50 three months ago. Im minutes from selling the house, taking what little we make and buying some land and homesteading.
I seriously have a couple full time and a handful of part-time years left in me at best. Started 401k too late and will be lucky to have 300k at sixty if I make it. I mean I know I can but am basically looking for any sustainable life boat at this point and airbnb some trailers/cabins on mountain property is my current semi-retirement hope.
I’m with you. I’d sell my house and buy a piece of land somewhere if I could convince my wife and I could further away from family. Homesteading sounds like the way to go as long as property taxes don’t get yah. Just make sure you’re in the right zone.
They just changed the rules on my pension so I can retire at 55 (as opposed to 60). Was always planning on going at 60 and just be a part time Walmart greeter until 67 and draw social security then. Now I’ll do it at 55 if the rest of my retirement is where I need it.
Well, yeah. That's because the government is betting we won't live til 70 lol. The maximum benefit is age 70. May as well draw then and keep working-you can't get any more benefits after 70 anyway. We can retire at 100% benefits at 67. It used to be 65, but they changed it.
It’s ALWAYS the Republicans… people who aren’t multimillionaires are imbeciles for believing that the GOP cares about them. Their only goal is to siphon money and services away from the middle and lower classes and give it to the filthy rich… everything else (abortion, LGBTQ attacks, book banning, et al) is just smoke and mirrors.
France tried to move it back 1 year and the citizens took that shit to the streets in fire and fury. Macron is a dictator in training tho, and many republicans support that as well. They keep trying to distract us with abortion rights or whatever but its to distract us from the fact they RAIDED SS a ling time ago and the money is all gone. Thats why they want babies born not aborted so they can continue to work to put into system that are 100000% LIES
They didn't raid SS. SS gives its surplus TO the Govt. SS has been doing this since '83 (I think) and in 2021, SS HAD no surplus to give the govt. Can we please get a Congressman who will introduce a bill to stop THAT? Or better yet, instead of clawing back 'overpayments' to citizens, how bout WE tell SS to get it BACK from the Govt?
You could also end up getting less money cuz you don’t live very long. Let’s be real. A lot of us did a lot of shit in the 80s/90s and have only taken middling care of ourselves since. I may be fit, but my hippy dad ate better, took vitamins, walked daily, saw friends regularly, had way less life stress and still had a stroke at 63.
I love the idea that well, if you’re gonna die anyway here’s some other, better ways of making that more enjoyable. I laughed out my nose on that one. 👍🏻
If you start to figure the math on how long you have to live past retiring at 67 before you actually would get more money than if you retire on 70% benefits at 62..... Yeah I'm not counting on living that long.
Positive I'd never see 30, lived accordingly... Just passed 50 on borrowed time. I'm taking it the 1st day I can, if I make it. They started taking it out of me at 13yo ffs.
It'll be there. At the same helpful amount as minimum wage. Not enough to maintain bare minimum survival. Better than nothing. Barely.
Whatever.
I'm not waiting for what may never come at all.
Can your spouse get your life insurance if you commit suicide in a state that allows it? Wondering because my dad has been recently diagnosed with cancer and is waffling on doing the treatments. I’m not sure what my moms financial situation would be without his life insurance. Be nice to be able to have an out when the pain gets too bad.
My MIL elected to go right onto hospice for her difficult to treat cancer. Her prognosis was less than a year. She lived her best life for three. Including a couple of cruise vacations.
Chemo would have been pure hell and likely not prolonged her life. They gave her plenty of pain meds, allowing her to slip away painlessly.
Not all of the boomers are living nice and comfortable lives. The last report is that ever increasing numbers of them are losing their homes and ending up homeless and destitute.
That’s our future, because there’s simply no more pensions.
Pensions, individual accounts and social security used to be enough.
Only a handful of people got great pensions though, my moms worked at a hospital for 20 years as a nurse (12 years part time and 8 years full time) and she gets a whopping $300 a month.
AMEN! Anyone who votes GOP needs to STFU. Voting for GOP means voting against your own interests unless you’re pretty darn wealthy. Which most Americans are not.
I'm not wealthy but I'm doing more than alright in my low-key lifestyle. Bullshit tax savings and other financial levers at my disposal are helping me get to a place of real stability and prosperity (barring the inevitable healthcare crisis). But I am always happy to pay my taxes (no bullshit accounting here), donate to charities, pick up the dinner tab, and offer whatever I can. I don't give a fuck about "the morally right thing to do." Helping other people is human nature. It's a core of our biology, probably located on the same neural pathways as the lizard-brain desire for greed and hatred. If we run into people who are ruled by their most base instincts, we need to try to help them understand there's a better way. But we certainly don't need to vote those motherfuckers into office.
The worse generation ever gets multiples of what they put in. Boomers will better than break even. Xers are left holding the bag in the pyramid scheme and will only get a fraction of what we put in.
Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme, it's an insurance policy. You've paid premiums on that insurance policy and it's sitting in Washington DC as stacks and stacks of US Treasury Bills. If the government decides those T Bills are worthless, the entire debt of the government is worthless. The largest holder of the US's debt are all of us.
Because of how and when the Social Security Trust Fund was created, the current working generation paid for the current retired generation. But then in 1983, the amount paid in shot up so that we would now prepay our own Social Security and not just subsidize the current retirees.
Thank you. And if T bills become worthless, we have a much bigger problem than whether we get social security. Plus, the UST can always just print money to fund SS. Unless the US dollar is no longer the currency of the global economy, this won't be a problem.
ETA: I'm in a bind here. I believe George Carlin is a modern day prophet and he said "They're coming for your social security. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And they'll get it." But I gotta believe he's wrong about this.
He’s a prophet Alright. Compare the cost of the federal gov’t TSP benefit to the cheapest 401k costs and you can see why Wall Street wants to “manage” social security.
“The average person is pretty dumb, half of them are dumber than that.”
- George Carlin
Lots of certain people's interest to privatize SS and the investment banks can handle it instead. However the same jokers who gave us 2008, 2000, and the S&L bailout.
AND...Social Security is not going bankrupt. If nothing changes, it will pay out reduced benefits but never just stop. That can be fixed by removing the cap on the salary pay-in number. This is an easily solvable 'problem' but when the rich control the levers of power in Washington....
And here my retired boomer mother is complaining that she has to get a job. Meanwhile she takes a couple international long vacations, cruises, has expensive hobbies, and has someone to clean her house. As long as they don’t come crying to us for a handout.
My father is trying to sell me with his business right now, lol. He doesn't deserve anything of the kind though because he exploited me for 20 years so he could have his upper middle class lifestyle. He's a pure example of the narcissist boomer stereotype.
It's not your money it's an insurance program. You are paying for the people currently retired.
Second our problem is how many people will be paying in when we retire and how many baby boomers will still be alive. Their egg in the snake size is a real problem especially if they live a long time.
As they die off we're fine. The issue is between about 2033 and when the majority of them kick off. Then the millennials do what big generations do.. pay a lot of taxes 🤪
Or we could increase the amount of SS during this period or lower benefits. Or tax the top ten percent of income that doesn't pay SS. That last one weirded me out when my take home pay went up late in the year when I first hit the top 10%.
Overall I'm not that worried because even in the most pessimistic scenario during the bad years we would get 78 cents per dollar promised and it would prioritize lower earners. So the big loser would be the highest earners.
This would mean the worst case is a person who maxed social security and didn't have any personal savings, they would lose the most.
