Working well into your 70s because you can’t afford to retire.

[Anonymous]

I have been assuming that SS will be means tested or otherwise not available by the time I retire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Social Security should be three times what it is today.

FWIW, my opinion is that private saving for retirement is challenging on many levels. Capacity to save, discipline to save, and acumen to manage retirement savings. There are many very successful people who have a very difficult time doing this.

From an actuarial perspective, it's exceptionally hard to do with an n of 1, or 2 for married couple.

Why is it so hard to save? I made an average salary my entire career, always lived below my means, and saved 10% - 15% of my income. Sure, I didn't go out to eat as frequently as my friends, book expensive hotels for vacations to Hawaii like they did, buy timeshares, buy the top trim model of cars, stretch big-time to buy property (or even a second home), buy expensive designer brand purses and clothes.

Today, those same friends are 60ish and tell me they can't stop working for the foreseeable future. I am younger (slightly) and can retire at any time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not country’s job to fix. They should have saved more when they were young.

Hard to "save more" when almost half of Americans only have access to low wage jobs that don't pay enough to save anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not country’s job to fix. They should have saved more when they were young.

Hard to "save more" when almost half of Americans only have access to low wage jobs that don't pay enough to save anything.

So raise the minimum wage and put more people out of work? That won't help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been assuming that SS will be means tested or otherwise not available by the time I retire.

There's an easy fix: Eliminate or raise the $127,200 cap on SS contributions, and implement means testing, since folks like Warren Buffett do not need SS. Those two things alone would make SS solvent for the next couple of generations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not country’s job to fix. They should have saved more when they were young.

Hard to "save more" when almost half of Americans only have access to low wage jobs that don't pay enough to save anything.

So raise the minimum wage and put more people out of work? That won't help.

When an employer employs someone for 40 hours out of every week it's no longer relevant what the employer thinks that person is worth paying. When you take up that much of someone's time you become responsible for their livelihood and have a fundamental responsibility to pay them a living wage.

Employers should be paying living wages. The fact that taxpayers are picking up the slack for what companies should be paying by providing benefits like food stamps to low wage workers amounts to massive corporate welfare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not country’s job to fix. They should have saved more when they were young.

Hard to "save more" when almost half of Americans only have access to low wage jobs that don't pay enough to save anything.

My parents had were poor until my father retired and got social security. For the first time, they had a steady stream of income, Medicare covered many of their medical bills, they had paid off the mortgage on their $30,000 house and life was very good for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been assuming that SS will be means tested or otherwise not available by the time I retire.

There's an easy fix: Eliminate or raise the $127,200 cap on SS contributions, and implement means testing, since folks like Warren Buffett do not need SS. Those two things alone would make SS solvent for the next couple of generations.

They should definitely raise the SS contribution cap. We are done with that by March. It's ridiculous. I wouldn't want to means test. These programs work best when there is skin in the game for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Social Security should be three times what it is today.

So it should go bankrupt even quicker? Good idea.

Liberals. Sigh.

I really wish those of you who just post things like "Liberals. Sigh." would actually add to the conversation with actual thoughts and/or arguments and/or solutions.
By just insulting people and not contributing to the conversation you sound just as "stupid" as you think the people you are trying to insult are.

[Anonymous]

^ DP but I think the SS reserve should be much more than it is today - and it's shameful that it was raided for other things in the past, and that we've been dragging our heels on some of the simple fixes for so long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been assuming that SS will be means tested or otherwise not available by the time I retire.

There's an easy fix: Eliminate or raise the $127,200 cap on SS contributions, and implement means testing, since folks like Warren Buffett do not need SS. Those two things alone would make SS solvent for the next couple of generations.

They should definitely raise the SS contribution cap. We are done with that by March. It's ridiculous. I wouldn't want to means test. These programs work best when there is skin in the game for everyone.

disagree
cap helps families like ours to pocket more in retirement savings. We're young and most likely won't see any SS payments when we retire, so I'd rather have enough in 401k

[Anonymous]

Yet immigrants bring their elderly relatives who didn’t work a day here but get Medicare, Medicaid,subsidized housing and whatnot.
Fwiw I am an immigrant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is our country and lawmakers going to do anything about the number of seniors who are working minimum wage jobs just to make ends meet? In the end everyone is at a loss as there are 20 and 30 somethings who can’t take the jobs filled by elderly people and then the fact that someone had to work at 75. I was in a hospital recently and the nurse was 74, she told me she had been working as a nurse for 50 yrs but can’t afford to retire bc she has medical bills to pay. What is this country doing and how can we fix it?

Before you get on that soapbox remember this, she has a pension because she belonged to a nurse's union, she has SS, she is on Medicare, she probably gets a discount for all medical and either you or she is lying because no nurse I know works as a nurse in their 70s.

Pension? How many nurses do you know have nursing union pensions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been assuming that SS will be means tested or otherwise not available by the time I retire.

There's an easy fix: Eliminate or raise the $127,200 cap on SS contributions, and implement means testing, since folks like Warren Buffett do not need SS. Those two things alone would make SS solvent for the next couple of generations.

They should definitely raise the SS contribution cap. We are done with that by March. It's ridiculous. I wouldn't want to means test. These programs work best when there is skin in the game for everyone.

Agree with this (and it would mean a substantial tax increase for our family). I don't like the means testing, either. I think everyone should have skin in the game and yeah, if you've paid into the system, you deserve to get something back, whether or not you "need" it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been assuming that SS will be means tested or otherwise not available by the time I retire.

There's an easy fix: Eliminate or raise the $127,200 cap on SS contributions, and implement means testing, since folks like Warren Buffett do not need SS. Those two things alone would make SS solvent for the next couple of generations.

They should definitely raise the SS contribution cap. We are done with that by March. It's ridiculous. I wouldn't want to means test. These programs work best when there is skin in the game for everyone.

Agree with this (and it would mean a substantial tax increase for our family). I don't like the means testing, either. I think everyone should have skin in the game and yeah, if you've paid into the system, you deserve to get something back, whether or not you "need" it.

A large proportion of what we make above the cap is contributed to our retirement savings. Thanks to the "Trump bump" in the market over the last year, our planner told us last week we can retire 2 years sooner than we expected. We were elated. I would rather manager my own money for retirement rather than giving it to the government.