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So I have to admit I'm curious, does any one here trust Social Security (or your equivalent government retirement program) to be there for them once you get properly aged? If not what's your retirement plan?

Personally I run a Roth IRA and have been since I turned 18, it's slow going but that's the whole point of long term planning right?

KalashnikovMarine wrote:So I have to admit I'm curious, does any one here trust Social Security (or your equivalent government retirement program) to be there for them once you get properly aged? If not what's your retirement plan?

Personally I run a Roth IRA and have been since I turned 18, it's slow going but that's the whole point of long term planning right?

Feth no I don't expect SS to be there when I'm older. I have a mixture of traditional mutual funds managed by a broker, real estate investment, and a 401K-like fund from my employer.

I don't trust my 401K or company Pension to be there, much less my SS.

My private investments I have a bit more confidence in.

KalashnikovMarine wrote:So I have to admit I'm curious, does any one here trust Social Security (or your equivalent government retirement program) to be there for them once you get properly aged? If not what's your retirement plan?

Personally I run a Roth IRA and have been since I turned 18, it's slow going but that's the whole point of long term planning right?

Nope... at current rate, the SSA trust fund will run out in the mid 2020.

Like all other entitlement programs, drastic changes need to happen.

My only hope is that this is done soon and have a plan to mitigate those who PAID into the system nearing retirement. As much as I distastes the current iteration and it's politics, we cannot screw the retired generations.


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Easy E wrote:I don't trust my 401K or company Pension to be there, much less my SS.

My private investments I have a bit more confidence in.

This...

Remember... it's not a right... it's a promise and it can be broken.

ALready banking on retirement....I retire in 32 days from the Army...and a fat disability check tax free for the rest of my life. So pay your taxes to support me. As for SS. Depends if they overhaul it or something...so I have one more retirement to go.

Im only 20, so i have no idea, i hope SS will be better then it is no hen i get to retirment age, but i doupt it. My pla is sense i ill become a teacher(hopefully) is work part time at universities.

hotsauceman1 wrote:Im only 20, so i have no idea, i hope SS will be better then it is no hen i get to retirment age, but i doupt it. My pla is sense i ill become a teacher(hopefully) is work part time at universities.

Start saving now Hotsauce.

KalashnikovMarine wrote:

hotsauceman1 wrote:Im only 20, so i have no idea, i hope SS will be better then it is no hen i get to retirment age, but i doupt it. My pla is sense i ill become a teacher(hopefully) is work part time at universities.

Start saving now Hotsauce.

Yeah... if you just started you're job... immediately put in at least 10% into 401k. At least it's yours when you retire.

The Frazzled retirement plan involves a two Tommy guns, a fedora hat, map of banks on the West Coast and a getaway van that two wiener dogs can operate....

Hell no. I'm sure there will be some pension from the government as to get rid of it would be political suicide. It would be easyer for them to close schools, but I doubt it will be as good as it is now, and even now it is not enough. For now I'm paying in to my final salary pension at work, which is very good, but will be doing something else when I have more free cash. Most people I know think Its to early to worry about pensions on there 30s... I have warned em, but thats there choice.

I do not believe any current major safety net programs to exist when I can benefit from them. There will probably be something different, but we can't fix the issues with those problems until they collapse because of how poorly our electorate understands the issues.

ShumaGorath wrote:I do not believe any current major safety net programs to exist when I can benefit from them. There will probably be something different, but we can't fix the issues with those problems until they collapse because of how poorly our electorate understands the issues.

This... is something we can agree on...

Well, could be worse, you could be in a place that bans private retirement funds and forces everyone to more to the equivalent of SS, then announce that they'll take money from SS to feed the "Football for everyone" plan in order to keep the ignorant happy, watching sports on the public tv.

Personally, I'll bet that SS will be there, but I'll never get back the money I pay into it.

Someone did the math back in the 90's and declared that Social Secuirty is probably the worst investment you can make in your lifetime. You pay into it all your life and you'll never make back what you put into it.

You know...thats one of the reason why I stayed in for 22 yrs. I'm not expecting a worth while check from SS

Jihadin wrote:You know...thats one of the reason why I stayed in for 22 yrs. I'm not expecting a worth while check from SS

You might want to lower expectations for your own benefits too.

Shuma is right. The Army and the Navy in particular are both getting ready to issue HUGE cut backs on military pensions and retirement benefits. I'm not sure how it'll effect everyone, by my dad is a Colonel, and he was complaining about how he was essentially losing half his pension under the new plan.

You might want to lower expectations for your own benefits too.

NIEN!!!!...well I be looking forward to telling you how bad it is when you hit that mile stone

Dark wrote:Well, could be worse, you could be in a place that bans private retirement funds and forces everyone to more to the equivalent of SS, then announce that they'll take money from SS to feed the "Football for everyone" plan in order to keep the ignorant happy, watching sports on the public tv.

You mean Peru?

KalashnikovMarine wrote:Start saving now Hotsauce.

Word.

I'm not sure how pensions work elsewhere in the world, but in Germany, the default government plan falls flat on its face because it was conceived under the idiotic assumption of indefinite growth. Now, as fewer and fewer young people with less and less money are paying in, but more and more old people from the "economic boom" generation are on the receiving end, and additionally people just living a whole lot longer and stuff becoming more and more expensive, the whole system kinda breaks down, with people getting less and less money to use for a living.

Now, I like the basic concept of a community sharing its resources, so I don't mind the "paying in" part, but the payout should not be subject to cuts. I think I stopped believing in being able to sustain my senior days on the public pension plan when I was still going to school, and before I left the country I well remember the announcements of how the minimum age for pension would be raised another 2 years, or how the payout would be lowered by another few percent points etc.