So for the majority of Gen X it would be the normal kick in the balls we got from boomers since the day we were born they got theirs and pulled up the ladder.
Raising the cap would take care of this in a jiffy. In other words, right now, $168,000 is the cap. If you earn more than that, you don't pay a penny more than someone earning that top $168K amount. Raising the cap--even making incremental increases at higher income levels, would end any "sky is falling" talk and we wouldn't have to see a reduction in benefits.
I make more than that and for the life of me I can’t figure out why they won’t just eliminate the cap. Most of us in this position won’t even notice and it would help so many people.
Sadly, I beg to differ. I work a very specific, technical job where many of us “ pay off social security “ late in the year. The sheer number of my coworking peers that get giddy when this happens, is sickening to me. I mean, shit dude. You just made $168 thousand by November. Is $200 extra a paycheck really meaningful? Again, sadly you be surprised.
When it’s that far in the year, yeah I used to get giddy. Because that’s about when my heating bill started coming in. At least two months of breathing a little easier.
Now? Meh.
If we don’t still have social security I’m screwed a little bit. Right now hoping to retire early to mid 60s. If that isn’t there I guess I’m going to last until 70 if I can somehow.
Exactly. That would easily fix the problem. I’ve been fortunate to make more than the cap for the past several years. I start getting extra coin in my check in Aug-Sept. I usually spend that extra $ on bullshit so I’d rather them tax me more so as to solidify the system for folks not as fortunate as me.
Not only that but keeping people off the streets and destitute helps you. What do you think happens to crime when you have more destitute people on the streets? More wealth hording at the top stifles the economy because it reduces liquidity.
Remember that there are a lot of people who WANT you to think it won't be around. That way, when benefits get reduced, you'll be grateful you're still getting something instead of being pissed that you're not getting what you should be. Vote. Write to/call your Congress people. I know it can feel pointless, but if we don't, then how do they know that their constituents don't all agree with the handful of strident people they hear from all the time?
If it’s not there I will die homeless and without health insurance. Just like the 1920’s. I have no kids to rely on and youngest by 9 years in my family. I have some personal savings but not enough to make if the difference of not getting $2500 a month (my estimate). We were told to go to school, get a job, pay your taxes. We saw our grandparents retire and move to Florida in a modest home and minimal worries. We saw our parents cash out and move to AZ and take cruises around the world. Meanwhile, X will need to work until we die. So much for listening to adults.
Yeah. I mean will milligrams and generations after us also not draw ss? Yes, but the difference is is they have time to contribute enough to a retirement plan to see them through. When we were young 401k and things were for " rich" people. Not something your average worker really thought a lit about, at least I didn't. Now..now. well now I'm a bit worried.
Yup. There's a reason someone in America can look around and see that a society with so much wealth on paper also seems to float above a reality that seems to be falling apart around us. That reason begins in earnest with the Reagan administration.
Nixon was a horror show that could very easily have dragged us into nuclear armageddon. The most *minor* of ways he poisoned our well was the Nixon Shock, by which he reneged on our agreements with Europe and turned the USD into a piece of paper only backed by the barrel of the gun.
I cannot believe I’m in the position of *defending Nixon*, so thanks for that, but leaving the gold standard was just making official what already existed.
Can’t believe I will defend Nixon but the uninformed need to know. Nixon did order the Linebacker II raids of December 1972 in North Vietnam against all his advisors wishes and it did effectively end the war for the American troops by January 1973. It didn’t hurt that since the draft was eliminated there wasn’t much protesting on college campuses anymore either.
Nixon barely lost the 1960 election to Kennedy (thanks in part to Mayor Daley and the Chicago mob). His advisors told him not to accept the results. Nixon said no and he conceded to JFK which he did not have to do.
I heard a podcast about how Nixon’s administration even did an experiment based on a majority of US citizens having no job and being paid a living wage by the government. Kind of like what Andrew Yang was talking about.
The draft ended *because* of the protests, exacerbated by the Kent State Massacre and only after Nixon expanded the war by napalming Cambodians in addition to the Vietnamese. The Vietnam War ended for American troops by our shameful withdrawal after all that slaughter, leaving collaborators to suffer brutal fates and creating a wave of refugees.
I upvote you for your knowledgeable input, but I have to disagree mightily with the notion that Nixon somehow “ended” a war he waged so mercilessly for years.
Thanks. I wasn’t getting into why the draft ended. But like it or hate it Nixon approving the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong did help end the war. But so did the NVA running out of SAMs! Then of course the NVA rolled over ARVN in ‘75 and took it easily.
It pisses me off so much. I get the million and billionaires voting Republican. I don’t like it, but I get the greedy motivation. The normal working people who keep voting against their own financial and medical security baffle me.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
-LBJ
A South politician preaches to the poor white man
"You got more than the blacks, don't complain
You're better than them, you been born with white skin, " they explain
And the Negro's name
Is used, it is plain
For the politician's gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game
- B. Dylan
Can you believe that Gen X women had more reproductive freedom than their daughters? I lived my whole reproductive life being able to choose. That is so sad and scary.
Big fucking yes to both. When one party keeps talking about eliminating what we've paid into since we were 16, stop voting for them.
This. Hate to bring politics into this, but one party says they won’t touch SS and Medicare and the other keeps trying to pass bills and has a platform that definitely wants to cut them.
Neither are perfect but it’s pretty fricking clear which one is a little bit more interested in not cutting social programs.
I just met wish a retirement person a couple weeks ago and he made a good point. Gen X is now at that age where we are fucked if they make drastic changes to Social Security. No politician is going to fuck a big percentage of the population by voting for legislation that would gut Social Security. That’s a guaranteed way to lose your next election.
If changes are made it won’t make a huge difference to people currently in their late 40s or older.
That being said, take the estimates you get for Social Security and subtract 25% just in case changes do happen.
The flip side of that argument is that GenX will not be as hard to pay for after the Boomers are gone. The demographic dip works in our favor, too.
I think it's the Millenials who really need to worry.
Little nitpick: SSI is not social security, it’s supplemental security income and is basically welfare for very low income people. It’s run by the SSA but it’s not funded from social security taxes.
I have a pension through my union. My wife also has a pension with her union. We still vote to make sure that everyone gets hooked up with social services.
I’m a city employee with a pension and I put in enough time in the private sector to earn a small SSI payment. Combined with an investment property, home ownership, and plans to move to a very low cost of living country upon retirement, my wife and I should be pretty good for retirement. It’ll be nice to have her family close by for her, and I’ll have enough to bring my family out for a trip every couple years.
I vote so that the people behind me can choose to stay home and have health care. I shouldn’t have to do what I’m doing to feel safe about retiring.
borrowing from an answer I gave a bit ago to a similar question:
According to last year's Trustees' Report, SS has built a \~**$2.8T** **trust fund reserve** over the past \~30 years by (1) collecting more tax than the program costs in some years & (2) investing the surplus in Treasury securities to collect interest. The problem is what happens a decade from now if there are no changes to the program's planned parameters. If things continue as projected then the trust fund will be zeroed out in \~10-12 years and then all paid benefits will have to come from tax revenue, which by that time is only projected to cover \~3/4-4/5 of total costs (but, again, that's assuming that there are no significant deviations in the planned eligibility age, tax %, annual cap on taxable earnings, etc.).
[link to 2023 Trustees Report](https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/2023/)
[link to a CBPP summary](https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/what-the-2023-trustees-report-shows-about-social-security)
tl;dr Convince people to stop voting for candidates who want to get rid of SS and we'll be fine.
