Money Matters
smerka
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
It's slow. Let's talk Social Security
i know this site is very biased left but it does include the actual bill. What do you guys think of the Republican's proposed changes to SS? http://m.motherjones.com/contributor/2016/12/republicans-want-to-cut-social-security
Re: It's slow. Let's talk Social Security
Personally, I would love to be able to just opt out, but I'm one of the rare few that would put that money somewhere like a retirement account versus spending it.
Beyond that, I told my financial planner that we should just pretend social security doesn't exist. If it ends up still being useful, it'll be a nice bonus. At the rate it's going, I figure I'll be able to collect sometime after I'm dead.
I see two problems with social security....
1) The government has pilfered money from it to cover shortages
2) It's a government legalized pyramid scheme. It depends on there being more people working than claiming benefits. That pyramid is getting ready to invert assuming it hasn't started already.
The SS wage base is going up more than 7% next year.
I would also like to opt out and redirect that money elsewhere, but that will never happen since most Americans do not save for their own retirement in any meaningful way.
I don't plan on SS in my retirement calculations because it's possible they will impose an income ceiling in the future, and if that happens H and I will almost certainly be cut out (despite paying in the maximum for years). But it will certainly be around for some people. Eliminating it entirely is political suicide, and every politician in DC knows it.
If they don't impose an income ceiling or phase-out before I retire, I will finally add it into my calculations at the end. The funny thing is based on what I pay in the SS calculator says I should see more income in SS than I currently spend per month, after adjusting for inflation and the way my SS benefit would be taxed.
I found this gif because it was fun, hopefully it works.
Honestly, on the other stuff I just get kind of confused and talk myself in circles. I don't count on SS for us (H doesn't even pay into it!) but I do consider the greater good. I think that middle class families can and need to save for retirement, but we are reaching a point where wages are not keeping up with inflation at all so it is becoming nearly impossible for certain segments of the working class to do so. I might be okay with reducing social security if it were coupled with an increase in the minimum wage or something like that which would make it easier for people to save, but that's clearly not going to happen!
I realize this is very much personal, but this is where SS really cuts me to the core. I have a serious medical condition that makes it very unlikely I will live to be 67 or 69 or whatever age they end up on. So it super pisses me off that I have to pay into it when I will get ZERO benefit from it EVER. Nor will my heirs get anything. The thousands upon thousands of dollars I have contributed in my lifetime will just disappear into the system.
I could use that money NOW to help me pay for my medication. Or buy into better advancements, that I currently can't afford, to try and extend both my life and the quality of it. But no. For me, it's worse than taxes. It is a lot of money I'm forced to just throw away, like its trash.
For all those reasons, I wish the SS system had been turned into a forced retirement system...but where everyone's money stayed their money...a long, long time ago. A system like that ALSO would have kept other government agencies from dipping their greedy little hands into it when there was a major surplus. I mean, are you KIDDING ME?!? Was it some surprise that all those baby boomers, forming the previous surplus, were all going to retire someday? And now those bad decisions have come home to roost.
He could but, despite him not having worked for the last few years, he made substantially more money than I did previous to that. He's probably better off with his own SS benefit. Plus he's 10 years older than me.
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure, when a spouse passes away, the remaining spouse can choose to keep their own benefit or can keep their partner's, but they can't have both. Of course, the surviving spouse has to have reached their SS retirement age.
Very true. Unfortunately, that is how a lot of people treat it. And working taxpayers end up supporting many retirees further with housing assistance and food stamps.
Some of this also harkens back to old, out-dated times. When people worked for the same companies, with pension plans, most of their lives. They bought one house in their 20s, stayed there their whole lives, and it was paid off in 30 years. By the time (if not even sooner) they retired.
I'm not necessarily saying this is how things should be. That has not been the course of my life. But just further pointing out that the society SS was designed for, no longer exists.
Totally agree people can't be left out in the cold. There needs to be some kind of safety net. But the current SS no longer works. And is inherently unfair. To many, many people. Where does it end? They could have used that surplus to "buffer" a new system where people born after X year would have had a choice to invest 10-15% of their gross wages to funds X,Y or Z. That would be THEIR retirement. That they would have had more control over to better maximize their returns over the years, just couldn't withdraw from. And if they died at the age of 35 in a car accident, with no spouse or children under the age of 18, their retirement account went to THEIR heirs. Not got absorbed into some government program.
I mean, if you think about it, we all entered a system...on our very, very first day of work ever...that took out for SS with the agreement we could start taking SS at the age of 62 and full SS at the age of 67. Oh, but wait! Now people are living longer and they p**sed away the surplus. So...oops...going to raise the retirement age. (The government rubbing their greedy hands together)...a lot of people will die in those two years...nothing but pure profit for the SS program. And, of course, everyone else will have two less years of benefits.
I'll use myself as an example. I'm under 49 (43 to be exact). My first day of employment was 28 years ago. At the age of 15. So there are a lot of people who have been working 25-35 years in the "current" system, that this change will affect. And now, after decades of working under this system, it's "screw you, we're the government, so now we're stealing 2 years of your SS benefits."
Sadly, I'm not even saying that's a bad plan considering the circumstances. But that doesn't make it any less b.s., especially considering how mismanaged the SSA became.
Okay, off my soapbox! I promise, lol.
I paid social security for about 6 working years and have been in education for 5 years. Our system takes a mandatory 8% of salary and then charges the employer 20%...so gauges it. It really sucks (I run the school, so I have to budget for a large payment to the pension plan annually).
Anyway, I am pretty conservative when it comes to finances (moderate-liberal in politics) and I am pretending like SS will not exist. If we get it or the pension plan (both DH and I are in education), then great. If not...we will have our retirement accounts.
So technically, we save about 20% of our income in retirement and then another 8% due to the pension plan. DH worked longer in the private sector (about 10 years) and will probably return one day. So he will likely have a small pension benefit (if its still there) and then SS. But I told him, don't plan on it and we need to save on our own.
So to answer your question: I don't personally care what plan gets put out there because I do not anticipate using it (hopefully). However, I do hope something is done to help those that truly need it and can't afford basic living expenses when they are older and not capable of working.
With that said, people really need to start being more responsible and start saving for themselves. Yes, there are some who are not able to, but the majority of people could save at least 10% of their income by making life adjustments and sacrifices here and there. That would help tremendously later in life.
Also, WTF, my avatar is changed and I didn't change it!?!?