the age to retire they'd have nothing and would need some form of GOV welfare to help them through their senior years...I've heard this same discussion many years ago and you and I would probably do well with managing our own SS plan (for lack of a better term)..But big brother don't think we can do it ourselves.

Originally Posted by Aviator_Guy

My point on retirement is, we need to move the burden of retirement back onto the individual. The government should begin to phase out SSA. I vote put all of my SSA contributions past and present into my current TSP account and I would be one happy camper.

And in a perfect world where no one makes stupid investment mistakes
People who are in the know on investing will do it right....people who have no clue....have no investment....and in a socialist world...everyone DESERVES a retirement....DID YOU NOT KNOW THIS A_G??????

The same thing as 401Ks etc, millions of people lost their butts and their retirement is going to be grim, it's the Government's all knowing STUPIDITY!

That's nice about moving SS to our own personal retirement system but how are the politicians going to steal from it?

They steal from the "G" fund when ever they want, I suppose they would find a way to CONTINUE stealing from the SSA coffers.

Social Security fund now seen to be empty by 2037

This year alone, Social Security will pay out $45 billion more in retirement, disability and survivors' benefits than it collects in payroll taxes, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said. That figure nearly triples — to $130 billion — when the new one-year cut in payroll taxes is included.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110127/...ocial_security

Originally Posted by nnuut

They steal from the "G" fund when ever they want, I suppose they would find a way to CONTINUE stealing from the SSA coffers.

I posted this else where but it's good here too:

Social Security was a safty net. The goverment created FERS to help keep SS more solvent down the road and make it part of our retirement to show that they were paying less out on their buget when we retired as a savings to taxpayers.
Now one tier of our retirement is comming out of SS and making it even worse but to the public doesn't see it. They just see saving Social Security is in their best interest and dont think about the FERS drain on it as more and more of us turn 62 when the SS suppliment runs out.

I agree that if we could have the option to put SS tax and the employee matching into TSP would be a great idea, but the goverment knows that the general public will be willing to bailout Social Security but not TSP. They even mention about making TSP more like SS to save us from making bad investment choices.
They already made automatic TSP deposits into the G fund to help all the new employees retirements. I think this is just to increase the cash availiblity to borrow against to kick the can down the road. Just my opinion.

Retirement Crisis Faces Government And Corporate Pensions

When President Roosevelt first enacted social security in 1935, the intention was to serve as a safety net for older adults. However, at that time, life expectancy was roughly 60 years. Therefore, the expectation was that participants would not be drawing on social security for very long on an actuarial basis. Furthermore, according to the Social Security Administration, roughly 42 workers contributed to the funding pool for each welfare recipient in 1940.

Of course, given that politicians like to use government coffers to buy votes, additional amendments were added to Social Security to expand participation in the program. This included adding domestic labor in 1950 and widows and orphans in 1956. They lowered the retirement age to 62 in 1961 and increased benefits in 1972. Then politicians added more beneficiaries, from disabled people to immigrants, farmers, railroad workers, firefighters, ministers, federal, state, and local government employees, etc.

More: Retirement Crisis Faces Government And Corporate Pensions - RIA

If you are FERS you pay into Social Security and will collect as part of your retirement. Those that retired under CSRS are not eligible for Social Security unless you earned the points outside government employment. Then you are penalized because you are receiving a government pension. But yes, something does need to be done to keep Social Security from running out of money.