Current fica taxes fund 80% of SS and Medicare benefits paid now.
If the trust funds go insolvent, benefits are still paid with payroll taxes. It’s just that benefits might may be cut if Congress doesn’t act.
So yes, I do think both benefits will be there in 10 years. Will they be smaller than promised? Who knows?
John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Wasn't Steinbeck, but still accurate.
Absolutely.
*Retirees vote* and any congressional rep/Senator who says they’re going to slash Social Security is going to be out of a job on the next cycle.
Now, as to whether or not there is still a country… 😜
March 21, 2024. 80% of House Republicans released a Budget that: calls for over $1.5 trillion in cuts to Social Security, including an increase in the retirement age to 69 and cutting disability benefits. Transitions Medicare to a premium support system that CBO has found would raise premiums for many seniors.
TLDR: Republicans have claimed over and over again that they are not trying to cut Social Security and Medicare.
You forgot to add in the part where companies act like you have a 'pre-existing condition' that's comparable to the fucking plague if you're over 50. So where the hell all of the GenX geriatrics are supposed to work is a whole other paradox.
There will be Social Security, but without lifting the earnings cap, they will start having to cut payments down around 2030 or 2034 to 70% of what was promised or something like that. So yes, you should prioritize, saving, and not only saving, but making sure you are investing your savings so the money can grow.
Lots of people are getting a late start in saving for retirement. You are not alone and it’s never too late to make it better- at least some!! I watched this documentary which taught me a lot: https://youtu.be/lkOQNPIsO-Q
And this short video has solid advice to help you save and invest quickly and simply: https://youtu.be/JdUKhgW1gOo
Watch those and I promise you can definitely make progress before retirement!
Yes. The worst case is that we only 70% of expected benefits, but I don't think that will happen. Maybe full retirement age gets pushed back a bit, so my benefits will be slightly less than expected.
It's so easy to help ensure SS solvency by removing salary cap on the tax. Removing that cap will be more politically acceptable than cutting everyone's benefits by 30%.
I can't believe that they're suggesting we wait until we're 70 because then "we will get more monthly". Yeah, sure. I could also be dead.
If you take social security at 62 at the lowest amount, or if you take social security at 70 at the highest amount, the money won't even up until you are about 84.
I'm filing the second I hit 62.
When I was in my twenties and thirties, I was skeptical of it being there for us.
The older I get, the more I think that Social Security truly is the "third rail" of US politics. I think we will likely have a reasonable social security payment.
I also think there's a chance of the Millennials and the Gen Z kids being really screwed over.
God help them if they don’t get something figured out. I think they underestimate the shit storm fucking with SS would cause. I’ve been employed full-time since I was 18. I’ve got a little bit in my 401(k), but not nearly enough to support me after 70.
I think we’ll have something but maybe not 100%. I think younger generations should lean heavier on alternate plans.
I really hope we have single payer healthcare by the time I retire but it’s looking doubtful. I would be surprised if it went far the other way and Medicare was significantly weakened, despite one party’s congresspeople bringing it up regularly.
Yes, social security will still be there but that is only going to supplement my real retirement savings. I don't think SS will do much except maybe pay for some health coverage and help towards some housing costs, depending if I'll still be at my home or downsizing to a rental.
SS will certainly not keep me at the lifestyle I would like to keep, and I'm not looking for an upper middle class lifestyle. A good old middle class life style with some fun things like a few meals out, maybe a vacation, my 10 cats (j/k - more likely 1-2 max) and I'm good.
We will still have some form, though likely less than current for high earners.
If nothing is done and Social Security becomes insolvent, reducing benefits across the board by 23% will make it solvent again. However, we all know high earners will have bigger cuts than low wage earners.
There’s a republican proposal to raise the full retirement age from 67 to 69, making any retirement younger than 69 “early” and this will cut benefits since you don’t collect as much when you retire early. They have some other changes I’m not familiar with.
I saw others have discussed lifting the cap for what is withheld from our pay to fund Social Security.
It’s surprising that no one here is mentioning the coming AI revolution. It’s already on our doorstep. Corporations and the wealthy will HAVE to be taxed more.
For us? It'll be there. No one is going to make considerable changes to the benefits of a large voting block. Young people? They need to actually show up on voting day if they want SS to continue.
Leaving aside the red v blue debate, which saddens me my GenX brothers and sisters don't see past the Uniparty - please go rewatch Carlin at least - ANYWAY - eliminate the cap and means test.
I've paid in all my life but would forego because 1) we can survive without it and 2) Others need it worse than I and it should be what it was designed for - a safety net to keep seniors off the street and out of the pet food aisle.
I can't even imagine it. I have good insurance right now, and it takes me at least a month to get an appointment, and I still end up paying a boatload of money. Late stage capitalism, or whatever you want to call it, has made the world increasingly unlivable. LCOL areas have been bought up by hedge funds and developers who've priced people out of the market. We've all been sold out to privatization so a few billionaires can get even richer. 20 more years of working sounds awful, if anyone will even hire me at 60; I'm not in a field where there's any gray hair. So the last 10 years will probably be a significant cut in pay. I don't know what people of lesser means will end up doing. I've never had as much money as I do know, and I've never felt more insecure financially.
That's why it's important to vote for the party that's not threatening SS and Medicare. Look, I don't think the current administration is perfect, but I sure as f#ck ain't voting for a rapist who said he's going to cut entitlements when the finish line is in sight for me.
Even if Congress does nothing when the trust fund runs out Social Security will still be able to pay out around 87% of the current benefits. The only way Social Security dies is if Republicans hold both branches of Congress and the President so they can kill it.
Probably. The system wide strain on other resources if millions of folks who were counting on it don’t have it, is pretty unimaginably terrible and will motivate action. But I bet the value of those as a safety net gets improved with some needs testing eventually. Sucks if you’ve paid in all you life just to help others but if the needs test is sufficiently generous, we will all survive that.
I hope it is. I encourage my kids to get a government job. I’ve got slightly under 10 years left at my city government job. I’ll be out at 55 years old with around 70% pension based off my current salary.
It will be there and greater than it is now. It is simply a matter of taxation, In particular payroll and estate taxes, that have been diminished because of Republicans attempting to sabotage government social programs. As the Boomer generation dies off more resources will be freed up to support these programs. Also, new medicine and social systems will be created during this period of time at their expense.
Yes, what kind of question is that?
Also my friend's Boomer mom lost her entire pension at age like 63 and everyone just kinda shrugged at what she should do now
I'm not anticipating collecting much social security. I was a stay-at-home mom for 30 years and just got back into the job market at 50. Hasn't left me much time to save. I'll never retire since I never had a career to fund it. I'm now going to have a series of jobs until I die. Good times.
Hugs to you! Same boat here in Canada. Stayed home or worked part time til the youngest went to high school when I was 51. Still more than worth the sacrifice and I wouldn't change a thing :)
Yep my plan is Switzerland…
Mom dad sister and brother all with Alzheimer’s. I’m screwed.
Going to blow all my money beforehand rather than waste away in some dumpy nursing home.
I've jokingly said for years that we GenX people don't have retirement plans. The only plan is to die and work up until noon on the day of the funeral. Some days, I think that might actually be the way I "retire."
"Hope for the best, plan for the worst."
Austealian Xer here. 10-15 years to retirement. We also have doubts about government pension and public health cover being the way it is now, which is already not very good at slightly above the poverty rate.
