Entitled Selfishness

[Telephus44]

...an interesting article. Since I'm pretty young, I'm assuming that I won't see squat from Medicare or Social Security.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16562633/site/newsweek/

[brenda67]

This article is very upsetting to me....with so many people I know living from week to week..paycheck to paycheck (including my family members)and not breaking the cycle of their spending habits how will they survive when their at retirement age with no social security...


This my opinion and please don't flame me for this...I work in a nursing home and I work with the long term residents meaning they are there to die..we are keeping these poor people alive longer.. that have absolutely no quality of life, and I mean no quality of life...I love my residents and I hate watching them suffer..we were not ment to live like that..medicine is keeping them alive longer comsuming are future Social Security and Medicare benefits..

Again this is just my opinion..

[Jenna]

I'm not planning on seeing any of the money from Social Security.... I've paid about $20k up to the year 2005.

[favesis37]

wow, i don't think we will see any thing either

[Ani]

I am not a selfish person, but it makes me sick to see my social security contributions out of every paycheck and realize that this is not going to be available for me in the future, or even available for my parents. I would rather use that money to help someone I actually know. Blah blah blah, I know that's not how it works, but it still bothers me.

[FrugalMomof3]

I totally feel it is unfair that we pay into but will not receive, why even take if from hard working people, just give it back, all of it that was paid in till this date, I am sure it could be put into a retirement savngs account while for some it might not be much but it's something and we're entitled to it.

It's a shame, really is and it really erks me.

[Edna_E]

Anybody pay any attention to the collapse of retirement funds in the last decade or two? Or modifications in such parts of company reirement plans as "widows benefits", which they can apparently vote to discontinue and it applies to existing widows whose spouses paid into the plan with the agreement that their widows would receive benefits? I think our courts need to start enforcing long-term contracts based on the agreement at the time of the contract. At least I think that the agreement on the day you retire should not be changed to your detriment several years later when you can no longer viably seek further employment.

[kaykwilts]

Dave Ramsey calls it Social Insecurity

[nwmissourigal]

You my dh said he wanted to sue the federal government for breech of promise. We were all told that if paid into the ss fund we could retire at 65 with our benefits and medicare. Now, my dh can't retire with full benefits until he is 66 1/2 and I can't retire with full benefits until I am 67 1/2. So my dh thinks it is breech of promise. Ofcourse he won't sue, but this really angers him. I am not sure that there will anything for us at all, so my dh has decided to retire at 62 which is 4 years away. He can still work part time and the government will allow him to make 17,000 a year. It is a crazy system and I see no rhymn or reason.

[annymoll]

You my dh said he wanted to sue the federal government for breech of promise. We were all told that if paid into the ss fund we could retire at 65 with our benefits and medicare. Now, my dh can't retire with full benefits until he is 66 1/2 and I can't retire with full benefits until I am 67 1/2. So my dh thinks it is breech of promise. Ofcourse he won't sue, but this really angers him. I am not sure that there will anything for us at all, so my dh has decided to retire at 62 which is 4 years away. He can still work part time and the government will allow him to make 17,000 a year. It is a crazy system and I see no rhymn or reason.

Remember too that we were told that ss numbers would NEVER be used for identification purposes?Liars.

[Marie78]

It makes me realize that I need to take control over my own retirement. I currently live per month on what both my grandmothers live on. They have no money (or very little) saved for retirement and now they live on ~$1,000 a month from social security. Both live with their daughters. My one grandma lives with my mom and my other grandma lives with my dad's sister (my aunt).

I make so little now(~1,000/month), but I hope that won't always be the case, and I don't want to end up living on what I currently make when I am old and can't work to get myself out of that situation or have to live with my adult children to survive! Not to mention, I don't have children yet and I can't count on having them as my security for my future. My fiance's mother has actually told him she plans on him taking care of her financially someday!

I wouldn't mind having to take care of my mother or father or even my fiance's parents. I just don't want to "have" to live with my adult children someday because I didn't save for my retirement!

[kittykatstrong]

I do hate that money gets taken out of my paycheck every check and I will not see a penny of it. My dad gave me the best adavice years ago. As soon as you are offered a 401k start one. I started one at 23 and while I don't have a much money as I would like to in there, I at least have one which is more then I can say for some of my friends. My dh thinks we sould reduce what we are putting in there so that we have more money now. But I for one want to be able to live with out worry in my old age. I started working at 16 and don't want to have to be working when I am 75 or 80.

Katy

[mightymoo]

My husband and I do not count social security into our retirement calculations. If its there when we retire (we are in our early 30s), then great, bonus, but I refuse to rely on it.

My feeling is that social security won't go away - they will just keep raising the age, and then they'll cut down on the benefits for those of us who have saved money for retirement. My generation is the ones who are going to be squeezed. We will be forced to pay for our parents retirement, not only through SS, but becuase they didn't plan for it, so I'll have to support my parents. At the same time, I have to work to save for my own retirement, because I refuse to put the burden of myself on my own children.

It's very smart to start contributing to retirement when you are young. That money has the longest time to grow and will be worth the most when you retire. If you wait until you reach your 40s and 50s to save, you have to save significantly more.

[Lorelei]

mightymoo makes great points. I also feel social security will be around, in some fashion, for many years, if not forever. Why? Because it would be political suicide for any politician to endorse doing away with it. This was not my original idea, by the way, but I agree with it.

Having said that, though, I don't think people should count on social security. What many people forget (or didn't know) was that social security was set up to SUPPLEMENT retirement savings. It was not designed to be anyone's sole source of income. The fact that so many people are living on social security income is sad.

What we can do for the future, I believe, is to encourage our friends & relatives to think ahead to the future (sometimes hard to do, I know) and save. We can also vote for politicians that will work to ensure social security is around for the future, realizing that it should be a supplement, not the main source of income, for retirees. That would help keep costs down for future generations.

[frugalfarmwife]

Well said mightymoo and lorelei

And sadly yes to many depend on SS as their sole support in their retirement which frustrates me.

Thankfully I have a VERY frugal/thrifty mother, my dad left when I was 15 and stuck her with the bills, in the last 38 years she's gone from deep debt to financial security on her own, I will not have to care for her financially in any way and if it goes as planned her estate will also be passed on for lifetime supplemental care of my younger brother.

My husband and I have Railroad retirement, complete with widows benefits etc, this looks to be very stable but we're not using that in our calculations for retirement, we also have his 401k but our main investment is our 82 acres of land which will continue to rise in value over the years. When we retire we'll sell, buy a smaller place and live WELL! And I'm also putting cash away We have no children to provide for and we're NOT going to provide for the nieces/nephews. My older brothers will provide well for their children, and well honestly hubbys brothers have shown us they can not handle money and have been told not to look to us for their kids, watching them *iss away one inheritance was enough for us.

The world is becoming a scary place to try to survive today.

kj