I didn't expect anything nor really care if they gave me more. I do just fine on Disability and my shop sale retirement. Might sell a couple of things I won't be able to use sometime in the future and I'll be totally set. C'mon Otis? Did you really think they would give out any more? Not enough left to line their own pockets !
Oh boy, I'm rich. What the heck can I splurge on when I get all of that extra money every month?
For me, that's about enough to buy 2 slices of pizza every month. It's a shame that SS doesn't keep up with the actual cost of living.
Yeah, it sucks that there's a cap to how much of my income goes towards social security and neither does it take any from capital gains. I'm sorry Otis and everyone else. I should have taken better care of all of you :'(
As for younger generations, they should understand that SS has always been a form of safety net so that they won't be in dire poverty when they're old. Plan for retirement. There are a ton of programs to help. Most employers match your contributions, so max it every year. That's like an extra $18k into your retirement fund annually for FREE! Roth IRAs are tax free $5k every year. Budget wisely. Have an emergency fund that's worth 6 month of salary in a bank savings account. Put the whatever you have left in a Vanguard ETF or similar.
It is what it is.
Save as much as you can. Like many folks here I read many articles etc and remember most of the information. However at times I can't remember where I read it. This is one of those times. It appears there are 13,000 Americans living in the US who are 100 years or older. Life expectancy is for ever increasing. I remember senators trying to regulate military retirement by putting a cut off date in the mix. If you retired after 20 years you could only get retirement benefits for 20 years. Apparently a lot of us have received retirement benefits for periods longer than the time we actually served. (LOL). Back to Social Security. It appears that by the year 2015 (9) years down the road there will be double the number of 100 plus retirees causing a possible imbalance in the Social Security scale. Simple math says no way but with the congress dipping in the pot here and there it is possible.
Well, it's better than a poke in the eye with a big stick. Also better than the "zero" we got for 2016. :)
Dear Otis,
Like you I have never been old before, and the experience is very interesting...
There is an addictive, predatory entrepreneurial spirit of GREED in our culture, and it requires ever-new fields to plunder. Timber, coal, oil, steel...our natural resources are disappearing but old people often cannot stand up for themselves, so they are becoming a 'cash cow.'
I stood my ground, and in consequence endured ten months homelessness. But I had the health to withstand eviction, unlike friends who depend on meds or oxygen...they had to stay, get bled dry of funds and die slowly, or in at least one case commit suicide.
* * *
I don't pretend what I did made any difference whatever, but I slept soundly homeless...could not have endured any other course. So no, no questions and no answers either, but treatment of us old folks is appalling.
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