I agree with you that there are many who live beyond their means and squander their potential savings. But that brush doesn't cover everyone. I would say you are very "fortunate", not luck, if you were able to meet your goal, stay within your budget, have an agreeable wife to stay at home and raise 4 children. But that is not the picture of the household majority today. Congratulations to you though. I'm happy for you.

Not "fortunate", it called communicating with your potential mate during courtship and making sure you want the same thing before you get married. It's also called hard work! "fortunate" makes it sound as if it happened by chance or some dumb luck and if some else was just as "fortunate" it would have happened to them! It didn't happen to us, we made it happen!

What I heard discussed that will affect a lot of people if they ever put it through was to make it so you only collect on your own social security eligibility unless you are widowed. That would mean if you didn't work your whole life but stayed home with the kids you would get much less or nothing. Half of my husbands social security is way higher than the minimum amount I would get as I always worked in a low paying industry.
Spouses who never worked would be out of luck. I think it will go through at some point as the law of the land is moving toward treating people as individuals instead of as extensions of a marital unit.
My son says no one he knows figures social security is anything other than another tax and it will give them no benefit, now he is in his thirties and they have been saying soc security was in trouble most of his adult life. The consensus of his peers is that they should just increase the income tax rate levels and do away with it as it taxes everyones first dollar and is just shuffling money through the government from the working poor. Take 6.2% of a persons check who already isn't making enough to live on and then make him sign up for food stamps to get it back. You pay until you hit 113,000 so those who can afford to pay more don't and those who can't do. They pretend it is your money invested so you will get it back, it's a tax just stop playing games and say so.
I think it is those who are in their 50's who planned on it that are really in trouble. The nation will have to figure out a way to care for the poor elderly weather it be a fix for social security or some sort of eldercare system but the middle upper class level of todays younger workers will probably get nothing from it.

I do not agree with some that say Social Security is not a supplement to their retirement.

In fact, I know lots of people who have received Social Security for years and years and have taken out MORE than they ever contributed to it.

I even know of some Canadian citizens who live in Florida for a shade under 6 months per year who are collecting Social Security based upon their work in the USA - as well as for their spouses who have never worked. To me, that is wrong!

As far as those who say they would have liked to save and invest their own money instead of contributing to Social Security - that is a lot of bunk for most people. Sure, some could have done it but most would have frittered it away and not saved any and would just depend on the government to bail them out so they would not live under a freeway in a refrigerator box.

Am I a 1%er? Maybe so, but I worked for it and am now living a good life in The Villages.

I believe a lot of people changed their minds about that after the last stock market down turn.

SS could be solvent a lot longer if all the social pay outs were taken out. Lots of people getting checks (some very young) that have paid little or nothing into the system. When the incoming funds were more than the payouts, it was easy for Congress to use the SS program as a social welfare program instead of limiting it to workers who are retired. Now those chickens are coming home and it's getting a little crowded in the nest.

not when they add those 11 million illegals on it who havent paid a nickel in..................:(

Social Security is a whole lot more than retirement.

The larger and better known programs under the Social Security Act and amendments are:

Federal Old-Age (Retirement), Survivors, and Disability Insurance
Unemployment benefits
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled (Medicare)
Grants to States for Medical Assistance Programs (Medicaid)
State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Benefits are not provided for illegal immigrants.
Spouses of persons receiving Social Security retirement also get a monthly amount - and those spouses may never have earned money. Should they be excluded altogether or when their spouse dies?

10,000 "baby boomers" turn 65 EVERY day! And will for a long time.
When SS was started, the avg life of a man was only 63!
To make SS last all they have to do is raise the full retirement age for anyone under 50 by a year or two.

The biggest problem is Medicare.

Why wait all those years? Why not just an immediate raise of the full retirement age to 69 right now with no early retirement offered? That surely would save money.

Also, no Canadian citizen should be entitled to any Social Security.

12ridehw Look to Bill Tasker's comments concerning experts ignoring the mortality factor when addressing social security. Apparently the Affordable Act was enacted to counter that in fact speed up the mortality tables to save social security:D

Joel is correct as far as the average life span of a man (back in the initial days of Social Security).......but what if that man lived to age 91 and had no one to "take him in".............

We've heard many stories over the years, from old timers who lost their businesses and homes during the Great Depression era.......so back then, after the hopelessness of that era.........the simple thought of social security upon retirement must have been most welcome......

My Irish Scottish stepdad LOVED President Roosevelt......for how he helped folks back then.........

In 1995, when we became responsible for my widowed mom, she would receive her monthly "pension" check from the factory she went to work for when we were in elementary school, retiring at age 62......30 years or so later.

$59. a month. Maybe back in the early 1950's that seemed like a good thing to look forward to. Her s.s. check was very low as well.....about $700 or so a month with a few small increases.

Obviously, she was welcomed into our home and passed in 2003.
Had she not had children or a savings account.......believe me, no one could have lived on what she got monthly. The fact that they sold their home and moved into an apartment, did help.....then when he passed, she moved in with us.

Vermont is not an expensive state to live in as for the most part, people are pretty down to earth, many are rural, and most do not live beyond their means......but it still would have been a very low income, even for a single elderly lady. Her pension and s.s. check were from N.J. originally.

She made good wages when she worked...........but it didn't really keep up with the cost of living..........she actually made a "man's wages" and was part of a union.

Everyone's posts have been very valuable and really "food for thought" as we all age in place........

I'm a younger baby boomer (born in 1960), so my age to collect full SS is 67. Oh please don't raise it another year. But I guess if that is what it takes to make SS last, I will just have to suck it up...

Luckily my dad was able to retire at age 62. He turned 83 in May, so it has been 21 years since he retired, but he earned every minute of his retirement after spending 40 years working in a meat packing plant. At work I sit (most of the day) working at a computer or attending meetings so there is no comparison between my dad's physically demanding job and my mostly sedentary job.

Do you think that your dad has recouped the 40 years of Social Security ontributions in the 21 years of retirement? My guess would be YES!

That is a good question; I should ask him. He deserves every minute of his peaceful retirement, especially after having to take care of my mom during her last 3 years. Now if I could just convince him to let me hire a snow shoveling/snow plowing service for him during the winter months for his home in Iowa...