Track Any Stock Instantly
Just enter up to ten of your stocks in the Stock Tracker box, click the ADD
button beside any of Today's Hot Stocks, or click ADD beside any of the stocks
you've Recently Viewed.
Click ADD next to any stock below to add it to the Stock Tracker
Social Security
Planning to Retire? Don't Count On Social Security Alone
by Chris Parry (Write for us!)
(Click on the links within the article to get definition of that word)
For many planning to retire in the next ten years, Social
Securitybenefits make up a large chunk of
the funds they expect to live on each month. As a result, those planning for retirement later down
the road have been taught that the program will be there for them as well. If you are doing some
retirement based financial planning, it is essential that you do not expect too much from that monthly
check issued by the government.
Social Security was part of Roosevelt's New Deallaws in 1935. With the povertyrate of
retirees above fifty percent at the time, the president felt as if he needed to do something
to care for older Americans. The general idea was to use payroll taxes from currentworkers to
offer a small monthly check to retirees. The program was eventually expanded from a voluntarytrustfund to a requireddeduction that included survivor's benefits and Medicareprograms. Today, the
program pays out
almost five billion dollars in benefits to Americans every single year.
For years, the United States government has told Americans that Social Security will take care of them
as they get older. However, as the baby boomer generation begins to reach retirement age, politicians
have estimated that the system simply won't be able to support the sheer number of retirees at current
benefit amounts. While the exact numbers seem to vary from political camp to political camp, it is clear
that Social Security has a problem. Some suggest that the issues are more extensive than others. While
remedy after remedy is being proposed, nothing seems to be a solid solution to the problem.
Lots of politicians suggest Social Security will be around for even your grandchildren, but even
if the system could support the amount you are supposed to receive in benefits, the chances are
quite high that when you create your retirement budget, that kind of money just isn't going to
be enough to sustain your current lifestyle or the one that you'd like to build for yourself as a retiree.
You can get some idea of the benefits you should expect to receive when you retire from the
Social Security website. Use
the benefits
calculator,
enter a bit of information,
and it will return a dollar figure to help you in your planning. The simple truth is, though,
that politicians could choose to change that number at any point in the future.
As a result, if you are doing your financial planning now, your benefit amount might
not be the same in twenty, ten, or even five years based on the kinds of changes
Congress makes to the related laws. Most financial planners suggest that you leave
Social Security benefits out of your retirement plans all together. While you might
receive some benefits in the end, if you don't count on then, they will be like icing on the cake.
How to use this tool 
How to use this tool 
Print Article
Cite this article
