Categories: Retirement

Relax, Social Security Benefits Aren’t Going Anywhere

I’ve seen this before, and I want to share it with all of you. Many people are worried that social security won’t be around in the next few decades. If that’s the case, it won’t be because it runs out of money.

From a recent New York Times article: according to the last annual report from its trustees, Social Security will be able to pay full benefits through 2037. That’s only 27 years away, so for most, it will run out while you’re still around.

So what will happen after that?

According to the same report, if there are no changes made to the program, there will be enough to pay out 75% of benefits through 2083.

Now that sounds pretty good.

I’ve advocated not relying on Social Security, but I have also said this it will be around in some form for many years to come. I think that if we plan well aside from this, Social Security will be an added bonus that will allow us to live an even better life. If we save early and often and then find out later that we’ll have several thousand dollars coming in each month, isn’t that super awesome?

We pay 6.2% of our income to Social Security (which seems like a ton!), and while I’d love to be able to control my finances instead of relying on others to give me a low rate of return very far down the road, we do have a system in place and we have to live with it. So let’s make the most of it, take what we can get, and if the rules changes, we’ll be able to adapt and hopefully it will get a little bit easier to retire (early/in style).

Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

For some people, 75% isn’t enough and they will argue that if they paid into it, they should get 100% of their benefits. Agreed, that sucks, but the world isn’t perfect, but we have to take lemons and make lemonade.

I think that considering how worried people are, 75% sounds pretty good, and that’s if there are no changes made, which still remains to be seen.

Readers, does this information make you feel better? Worse?

Sweating the Big Stuff

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