Retirement Planning Thread

Folster

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Lots of different articles on this.

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Jersey Girl

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Yet another reason to not count on Social Security as anything more than gravy in retirement.

I think they're gonna have to figure out something though. Like many, I've been paying into that system since I was 15. I wish I had had the option to invest all that money on my own. I am sure my return would have been better.
 

Dback Jon

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I think they're gonna have to figure out something though. Like many, I've been paying into that system since I was 15. I wish I had had the option to invest all that money on my own. I am sure my return would have been better.


Most people would have spent it. And had nothing.
 
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Jersey Girl

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And yet the GOP won’t do anything because they want to eSocial Security and Medic



Most people would have spent it. And had nothing.

I don't doubt it. Of course, if there isn't anything to be had when we retire, then the end result would be the same.
 

Devilmaycare

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I think they're gonna have to figure out something though. Like many, I've been paying into that system since I was 15. I wish I had had the option to invest all that money on my own. I am sure my return would have been better.
I'd love to be able to invest it even if it was more like a 401k where I have a list of funds to chose from and not fully self managed. I'll even go for that just happening from here forward with the previous pay ins sticking with the traditional system.
 

Russ Smith

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Lots of different articles on this.

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This is why IMO they need to raise the cap on FICA so that people who max out on it pay in more during the year before they max out. It's only the high earners that max out.
 

Folster

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I think they're gonna have to figure out something though. Like many, I've been paying into that system since I was 15. I wish I had had the option to invest all that money on my own. I am sure my return would have been better.

It was never your money. Money that you paid in went to current retirees. It's a government run ponzi scheme and like all ponzi schemes, they collapse when there aren't enough inflows to cover the outflows.

That doest mean that those benefits will stop immediately as the government can just increase the deficit. But eventually that will have dire consequences.
 

Russ Smith

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I'd love to be able to invest it even if it was more like a 401k where I have a list of funds to chose from and not fully self managed. I'll even go for that just happening from here forward with the previous pay ins sticking with the traditional system.


I've been saying this for years if there were a way to opt out of Social Security so you don't have to pay it and have to waive the right to ever get it, I would have done so years ago and been way ahead for it.

It's frustrating. A friend of mine for over 20 years asked me a few months ago why her rollover 401K wasn't doing very well. I said it must be the markets been way up and I referred you to the person at Fidelity who is managing mine so you MUST be way ahead. Turns out my manager has a minimum amount and she was below that, but she never told me that so I thought Fidelity was managing her money and it was in a holding account the whole time making almost no interest!

She's fairly risk averse because she has no experience with stocks so in the end I got her to put about 60% into FFFEX which is a time horizon Fidelity Fund for when she'll be 65. She actually should be MUCH more aggressive since she's playing catchup but I know she'd panic if the markets went down. I think she bought in at 19.90 not sure either that or 20 it's at 20.50 as of close yesterday so she's up something like 800 dollars I don't recall exactly how many shares she got. She's absolutely thrilled. I feel terrible I thought she was being managed for the last 18 months and she thought I knew she wasn't. So now I just gave her a list of things to consider for the last 40%.

She never grasped it's in a holding fund because before she rolled it over to Fidelity it was in the funds she had in her 401K. So she made money before, asked me to help her roll it over, I did and I just assumed she'd reinvested it when she hadn't. She probably missed 3 years of really good returns I'm not entirely clear how long it's been in that holding account
 

Jersey Girl

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It was never your money. Money that you paid in went to current retirees. It's a government run ponzi scheme and like all ponzi schemes, they collapse when there aren't enough inflows to cover the outflows.

That doest mean that those benefits will stop immediately as the government can just increase the deficit. But eventually that will have dire consequences.

Considering it came from my working wages, I'd argue that it was my money (though I understand where it went and what you're getting at).
 

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