[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Plinker

Is social security not on a similar track of insolvency? Politicians have refused to address the impending deficiency which is estimated to occur in around ten years. The topic of a long term fix has always been considered the third rail and is the reason our “leaders” have refused to address the issue. Reducing benefits would result in their political demise.
There are solutions to strengthening SS for decades to come which include increasing the amount of wages subject to the SS tax, expanding the types of compensation subject to the SS tax and increasing the SS tax rate. None of these choices are going to be popular but kicking the can down the road is a recipe for disaster.
I will leave you with a quote from Mark Twain: “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason”.

A good informative post. Also, many IMPORTANT problems are being ignored right now, which will catch up with us in the future.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

A lot of other states have this same problem. Plus, in Oregon, if you get a pension from Oregon state and you move out of the state while receiving your pension, they withhold 6%, how can that be legal? I know people that work in Oregon and Washington state and they both said both states are so corrupt, but they can’t say anything.
Oregon has PERS pension system and that has been hurting for decades.
Now what some of these states are doing and that’s invest these retirement systems in carbon neutral/climate funds, which have been losing money for many years. If states are ran by these type of idiots and their pension plans go broke, then the state needs to come up with the extra funds somehow to fund their pers system. Same goes for California, they are so broke but they still print money to give to illegals.

Illegals are one of many problems that are being pushed forward into the future. NOT a good idea.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by M2inOR

RE: Social Security running out of money

Looks like 2034 is the tipping point if nothing is done.
Easiest thing Congress could do is raise the upper limit for the FICA deduction.

Something does need to be done as population growth is slowing and with baby boomers retiring, less workers to contribute.

Back in the late '70s when my working years started, there were warnings that SS would likely not be there when it was our turn to retire. My wife and I decided to max our IRA and 401K contributions. We worked in high tech, so there were no pensions.

So we saved. A lot!

Now that we are retired, and that we deferred our SS benefits until we turned 70, we got the 8% per year increase for our benefits and are now getting nearly the max monthly benefit offered. And we have our IRAs boosted because we converted our 401K funds.
As we don't know exactly what the future holds, we are also slowly converting those IRA funds into ROTH IRAs and paying the taxes now.

No chance that federal taxes will be lower in the future.

Those ROTH funds will make our estate simpler, and our heirs will not have to worry about taxes on those funds.

We now have Gen X and Y who probably not prepared for their retirement years.

I don't think that US population is slowing if you count the illegals that don't want to be counted. Personally, I would like it to slow and then maybe the roads in Florida would catch up with the population growth.

[Stu from NYC]

sad how mismanaged so many pensions as well as SS is being mismanaged.

We live longer and should be raising the retirement ages to compensate.

[Shipping up to Boston]

Originally Posted by CFrance

This was all in one sentence and very difficult to follow.

Guess we can rule out the author as a teacher, huh!

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by Shipping up to Boston

Guess we can rule out the author as a teacher, huh!

Good one!

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by jojo

Actually STRS manages 93 billion. The teachers have been protesting for several years and just this year have managed to get a majority on the board. Last year one day before the election results were announced Governor DeWine replaced an appointed board member so that the reformers would not have a majority. That board member was reinstated by the courts in April. This month, days before another reform candidate was elected (85,000 to 3,000 votes), the Governor and State Attorney General filed charges against two board members who four years ago had put forth a proposal for another investment company to manage some of the funds. This was based on an anonymous letter from someone at STRS. Nothing happened. i.e. there were no funds invested. There is a history of risky investments in private equity, hedge funds, downtown buildings that are now empty, international holdings with lavish bonuses for Wall Street. Teachers are suspicious that the politicos have something to hide. I just watched the entire board meeting. I am a confirmed Boglehead and the teachers have been asking for indexed funds. Someone posted that Nevada has 2 employees. Ohio has 500. State media have not covered the story well. Stay tuned.

Thanks, jojo,

You’re right. They do manage 93 billion. I should have worded my original post more clearly on that number. They wanted to turn over 65 billion of that to some unknown company.

I hope this bright light continues to shine on them. It’s looking like one of those scenes where somebody switches on a ceiling light and all the roaches run for cover.

And, yes, the bonuses! Reading about this whole mess makes my skin crawl.

Boomer

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Boomer

Thanks, jojo,

You’re right. They do manage 93 billion. I should have worded my original post more clearly on that number. They wanted to turn over 65 billion of that to some unknown company.

