More than half of the population has no retirement savings and people all over the country are struggling to stay in the "middle class" while the rich get richer ...

This is not an attack thread but a serious concern for the well being of an aging population and the prospects of it turning around any time soon are slim to none !!!

 

Oh ya, and it is Flag Day in the USA so wave a flag for your country people ...

Coincidentally, June 14th is also annual anniversary of the "Bear Flag Revolt." On June 14th 1846, 33 American settlers and mountain men arrested the Mexican general in Sonoma, and declared the "Bear Flag Republic" as an independent nation. A flag emblazoned with a bear and a star was raised to symbolize independence from Mexico. The Bear Flag was adopted as California's state flag upon joining the union in 1850. Prominently flying both the U.S. and state flag on June 14th is a tradition for some Californians.

 

It's good to know that the Mexicans have been causing trouble with the U.S. since the 1860's. One more reason to build that wall.

If it weren't for my trust fund, I'd be screwed come time for retirement. My divorce wiped me out financially. If SS is still around when I retire, I'd only get 2,000 a month from that. I'm rebuilding my retirement now while I still work.

 

No it isn't dead. It's still kicking if barely. This is one of those things in life a person has to have the self motivation to invest in his own retirement. It's still possible but a person has to start early, live below their means and invest regularly in their retirement fund. Not everyone has the right mentality to do that and for them its likely a retirement of simple existence on SS.

It's not so difficult but it takes dedication and your entire working career to accomplish.
Baby steps, there's no big score.

 

If they stopped "robbing Peter to pay Paul" it would remain funded for many years but is an easy target for government to "dip" into ...

Social Security has a looming $11 trillion shortfall
President-elect Donald Trump has said he will preserve Social Security, though if he and Congress do nothing to fix the funding, the financial reckoning will be huge — as much as $11.4 trillion down the road.

The last time Congress changed Social Security in a significant way with a series of benefit cuts and payroll tax increases was in 1983 under President Ronald Reagan.

Back then, the federal government needed to fill a funding gap of about 1 percent of taxable workers' wages. By the time Social Security's trust funds are projected to run out in the early 2030s, the federal government will have to plug a hole of more than 3 percent, according to estimates by Charles Blahous, a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center.

"Just to keep the system afloat from year to year at that point they would have to inflict near-term pain over three times as severe as was the case in 1983," Blahous said.

A GOP blueprint for reform
Though the Trump transition team has yet to make any proposals about Social Security, one Republican lawmaker has detailed how he would change it.

Congressman Sam Johnson, an 86-year-old Texan who represents the Dallas suburbs and is chairman of the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, unveiled a bill in December in the last Congress that aims to fix the program without raising payroll taxes.

Johnson's proposal would increase the age to receive full retirement benefits from 67 to 69, slow the growth of benefits by using a different measure of inflation for cost-of-living adjustments and cap payouts to high-income workers.

"I urge my colleagues to also put pen to paper and offer their ideas about how they would save Social Security for generations to come. Americans want, need and deserve for us to finally come up with a solution to saving this important program," Johnson said in a statement.

Social Security Administration officials said Johnson's plan would fix the funding situation, at least until 2091, without raising payroll taxes. Typically, Congress has shored up the finances of Social Security with a series of benefit cuts and tax increases.

Under current law, just 79 percent of scheduled benefits are projected to be payable to each recipient in 2034, once the trust fund reserves are depleted. Under Johnson's proposal, Social Security trust funds would remain solvent and be able to pay out 100 percent of benefits to retirees under the SSA's 75-year projections.

"The politics of Social Security reform is not getting any easier." -Charles Blahous, a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center
Advocates for increasing Social Security retirement benefits, which provide about 34 percent of the income for elderly Americans, oppose Johnson's plan because of its cuts.

For example, under Johnson's plan, average middle-income workers would see their annual benefits, calculated in 2015 dollars, drop from $18,576 now to $17,076 in 2030, based on an SSA analysis.

"Not only does the Johnson plan deeply cut benefits, it radically transforms the program so that it would, when fully phased in, no longer be a pension plan replacing wages but rather operate in the manner of a flat, subsistence-level [grant,] which would provide recipients with an amount unrelated to earnings and contributions," said Nancy Altman, co-director of Social Security Works, which advocates to increase Social Security.

