"This is not just a wake-up call, this is it. We're here,"

**Ceashels** · 03-15-2010, 08:51 AM

Social Security is calling in the IOU's/ bonds the gov made when borrowing from the system....

Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs - Yahoo! News

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.

It's time to start cashing them in.

For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year.

Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more......

**2ndGenGranola** · 03-15-2010, 09:43 AM

I guess we need to start equipping the downstairs bathroom for my elderly father to move in because I have no faith in the IOU's

**ncarr** · 03-15-2010, 10:58 AM

I don't suspect that I will ever see a dime of the money I put into social security

**Greebo** · 03-15-2010, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by ncarr

I don't suspect that I will ever see a dime of the money I put into social security

How Ironic would it be if when your time comes to collect, your monthly payment is 1 dime.

**frugalfriend** · 03-15-2010, 11:36 AM

Too bad we can't "opt out" now!

**Inkstain82** · 03-15-2010, 11:58 AM

I fully expect that most of the people saying they never expect to see anything from social security will get *something*.

It may not match what they put in, it may not be much to live on, it may come at an unreasonable tax burden, but they'll get something.

**beks37** · 03-15-2010, 12:27 PM

Wow, that 2.5 trillion will be used up pretty quick if they don't collect enough payroll taxes for it.

I am not planning on relying on Social Security at all. If I do get it, then it will be extra. But, with the way things are going, I don't see it lasting another 37+ years until I retire.

**Imarachne** · 03-15-2010, 07:00 PM

I am on SS and I worry that there won't be enough to get me thru life . I worked all my life until I had a stroke at age 65.

**Pianolady** · 03-15-2010, 11:22 PM

I laugh every time I get a social security statement. I'll believe it when I see it. I plan to work until I die, I can't see ever retiring unless health forces it. I'll plan on other sources of income than social security though.

**Thevail** · 03-15-2010, 11:38 PM

I think it is more likely that aliens will come and fix my finances than that social security in this form will exist by the time I retire.

It's just too huge a burden, not that the people who worked and retired don't need and deserve it.

But each person can't work hard enough to support themselves and 1.5 retirees too. It's just not possible.

Besides even if it was Ok to sink an entire generation's dreams of a financially secure life under the weight of the baby-boomer retirement (which it's not), it would only mean we'd have saved even less for our retirement than they did for theirs. Which means we'd need social security even more than they do now..

I don't know how they're going to fix this, but they better figure something out. It's not ok to starve the people retiring now, but it's not ok to starve the people working now either.

**ncarr** · 03-16-2010, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by Greebo

How Ironic would it be if when your time comes to collect, your monthly payment is 1 dime.

that would be pretty funny... and depressing

**Russ** · 03-16-2010, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by Pianolady

I laugh every time I get a social security statement. I'll believe it when I see it. I plan to work until I die, I can't see ever retiring unless health forces it. I'll plan on other sources of income than social security though.

is pretty much my mentality.

**Dancing Lotus** · 03-16-2010, 12:11 PM

I have no faith that I will ever see a dime and I'm planning for that. Once I get my degree and get to work we will continue to live off of Dh's pay and my pay will be our retirement fund. That's the beauty of team work, he can take care of us now and I will take of us later.