i am really hoping it will be. obviously, the problems with the system are well known, and i'd like to think something will be done about it to preserve it for the future. as i will reach retirement age in about 30 years, i just might make it...:p.......but the system absolutely needs assistance/revamping if it is to survive.
So your solution is to bribe people with their own money??? You think that by telling someone that being able to keep 10% of their 14% would cause them to celebrate and opt out of the system?
bribe them with their own money???? its our money to start with. you do the math. take 10% of your gross pay, invest it very conservatively (say 6%) over the course of your working years.......not a tough decision is it.
Yes. What you're proposing is like someone holding you up and justifying their behavior by suggesting that they only steal half of the money in your wallet.
its our money to start with. you do the math. take 10% of your gross pay, invest it very conservatively (say 6%) over the course of your working years.......not a tough decision is it.
Social Security "guarantees" value for value. The system, at its core, states that I'll receive benefit corresponding to what I invest in it. Therefore, there is no 4% loss. The system you're proposing makes me pay for choice. It requires that I pay 4% in order to keep 10%, despite that fact that the entire 14% is mine. So while it is certainly conceivable that I could make more money by keeping 10%, I could make the utmost by keeping the entire 14%.
The financial crisis of Social Security comes from payouts to people who did not earn the money in the first place. You're extracting more from the system than was invested. What you're proposing does not solve that problem. It could certainly lead less people to extract, but it also severely decreases the investment as well.
Maybe those in charge can just invest the entire social security fund in oil & insurance companies right before they U.S. plans the next 9/11. That should beef it up a bit.....
Maybe those in charge can just invest the entire social security fund in oil & insurance companies right before they U.S. plans the next 9/11. That should beef it up a bit.....
Theres nothing to invest. The trust fund consists of a big pile of IOU's from the Federal Government.
Start taking the matter into your own hands. That's what I'm doing. Start putting away a little money every month to invest in your retirement. With Bush not getting anywhere on his social security reform and Congress' lack of attention towards the problem, I'm not going to bank on them taking care of me. This is only my little personal approach towards the problem. On a larger scale, I think personal savings accounts are a good idea. The money you earned during your life should be your money when you get older and need it. It's more a matter of how to transition from the old system to a new one and keep people from falling through the cracks.
I work for a company who is the recordkeeper for numerous 401k/pension accounts. What's sad is that most Americans see that they have 50k in their retirement account and they think they can retire since Uncle Sam is going to provide for them. Another note, is that so many people are borrowing against their 401k's or that they are withdrawing at such a high rate that our generation is really going to be screwed.
If I can say anything to anyone out there. When you get your statement in the mail and check it out, look at it, make sure your fund are performing the way you want them to. The days of throwing a dart to pick investments are over. Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket. Use whatever tools available online that your employer and the recordkeeper provide you to make a plan, and actual plan! More than likely the tools available are free to you. No need to spend more money for someone else to tell what to do. NO ONE WILL CARE ABOUT YOUR MONEY MORE THAN YOU!!! My manager said something to once that made the most sense; "people spend more time researching about their next used car then they do about their own retirement." How true is that???!!!
But after you review your statement shred it, or better yet opt for online statements so you can save a tree! Forget that you have this money. Increase your contribution by 1%-2% annually, if you can afford to or when you get a raise. Act like this money doesn't exist. And be proud of yourself for saving so much!
I work for a company who is the recordkeeper for numerous 401k/pension accounts. What's sad is that most Americans see that they have 50k in their retirement account and they think they can retire since Uncle Sam is going to provide for them. Another note, is that so many people are borrowing against their 401k's or that they are withdrawing at such a high rate that our generation is really going to be screwed.
If I can say anything to anyone out there. When you get your statement in the mail and check it out, look at it, make sure your fund are performing the way you want them to. The days of throwing a dart to pick investments are over. Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket. Use whatever tools available online that your employer and the recordkeeper provide you to make a plan, and actual plan! More than likely the tools available are free to you. No need to spend more money for someone else to tell what to do. NO ONE WILL CARE ABOUT YOUR MONEY MORE THAN YOU!!! My manager said something to once that made the most sense; "people spend more time researching about their next used car then they do about their own retirement." How true is that???!!!
But after you review your statement shred it, or better yet opt for online statements so you can save a tree! Forget that you have this money. Increase your contribution by 1%-2% annually, if you can afford to or when you get a raise. Act like this money doesn't exist. And be proud of yourself for saving so much!
that is great advice that everybody should take. fidelity investments handles my retirement account, their website is very informative. if your company does not offer 401K, or a similiar tax efficient savings plan, you can put up to $3,000 per year into a Roth IRA to save for retirement. if you did that you would retire a multi millionaire.