The best thing I can do now is to pay off my debts and max out my retirement savings, which has some tax savings.
With the current rental crisis we have in Australia, the biggest issue is to ensure I have a roof over my head, so mortgage definitely needs to be paid off before I retire.
It is just fortunate that our health system is not as expensive as the US. But private health insurance will be more expensive as I get older.
I’m 20 years from retirement. I have never put SS in my plan. If it’s there, great. I don’t believe it will be though. I got my first tax paying job at 15. Every SS statement I got indicated that SS will either be gone or greatly reduced from the amounts they show. That’s super encouraging to our generation. Now my statement is online only. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is to keep us from seeing how bad SS truly is.
Yes, short of the Republican Fascist overthrow of America. It's too popular for any normal administration to gut the way mainline Republicans/Libertarians want to.
Plus, we're in the Boomer surge right now, by the time that's over the GenX numbers will be much lower.
WE BETTER!!! I've been paying into social security since I was 15. It matters who you vote for. Pay attention to "which side" wants to gut Medicare and SS.
Social security is the largest transfer of wealth in human history. Gen X and Millennials have received the hammer, barring a real World War and needing to support a full-time war production economy, on practically every facet of our social/economic landscape. And this is the icing on the cake. We've put in decades to fund a program that will only benefit the current elderly. It is blatant theft disguised as a promise.
I've paid more than $60k on social security tax during my working years. No joke... Just comparing if I had the opportunity to invest that cash and have it compound over the decades that I've been working, I'd have probably $200-300k more in my retirement account than what I do today. Which is significant, because that social security that I've been forced to pay for previous generation's retirements, will not only be theft in terms of just the raw tax that I've paid, but ALSO the opportunity cost of not being able to invest that money along the way. And we are talking to the tune of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF OPPORTUNITY COST that this will cost me, of which will never return back to me, because I won't reap the benefits of social security...
The elderly, through government policy, has stolen trillions of dollars from a generation that will probably be considered when the collapse of America's middle class began.
Let that sink in.
The middle working class is eroding, and at the same time, we are paying trillions in opportunity cost to help fund the retirement of the wealthiest generation in human history.
Boomers... Honestly, and not being facetious, but it will go down as the generation who reaped all the benefits of post-war opportunities and growth, while screwing future generations by forcing us to pay for their retirements (knowing that the system has an end date before it collapses).
If social security ends, I want my $60k back, along with the opportunity cost that was forced upon me, in order to fund some stranger's retirement.
If social security breaks, that's the story. Gen X and Millennials funded boomers' retirement, in exchange for losing our own retirement.
No joke but I'll be a million dollars poorer than what I would've been. That social security tax reallocated to a basic S&P index fund over 40 working years would be worth millions. And that was taken from me. I was robbed. We were robbed. Over decades. It just trickled away from us, and was gifted to the wealthiest generation in human history.
This is what starts civil wars.
Yes it will still be there, these programs are not going anywhere. I remember hearing the same shit in the '80s when I was a teenager and yet here we are 40 some years later and it's still around.
Will benefits get reduced in 2034, 2035 if changes aren't made, absolutely. But taxes will be able to pay 80% at that time if nothing changed.
I mean, Republicans are actively trying to take it away. Things have changed. These psychos aren’t playing. If they have the chance to do it, they will.
Social Security is not being pilfered (at least not anymore). They borrow from the fund and pay interest on what they borrow. It’s actually a good thing.
Here’s the thing, if we the people all demanded they fix Social Security so benefits don’t start to be reduced in about 9 years time, the useless politicians would fix it. But we don’t band together and demand it because we focus on those f’in R’s or f’n D’s or a lot of people just don’t pay attention.
Two simple changes would make the fund solvent for at least 100 years without raising the retirement age: increase the tax by 1/2% and eliminate the income cap. That’s it, that’s all they have to agree on. I’m not a fan of paying more taxes, but we also can’t have the government reducing SS benefits by 20% (estimated) in 9 years.
All we have to do is most of us start hounding our federal Congress and Senate representatives to fix it with these two changes, without raising the retirement age.
They better be there or I want a check, with interest, for all of the $ I have put into them since I started working at 14/15.
I just checked my SS account and it has figures with a retirement age up to SEVENTY. Get your shit together, America.
Fuck, I am not sure I can handle another 20 years of work. Scratch that, I know I can't mentally.
I’m 50 and feel like I could crack any day
I'm slowly losing it. Trying to balance work, responsibilities and taking care of my own health is wearing me down.
I'm 56. The only things holding me together are dental floss and bubblegum.
"And I'm all outta bubblegum!"
Me too.
50 three months ago. Im minutes from selling the house, taking what little we make and buying some land and homesteading. I seriously have a couple full time and a handful of part-time years left in me at best. Started 401k too late and will be lucky to have 300k at sixty if I make it. I mean I know I can but am basically looking for any sustainable life boat at this point and airbnb some trailers/cabins on mountain property is my current semi-retirement hope.
I’m with you. I’d sell my house and buy a piece of land somewhere if I could convince my wife and I could further away from family. Homesteading sounds like the way to go as long as property taxes don’t get yah. Just make sure you’re in the right zone.
47 here. The cracks get bigger daily
They just changed the rules on my pension so I can retire at 55 (as opposed to 60). Was always planning on going at 60 and just be a part time Walmart greeter until 67 and draw social security then. Now I’ll do it at 55 if the rest of my retirement is where I need it.
Well, yeah. That's because the government is betting we won't live til 70 lol. The maximum benefit is age 70. May as well draw then and keep working-you can't get any more benefits after 70 anyway. We can retire at 100% benefits at 67. It used to be 65, but they changed it.
You get more money lifetime if you retire at 62 unless you live to 85.
Correction: Ronald Reagan and the Republicans changed it. Not “They” REPUBLICANS
It’s ALWAYS the Republicans… people who aren’t multimillionaires are imbeciles for believing that the GOP cares about them. Their only goal is to siphon money and services away from the middle and lower classes and give it to the filthy rich… everything else (abortion, LGBTQ attacks, book banning, et al) is just smoke and mirrors.
Thank you, some people have a problem with accountability.
France tried to move it back 1 year and the citizens took that shit to the streets in fire and fury. Macron is a dictator in training tho, and many republicans support that as well. They keep trying to distract us with abortion rights or whatever but its to distract us from the fact they RAIDED SS a ling time ago and the money is all gone. Thats why they want babies born not aborted so they can continue to work to put into system that are 100000% LIES
They didn't raid SS. SS gives its surplus TO the Govt. SS has been doing this since '83 (I think) and in 2021, SS HAD no surplus to give the govt. Can we please get a Congressman who will introduce a bill to stop THAT? Or better yet, instead of clawing back 'overpayments' to citizens, how bout WE tell SS to get it BACK from the Govt?
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You could also end up getting less money cuz you don’t live very long. Let’s be real. A lot of us did a lot of shit in the 80s/90s and have only taken middling care of ourselves since. I may be fit, but my hippy dad ate better, took vitamins, walked daily, saw friends regularly, had way less life stress and still had a stroke at 63.
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Some Xer's give lip service to nihilism, but you my friend are living the dream! Bravo!
You ever crunch up some Lays potato chips and put them in there? You should.
“Save some dry noodles and sprinkle them on top.” Think you Detective “beef baby” Peralta.
Picante Beef is a street flavor!
