High earners/savers: How do you feel about social security?

[Anonymous]

Well as long the boomers are taken care of and every billionaire and high income CEO gets a big tax break then it’s perfectly fine for everyone else to fall into poverty. Priorities people!

[Anonymous]

My expected monthly benefit if I wait until I'm 67 is $4,271. It jumps to $5,323 if I wait until I'm 70 and decreases to $2,944 if I take it early at 62.

[Anonymous]

I'm 35 and I don't expect to see a dime of it, so I don't factor it into my retirement plan at all. That being said, I obviously would not turn it down or disagree with anything that might increase the chances that I see that money again someday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We would prefer to not rely on it and get a refund

Realistically how would that work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would prefer to not rely on it and get a refund

Realistically how would that work.

Issue refunds based on social security number.

[Anonymous]

We are high income and I think we should pay a social security tax on ALL of our earnings, plus have a cap.

Why? I'm from a lower middle class background and have many elderly relatives who only have social security to support them on old age.

[Anonymous]

This happens on every thread about SS. People think they have paid into some kind of savings account and they are owed the money back. THAT'S NOT HOW SS WORKS.

The money that current workers pay in, supports current retirees (/disabled people). Your Social Security checks will be coming out of the deductions from paychecks of the people who are still working/paying in when you retire. There's not a big pile of money that you personally contributed to, tied to your SSN, waiting around 35 years for you to start withdrawing from it.

The first generation of people to receive Social Security never paid a dime into it. It's not a return on investment, it's a social program funded by current workers to keep old people from living in poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you means test social security, I'm going to stop saving and start spending. I'm not going to continue to sacrifice now to save so I can lose part of my retirement income while others live it up.

Ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We would prefer to not rely on it and get a refund

Lol, it's not a personal savings account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why people above a certain income must participate at all doesn't make sense

The politics that sold the whole thing in the first place is "why."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s fair for the government to take money out of people’s paychecks for decades, promise a certain monthly return if they live to old(er) age, and then take that promise away.

I also don’t believe that career politicians (many of whom have no private sector/real world experience and live off the government dime in a dozen ways) are the most equipped to deal with this. Hence our current dilemma.

Just give me back my money and leave me be.

The "government" promises to do stuff with our tax money, and then doesn't end up doing it, all.the.time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s fair for the government to take money out of people’s paychecks for decades, promise a certain monthly return if they live to old(er) age, and then take that promise away.

I also don’t believe that career politicians (many of whom have no private sector/real world experience and live off the government dime in a dozen ways) are the most equipped to deal with this. Hence our current dilemma.

Just give me back my money and leave me be.

The "government" promises to do stuff with our tax money, and then doesn't end up doing it, all.the.time.

What point are you trying to make with this string of posts? Because you aren't making one.

People know how social security works.

[Anonymous]

I have paid in only $22k in nearly 30 years. Should get it all back within 2-3 years at 62.
Lots of wage theft since I worked without contract and employers didn't feel like paying.
I had no idea how the paychecks work. I was lucky to get one that didn't bounce.
I saved and invested what I could. Planning to live til 99 to get stolen wages back from SS even though it should have come from several employers. Not my place to make sure they followed the employment law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happens on every thread about SS. People think they have paid into some kind of savings account and they are owed the money back. THAT'S NOT HOW SS WORKS.

The money that current workers pay in, supports current retirees (/disabled people). Your Social Security checks will be coming out of the deductions from paychecks of the people who are still working/paying in when you retire. There's not a big pile of money that you personally contributed to, tied to your SSN, waiting around 35 years for you to start withdrawing from it.

The first generation of people to receive Social Security never paid a dime into it. It's not a return on investment, it's a social program funded by current workers to keep old people from living in poverty.

This, plus all the people who think it would be fine to get rid of social security altogether for high earners since "they don't need it" and don't understand the whole point of the program is keep us from having millions of destitute elderly people in this country which would become a totally untenable situation very quickly. Social security is how most elderly people have homes and can feed themselves even after they are too old to work full time. We have to have some kind of plan for these folks, it's not like they just disappear after 65. Social Security and Medicare are what keep the US from being a total dystopia.

Also our taxes constantly pay for things we don't want. I don't want the war in Iran and didn't want the ones in Afghanistan or Iraq either, and yet the vast majority of my tax dollars over the 30 years I've been working have gone to pay for those wars. The idea that some tiny fraction of my taxes go to keep elderly people from being put out on the street to die (and coming with the promise that when I am old, if something were to happen to ruin me financially, I too would get some minimal income to keep me from becoming homeless or starving to death) is really not a source of upset for me.

Interesting how many supposedly high earners don't understand these basic notions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happens on every thread about SS. People think they have paid into some kind of savings account and they are owed the money back. THAT'S NOT HOW SS WORKS.

The money that current workers pay in, supports current retirees (/disabled people). Your Social Security checks will be coming out of the deductions from paychecks of the people who are still working/paying in when you retire. There's not a big pile of money that you personally contributed to, tied to your SSN, waiting around 35 years for you to start withdrawing from it.

The first generation of people to receive Social Security never paid a dime into it. It's not a return on investment, it's a social program funded by current workers to keep old people from living in poverty.

This, plus all the people who think it would be fine to get rid of social security altogether for high earners since "they don't need it" and don't understand the whole point of the program is keep us from having millions of destitute elderly people in this country which would become a totally untenable situation very quickly. Social security is how most elderly people have homes and can feed themselves even after they are too old to work full time. We have to have some kind of plan for these folks, it's not like they just disappear after 65. Social Security and Medicare are what keep the US from being a total dystopia.

Also our taxes constantly pay for things we don't want. I don't want the war in Iran and didn't want the ones in Afghanistan or Iraq either, and yet the vast majority of my tax dollars over the 30 years I've been working have gone to pay for those wars. The idea that some tiny fraction of my taxes go to keep elderly people from being put out on the street to die (and coming with the promise that when I am old, if something were to happen to ruin me financially, I too would get some minimal income to keep me from becoming homeless or starving to death) is really not a source of upset for me.

Interesting how many supposedly high earners don't understand these basic notions.

You chastise other people for not knowing basic things and then you say this?

"I don't want the war in Iran and didn't want the ones in Afghanistan or Iraq either, and yet the vast majority of my tax dollars over the 30 years I've been working have gone to pay for those wars."

We spend more every year on social security than the entire defense budget and the wars, let alone Medicare.