Originally Posted by Bill14564 (Post 2449532)

Illegals do not receive SS.

Illegals *pay* SS as employees so fewer illegals -> fewer employees -> less SS tax collected -> sooner the trust fund is depleted

Originally Posted by LoisR (Post 2449536)

How does a possible 21% shortfall equate to $18k loss? Who is being paid $90k, or so, by SS?
Need to raise SS tax rates to those who earn more than $175k.

Originally Posted by tophcfa (Post 2449431)

Folks born in 1960 have already had their retirement age raised 2 years. Hopefully any future benefit reductions won’t apply to anyone already 65 or older, but I certainly wouldn’t bank on that?

Originally Posted by JanetH (Post 2449550)

When was it raised ? Never heard of that

Originally Posted by JanetH (Post 2449550)

When was it raised ? Never heard of that

Originally Posted by GATORBILL66 (Post 2449551)

The retirement age needs to be raised by 5 years in steps over the next ten years to save social security.

Originally Posted by MandoMan (Post 2449514)

Young people and everyone else working should be putting 15% of their income into Index Funds with minimum fees that go up as the market goes up. Yes, FIFTEEN %. This is IN ADDITION to what they pay into Social Security. Then they well probably be able to retire to The Villages someday. Meanwhile, workers and employers should each pay an additional 1% in Social Security taxes. This is such an easy fix, and it should have been done long ago. 1%! (It hasn’t been done because so many legislators don’t count on Social Security to get by when they retire, and they listen to businesses who say that 1% comes out of their profit.

I realize that investing 15% with every paycheck means young people and families may not be able to afford that new SUV or that big house or those restaurant dinners or those fancy vacations or a lot of things. But we’ve all read complaints here from people who live only on the Social Security payments they get. I feel bad for them. But if they had done what I recommend, they wouldn’t be in this situation today. My ex-wife and I scrimped and saved, and now we don’t have to worry. I see young people driving $50,000 to $90,000 trucks and SUVs and buying 3,000 sq ft houses and spending $100,000 on remodeling their kitchens and bathrooms, and I wonder how much they are saving for retirement. And putting it into CDs or savings accounts like my parents did won’t do it. My parents saved for decades but put the money into CDs and savings accounts, so the money they have in the accounts has grown, but always less than the inflation rate. Meanwhile, the money I put into mutual funds has quintupled. (But we still need mandatory social Security contributions.)

Originally Posted by biker1 (Post 2449419)

Not exactly. SS taxes that had been collected, in excess of what was needed to pay benefits, were put in the general fund and spent to support Government operations. Treasury issued special T-Bills to the SSA for these excess funds. Essentially IOUs that the SSA can collect on in the future. This is the so-called Trust Fund and has a value of about $2T. These special T-Bills are now being cashed in to pay benefits as the current SS taxes are less than benefits paid. Essentially, the Government goes out and borrows money from world markets to pay off these special T-Bills as Government expenditures exceed Government revenue. This obviously continues to be a less than desirable situation. This will continue until about 2033 when the Trust Fund has been exhausted and SS taxes can only fund about 80% of benefits. This situation can and will most likely be fixed before 2033.

Originally Posted by biker1 (Post 2449547)

No. Benefits could be cut by about 20% in 2033 when the Trust Fund is depleted. However, the chances of this happening are small as Congress will, in all likelihood, address the issue so that benefits aren't cut. The article simply addresses what could happen if no action is taken. This has been well known for quite some time. Must have been a slow news day.

Originally Posted by Arlington2 (Post 2449423)

This has been the doom and gloom scare tactic since at least the 60's. I even bought into it and prepared to be financially independent. They will continue to kick the can down the road. Logical solutions are raising the income limit and raising the retirement age. It has lost the original intent of being a safety net and has become an expected retirement plan.

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby (Post 2449565)

If they eliminate the cap, and raise the "early" retirement age to 64 instead of 62, it would hopefully solve the problem without creating hardships for most of the lower/middle/working class, who are the people MOST affected by any changes to Social Security. Even if it doesn't completely solve the problem, it'd help by a whole lot.

Originally Posted by JanetH (Post 2449550)

When was it raised ? Never heard of that

Originally Posted by biker1 (Post 2449573)

How to address the problem has been studied extensively. What we don't need, and almost certainly won't do, is to do something that "helps by a whole lot". We need SS changes that will ensure the viability of the program (obviously based on projections) for a substantial amount of time, say 75 years. Passing any legislation that impacts SS will be painful at best. It needs to be done correctly and not half assed since we don't get many chances. I doubt we will see any changes before 2032.