Posted on 03/29/2018 9:31:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Just to be clear, I had our Finance guy run the numbers to see how much we would have if all that Money taken from us(and our Employers, which is really just part of our Compensation, but I digress) was Invested in the Market for the past 45-50 Years.
He never had anyone ask him to do that, and he was a Finance Guy for over 30 Years. He is pretty conservative with his Client’s money.
The result, he figured my Wife and I would have about Four Million Dollars at age 66, give or take. The miracle of straight line Investing.
Nothing but a friggin Ponzi scheme.
Well when you figure in 15.3% of your lifetime earnings is paid into as up to the maximum over your working life, even modest returns compounded over 50 years is a good bit of money.
You have to half that though for the money YOU paid in, unless self employed... your employer paid in the other half.
We’re talking retirement age folks here, not paying salaries to 20yo housewives. SS is wage-graded, you’ve got a starting rate and it goes up from there. But working women (my generation) are more likely to have been paid less for their work and either quit the workforce or reduced work hours (or career) later in life during prime earning years to take care of disabled children, parents, parents’parents, which wimmen are expected to do. By doing so, they penalize themselves SS-base wise. If the base SS for a man who earned $10-$15/hr is $X, then the base for a woman working $7.75-$9.00/hr should also be $X. This is not to say that those earning $100K should only get $X. They get $Z = $X plus whatever upper bracket they’ve earned to the max. But let’s not give women a $600 SS check (half of which goes to medicare) and a man a $1200 SS check (a quarter of which goes to medicare) and think we’re being equitable.
actually, they are. Not gun to the head forced, but social structure forced. Which is a good thing. If hubby’s mom or dad strokes out, hubby is going to want his mom taken care of outside of institutionalization. If a child develops a severe disability, it’s mom who usually stays home.
Or, we could decide that everyone is a worker unit, marriage is irrelevant, nothing is more important than showing up 9-5, and any child or adult with a problem should be institutionalized at the expense of the state (oh the taxes) and forgotten, rather than be a ‘bother’ to the non-existent family unit, which now has no reason at all to remain a unit.
>>>your employer paid in the other half<<<
It’s just feel good Liberal nonsense. The Employer pays both halves as part of their Employee’s Total Compensation cost.
I can’t believe people really buy this doublespeak the slimy Politicians think up.
The point is that it is a decision by the person. They are not forced to do it.
I know too many people who hang themselves on the Tree of Woe as if they had no choice.
You didn’t lose it in the crash. You took it out. It’s an important distinction.
One thing I learned far too late in life is how important it is to tell myself the truth.
Sorry, but did the money come to you? Nope, wasn’t part of your salary at all... Had you been self employed that whole amount comes out of money you directly earn.. not an additional tax on your employer for the joy of employing you.
As someone who’s paid both sides of it, trust me, when your paycheck FICA deduction is 15.3% and not 7.65% you can claim you paid it in... until then, you are just living in dreamtime.
After all the blather int he article the final chart shows taht 80% of retirees count on SS for about 1/3 or more of their income. That makes it look pretty significant to me.
Economists use data like a drunk uses a lamp post, for support instead of illumination.
I have run the numbers on my own “contributions” and I am surprised it is as high over 40 years of payments. The actual dollars “invested” by me and my employers, for half that time I was my own employer, is $332,000 for SS and $213,000 for Medicare taxes. I have payed employment taxes since I was 13 and near the max since I was 22.
I hope you live long enough to collect every last dime you “donated” WITH INTEREST.
I wish you the same. I’ve given enough. I figure for many years that I supported several families each year. Enough is enough.
Here’s an interesting tidbit about social security...My mom has been dead for 3 years and I just ran across her social security number,put it in the computer and her number is on the list of CALIFORNIA GREEN CARD HOLDERS.....
” her number is on the list of CALIFORNIA GREEN CARD HOLDERS.....”
—
Good lord-—but since we are all getting new SS numbers this year-——that should change.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.