[oneclickplus]

Originally Posted by chrissy2231

The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment?" I'll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you. Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.
The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a "Federal Benefit Payment." This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security, but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.
If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employers' contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved!
This is your personal investment. Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.
That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it’s a fact).
And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.
Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger "Ponzi scheme" than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer.
But is it our fault they misused our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a "benefit", as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.
Just because they borrowed the money doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!
Let's take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government.
Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.
Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.
99% of people won't SHARE this. Will you?
This Blew My Mind

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...5Q&oe=640331E0

Well, it's all semantics. Technically, it's NOT your money. If it was, you could put it in your will and bequeath it to your kids. But, if you die before collecting, you get nothing (example). Also, everything you (and everyone else) ever paid has already been stolen and spent. Social security (FICA) taxes have been dumped into the general fund for decades and spent on everything from defense to missiles to food stamps to housing for illegal immigrants. It's all gone. There is no trust fund ... no lock box. It's all an accounting trick.

All you have is a promise to get payments from future taxes (and debt). The US Dollar is being destroyed and those payments will eventually be worthless. I encourage all to find / read a book "When money dies" by Adam Ferguson. This house of cards will fall / fail. The dollar and the USA will collapse. Inflation and debt are past the point of no return. This can no longer be fixed - it is a mathematical certainty. The social consequences will be catastrophic.

Think for a moment. If your money becomes worthless, how will you acquire your needs? When the dung comes in contact with the rotating blades, are you ready? If the dollar isn't accepted for food, how will you acquire food. Food shortages are already evident around you. You can live without money, silver, gold. You can not live without food & water.

What they call your social security payments is the least of your concerns.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by JoelJohnson

If you do the math (I have) you get back what you put in around 5 years (or so) after you start collecting.

Since your employer contributed the same amount it's about 10 years to get back all that was contributed in your name. I plan to collect for at least 20 years so not a bad deal for me.

[Captainpd]

And what happens to the money for those who die and never collected?.

[bowlingal]

So glad I am retired and receiving benefits no matter what it is called

[tuccillo]

There is a trust fund and it has just shy of $3T in a special form of Government Treasuries. The Government can only invest the excess FICA taxes in Treasuries. Yes, the excess money (FICA taxes collected in excess of benefits paid) did go into the general fund - that is how the Government works - but SS got credit for the excess plus interest, it is called the Trust Fund. Nobody stole anything. The Trust Fund is essentially a guarantee that the Government will borrow $3T on the global markets to help pay benefits. We are just now getting to the point where FICA taxes don't cover the benefits and SS will start cashing in the Trust Fund to make up the difference. The current and future debt is clearly not an optimal situation. I'm sorry you consider the situation hopeless. Not everyone shares your pessimism.

Originally Posted by oneclickplus

Well, it's all semantics. Technically, it's NOT your money. If it was, you could put it in your will and bequeath it to your kids. But, if you die before collecting, you get nothing (example). Also, everything you (and everyone else) ever paid has already been stolen and spent. Social security (FICA) taxes have been dumped into the general fund for decades and spent on everything from defense to missiles to food stamps to housing for illegal immigrants. It's all gone. There is no trust fund ... no lock box. It's all an accounting trick.

All you have is a promise to get payments from future taxes (and debt). The US Dollar is being destroyed and those payments will eventually be worthless. I encourage all to find / read a book "When money dies" by Adam Ferguson. This house of cards will fall / fail. The dollar and the USA will collapse. Inflation and debt are past the point of no return. This can no longer be fixed - it is a mathematical certainty. The social consequences will be catastrophic.

Think for a moment. If your money becomes worthless, how will you acquire your needs? When the dung comes in contact with the rotating blades, are you ready? If the dollar isn't accepted for food, how will you acquire food. Food shortages are already evident around you. You can live without money, silver, gold. You can not live without food & water.

What they call your social security payments is the least of your concerns.

[tuccillo]

SS is not an investment plan. It is a "pay as you go plan".

Originally Posted by Captainpd

And what happens to the money for those who die and never collected?.

