editbyme

Agree.
"Seem normal". Change is normal! Like a river there are stretches of calm, placid flow, and stretches of turbulence, rapids. You can long for and dream of yesterday, but we can never go back.

Normal? Cold comfort to those, and there are so many, who were able to make ends meet and put a little away for retirement. They now live on the edge of expenses and are terrified if there is a medical expense that pops up.

A woman spoke with me in general pleasantries in a store and then shared after we both commented how much a certain product had gone up in price. She was single, late fifties and terrified by her current situation in which her apartment building was sold and she couldn't afford the apartment rates now. She wanted to stay out of the inner city pockets of crime and didn't want a handout but asked me to pray for her. She had never faced anything like this in her life. And everything had gotten so pricey.

I encourage the forty and fifty year individuals to blow through their retirement money, you will be handing it out to the millions who have nothing down the road and the future is bleak.

It's easy to say as seniors who pockets are full that it isn't bad out there. It's a mess.

I would encourage folks NOT to blow through their retirement money! Do save or invest what you reasonably can. Unlike what I interpret as your "doom and gloom" assessment, pretty much across the board, things have gotten better in every sector. But, prices have gone up and we feel that crunch. But, here in the U S, we are doing far better than other countries in reining in inflation. Covid was a world wide phenomenon that cause the global economic flow of goods and services to come to a halt. As the demand continued for those goods, the prices naturally went up.
Nothing is perfect and there will (sadly) be tales of woe, still, the economic news is good overall. Records in the stock mkt, phenomenal job growth, lowest unemployment rate, etc. I'm retired and living on a somewhat fixed income (savings and investments when supplement is needed). I live modestly, but comfortably. We should be OK unless something changes.

You’re examining your situation and the current market. I’m talking down the road in the next ten to twenty years. There is no way currently to fund social security, there are millions unable to put enough away for a retirement plan, there are now millions with no retirement plans. Where do you believe all this funding will come from to cover this shortage? I would spend my money and wait to be subsidized like most of the others. The fight has gone out of many.

We need to raise the max cap on deductions. Right now, anyone who works a legitimate job and gets a paycheck, only has to pay social security tax on the first $160k (or thereabouts). They don't have to pay SS tax for anything over that. So if they earn $400,000 per year, they're only paying the tax on the first $160k. Most millionaires don't get paychecks that equal a million bucks a year, most of them get their money through investments. But I'd still raise the cap to $500 or $750k. And increase the maximum payout from $3000-something to $5000 per month. That way the wealthier folks paying in, will know they're also getting the most back.

The system was created back when people were only earning $5-20 per WEEK for a full time job. Things have changed since then. The system needs to be renovated. Eliminating it won't solve the problem. Telling poor people tough luck won't solve the problem. And blaming it on one politician or another won't solve the problem.

Social Security is important in this county. It's a national program to ensure that old folks who retire will have something to show for their efforts, to the extent that they can live a modest life and pay modest bills in a reasonable place of living in their old age. If you were too poor to save, when you were younger, then SS saves on your behalf. When you're old enough, the money is therefor you.

Paid for by the younger generation. Just like my 50 years of working for living paid for my uncle's social security checks when he turned 65, and the younger generation is contributing to my monthly SS check. That's how it was set up. and if we use it as it as inendedk t should work finel

The premise of SS was a good intention. If you removed the income cap, it would help but there still would be a huge shortfall.

One must realize the millions in this country now who add nothing to the SS pot and will require these benefits at age 65. We’re talking SS and Medicare benefits for everyone and I think we will look like a third world country with the huge shortfall. And nothing changes.