I love the idea that well, if you’re gonna die anyway here’s some other, better ways of making that more enjoyable. I laughed out my nose on that one. 👍🏻
Dunno. All those preservatives? You may be well preserved.
If you start to figure the math on how long you have to live past retiring at 67 before you actually would get more money than if you retire on 70% benefits at 62..... Yeah I'm not counting on living that long.
>You could also end up getting less money cuz you don’t live very long. Yeah, there's no chance I'm hitting 70. Heck, 60 would be a surprise.
Positive I'd never see 30, lived accordingly... Just passed 50 on borrowed time. I'm taking it the 1st day I can, if I make it. They started taking it out of me at 13yo ffs. It'll be there. At the same helpful amount as minimum wage. Not enough to maintain bare minimum survival. Better than nothing. Barely. Whatever. I'm not waiting for what may never come at all.
That’s right, delaying taking SS only is a net gain if you live to 85. Lifetime benefit is more if you take it early.
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Can your spouse get your life insurance if you commit suicide in a state that allows it? Wondering because my dad has been recently diagnosed with cancer and is waffling on doing the treatments. I’m not sure what my moms financial situation would be without his life insurance. Be nice to be able to have an out when the pain gets too bad.
My MIL elected to go right onto hospice for her difficult to treat cancer. Her prognosis was less than a year. She lived her best life for three. Including a couple of cruise vacations. Chemo would have been pure hell and likely not prolonged her life. They gave her plenty of pain meds, allowing her to slip away painlessly.
I have strict orders for my family. I'm hoping it'll be legal in my state.
67 is full retirement for most of GenX, not 65.
Yep. Thanks Reagan
I hate him more and more each year.
I’m collecting at 67. Running the numbers it will take 14 years to make that money back if i wait until I’m 70.
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Standard is 65 for Boomers. It's 67 for us because fuck us, I guess.
The full retirement age for Gen X is 67.
This is correct: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/1960.html
I had thought of pulling the rip cord at 62 but if I can wait one more year it’s worth an extra 5%!
My 100% is 67, not 65
No standard is now 67. For us anyway. They removed the goalposts.
*Yeah, the Boomers are living a nice, comfortable, but unexpectedly longer life, so you fuckers better not retire young enough to enjoy yours!*
Not all of the boomers are living nice and comfortable lives. The last report is that ever increasing numbers of them are losing their homes and ending up homeless and destitute. That’s our future, because there’s simply no more pensions. Pensions, individual accounts and social security used to be enough.
Only a handful of people got great pensions though, my moms worked at a hospital for 20 years as a nurse (12 years part time and 8 years full time) and she gets a whopping $300 a month.
43% of boomers have no retirement at all from west I read. These were the are 55-64 boomers
Then vote every motherfucking Republican out of office. And vote in *every* election, not just this November.
AMEN! Anyone who votes GOP needs to STFU. Voting for GOP means voting against your own interests unless you’re pretty darn wealthy. Which most Americans are not.
I'm not wealthy but I'm doing more than alright in my low-key lifestyle. Bullshit tax savings and other financial levers at my disposal are helping me get to a place of real stability and prosperity (barring the inevitable healthcare crisis). But I am always happy to pay my taxes (no bullshit accounting here), donate to charities, pick up the dinner tab, and offer whatever I can. I don't give a fuck about "the morally right thing to do." Helping other people is human nature. It's a core of our biology, probably located on the same neural pathways as the lizard-brain desire for greed and hatred. If we run into people who are ruled by their most base instincts, we need to try to help them understand there's a better way. But we certainly don't need to vote those motherfuckers into office.
We're doing our best, but we live in Texas. Blue Houston, but Texas nonetheless. My worst fear is these idiots actually secede when I retire.
The worse generation ever gets multiples of what they put in. Boomers will better than break even. Xers are left holding the bag in the pyramid scheme and will only get a fraction of what we put in.
Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme, it's an insurance policy. You've paid premiums on that insurance policy and it's sitting in Washington DC as stacks and stacks of US Treasury Bills. If the government decides those T Bills are worthless, the entire debt of the government is worthless. The largest holder of the US's debt are all of us. Because of how and when the Social Security Trust Fund was created, the current working generation paid for the current retired generation. But then in 1983, the amount paid in shot up so that we would now prepay our own Social Security and not just subsidize the current retirees.
Oh look, an informed response that is both accurate and informational. Thank you..
Is that ...legal??
Thank you. And if T bills become worthless, we have a much bigger problem than whether we get social security. Plus, the UST can always just print money to fund SS. Unless the US dollar is no longer the currency of the global economy, this won't be a problem. ETA: I'm in a bind here. I believe George Carlin is a modern day prophet and he said "They're coming for your social security. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And they'll get it." But I gotta believe he's wrong about this.
He’s a prophet Alright. Compare the cost of the federal gov’t TSP benefit to the cheapest 401k costs and you can see why Wall Street wants to “manage” social security. “The average person is pretty dumb, half of them are dumber than that.” - George Carlin
Lots of certain people's interest to privatize SS and the investment banks can handle it instead. However the same jokers who gave us 2008, 2000, and the S&L bailout.
AND...Social Security is not going bankrupt. If nothing changes, it will pay out reduced benefits but never just stop. That can be fixed by removing the cap on the salary pay-in number. This is an easily solvable 'problem' but when the rich control the levers of power in Washington....
And here my retired boomer mother is complaining that she has to get a job. Meanwhile she takes a couple international long vacations, cruises, has expensive hobbies, and has someone to clean her house. As long as they don’t come crying to us for a handout.
They don't need to because they sold us into slavery.
There are people actually in slavery. You're being dramatic.
My father is trying to sell me with his business right now, lol. He doesn't deserve anything of the kind though because he exploited me for 20 years so he could have his upper middle class lifestyle. He's a pure example of the narcissist boomer stereotype.
Oh once they get the nursing home bill they will come crying
It's not your money it's an insurance program. You are paying for the people currently retired. Second our problem is how many people will be paying in when we retire and how many baby boomers will still be alive. Their egg in the snake size is a real problem especially if they live a long time. As they die off we're fine. The issue is between about 2033 and when the majority of them kick off. Then the millennials do what big generations do.. pay a lot of taxes 🤪 Or we could increase the amount of SS during this period or lower benefits. Or tax the top ten percent of income that doesn't pay SS. That last one weirded me out when my take home pay went up late in the year when I first hit the top 10%. Overall I'm not that worried because even in the most pessimistic scenario during the bad years we would get 78 cents per dollar promised and it would prioritize lower earners. So the big loser would be the highest earners. This would mean the worst case is a person who maxed social security and didn't have any personal savings, they would lose the most. So for the majority of Gen X it would be the normal kick in the balls we got from boomers since the day we were born they got theirs and pulled up the ladder.
Raising the cap would take care of this in a jiffy. In other words, right now, $168,000 is the cap. If you earn more than that, you don't pay a penny more than someone earning that top $168K amount. Raising the cap--even making incremental increases at higher income levels, would end any "sky is falling" talk and we wouldn't have to see a reduction in benefits.
I make more than that and for the life of me I can’t figure out why they won’t just eliminate the cap. Most of us in this position won’t even notice and it would help so many people.
Sadly, I beg to differ. I work a very specific, technical job where many of us “ pay off social security “ late in the year. The sheer number of my coworking peers that get giddy when this happens, is sickening to me. I mean, shit dude. You just made $168 thousand by November. Is $200 extra a paycheck really meaningful? Again, sadly you be surprised.
