Social Security at Flat Rate

[Tidewater Bass]

NOT willing to give anything up... those that payed into SS should expect to receive their $$$. I have other forms of retirement income but want my SS check as well. Ive payed into SS for 42 years and counting. If you didnt plan for the future (retirement) you failed. SS by it's self isn't a retirement plan why do so many people see it that way? See what happens when you hand out those participation trophies... everyone expects to get something even though they didn't earned it. People holding out their hand just pisses me off. You want something go earn it like everyone else!!!!

[DennisMH&F]

Make it mandatory that it needs to be paid into a 401k. My wife and I have been making 75k each since we were 21. If my numbers are correct, if we just paid 6.2 and employer matched the 6.2 at age 59 we would each have around 1.8 million. This wouldn't account for the additional 10% we each are paying into the 401k as well which would put us around 3.2 million each.

I am not going to question your math but it is not really complete. Social Security is much more than a retirement benefit. As mentioned above it includes benefits for disabled citizens and their dependents. Currently about 28% of the beneficiaries are under 65. My sister worked for only 8 years before she became totally disabled. For the next 25 years before she passed SS allowed her to have a minimum standard of living while raising 2 young boys. This program not only kept her and her family out of poverty but protected my parents retirement who still had to make enormous sacrifices to help her. I have 2 outstanding nephews with families of their own, working our farm that has been in the family 135 years and none of this would have been possible without these government programs.

NOTE: For some of you "personal responsibility" guys. My sister did work hard and had good health, disability and life insurance. Most of these coverages were tied to her employer. When she quit to stay home because she was exhausted we had no idea that it was the early symptoms of MS. Once she became fully-disabled and wheelchair bound her husband divorced her and took her health insurance, only then did she go on SS and Medicare.

[Mick2268]

The thing is that for all the financial geniuses on BBC, there is a huge % of America that will never put anything, or nowhere near enough back for retirement. SS ends up being the only thing that keeps them from just working till they drop dead on the job site. I do training for a 500 person company that matches 401K contributions up to a certain amount. Less than 20% of the workforce takes advantage of it; they will need some form of SS at the end.

[Wild Heethen]

NOT willing to give anything up... those that payed into SS should expect to receive their $$$. I have other forms of retirement income but want my SS check as well. Ive payed into SS for 42 years and counting. If you didnt plan for the future (retirement) you failed. SS by it's self isn't a retirement plan why do so many people see it that way? See what happens when you hand out those participation trophies... everyone expects to get something even though they didn't earned it. People holding out their hand just pisses me off. You want something go earn it like everyone else!!!!

Agree 100%. And as for those that do not live by these standards, I don't care what happens to them.

[NitroZ7]

The thing is that for all the financial geniuses on BBC, there is a huge % of America that will never put anything, or nowhere near enough back for retirement. SS ends up being the only thing that keeps them from just working till they drop dead on the job site. I do training for a 500 person company that matches 401K contributions up to a certain amount. Less than 20% of the workforce takes advantage of it; they will need some form of SS at the end.

We have the same problem where I work and it ends up screwing the rest of the people who contribute and then have part of their contributions returned because they are deemed a highly compensated employee.

[robertboyd]

The thing is that for all the financial geniuses on BBC, there is a huge % of America that will never put anything, or nowhere near enough back for retirement. SS ends up being the only thing that keeps them from just working till they drop dead on the job site. I do training for a 500 person company that matches 401K contributions up to a certain amount. Less than 20% of the workforce takes advantage of it; they will need some form of SS at the end.

True. A failure by our school systems not to teach some basic common sense, life skill classes to kids. There are plenty of others. Would be much more beneficial than some of the useless stuff taught these days.

[yatesville88fan]

The last tax cuts for the wealthy were the largest redistribution of wealth in the history of this country.

Our Government has no money until it first takes it from someone. So in reality the
government was just giving their money back.

[old373guy]

True. A failure by our school systems not to teach some basic common sense, life skill classes to kids. There are plenty of others. Would be much more beneficial than some of the useless stuff taught these days.

Ok, but who is going to teach the kids basic common sense? The teachers I have come in contact with have very little common sense themselves being a product of an extremally sheltered academic system themselves their entire lives.

[Flip Flop Fisher]

Ok, but who is going to teach the kids basic common sense? The teachers I have come in contact with have very little common sense themselves being a product of an extremally sheltered academic system themselves their entire lives.

who taught it to you?

[mossie3]

The Ponzi Scheme called Social Security as we know it, will collapse in a few years, about the time I'm ready to apply for it. Major changes will be needed. It will be brutal on the elderly currently living on less than $1K per month, that's no longer able to work.

[yatesville88fan]

I am not going to question your math but it is not really complete. Social Security is much more than a retirement benefit. As mentioned above it includes benefits for disabled citizens and their dependents. Currently about 28% of the beneficiaries are under 65. My sister worked for only 8 years before she became totally disabled. For the next 25 years before she passed SS allowed her to have a minimum standard of living while raising 2 young boys. This program not only kept her and her family out of poverty but protected my parents retirement who still had to make enormous sacrifices to help her. I have 2 outstanding nephews with families of their own, working our farm that has been in the family 135 years and none of this would have been possible without these government programs.

