Social Security

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Ok, so what is the rate 12.4% or something? 6.2% from your paycheck, 6.2 from your employer. What I'm trying to understand is what we get paid in the future when we retire?

This assumes of course SS stays alive till I retire or whatever, but if you're rich, you pay the same amount as say an engineer making 6 figures because the cap is what 97.5k? So if you work 40 years paying the limit every year, how much can you expect to get paid? Do you get paid everything you put in or do we get shafted for being upper middle class?

How much does our money grow by? Obviously it's a lot less of growth than say a 401k right?

Lower middle/lower class people... how do they get benefits if they don't throw in much money to begin with? Do they just get paid a lot less or is my money going to be distributed to them?

 

[IronWing]

The amount you get back is proportional to the amount you put in. The SS agency has an benefits estimation program you can download to see how it works. There is a floor benefit to keep poorer workers from being left destitute in retirement. To qualify for benefits a worker has to earn a threshold wage for 40 quarters. The current threshold is $1000/quarter.

The return rate on SS is pretty low, basically the rate on T bills.


Edit: Here is the link to the benefits calculator.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: ironwing
The amount you get back is proportional to the amount you put in. The SS agency has an benefits estimation program you can download to see how it works. There is a floor benefit to keep poorer workers from being left destitute in retirement. To qualify for benefits a worker has to earn a threshold wage for 40 quarters. The current threshold is $1000/quarter.

The return rate on SS is pretty low, basically the rate on T bills.


Edit: Here is the link to the benefits calculator.

Oh holy crap that made me realize how little SS will pay me. 0.o

Even in my profession I'm working towards, at the slightly above average estimate of 100k a year, I'll only get around 1600 a month if I retire at 62...

I made more than 1600 a month at 12.00 an hour...

 

[RaistlinZ]

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: ironwing
The amount you get back is proportional to the amount you put in. The SS agency has an benefits estimation program you can download to see how it works. There is a floor benefit to keep poorer workers from being left destitute in retirement. To qualify for benefits a worker has to earn a threshold wage for 40 quarters. The current threshold is $1000/quarter.

The return rate on SS is pretty low, basically the rate on T bills.


Edit: Here is the link to the benefits calculator.

Oh holy crap that made me realize how little SS will pay me. 0.o

Even in my profession I'm working towards, at the slightly above average estimate of 100k a year, I'll only get around 1600 a month if I retire at 62...

I made more than 1600 a month at 12.00 an hour...

True, but just keep in mind that Social Security was never designed to be a wage that someone is supposed to live off entirely once they retire. It's supposed to be a suppliment to your savings, investments, and other income.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: ironwing
The amount you get back is proportional to the amount you put in. The SS agency has an benefits estimation program you can download to see how it works. There is a floor benefit to keep poorer workers from being left destitute in retirement. To qualify for benefits a worker has to earn a threshold wage for 40 quarters. The current threshold is $1000/quarter.

The return rate on SS is pretty low, basically the rate on T bills.


Edit: Here is the link to the benefits calculator.

Oh holy crap that made me realize how little SS will pay me. 0.o

Even in my profession I'm working towards, at the slightly above average estimate of 100k a year, I'll only get around 1600 a month if I retire at 62...

I made more than 1600 a month at 12.00 an hour...

True, but just keep in mind that Social Security was never designed to be a wage that someone is supposed to live off entirely once they retire. It's supposed to be a suppliment to your savings, investments, and other income.

Aye..when I was working at my last job they matched and exceeded my 401k input, so I put 5% in and they put in 7%, so that was handy.

People are worried about SS disappearing, well at those rates it's not much help anyway.

Now the insurance benefits are handy still.

 

[huberm]

don't forget social security is also for if you become disabled.

the insurance benefits are not from social security. You are taxed separately for medicare.

 

[McCarthy]

Social Security explained :

Some give all, all get some.

 

[Kirby]

Since I'm pretty sure that I won't get a dime out of it, I just view it sorta like another federal tax.

 

[boomerang]

SS has expanded beyond our borders. Mexicans living in Mexico are entitled to SS benefits.

http://www.newswithviews.com/N...usive/exclusive112.htm
Congress doesn't participate in the SS program. They have their own seperate program. It makes it much easier for them to pass this kind of BS legislation as it's not going to affect them in any way, shape or form.

 

[EMPshockwave82]

I don't pay SS.

Since I work for a railroad we pay into Railroad Retirement Benefit fund. It's a higher rate of taxes but it pays off in the end.

Originally posted by: McCarthy
Social Security explained :

Some give all, all get some.

This feels right for some reason.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: McCarthy
Social Security explained :

Some give all, all get some.

whoa! who is having their entire paycheck taken by SS? That sounds like a crappy job.

 

[Mursilis]

Originally posted by: ironwing

The return rate on SS is pretty low, basically the rate on T bills.

And the payoff may go down in the future. If the money's not there, the SSA is not required to pay you back at a pre-determined rate. They could easily just reduce payments due to shortfalls, and your rate of return could actually dip into negative numbers.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

if you are in your 20's now don't count on getting anything.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: ironwing
The amount you get back is proportional to the amount you put in. The SS agency has an benefits estimation program you can download to see how it works. There is a floor benefit to keep poorer workers from being left destitute in retirement. To qualify for benefits a worker has to earn a threshold wage for 40 quarters. The current threshold is $1000/quarter.

The return rate on SS is pretty low, basically the rate on T bills.


Edit: Here is the link to the benefits calculator.

Oh holy crap that made me realize how little SS will pay me. 0.o

Even in my profession I'm working towards, at the slightly above average estimate of 100k a year, I'll only get around 1600 a month if I retire at 62...

I made more than 1600 a month at 12.00 an hour...

True, but just keep in mind that Social Security was never designed to be a wage that someone is supposed to live off entirely once they retire. It's supposed to be a suppliment to your savings, investments, and other income.

This is incorrect. SS was designed to provide a basic living benefit upon retirement. Unfortunately, years of deception have reduced the spending power of SS payments by over 40% since the 1970s. The politicians have inflated away the benefit by consistently understating the rate of inflation and then used their contrived rate to adjust SS payments.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: ironwing
This is incorrect. SS was designed to provide a basic living benefit upon retirement. Unfortunately, years of deception have reduced the spending power of SS payments by over 40% since the 1970s. The politicians have inflated away the benefit by consistently understating the rate of inflation and then used their contrived rate to adjust SS payments.

Well, they did that so that they could get away with not raising the minimum age for SS benefits to kick in for retirement (since people live a lot longer than they used to.)

It's time to seriously consider setting the retirement age to 70.

 

[sciencewhiz]

Originally posted by: ironwing

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ

True, but just keep in mind that Social Security was never designed to be a wage that someone is supposed to live off entirely once they retire. It's supposed to be a suppliment to your savings, investments, and other income.

This is incorrect. SS was designed to provide a basic living benefit upon retirement. Unfortunately, years of deception have reduced the spending power of SS payments by over 40% since the 1970s. The politicians have inflated away the benefit by consistently understating the rate of inflation and then used their contrived rate to adjust SS payments.

When social security was first created, Congress set the age at which you could first get benefits at the median death age + 5 years. It was clearly meant for people who outlived their retirement savings, not to provide basic living benefits to everyone. As lifespan has continued to grow, the benefits age has hardly changed. If they went back to the old rules, you couldn't start to withdraw social security until 82.