Baby Boomer Retirement Fears
 

From the article...

The Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll comes as politicians face growing pressure to curb record federal deficits, and budget hawks of both parties have expressed a willingness to scale back Social Security, the government's biggest program.

The survey suggests how politically risky that would be: 64 percent of boomers see Social Security as the keystone of their retirement earnings, far outpacing pensions, investments and other income.

Full story here...

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/retiremen...861/?tag=stack

just heard this on the news this afternoon.

they interviewed a few people and these old bags are complaining about how they have to retire LATER than expected. Boo fucking hoo, stop trying to look for a hand out and earn a living just like everyone else :2 cents:

Welcome the US to about 5 years ago....

Well its not really a hand out. They put the money in, they deserve to get it back.

I know I will never see a dime of mine and I have already put in all that I can.

It's interesting how different the outlook is based on generations. Most people my age don't expect Social Security to be around and are making their own retirement plans. I'm making my own plans. If Social Security is around, great, if not, I'll be ready.

Social Security was not supposed to be a retirement fund. It was supposed to be a supplement.

Here is the big factor about pensions and social security. People were PROMISED x benefits when they retired. Deserved or not, and this can be argued all day, the fact remains taking away anything promised is hard to do.

Have a program here take away or scale back promised payouts and there is a 25 page thread from all the affiliate ballers. Is there a difference?

.

You are right. They were promised, which wasn't their fault obviously. But it also can't be denied that it's going to put a huge burden on the younger generations as well. So grandpa can retire at 65 and 2 months or 65 and 5 months... couple months will most likely not make a huge difference in his life, but a change like that across the board would make a noticeable difference elsewhere.

It isn't uncommon for contracts and promises to be renegotiated after the fact.

For decades politicians have pushed the bill off to the next politician and the next generation, now we are stuck with it. Something has to give somewhere.

As long as we keep taxing the poor and the middle class, and continue to give corporations tax breaks and returns, we'll all be just fine. Don't worry about anything, it will all just trickle down. Pinky swear!

You are correct...it was meant to supplement private savings and/or other pensions. It was never intended to be ones sole retirement...but some where along the line...people began to view it as such.

In additon...in the beginning the average person lived for eighteen months after retirement compared to about ten years now.

The retirement age has been raised from 65 to 67 for people within a certain age bracket...and I suspect that when they began tinkering with the system it will go to 70.

It's NOT a hand out, they've paid into it and should be entitled to that money. Whether you are self employed or an employee it is deducted from your check or you pay it at the end of the year. You pay a portion of your earnings and that money goes into the retirement pension fund.

How much you put in over the years is the basis on how much of a monthly pension you will get.

Now to live comfortably yes you should invest elsewhere and not only depend on this.

With the average male life expectancy now at a high of 75 years, raising the age to collect benefits to 70 really makes you question why one is taxed from the age of 18 on. 50 years of taxes to maybe get 5 years of benefits, what's the point of the whole program?

.

if people are going to be retiring in record numbers wouldn't it make sense for people to invest in things that cater to older people? Retirement homes, home care etc?

that would more than make up for any social security payments i'm sure ;)

In the beginning the average person lived approximately eighteen months after retirement...and had also been paid what they had paid in...now...unless I am mistaken...one has been paid all that they paid in in approximately three years.

I rarely have any beef with you, since you seem to live life on the right side of the rails. However, I do remember you were one of the people putting in his 2c having a jibe at the French a few years ago when they all took to the streets to protest exactly against this point.

so they'll scale back social security, yet let the military and health budgets go through the roof?

Ok, hold on...

This article says nothing about scaling back the amount people are currently owed. Is the government actually contemplating that? Say you've paid in all your life, are pegged to get X dollars per month, and they're just going to drop it by 10% on you? Or is this only affecting future payers into social security?

What side did I take? lol The issue really is tough. I can honestly see both sides of the argument. Fiscal responsibility vs honoring obligations, is there a winner or just 2 losers?

One thing is obvious, once someone really depends on "entitlements" they generally also have no choice in the matter. They are to old or physically unable to start a new life/career.

.

Yeah Grandpa, stop looking for a fucking handout! :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

[/sarcasm]

Whatever point you took, not really relevant, but the point you bring up is very much so.... so lets say I contribute high $xxx per month to benefits and out of that 50% is taken toward my pension (I'm taking those figures from real-time French values cos no idea what % shit goes on US SS).

Lets say I started that like 20 years ago on a promise of "last salary pensions scheme", cos I was one of the lucky ones. Others got 75% of average salary from total annual contributions.

So, I'm 20 yrs away from a pension and the current in govt. decides 'last salary' is shit and says all should go onto avg scale, , dropping that avg scale to 60%. Not only that but increasing retirement age from 65 to 67.

OK, so what do I have - a fucking massive cut in my pension, from a pre-calculated ?75k/yr to ?53k/yr and I have to work 2 years longer for it. My contributions stay the same (with inflation), but I get cut out a shit load - of course I'll shout and moan.

About 3 yrs ago, I frikken went onto the streets with others and shouted as hard as I could... I'm now "on" a ?68k pension in 20 years unless some other fucktards mess with it, but hell, at least shouting earned me that 15k that would have been lost.

What I can't stand is the total neglect for contributions already paid.... if your're going to cut things then at least provide a rebate for those already contributed.....

anyway, /rant. Enjoy your own govt fight ;)

SSN is fucked because of the way the government has handled it

Even Al Gores "lockbox" could not save it.

Al Gore, the guy that screams about global warming, the oceans rising and then bought ocean front property?

Yes the same guy that gets filthy rich off the hoax of global warming including selling carbon offsets.
If that doesn't prove its giant scam I don't know what does.

The money they put in was paid out a LONG time ago. That's how it works. When you pays SS money doesn't go into an account with your name it goes to pay out CURRENT retirees. People assume when they retire workers then will help pay for their SS. The problem with that system is you can't predict the future. When SS started every 1 person getting a SS check there was 16 workers paying into the system. Now it's about 1 in 3. In a few years it will be 1 in 2. In 1933 no one could have predicted that in 2011 the average person would live 15, 20, 25 years after retirement.Also most retirees get way more than they put in.

SS was never meant to be the sole or even the majority of your retirement income. All these baby boomers instead of putting oney away for retirement took that money trying to keep with with the Jones'. They really have themsleves to blame.