NOTE: For some of you "personal responsibility" guys. My sister did work hard and had good health, disability and life insurance. Most of these coverages were tied to her employer. When she quit to stay home because she was exhausted we had no idea that it was the early symptoms of MS. Once she became fully-disabled and wheelchair bound her husband divorced her and took her health insurance, only then did she go on SS and Medicare.

Sorry about you Sister. Glad SS was their for. I used to b one that said let me opt out. But then I thought about the Disability part of SS. That changed my mind some. It would b very hard to stop SS now at this point. Your ex BIL must b a dirtbag. Whatever happened to death do us part. Dang Ass hole.

[bschwoep]

The Ponzi Scheme called Social Security as we know it, will collapse in a few years, about the time I'm ready to apply for it. Major changes will be needed. It will be brutal on the elderly currently living on less than $1K per month, that's no longer able to work.

Will it though? I’ve been hearing the same thing about it collapsing for as long as I can remember. It may end up being held together by bubble gum and band aids but I have a hard time seeing it ever going away. Too many votes on the line.

[mossie3]

IMO, Social Security "as we know it" will collapse. It will be reinvented, in terms of collecting more money, changing the current payout system, and or taking on trillions and trillions of more debt to keep it afloat.

Will it though? I’ve been hearing the same thing about it collapsing for as long as I can remember. It may end up being held together by bubble gum and band aids but I have a hard time seeing it ever going away. Too many votes on the line.

[1stindoor]

I doubt it will collapse, but I'm confident that it'll be changed soon...probably by pushing out the age at which you're entitled to start collecting, albeit at a reduced rate, changing the age at which you can draw it without a reduction, altering the percentage you gain by delaying your start date, and/or the amount of money you can earn while still drawing SS benefits.

[n2ratfishin]

IMO, Social Security "as we know it" will collapse. It will be reinvented, in terms of collecting more money, changing the current payout system, and or taking on trillions and trillions of more debt to keep it afloat.

https://www.aarp.org/retirement/soci...explained.html

I don't think it will collapse. I do think it'll be revamped again. The average male lifespan was 59.9 years old when our government came up with this scheme and 71.1 the last major revamp in 1986. The average life span is still climbing. Obviously the age requirement will go up.

https://u.demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html

https://www.macrotrends.net/countrie...ife-expectancy

[GregA]

my retirement portfolio has 20% coming from Social Security. I can make it without it but certainly don’t want to. So many Americans have financially planned for Social Security. I don’t see how it could be drastically changed regarding distributions.

Why not just plug the holes, and increase payroll contributions. Create another tax to cover non-Social Security payouts. Would that be too simple?

[Fishfinger]

Just give me what I put in plus 8% interest and we’ll call it square.

[dsudds1963]

Maybe I am missing your point here. Are you suggesting that one should be able to work 8 hrs and expect to be compensated the same as another who puts in 18 hrs?

I was making a comment on the work ethic of the Type-A personality Exceutive types. How many of them have had drug/alcohol issues? See a therapist regularly or take meds routinely for chronic non-genetic issues? Have had multiple failed marriages, with kids who cause trouble or who just drift aimlessly around?

I'd rather work my 8, clock out, go home to my family and keep that intact--that's the work ethic I prefer to emulate.

BTW..Execs only started working this hard after the Reagan years when 'trickle down' economics became the norm.

I'm suggesting a return to the concept of family..of home..of work being work and not as a way of life.

I am a testament to the former.. I did that spent a decade on the road M-F and worked Saturday and Sunday to catch up from being on the road but not spending time with the family to amount to anyting. I ended up divorced, broke and not seeing my kids (but paying alimony, support and she got my entire 401K..) when she traded me in after a decade for someone else. I got laid off and rebuilt my life at age 45 from the bottom up. To top it off, my 401K that I had built after my divorce went to nearly nothing in the collapse in 2009. I decided right then and there never again.. Pulled all of what was left out and spent it to pay off the back taxes because during our marriage my wife never filed--even though I gave her the paperwork to take to her 'friend' who does taxes.

I do finally get to see my kids--as adults, neither of who have a concept of what it means to be an adult..I'm teaching them that now.. So yeah, that 'work ethic' you praise---it's a crock of crap.

[btlsranger]

True. A failure by our school systems not to teach some basic common sense, life skill classes to kids. There are plenty of others. Would be much more beneficial than some of the useless stuff taught these days.

So true. Too much useless stuff taught. Basic math and economics would go a long way to the future of American dreams.

[bbcman]

If you look at the average retirement savings accounts it shows that most people will never be able to retire without social security. I think a lot of American's are in for a rude awakening and many will be working until very late in life.

That's because cooperate murica has convinced the general population that they don't deserve a pension, so they are ok with out one.