"every tool they lend us; a loss of independence"
www.lp.org
www.mises.org
www.fairtax.org
"Freedom cannot survive the number of Americans who think that the government is there to take care of them."
i have some new info on this. i am 33 years old and starting to think about retirement and investments etc...i met with a financial advisor this week to get the ball rolling on a few things. here is some info he worked up for me. i told him that i was unhappy with 12.4% of my earnings going to soc.sec. which in $$ i will never see. i asked him, what if i was allowed to take 4% of my money and put it in a private account..leaving the other 8.4% to pay for people that choose to stay in the plan. at 4%, when i retire in 30 years my nest egg would be $701,912..my monthly draw on this (without touching the principle) would be $4,673...then upon my death, i could leave $701,912 to my family..how great is that..but instead, i just have to give my money to the gov't to blow.
I went to the social security office last month because I lost my social security card and needed to get a replacement. The place was completely packed. But, what I found to be most unsettling was that just about everybody in there was speaking a foreign language. It was mostly a bunch of old women speaking a foreign language.
And I heard a statistic the other day which said that an estimated 50% of welfare recipients are fradulently collecting welfare. Somehow, I don't doubt that people have over the years figured out ways to do the minimum in order to collect social security.
So, I think the true root causes of the US social services problems are immigration and abuse. People keep referring to the system as a failure, but who knows how many years its been since it was actually being used the way it was meant to be used.
We have to solve this massive immigration problem that is not only draining our public assistance funds, but is also lowering wages as a result of exploitation by small and large business alike. Like someone mentioned earlier, a big part of the problem is the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.
I think that possibly our own gluttony will be the problem solver for S.S.
Think about it we are a generation raised on mcdonalds, most people eat fast food at least 2-3 times a week, then even at home they eat quick microwavable, or ready to eat mixes that contain massive amounts of fat etc..
Id say that theirs gonna be a massive health crisis in 20-30 years, all the people who have eaten 10 big macs a week their whole life wont live long enough to collect.
But seriously, the system is fucked. The government needs to stop worrying about Iraq and all the other military BS that they stick their hand in and worry about its own people.
Their are people in our own country right now as you read this who havent eaten in days, not just adults but children. Yet we spend billions and billions of dollars on all these military conflicts.
All the money spent on war could of been invested and solved the S.S problem 2 years ago.
I think that possibly our own gluttony will be the problem solver for S.S.
Think about it we are a generation raised on mcdonalds, most people eat fast food at least 2-3 times a week, then even at home they eat quick microwavable, or ready to eat mixes that contain massive amounts of fat etc..
Id say that theirs gonna be a massive health crisis in 20-30 years, all the people who have eaten 10 big macs a week their whole life wont live long enough to collect
heck, that makes it worse. you work your balls off your whole life, then die and you don't leave alot to your family. but 12.4% of your earnings were going to the gov't the whole time..socialism sucks.
Funny that. I'll have to let my grandparents know that the money they've been receiving isn't in fact Social Security. That the money they paid into the system was all stolen from them, and that these checks must be coming from somewhere else.
Social Security has been modified before, and if necessary can be modified again. However, it is not the massive failure those on the right like to make it out to be. You will be getting a few pennies from it, know, don't worry.
yes it has....they are trying to say that gov't didn't check up on applicants and recipients prior to 1996 or maybe 1990...i knew of several people collecting ssi benefits right from their litte prison cells...they should have watched that in the first place...and the other one they didn't check up on until a serial killer revealed homicide path in Sacramento California...do you remember the retirement boarding house where owner of the house was everyone payee and then they found a bunch of bodies buried under her grounds? that's where they screwed it up...another way i see SS system lagging is by giving ssi to kids who haven't even gone to highschool yet....then they are taught to function off of stupid and be dependent on it...
all insanity:
a derivitive of nature.
nature is god
god is love
love is light
I thought Bush's plan to let people have a choice, and to invest money in the stock market was a really good idea. But I really don't plan on relying on other people (ie the government) to pay for my retirement, so I really don't care what happens to the "system" given the "drilling for fear" tactics used by AARP and other left-leaning organizations.
And you ask me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
So I was standing in front of starbuck's sipping my green tea frappacino the other day when an aging, overweight, and very scruffy looking semi-homeless looking man began speaking to me.
He was sitting at a table with a latte in one hand and a cigarette in the other. In front of him on the table was a small bucket containing car cleaning paraphernalia.
After some dialogue, I realized that he was mentally ill. He informed me that he was an aircraft designer contracted by the government to design Air Force I, but that the government had failed to compensate him for his work. He produced his driver's license for me and pointed out how it contained special holograms which indicated his status as a government employee.
So, because the government was refusing to pay him for his aircraft design services, he was forced to make ends meet by washing cars with his hand-held car washing kit. A client of his was supposed to meet him at that starbucks an hour before, but had apparently stood him up.
He mentioned that he could not find work after exhaustively searching, and that his only means of survival was his social security check.
Like I said, he was an old fat guy whose mind was clearly not stable enough to make him employable. I have no problem with people like him collecting social security. Actually, I think it's worth it for me to pay into social security as long as the money goes to people who have earned it or who truly could not live w/o it in spite of their best intentions.