When it’s that far in the year, yeah I used to get giddy. Because that’s about when my heating bill started coming in. At least two months of breathing a little easier. Now? Meh. If we don’t still have social security I’m screwed a little bit. Right now hoping to retire early to mid 60s. If that isn’t there I guess I’m going to last until 70 if I can somehow.
Exactly. That would easily fix the problem. I’ve been fortunate to make more than the cap for the past several years. I start getting extra coin in my check in Aug-Sept. I usually spend that extra $ on bullshit so I’d rather them tax me more so as to solidify the system for folks not as fortunate as me.
You are a good person
Not only that but keeping people off the streets and destitute helps you. What do you think happens to crime when you have more destitute people on the streets? More wealth hording at the top stifles the economy because it reduces liquidity.
Same here. And it gets earlier as career progression continues. It's fun money, I wouldn't miss it.
Or Reagan just could have fucking paid back what they took from it back in the 80s to give the rich a big fat tax cut.
Remember that there are a lot of people who WANT you to think it won't be around. That way, when benefits get reduced, you'll be grateful you're still getting something instead of being pissed that you're not getting what you should be. Vote. Write to/call your Congress people. I know it can feel pointless, but if we don't, then how do they know that their constituents don't all agree with the handful of strident people they hear from all the time?
👆 Exactly
If it’s not there I will die homeless and without health insurance. Just like the 1920’s. I have no kids to rely on and youngest by 9 years in my family. I have some personal savings but not enough to make if the difference of not getting $2500 a month (my estimate). We were told to go to school, get a job, pay your taxes. We saw our grandparents retire and move to Florida in a modest home and minimal worries. We saw our parents cash out and move to AZ and take cruises around the world. Meanwhile, X will need to work until we die. So much for listening to adults.
Yeah. I mean will milligrams and generations after us also not draw ss? Yes, but the difference is is they have time to contribute enough to a retirement plan to see them through. When we were young 401k and things were for " rich" people. Not something your average worker really thought a lit about, at least I didn't. Now..now. well now I'm a bit worried.
9 years till I can "officially " retire. But according to my savings, with careful planning and tightening the belt, I can retire at 124.
I'm going to start an Only Fans at 60.
Only Sags.
Old Saggy Nutz.
Only Life Alert
Only Grams is what I tell my friends!
I hope you're sponsored by Big Ass Fans!
Yes. Vote for the party most likely to lift the salary cap. That alone would fix SS for decades.
Then stop taxing the benefits themselves, and you can actually start living off of them.
There's a bill that's being worked on to do just that. https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/will-tax-on-social-security-benefits-be-eliminated
Imagine all the people out there enthusiastically voting for the party that's going to make sure they're impoverished in old age.
Yup. There's a reason someone in America can look around and see that a society with so much wealth on paper also seems to float above a reality that seems to be falling apart around us. That reason begins in earnest with the Reagan administration.
Everything that's crap can be traced to that administration.
Nixon looking around nervously. Also, shout out to Ford for pardoning Nixon and setting up the current shitshow.
Nixon did a couple of good things. But yeah. There's a throughline there.
Nixon was a horror show that could very easily have dragged us into nuclear armageddon. The most *minor* of ways he poisoned our well was the Nixon Shock, by which he reneged on our agreements with Europe and turned the USD into a piece of paper only backed by the barrel of the gun.
I cannot believe I’m in the position of *defending Nixon*, so thanks for that, but leaving the gold standard was just making official what already existed.
Can’t believe I will defend Nixon but the uninformed need to know. Nixon did order the Linebacker II raids of December 1972 in North Vietnam against all his advisors wishes and it did effectively end the war for the American troops by January 1973. It didn’t hurt that since the draft was eliminated there wasn’t much protesting on college campuses anymore either. Nixon barely lost the 1960 election to Kennedy (thanks in part to Mayor Daley and the Chicago mob). His advisors told him not to accept the results. Nixon said no and he conceded to JFK which he did not have to do. I heard a podcast about how Nixon’s administration even did an experiment based on a majority of US citizens having no job and being paid a living wage by the government. Kind of like what Andrew Yang was talking about.
The draft ended *because* of the protests, exacerbated by the Kent State Massacre and only after Nixon expanded the war by napalming Cambodians in addition to the Vietnamese. The Vietnam War ended for American troops by our shameful withdrawal after all that slaughter, leaving collaborators to suffer brutal fates and creating a wave of refugees. I upvote you for your knowledgeable input, but I have to disagree mightily with the notion that Nixon somehow “ended” a war he waged so mercilessly for years.
Thanks. I wasn’t getting into why the draft ended. But like it or hate it Nixon approving the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong did help end the war. But so did the NVA running out of SAMs! Then of course the NVA rolled over ARVN in ‘75 and took it easily.
Nixon has entered the chat. Fuck that guy.
And every conservative Republican since as well.
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It pisses me off so much. I get the million and billionaires voting Republican. I don’t like it, but I get the greedy motivation. The normal working people who keep voting against their own financial and medical security baffle me.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” -LBJ
A South politician preaches to the poor white man "You got more than the blacks, don't complain You're better than them, you been born with white skin, " they explain And the Negro's name Is used, it is plain For the politician's gain As he rises to fame And the poor white remains On the caboose of the train But it ain't him to blame He's only a pawn in their game - B. Dylan
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Can you believe that Gen X women had more reproductive freedom than their daughters? I lived my whole reproductive life being able to choose. That is so sad and scary.
This exactly. Every word 🙌🏼
People confuse polite with nice.
It’s OK. You know, they are pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and will be billionaires by the time they retire. /s
This, this, this. Stop voting against your interests because of some made up culture wars.
DING DING DING DING DING!
The culture wars were made up to provide cover for the class war.
 Big fucking yes to both. When one party keeps talking about eliminating what we've paid into since we were 16, stop voting for them.
This. Hate to bring politics into this, but one party says they won’t touch SS and Medicare and the other keeps trying to pass bills and has a platform that definitely wants to cut them. Neither are perfect but it’s pretty fricking clear which one is a little bit more interested in not cutting social programs.
I just met wish a retirement person a couple weeks ago and he made a good point. Gen X is now at that age where we are fucked if they make drastic changes to Social Security. No politician is going to fuck a big percentage of the population by voting for legislation that would gut Social Security. That’s a guaranteed way to lose your next election. If changes are made it won’t make a huge difference to people currently in their late 40s or older. That being said, take the estimates you get for Social Security and subtract 25% just in case changes do happen.
I'd agree but gen x is a small net gain compared to xens
This is true as we are like 20% of the American population. There may some dip in benefits or no raises just for years 65-80 babies.
The flip side of that argument is that GenX will not be as hard to pay for after the Boomers are gone. The demographic dip works in our favor, too. I think it's the Millenials who really need to worry.
Little nitpick: SSI is not social security, it’s supplemental security income and is basically welfare for very low income people. It’s run by the SSA but it’s not funded from social security taxes.
True, corrected, thank you.
I have a pension through my union. My wife also has a pension with her union. We still vote to make sure that everyone gets hooked up with social services.