I hope this bright light continues to shine on them. It’s looking like one of those scenes where somebody switches on a ceiling light and all the roaches run for cover.

And, yes, the bonuses! Reading about this whole mess makes my skin crawl.

Boomer

We keep getting invited to so called local investment advisors. Always ask about their qualifications to do this and horrified about the answers but people give their money to these advisors without having a clue.

[Robbb]

Originally Posted by manaboutown

Gracie, a Boglehead is basically an index fund investor.

This book is highly informative about their investment philosophy which follows that of Jack Bogle, the founder of The Vanguard Group.

John C. Bogle - Wikipedia

Amazon.com

Yea with the poor long term return of the Boglehead stragety I'm not convinced thats the right way to go either. Vanguard pushes at least 30+ in international funds and also a high % in bond funds, neither of these have performed well over the past 10 years. Total Bond market funds are down 12% over the past 10 years and international funds are up just 16% over 10 years.

[Flyers999]

This thread is nonsense. Pensions are protected by ERISA, which is a federal law that sets minimum standards for retirement plans including establishing detailed funding rules that require plan sponsors to provide adequate funding for your plan.Also, it requires accountability of plan fiduciaries. ERISA generally defines a fiduciary as anyone who exercises discretionary authority or control over a plan's management or assets, including anyone who provides investment advice to the plan. Fiduciaries who do not follow the principles of conduct may be held responsible for restoring losses to the plan.

See, the OP is out of ..... wait,..... upon further review, ERISA only applies to private industry, it looks like the government can do whatever they want with your money.

Never mind.

[Caymus]

.....or it could vaporize into the cloud.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/tech...d=BingNewsSerp

[manaboutown]

Originally Posted by Robbb

Yea with the poor long term return of the Boglehead stragety I'm not convinced thats the right way to go either. Vanguard pushes at least 30+ in international funds and also a high % in bond funds, neither of these have performed well over the past 10 years. Total Bond market funds are down 12% over the past 10 years and international funds are up just 16% over 10 years.

I am not a Boglehead but put my toe in the water many years ago with a little VFIAX. It has grown satisfactorily. In 2022 and 2023 I sold some commercial real estate where most of my net worth remains and had to put the money somewhere. 60% net after taxes went into 6 month T-bills which when they mature I replace with new ones. I bought some VOO, VGT, SCHD and a closed end fund I have owned for dividends many years, RVT. I also bought some MLPs. The rest on the equity side I put into individual stocks, some for dividends and some for growth. Most have done OK. I bought some (for now) losers of course. Thankfully I bought some NVDA at about $183/share. Luck does play a role IMHO!

[Cliff Fr]

The fire fighters pensions are also under funded

[Boomer]

Update:

If you are a retired Ohio teacher and you are following this issue, you might want to go to wcpo.com and do a search of Ohio teacher pension. There you will find an article from last Friday, August 23, about subpoenas that were recently filed. The article includes a summary of the history of this convoluted, stinkin’ mess.

Ohio is not the only state that can’t keep greasy hands off pension money. News is out about states where obscenely greedy, elected officials, who are under the influence of deep-pockets lobbyists, are now trying to write and pass legislation that will force state pension funds to invest in crypto.

I first heard that crypto thing on a financial podcast and found it so incredibly stupid that I could not believe it. Pension funds are supposed to go on forever, not bend to the whims of propped up legislators, drooling over all that money employees paid into for decades to be managed outside of political influence. (Of course, in many states, that pension money has served as an ATM along the way for state shortfalls. But this trying to force crypto in pension funds is getting really weird. Seems like it should be illegal. But wait! Those trying to do this are making the laws.)

There is info out there now on this crypto plot. Google it if you dare — or care. Actually, even those who do not have a state pension should be paying attention to this. If this plan takes hold, it will be only the beginning and will eventually affect all kinds of investments. But they don’t care as long as they get their instant reward from their lobbyists, and as long as voters don't pay attention and vote against their own best interests.

We need to pay attention to the integrity, or lack thereof, of those in office and watch for slimeballs on-the-take, trying to pass laws forcing state pension funds to invest in crypto. What’s next? Anything goes? How can these idiots claim to believe in the market as the market when trying to legislate specific investment decisions to be made with pension funds?

Corruption pays well for those who can be bought and many of them know no bounds. We all need to be paying attention to what is in the works for those big piles of money in pension funds — because unrestrained greed is not only bad morals, it’s bad economics.

Boomer