Raising the age to receive full retirement benefits from 67 to 69, as Johnson proposes, also would affect many retirees since most people claim benefits before full retirement age, typically at 62, the earliest age possible. (See chart below.)


Johnson's plan has not gained much traction in Congress. The bill did not have any co-sponsors last year and Johnson has yet to introduce it in the new Congress.

The clock is ticking. Social Security's income is projected to exceed its cost through 2019, but then the program will start tapping its reserves, according to the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees' annual report.

"The politics of Social Security reform is not getting any easier," Blahous said. "When the trust funds run out, it will be too late."

 

Had a friend of wife's son visit on Sunday. He works for an A/C company, and he's struggling. I asked him why not work for himself.
We're in the A/C capital of the world. He said that he was unable to pay his taxes...he just couldn't hold back money for taxes. I shut up.
He wouldn't be able to manage a retirement fund either, so he'll work until he dies.

The American Dream is alive and well, but it's not going to be given to you. You have to earn it.

Social Security is a joke.

 

The doomsayers are onto retirement and Social Security now. What has it been, 6 months since this was a topic for a thread?

The American Dream is alive and well. Every generation has had it's slackers, it's users and abusers, but the majority always manage to do just fine.

Like the hippies of the 60's; the turn on, tune in, drop out crowd. Excepting the hard core hippies who now own Boulder, Colorado and a few other enclaves around the US, the majority of hard core hippies from the 60's cut their hair, sold their vans, and joined corporate America in the 70's. And they've done just fine. Who would have guessed that worthless bunch would become capitalists?

Social Security is a compact between the American labor force and the Government. During our working lives we "contribute" 6.2% of the first $118,500 we earn every year ($7.347). Our employer contributes the same amount, for a total of up to $14,694 each year. The government "invests" that money and when we retire, you know, when Government tells us we should, we collect benefits based on our earnings.

Much has been made of the "fact" that most people collect more in Social Security benefits than they contributed, including interest, but that is a false "fact". The reality is, if we invested $14,694 each year on our own we'd be much richer than collecting our Social Security, and we'd be able to do it when we wanted to, not when some bureaucrat and Congress decides we should. And because Social Security is based on insurance principles, there are always a percentage of people who contribute but never collect, or only collect a small percentage of what they and their employers contributed.

Social Security is not enough to live comfortably on for most people (it works out to about half of your annual income), but if they contribute a bit more to a 401(K) or IRA they should be very comfortable in their old age. If they don't, then fuck em. Learn to live within your means. You do NOT need a new car every 3 years, a new cell phone every 6 months and if you have credit card debt then that's on you.

Hell, even Shooters 37 year old son, he who could not stir from his bunker except for work, has started saving, now that he has a girlfriend who has a size 11 boot she plants in his size 8 ass every morning.

If Shooter were President he'd take the cap off of the earnings limit, taxing all income. That one step would make Social Security solvent. Even Democrats should love that plan; it's taxing the rich, right?

He would also put Social Security off limits; no more "borrowing" when Congress needs to fix a shortfall in the budget. Fuck em. Learn to live within our means, you robbers!

As for the American Dream, Shooter can point to many people who are living it; they are working at jobs they love, making good money, and raising their families or doing whatever it is that constitutes their "American Dream". He doesn't know very many people who haven't figured out how to get their slice of the dream, and none who are prevented from going after it by things they can't control.

Shooters daughter is one of those people. Despite her poor choices in boyfriends, she has a successful business, is making over 6 figures, and is loving life. She's living the dream, and she doesn't have a college education. You know, cause when she graduated high school she knew best, and didn't need no stinkin education.
Parents should be allowed to beat their petulant children all the way through their mid 20's.

A fellow Shooter hired in 2001, right after 9/11 recently thanked Shooter for the opportunity to have his slice of the dream, you know, when he hit his goal of being manager of a division. What he failed to see is that he made the opportunity, he worked for it, and he earned it. Shooter might have opened the door, but Shooter benefited from the deal as well; he got a hard working employee.

Yes, the American Dream is alive and well in America, despite what the doomsayers would have us believe.

Note to doomsayers; isn't it time to start celebrating our lives, our nation, and our good fortune? Stop with all the "The American Dream is dead" and "Middle America is no more" and "evil America" all that crap? How about celebrating our success? We can still hate our "gummit" and our neighbors and the boss and our ex, but that doesn't take anything away from just loving and enjoying the life we make for ourselves.