RETW Loc: Washington

THIS IS SURE SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!!!!


THE ONLY THING WRONG WITH THE GOVERNMENT'S CALCULATION OF AVAILABLE SOCIAL SECURITY IS THEY FORGOT TO FIGURE IN THE PEOPLE WHO DIED BEFORE THEY EVER COLLECTED A SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK!!!


WHERE DID THAT MONEY GO?
Remember, not only did you and I contribute to Social Security but your employer did, too.

It totaled 15% of your income before taxes.

If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500.

Read that again.

Did you see where the Government paid in one single penny?

We are talking about the money you and your employer put in a Government bank to insure you
and I that we would have a retirement check from the money we put in, not the Government.

Now they are calling the money we put in "AN ENTITLEMENT" when we reach the age to take it back.


If you calculate the future invested value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution)
at a simple 5% interest (less than what the Government pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98.


If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better
than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65) and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit!

If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.


A quote from a retired woman: "Another thing with me.... I have two deceased husbands
who died in their 50's, (one was 51 and the other one was 59 before one percent of their social security could be drawn.

I worked all my life and am drawing 100% on my own social security).

Their S.S. money will never have one cent drawn from what they paid into S.S. all their lives."
THE FOLKS IN WASHINGTON HAVE PULLED OFF A BIGGER PONZI SCHEME THAN BERNIE MADOFF EVER DID.
Entitlement my foot, I paid cash for my social security insurance!

Just because they borrowed the money for other government spending, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!


Remember Congressional benefits? --- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages,
67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days.

Now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement payments entitlements?


We're "broke" and we can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, or Homeless.

Yet in the last few months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile and Turkey .

And now Pakistan .......home of bin Laden.

Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

And they can't help our own citizens in New York and New Jersey!



They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlementeven though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives, and now, when it's time for us to collect,
the government is running out of money.

Why did the government borrow from it in the first place?

It was supposed to be in a locked box, not part of the general fund.
Sad isn't it.

RETW :shock:

AuntiE Loc: 45th Least Free State

You failed to mention that Medicare is taken out of every Social Security recipients check each month. If that is inaccurate, the government owes my mother-in-law's estate a lot of money. :idea:

RETW Loc: Washington

So very true AuntiE

funguy1949

ok lets get things in order they have been steeling our SS since the mid 60's some where between 2.5-4.0 trillion in IOU"s//yep it sounds like a Liberal pol-cat got into our hard ereaned money which all of us who are 60 an beyound an this doesn't even count the interest that is owed to SS an now the dog liberal wants to do away with it an start his MYRA BS program so they can steel more money this is not right he stole 150 million out of medicare already for his so called BS health care program so how long will it take or what will it take for the rest of the brainwashed/braindead liberals in this country to wake up an get ragehead/obama dog an the rest of his liberal dogs out of office/goverment an put in good conservatives,an i don't mean republicans there are to many that say they are conservatives but in truth they are nothing but liberals in conservative sheep skins.An god help us if hillery gets in.

cant beleve Loc: Planet Kolob

The numbers speak for themselves and sending help any form especially to country after country and not helping our own makes me mad then hang my head and cry.
why oh why? What's become of our GREAT nation?
We certainly are being ripped off!

funguy1949

well lets just say if you love your nation come this Nov. elect conservatives an get the no good liberal dogs out of office.

cant beleve Loc: Planet Kolob

I'll do my best. If I could I'd get Orin Hatch out of there since he signed on the dotted line this last time . I can't imagine being proud to give in to the democraps. We all are frustrated and I believe because that's all I can, that more conservative rational voters will turn out. Cb

betty Loc: Arizona Mountains

I have my pencil sharpened ready....set .....vote

MrEd Loc: Georgia

Very few people ever get all the money out that they pay in to SS. Since we put that money in there and then die before we get it all, why is the government keeping it? That money belongs to us, so why is the remainder not payed to our families after our death. They sure could use that money. It is, after all, our money and the government did not contribute any of it, so why do they get to keep it?

