Social Security - Raise Age???

[golfgal]

Not only is there a large percentage of workers who are physically unable to work into their late 60's - there is also a large percentage of employers who are unwilling to continue to employ older workers.

A 60-some year old employee who makes twice what the equivalent college grad would require AND is a drain on the employer funded health plan is a prime candidate for the next round of "rightsizing."

Somewhere around 70% of all Social Security applicants today have not yet reached the full benefit retirement age.

I see many people who plan to work well into their retirement years. Unfortunately, it isn't all that easy for them to find a place to work at.

Ok, but don't assume that those 70% are tapping into SS because they CAN'T work, many chose to do it because they don't want to work AND, taking SS as soon as you can has it's benefits financially too. Yes, your overall monthly take is less but you have to figure out how much of a long term difference that will make. If you start drafting at 62 1/2 vs 67, that is 4 1/2 years of income you are taking in-what is the breakpoint for taking your payments at 62 1/2 vs 67 (or later). 99% of the people I talk to assume that it is better to wait and in probably 90% of THOSE cases it isn't.

 

[eliza61]

Actually, you hit the nail on the head with what is wrong with social security. Social security was never ever intended to provide any benefits to the those who could no longer work, or widows, or orphans. (And I say that as someone whose father died when I was 9, and received benefits for 12 years) But congress added those benefits later, without increasing the amount of money being withheld.
Social Security was meant to be a supplement to people's retirement savings. But people starting saying "I'll get Social Security, I don't need to save for retirement".

Absolutely. almost 15% of seniors rely on social security for 100% of their income and up to 50% rely on it for at least 50% of their income. Now you see why seniors will fight tooth and nail not to make changes to it and with the baby boomer generation increasing, you can bet it's going to be harder to make changes to it.

 

[golfgal]

In our retirement plan, our SS money is our "fun" money-our do whatever the heck we want to do with it guilt free spending money

 

[Andtototoo]

I think the original poster kind of summed it all up when they said...we reached our income limit to pay into SS.

I don't have access to the figure right now while I type this but that is a pretty good yearly income and it is only June. Unfortunately, most people are not that lucky and do not make that kind of income, never have, never will.

No...the reason SS is in trouble is because the government has been borrowing money from it and not paying it back and because folks like the poster for some reason, totally unexplainable to me, can stop paying into it after they have earned more money then most of the rest of the population could even dream of. How is that even logical. If a poor person has to pay 7% of their almost non-existent income to SS. Why is it alright for a rich person to not pay the same 7%.

.

I didn't even know what the OP was talking about! And it's not like my dh and I are the working poor. We're the working middle class and I've never heard of that so that shows how far off we must be from that level of income!

 

[golfgal]

I didn't even know what the OP was talking about! And it's not like my dh and I are the working poor. We're the working middle class and I've never heard of that so that shows how far off we must be from that level of income!

That level isn't a joint earned income level though-it would be individually. You would need to make over $107K to hit that level so you could both be making $106,999 and not hit it and be pretty dang well off financially in pretty much every part of the country.

 

[mefordis]

That level isn't a joint earned income level though-it would be individually. You would need to make over $107K to hit that level so you could both be making $106,999 and not hit it and be pretty dang well off financially in pretty much every part of the country.

It's amazing that they don't make the contribution joint for married people. So in the case of a married couple, if one person makes 200k, and the other makes 0 -- they pay less taxes collectively than two people each making 100k.

I guess it makes sense, why would they opt for a way to to collect even less?

 

[disney1990]

Where are these people supposed to work until they can collect SS?

 

[minkydog]

Where are these people supposed to work until they can collect SS?

Great question. I see lots of 55+ out of work since the economy tanked. One of my friends has been OOW for 3 years and sees no light at the end of the tunnel. At 59, he has been forced to take early retirement just to survive. The fact is, most employers don't want to hire older workers because they cost too much and they are perceived to be slower to learn and more difficult to manage. When an employer can hire a manager with 3-5 years experience for $40,000 why would he hire the one with 30 years experience for $70,000?