Now, there's social security in addition to the pension, but honestly ... I'm quite sure we all would like to spend our last years on this planet in a better way than being locked away in some dirty retirement home, sharing a room with three other people.

... assuming we don't have some stupid gak happen like WW3 or something, of course.

So pay into a private retirement fund, or invest into a secure fonds, or buy gold, or stash your cash below your bed or whatever. But don't run through life trying merely to "get even" at the end of the month!

Dark wrote:Well, could be worse, you could be in a place that bans private retirement funds and forces everyone to more to the equivalent of SS, then announce that they'll take money from SS to feed the "Football for everyone" plan in order to keep the ignorant happy, watching sports on the public tv.

Ouch...

whembly wrote:

KalashnikovMarine wrote:

hotsauceman1 wrote:Im only 20, so i have no idea, i hope SS will be better then it is no hen i get to retirment age, but i doupt it. My pla is sense i ill become a teacher(hopefully) is work part time at universities.

Start saving now Hotsauce.

Yeah... if you just started you're job... immediately put in at least 10% into 401k. At least it's yours when you retire.

10% is usually not a truly feasible number, depending on CoL in the area. If you have any debt whatsoever, you're supposed to put enough into your 401k to hit the max your employer matches and then first pay of debt. If you can swing 10%, more power to you.

And don't count 100% on a 401k. Like any investment strategy, they're not 100%. I know 401k plans took a major nose dive not too long ago. Granted, they've rebounded nicely since then..

My retirement plan? I don't really have one. I have a 401k going with my employer, but frankly doubt it will matter.

That's why I have a Roth IRA instead of contributing to a 401k, better to have my retirement in my own hands then any one else's.

whembly wrote:Nope... at current rate, the SSA trust fund will run out in the mid 2020.

Do you have a source on this?

Social security is a ponzi scheme. Here is an example of how it works. Lets say you have 10 people, 6 of which are working, 2 of which are to young to work, and 2 of which are to old to work. The 6 working people pay in 100 bucks a piece for a total of 600 dollars. Both of the retired people get 200 dollars of that 600. The remaining 200 dollars gets invested into US treasury bills.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

The challenge that we are having is that people are living longer, and the baby boomers are retiring. In that earlier example, there would be 4 workers, 4 retired people and 2 children. The workers would contribute 400 bucks, and 800 would be paid out to the retired employees. This is why the 200 dollars earlier was saved -- that is what will be used to pay the retired people until they pass and more workers start paying in.
I think that the 2020 deadline is when SS will start having to dig into its treasury bonds. This is not a permanent thing, as grandma will eventually die. None of us gets out of here alive The last I read it will take many years for the SS to run out of t-bonds, and by then the baby boomers will be dead.
That being said, the increase of life expectancy is why SS benefits are being pushed back later in life. For the ponzi scheme to work, people can only collect for so long.

As LordofHats mentioned, this is a horrible investment. Ponzi schemes usually are. If this money was invested instead of being dived out, then there would be a lot more growth from it. That money could be used to really help our economy.

The challenge is how can this be done? Right now those t-bills that SS is buying helps to fund the federal government. If you invest SS dollars into other areas, what impact will that have on our government? I was once told that Clinton only had a surplus budget because of those SS investments, and if they were removed he would also have been in the red.

Furthermore, what do you do with grandma if workers can start investing rather than paying out to the elderly. In that earlier example, how do you pay the 400 dollars to the 2 retired people? Is there enough t-bonds to cover them all until they die? What about the people are are 40 today and have already invested 20 years into SS?
Personally I would love for my SS to be a better investment, the trick is finding a good way how to do this.

KalashnikovMarine wrote:That's why I have a Roth IRA instead of contributing to a 401k, better to have my retirement in my own hands then any one else's.

You say that like banks have never failed.

I'm an amateur investor and have my meager savings mixed between securities and a money market fund, as well as a 401k from my job. I also have a Roth IRA that I've created but not yet funded.

I recently moved my military pension fund out of the Governments hands.
Since I'm an Expat I can do this.
I also have a company pension that I pay into, and a company share scheme that I contribute to.
Plus my Government pension from NI.

whembly wrote:

KalashnikovMarine wrote:

hotsauceman1 wrote:Im only 20, so i have no idea, i hope SS will be better then it is no hen i get to retirment age, but i doupt it. My pla is sense i ill become a teacher(hopefully) is work part time at universities.

Start saving now Hotsauce.

Yeah... if you just started you're job... immediately put in at least 10% into 401k. At least it's yours when you retire.

Yeah, your 401K isn't any more guaranteed then SS or a Pension Plan.

Easy E wrote:

whembly wrote:

KalashnikovMarine wrote:

hotsauceman1 wrote:Im only 20, so i have no idea, i hope SS will be better then it is no hen i get to retirment age, but i doupt it. My pla is sense i ill become a teacher(hopefully) is work part time at universities.

Start saving now Hotsauce.

Yeah... if you just started you're job... immediately put in at least 10% into 401k. At least it's yours when you retire.

Yeah, your 401K isn't any more guaranteed then SS or a Pension Plan.

Given the large % of seniors in financial trouble coming into the market off of the 401k program there should probably be some serious reviews into its efficacy. It's nice to pretend that it's the responsible and pro growth way to do this kind of thing but it's failing visibly and modern market conditions are extremely unhealthy for that kind of longterm investment. The idea that "It's yours when you retire" is kinda dependent on it still being there, and these days 401k's like to vanish into the golden parachutes of CEOs.

Wow, I guess many countries are starting to work on the ideal, work till you die.

Pretty much my plan, yeah.