Why are they wasting money on all these other countries when we have people in need right here at home. They say they want to give a pay raise to people so they will have a wage that they can live on, yet they want to cut military paychecks. Does that make any sense to anyone? We already have families that had to make ends meet by taking food stamps, so why can't they get a living wage? Why would you ever consider cutting their pay? They are expected to put their life on the line and do, but then the government wants to cut their pay because they want to save money? Our government doesn't save ANYTHING. What they take from one group, they simply give to another. Mostly the group that votes Democratic and keeps them in office. Since the military normally votes Republican, the government wants to punish them, so they take money away from them. They are now using national reserve troops in place of active duty to go fight our wars. Since they bought a house according to the pay they were receiving in their place of employment, they can't make those house payments anymore, because they are only getting military pay while overseas. They are not given a choice in the matter and they are the ones loosing their homes because of it. Why is the government not making the banks hold off until they come back and start getting their normal paycheck again.

Since we the people wrote and approved this Constitution and WE have the final say as to what it means and what it says, how about if WE go to DC and start TELLING our government how it is to be run and to do it's business according to the Constitution. We also need to rescind a few of the amendments that those tricky lawyers fooled us into passing for their benefit.

SchoonerPete

Firstly, I support SS, especially since I am on SS. Having said that, the numbers quoted in the initial posting is grossly exaggerated, and are not a realistic example.

Secondly, using averages, if you draw SS for 6-1/2 to 7 years, you have drawn out everything you ever paid in, plus interest. That is one of the biggest problems with the current system, they're paying out more than what they're taking in. With the baby boomers reaching retirement age, the birth rate is much lower, and the workforce has shrunk by over 11 million jobs, it is going to get much worse. The system needs to be reformed.

RETW Loc: Washington

I'LL 2nd that

RETW

RETW Loc: Washington

Check your numbers again. Than read the whole posting.

cant beleve Loc: Planet Kolob

Never missed am election in 40+ years.I'll 3rd that

saveamerica Loc: Texas

RETW, the bad part is, only 60% of the population makes it to age 60 from 60 to the age of 70 you lose another 30% and at the age of 77 you only have 1% left and by age 95 there is only 0.001% left. I have had three people on my block who die right before they could start receiving their Social Security. Just look in the paper and you can see.

RetNavyCWO Loc: VA suburb of DC

Finally, a voice of reason!

The biggest problem I see with calculations that project what a person might accumulate if they had invested their FICA taxes in the market is that they look only at their own SS retirement annuity and none of the other SS benefits. They fail to factor in the spouse's benefit (50% of the worker's, even if the spouse never had earned income and paid $0 in FICA taxes), the surviving spouse's benefit (equal to the worker's benefit), the worker's disability benefit (equal to what their full retirement annuity would be at full retirement age) along with the benefits that would be paid for the disabled worker's family; the minor children's survivor benefits, plus disability income for them if they become disabled. Social Security does so much more than just provide a retirement annuity for the worker. If one wants to hypothesize how much income they MIGHT be able to produce if they invested their FICA taxes elsewhere, then, to be fair and accurate, they must also account for all those other benefits. Subtracting only what the worker would pay for additional disability insurance from the amount invested cuts that end figure WAAAAY down!

Social Security is not an investment account. There was never any intent to put FICA taxes in a "lock box." (That was Al Gore's campaign pitch.) Everybody pays FICA taxes at the same rate, 6.2% of earned income (with employer match), except those who earn over a certain amount - $113,700 for 2014 - do not pay FICA taxes on earned income over that amount - but they do pay Medicare tax of 1.45% on their entire earned income, with those earning over $200,000 taxed an additional .09% on the additional income).

Benefits are not tied to the amount of FICA taxes paid; they are based upon one's highest 35 years of income, indexed for inflation and averaged out into a monthly income amount. Monthly SS benefits are calculated at 90% of the first $816 of average monthly income, plus 32% of the next $4,101 of average monthly income, plus 15% of average monthly income over $4,917. Skewed very much in favor of lower-income workers.

Most of the criticisms about Social Security are all political hype. It's on good footing for the next 20 years or so, and with only minor tweaks, such as increasing the full retirement age from 66 to 67 or 68 (appropriate given longer life expectancies, I think), or increasing the income cap by a modest amount, will keep it viable indefinitely.