The Social Security Conumdrum

brianlux

This is not exactly political or current events-- really it's more like old fart's business so I'm game for all the jokes anyone can throw out here -- but it is interesting and surely indicative of how convoluted bureaucracy can be. My wife attended a presentation on how to maximize your social security ( I missed it due to being laid up with my bad back). The guy giving the talk explained that there are 81 one- that's right, EIGHTY ONE- different configurations of ways in which a married couple can collect their social security (not sure what it is for an individual). I just about flipped when I heard this and my first thought was that this is either typical insanely complicated red tape or yet another opportunity for people to make money by playing parlor games with other peoples money. To me it just seems like some kind of scam. I can see these beady eyed dudes in grey suits sitting around under fluorescent lights around a long table in a room with bare walls figuring out how to make money manners too complicated for the average old folks to figure out. The gist of one of the things this dude told the group was, "You can either trust your luck that when you go to the social security office to sign up that you will get one of the few employees there who has 20 years experience and is dedicated to helping you make the best choice (the one in eighty one) for your situation or pay a financial adviser to give you help."

Awe screw it, I'll just work until I drop.

know1

"Maxing out your social security"???

How do you max out $0?

I stopped counting on seeing a dime from social security about 15 years ago, and I think it's a mistake for anyone to rely on it being a significant portion of their retirement income unless they are retiring right now.

brianlux

Here's an argument that says Social Security will not go bankrupt. It seems like a sound argument to me but I'm not an economist and the authors suggestion that we increase productivity does not take into account limited resources so maybe the whole thing is shot full of holes. Maybe someone here with a better understanding of economics can tell us how sound the argument her is. I know most of you don't have much interest in this yet but maybe looking ahead is not such a bad idea. My 26 year old step daughter has been doing just that already. But I'm not saying anyone, even boomers my age, should rely too heavily on social security to see them through. My strategy is to try and stay healthy because I doubt I'll ever be able to fully retire.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey ... ity-rerun/

know1

It may not go bankrupt (but I believe it will), but they'll keep diminishing the amount of money you get back and increasing the age at which you qualify until you essentially start getting lunch money at about age 85.

What they really need to do is end it now and grandfather people in. That way there won't be people out there who actually think it will be enough to live on because they will know they aren't getting any.

lukin2006

So if it's ended ... what happens to the retired folks who didn't plan for retirement? Would they not end up on some form government assistance ... except they never paid into any system? Seems like the taxpayer would somehow still be on the hook!

Here in Canada I am all for grandfathering those over a certain age and giving those under a certain age the option to contribute to the canada pension plan or present your own financial plan for retirement that must be approved as viable by an expert paid for by yourself. As it stands now canada pension plan is kind of a joke.