Comments
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
bribe them with their own money???? its our money to start with. you do the math. take 10% of your gross pay, invest it very conservatively (say 6%) over the course of your working years.......not a tough decision is it.
Yes. What you're proposing is like someone holding you up and justifying their behavior by suggesting that they only steal half of the money in your wallet.
Social Security "guarantees" value for value. The system, at its core, states that I'll receive benefit corresponding to what I invest in it. Therefore, there is no 4% loss. The system you're proposing makes me pay for choice. It requires that I pay 4% in order to keep 10%, despite that fact that the entire 14% is mine. So while it is certainly conceivable that I could make more money by keeping 10%, I could make the utmost by keeping the entire 14%.
The financial crisis of Social Security comes from payouts to people who did not earn the money in the first place. You're extracting more from the system than was invested. What you're proposing does not solve that problem. It could certainly lead less people to extract, but it also severely decreases the investment as well.
I work for a company who is the recordkeeper for numerous 401k/pension accounts. What's sad is that most Americans see that they have 50k in their retirement account and they think they can retire since Uncle Sam is going to provide for them. Another note, is that so many people are borrowing against their 401k's or that they are withdrawing at such a high rate that our generation is really going to be screwed.
If I can say anything to anyone out there. When you get your statement in the mail and check it out, look at it, make sure your fund are performing the way you want them to. The days of throwing a dart to pick investments are over. Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket. Use whatever tools available online that your employer and the recordkeeper provide you to make a plan, and actual plan! More than likely the tools available are free to you. No need to spend more money for someone else to tell what to do. NO ONE WILL CARE ABOUT YOUR MONEY MORE THAN YOU!!! My manager said something to once that made the most sense; "people spend more time researching about their next used car then they do about their own retirement." How true is that???!!!
But after you review your statement shred it, or better yet opt for online statements so you can save a tree! Forget that you have this money. Increase your contribution by 1%-2% annually, if you can afford to or when you get a raise. Act like this money doesn't exist. And be proud of yourself for saving so much!
that is great advice that everybody should take. fidelity investments handles my retirement account, their website is very informative. if your company does not offer 401K, or a similiar tax efficient savings plan, you can put up to $3,000 per year into a Roth IRA to save for retirement. if you did that you would retire a multi millionaire.
www.lp.org
www.mises.org
www.fairtax.org
"Freedom cannot survive the number of Americans who think that the government is there to take care of them."
And I heard a statistic the other day which said that an estimated 50% of welfare recipients are fradulently collecting welfare. Somehow, I don't doubt that people have over the years figured out ways to do the minimum in order to collect social security.
So, I think the true root causes of the US social services problems are immigration and abuse. People keep referring to the system as a failure, but who knows how many years its been since it was actually being used the way it was meant to be used.
We have to solve this massive immigration problem that is not only draining our public assistance funds, but is also lowering wages as a result of exploitation by small and large business alike. Like someone mentioned earlier, a big part of the problem is the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
Think about it we are a generation raised on mcdonalds, most people eat fast food at least 2-3 times a week, then even at home they eat quick microwavable, or ready to eat mixes that contain massive amounts of fat etc..
Id say that theirs gonna be a massive health crisis in 20-30 years, all the people who have eaten 10 big macs a week their whole life wont live long enough to collect.
But seriously, the system is fucked. The government needs to stop worrying about Iraq and all the other military BS that they stick their hand in and worry about its own people.
Their are people in our own country right now as you read this who havent eaten in days, not just adults but children. Yet we spend billions and billions of dollars on all these military conflicts.
All the money spent on war could of been invested and solved the S.S problem 2 years ago.
heck, that makes it worse. you work your balls off your whole life, then die and you don't leave alot to your family. but 12.4% of your earnings were going to the gov't the whole time..socialism sucks.
a derivitive of nature.
nature is god
god is love
love is light
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
He was sitting at a table with a latte in one hand and a cigarette in the other. In front of him on the table was a small bucket containing car cleaning paraphernalia.
After some dialogue, I realized that he was mentally ill. He informed me that he was an aircraft designer contracted by the government to design Air Force I, but that the government had failed to compensate him for his work. He produced his driver's license for me and pointed out how it contained special holograms which indicated his status as a government employee.
So, because the government was refusing to pay him for his aircraft design services, he was forced to make ends meet by washing cars with his hand-held car washing kit. A client of his was supposed to meet him at that starbucks an hour before, but had apparently stood him up.
He mentioned that he could not find work after exhaustively searching, and that his only means of survival was his social security check.
Like I said, he was an old fat guy whose mind was clearly not stable enough to make him employable. I have no problem with people like him collecting social security. Actually, I think it's worth it for me to pay into social security as long as the money goes to people who have earned it or who truly could not live w/o it in spite of their best intentions.
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825