[hrenner]

Originally Posted by chrissy2231

The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment?" I'll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you. Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.
The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a "Federal Benefit Payment." This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security, but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.
If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employers' contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved!
This is your personal investment. Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.
That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it’s a fact).
And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.
Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger "Ponzi scheme" than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer.
But is it our fault they misused our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a "benefit", as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.
Just because they borrowed the money doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!
Let's take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government.
Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.
Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.
99% of people won't SHARE this. Will you?
This Blew My Mind

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...5Q&oe=640331E0

Math error. We Pay 6.2% and company pays 6.2%= 12.4%

12.4% of 30k is 3720 per year. For 40 years that is 149,000. That is how much paid in. Then figure assumed interest. NOT 1.3 MIL

[rsmurano]

A lot of inaccuracies. The people working now pay for the SS checks elders get today. The money you paid 30 years ago does not go into a holding area just for you, it paid for all the retired people’s SS checks and congress stole the rest to pay for their spending.
If they would have asked me to choose pay into social security or invest it yourself, I would never give the government the money, I would be much better off investing my money myself. If you invest $500 a month in your 20’s, you would have $1.5M in your 60’s, and if you raised your contribution from $500 a month to say $1000 or more when you make more money in your 40’s, you would have much more than $1.5M. I would have to live to 150 years old to get what I paid into SS

[ehonour]

Wrong premise. Social Security was never a "retirement program." The payees (all of us) were never putting money aside for later.

From the very beginning in 1935, the program was envisioned as current workers paying into a fund that provided benefit for current retirees. My money didn't pay for my retirement; it paid for my parents' retirement.

So yes, all of us on Social Security are actually receiving a federal benefit. We're part of the majority. It was 12 years ago, in 2011, that the number of people receiving federal benefits exceeded 50% of the population.

[jabacon6669]

Some more interesting facts and corrections. The word "All" should not be in the OP comments. Example, I for one lived in a state, and not sure if all states are the same, where I received a public pension. Contributions were about the same, 1/2 by employer, 1/2 by employee. We could not participate in SS, unless we had a second job in the private sector. But even then your SS benefit was discounted by approx 50%, if you were a public pensioned employee. Kind of discouraged you from getting a second job. So I never got SS. Which, by the way you need to get medicare. I only got medicare as a result of what they (SS) call piggy backing on your spouse. So, not everyone gets medicare, those that did not qualify for SS and were never married have to continue to buy health coverage through their employee. Many changes, including this one came out during the Reagan SS reform act.

[rustyp]

Originally Posted by ehonour

Wrong premise. Social Security was never a "retirement program." The payees (all of us) were never putting money aside for later.

From the very beginning in 1935, the program was envisioned as current workers paying into a fund that provided benefit for current retirees. My money didn't pay for my retirement; it paid for my parents' retirement.

So yes, all of us on Social Security are actually receiving a federal benefit. We're part of the majority. It was 12 years ago, in 2011, that the number of people receiving federal benefits exceeded 50% of the population.

And if I don't break even at the end I will still consider myself a winner being lucky enough to help others that need assistance much worse than me.

[FredTheHead]

The math is totally wrong. Social Security pays for retirement, widows, widowers, minor children of retired or disabled recipients and the disabled. If a person self funded their own retirement they would also have to make insurance premium payments to cover all of the other coverages that Social Security pays out on. Self funded retirement examples need to take that into account before you start saying which plan is better for people in society. If you argue a point you need to use math and not some pie in the sky made up examples.

[Count'n the days]

It's a tremendous benefit for those who have spouses drawing on their SS earnings that have never paid a dime into the system for SS or Medicare. How much has this accelerated the system going bankrupt? Also, multiple ex-spouses being able to draw on an individual's account as long as they were married 10 years. I wish I could just ignore this fact but every time I hear that my benefits are going to expire I can't help but think how the politicians will never address this part of the system because it will cost them votes.

[Mrfriendly]

Originally Posted by hrenner

Math error. We Pay 6.2% and company pays 6.2%= 12.4%

12.4% of 30k is 3720 per year. For 40 years that is 149,000. That is how much paid in. Then figure assumed interest. NOT 1.3 MIL

As I am preparing to do this year‘s fed taxes it hurts even more when filing on 1099 income. I’m both the filer and the company 😡

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Count'n the days

It's a tremendous benefit for those who have spouses drawing on their SS earnings that have never paid a dime into the system for SS or Medicare. How much has this accelerated the system going bankrupt? Also, multiple ex-spouses being able to draw on an individual's account as long as they were married 10 years. I wish I could just ignore this fact but every time I hear that my benefits are going to expire I can't help but think how the politicians will never address this part of the system because it will cost them votes.

I agree, and there is no limit on the number of ex-spouses who can collect. As long as the marriage lasted 10 years, the ex-spouses can receive a Social Security check.