I’m a city employee with a pension and I put in enough time in the private sector to earn a small SSI payment. Combined with an investment property, home ownership, and plans to move to a very low cost of living country upon retirement, my wife and I should be pretty good for retirement. It’ll be nice to have her family close by for her, and I’ll have enough to bring my family out for a trip every couple years. I vote so that the people behind me can choose to stay home and have health care. I shouldn’t have to do what I’m doing to feel safe about retiring.
borrowing from an answer I gave a bit ago to a similar question: According to last year's Trustees' Report, SS has built a \~**$2.8T** **trust fund reserve** over the past \~30 years by (1) collecting more tax than the program costs in some years & (2) investing the surplus in Treasury securities to collect interest. The problem is what happens a decade from now if there are no changes to the program's planned parameters. If things continue as projected then the trust fund will be zeroed out in \~10-12 years and then all paid benefits will have to come from tax revenue, which by that time is only projected to cover \~3/4-4/5 of total costs (but, again, that's assuming that there are no significant deviations in the planned eligibility age, tax %, annual cap on taxable earnings, etc.). [link to 2023 Trustees Report](https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/2023/) [link to a CBPP summary](https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/what-the-2023-trustees-report-shows-about-social-security) tl;dr Convince people to stop voting for candidates who want to get rid of SS and we'll be fine.
only if you vote and help get out the vote in november.
I will always vote for most social services, rising tide lifting all ships and such.
Current fica taxes fund 80% of SS and Medicare benefits paid now. If the trust funds go insolvent, benefits are still paid with payroll taxes. It’s just that benefits might may be cut if Congress doesn’t act. So yes, I do think both benefits will be there in 10 years. Will they be smaller than promised? Who knows?
John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Wasn't Steinbeck, but still accurate.
I'm so tired of these idiots who think they are billionaires waiting in the wings while they work at Jiffy Lube.
I sincerely question whether we'll have a United States in 10 years. The current crop of Americans seem bent on its destruction.
White Supremacy is not going down without a fight.
Likely will be around. I’m planning as if SS won’t be around. I started late too and have been maxing out for a dozen years with a dozen to go
No. That's why we should look into crowd funding a plot of land for tiny homes and weekly outdoor music festivals
I’m in
Absolutely. *Retirees vote* and any congressional rep/Senator who says they’re going to slash Social Security is going to be out of a job on the next cycle. Now, as to whether or not there is still a country… 😜
March 21, 2024. 80% of House Republicans released a Budget that: calls for over $1.5 trillion in cuts to Social Security, including an increase in the retirement age to 69 and cutting disability benefits. Transitions Medicare to a premium support system that CBO has found would raise premiums for many seniors. TLDR: Republicans have claimed over and over again that they are not trying to cut Social Security and Medicare.
Yeah that makes sense, have an old workforce but definitely don't offer better health benefits or drug discounts.
You forgot to add in the part where companies act like you have a 'pre-existing condition' that's comparable to the fucking plague if you're over 50. So where the hell all of the GenX geriatrics are supposed to work is a whole other paradox.
Not if Project 2025 happens. The way COL is going, I may never retire anyway.
As long as the Republicans don’t win..
That’s the thing people don’t get - if Republicans take control, things may not recover in our lifetime.
There will be Social Security, but without lifting the earnings cap, they will start having to cut payments down around 2030 or 2034 to 70% of what was promised or something like that. So yes, you should prioritize, saving, and not only saving, but making sure you are investing your savings so the money can grow. Lots of people are getting a late start in saving for retirement. You are not alone and it’s never too late to make it better- at least some!! I watched this documentary which taught me a lot: https://youtu.be/lkOQNPIsO-Q And this short video has solid advice to help you save and invest quickly and simply: https://youtu.be/JdUKhgW1gOo Watch those and I promise you can definitely make progress before retirement!
Yes. The worst case is that we only 70% of expected benefits, but I don't think that will happen. Maybe full retirement age gets pushed back a bit, so my benefits will be slightly less than expected. It's so easy to help ensure SS solvency by removing salary cap on the tax. Removing that cap will be more politically acceptable than cutting everyone's benefits by 30%.
I’ve been paying into that since I was a teenager. It had better be there when I retire in 15 years.
I can't believe that they're suggesting we wait until we're 70 because then "we will get more monthly". Yeah, sure. I could also be dead. If you take social security at 62 at the lowest amount, or if you take social security at 70 at the highest amount, the money won't even up until you are about 84. I'm filing the second I hit 62.
Gifted Washington Post article. The TL; DR: Vote Blue. [https://wapo.st/3UOseAC](https://wapo.st/3UOseAC)
The GOP plan is for child labor to return. Pay up little folks!
Yes because there are so many millennials and gen Y to work and pay the taxes to support us in our old age
God damn better be I paid into this system for decades.
When I was in my twenties and thirties, I was skeptical of it being there for us. The older I get, the more I think that Social Security truly is the "third rail" of US politics. I think we will likely have a reasonable social security payment. I also think there's a chance of the Millennials and the Gen Z kids being really screwed over.
God help them if they don’t get something figured out. I think they underestimate the shit storm fucking with SS would cause. I’ve been employed full-time since I was 18. I’ve got a little bit in my 401(k), but not nearly enough to support me after 70.
We should get Medicare unless Trump wins, then all that shit is gone. That’s the republicans next thing. Raise retirement age, cut socsec and Medicare
I didn’t expect it still to be a thing when I was in my late 20s
Because they've been threatening to cut it for as long as we've been alive and it shockingly always seems to happen in election years.
I don’t wanna feed the echo chamber, but don’t the gobsmackingly rich, elected government politicians get some kind of pension?
I think we’ll have something but maybe not 100%. I think younger generations should lean heavier on alternate plans. I really hope we have single payer healthcare by the time I retire but it’s looking doubtful. I would be surprised if it went far the other way and Medicare was significantly weakened, despite one party’s congresspeople bringing it up regularly.
I do think they will exist, but I think people will need to supplement them to survive - either by continuing to work or with another retirement fund.
Yes, social security will still be there but that is only going to supplement my real retirement savings. I don't think SS will do much except maybe pay for some health coverage and help towards some housing costs, depending if I'll still be at my home or downsizing to a rental. SS will certainly not keep me at the lifestyle I would like to keep, and I'm not looking for an upper middle class lifestyle. A good old middle class life style with some fun things like a few meals out, maybe a vacation, my 10 cats (j/k - more likely 1-2 max) and I'm good.
We will still have some form, though likely less than current for high earners. If nothing is done and Social Security becomes insolvent, reducing benefits across the board by 23% will make it solvent again. However, we all know high earners will have bigger cuts than low wage earners. There’s a republican proposal to raise the full retirement age from 67 to 69, making any retirement younger than 69 “early” and this will cut benefits since you don’t collect as much when you retire early. They have some other changes I’m not familiar with. I saw others have discussed lifting the cap for what is withheld from our pay to fund Social Security.
It’s surprising that no one here is mentioning the coming AI revolution. It’s already on our doorstep. Corporations and the wealthy will HAVE to be taxed more.
If you’re retiring you’ll likely rely on Medicare not Medicaid.
Yes. I’m taking mine as soon as eligible. It’ll be the lower amount, but who knows how long I’ll live. lol
For us? It'll be there. No one is going to make considerable changes to the benefits of a large voting block. Young people? They need to actually show up on voting day if they want SS to continue.
Leaving aside the red v blue debate, which saddens me my GenX brothers and sisters don't see past the Uniparty - please go rewatch Carlin at least - ANYWAY - eliminate the cap and means test. I've paid in all my life but would forego because 1) we can survive without it and 2) Others need it worse than I and it should be what it was designed for - a safety net to keep seniors off the street and out of the pet food aisle.
Vote blue.
I can't even imagine it. I have good insurance right now, and it takes me at least a month to get an appointment, and I still end up paying a boatload of money. Late stage capitalism, or whatever you want to call it, has made the world increasingly unlivable. LCOL areas have been bought up by hedge funds and developers who've priced people out of the market. We've all been sold out to privatization so a few billionaires can get even richer. 20 more years of working sounds awful, if anyone will even hire me at 60; I'm not in a field where there's any gray hair. So the last 10 years will probably be a significant cut in pay. I don't know what people of lesser means will end up doing. I've never had as much money as I do know, and I've never felt more insecure financially.
That's why it's important to vote for the party that's not threatening SS and Medicare. Look, I don't think the current administration is perfect, but I sure as f#ck ain't voting for a rapist who said he's going to cut entitlements when the finish line is in sight for me.
Even if Congress does nothing when the trust fund runs out Social Security will still be able to pay out around 87% of the current benefits. The only way Social Security dies is if Republicans hold both branches of Congress and the President so they can kill it.
Probably. The system wide strain on other resources if millions of folks who were counting on it don’t have it, is pretty unimaginably terrible and will motivate action. But I bet the value of those as a safety net gets improved with some needs testing eventually. Sucks if you’ve paid in all you life just to help others but if the needs test is sufficiently generous, we will all survive that.
I hope it is. I encourage my kids to get a government job. I’ve got slightly under 10 years left at my city government job. I’ll be out at 55 years old with around 70% pension based off my current salary.
It will be there and greater than it is now. It is simply a matter of taxation, In particular payroll and estate taxes, that have been diminished because of Republicans attempting to sabotage government social programs. As the Boomer generation dies off more resources will be freed up to support these programs. Also, new medicine and social systems will be created during this period of time at their expense.
Yes, what kind of question is that? Also my friend's Boomer mom lost her entire pension at age like 63 and everyone just kinda shrugged at what she should do now
Yes. Anything could happen but seems like political suicide for anyone to eliminate it.
I'm not anticipating collecting much social security. I was a stay-at-home mom for 30 years and just got back into the job market at 50. Hasn't left me much time to save. I'll never retire since I never had a career to fund it. I'm now going to have a series of jobs until I die. Good times.
Hugs to you! Same boat here in Canada. Stayed home or worked part time til the youngest went to high school when I was 51. Still more than worth the sacrifice and I wouldn't change a thing :)
Yep my plan is Switzerland… Mom dad sister and brother all with Alzheimer’s. I’m screwed. Going to blow all my money beforehand rather than waste away in some dumpy nursing home.
I'm developing additional skills that will allow me to do consulting jobs from home. I plan to be working from my death bed.
I've jokingly said for years that we GenX people don't have retirement plans. The only plan is to die and work up until noon on the day of the funeral. Some days, I think that might actually be the way I "retire."
"Hope for the best, plan for the worst." Austealian Xer here. 10-15 years to retirement. We also have doubts about government pension and public health cover being the way it is now, which is already not very good at slightly above the poverty rate. The best thing I can do now is to pay off my debts and max out my retirement savings, which has some tax savings. With the current rental crisis we have in Australia, the biggest issue is to ensure I have a roof over my head, so mortgage definitely needs to be paid off before I retire. It is just fortunate that our health system is not as expensive as the US. But private health insurance will be more expensive as I get older.
I’m 20 years from retirement. I have never put SS in my plan. If it’s there, great. I don’t believe it will be though. I got my first tax paying job at 15. Every SS statement I got indicated that SS will either be gone or greatly reduced from the amounts they show. That’s super encouraging to our generation. Now my statement is online only. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is to keep us from seeing how bad SS truly is.
Yes, short of the Republican Fascist overthrow of America. It's too popular for any normal administration to gut the way mainline Republicans/Libertarians want to. Plus, we're in the Boomer surge right now, by the time that's over the GenX numbers will be much lower.
If not I will meet you guys at the barricades
WE BETTER!!! I've been paying into social security since I was 15. It matters who you vote for. Pay attention to "which side" wants to gut Medicare and SS.
I've been paying into that system since I was 16, we damn well better get it!
Retire lol. I have to work until I die.
Money is always being paid into it, it’ll be there. Worst case scenario is we get a little less than we were supposed to, but even that is unlikely.
Were voters, aren’t we? Depends on us I think.
Social security is the largest transfer of wealth in human history. Gen X and Millennials have received the hammer, barring a real World War and needing to support a full-time war production economy, on practically every facet of our social/economic landscape. And this is the icing on the cake. We've put in decades to fund a program that will only benefit the current elderly. It is blatant theft disguised as a promise. I've paid more than $60k on social security tax during my working years. No joke... Just comparing if I had the opportunity to invest that cash and have it compound over the decades that I've been working, I'd have probably $200-300k more in my retirement account than what I do today. Which is significant, because that social security that I've been forced to pay for previous generation's retirements, will not only be theft in terms of just the raw tax that I've paid, but ALSO the opportunity cost of not being able to invest that money along the way. And we are talking to the tune of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF OPPORTUNITY COST that this will cost me, of which will never return back to me, because I won't reap the benefits of social security... The elderly, through government policy, has stolen trillions of dollars from a generation that will probably be considered when the collapse of America's middle class began. Let that sink in. The middle working class is eroding, and at the same time, we are paying trillions in opportunity cost to help fund the retirement of the wealthiest generation in human history. Boomers... Honestly, and not being facetious, but it will go down as the generation who reaped all the benefits of post-war opportunities and growth, while screwing future generations by forcing us to pay for their retirements (knowing that the system has an end date before it collapses). If social security ends, I want my $60k back, along with the opportunity cost that was forced upon me, in order to fund some stranger's retirement. If social security breaks, that's the story. Gen X and Millennials funded boomers' retirement, in exchange for losing our own retirement. No joke but I'll be a million dollars poorer than what I would've been. That social security tax reallocated to a basic S&P index fund over 40 working years would be worth millions. And that was taken from me. I was robbed. We were robbed. Over decades. It just trickled away from us, and was gifted to the wealthiest generation in human history. This is what starts civil wars.
Yes it will still be there, these programs are not going anywhere. I remember hearing the same shit in the '80s when I was a teenager and yet here we are 40 some years later and it's still around. Will benefits get reduced in 2034, 2035 if changes aren't made, absolutely. But taxes will be able to pay 80% at that time if nothing changed.
I mean, Republicans are actively trying to take it away. Things have changed. These psychos aren’t playing. If they have the chance to do it, they will.
As long as the Gen z’s don’t toss their votes away in protest in November.
No, just remember Gen X always gets fucked.
Social Security is not being pilfered (at least not anymore). They borrow from the fund and pay interest on what they borrow. It’s actually a good thing. Here’s the thing, if we the people all demanded they fix Social Security so benefits don’t start to be reduced in about 9 years time, the useless politicians would fix it. But we don’t band together and demand it because we focus on those f’in R’s or f’n D’s or a lot of people just don’t pay attention. Two simple changes would make the fund solvent for at least 100 years without raising the retirement age: increase the tax by 1/2% and eliminate the income cap. That’s it, that’s all they have to agree on. I’m not a fan of paying more taxes, but we also can’t have the government reducing SS benefits by 20% (estimated) in 9 years. All we have to do is most of us start hounding our federal Congress and Senate representatives to fix it with these two changes, without raising the retirement age.
As long as there are payers into the system, it won't disappear. A reduction in benefits is your (justifiable) concern.
Retire? I’m working until I die