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Social Security
If you have ever received a paycheck, you noticed that
some of your money is deducted for social security. The
premise behind social security is that the government collects
the money from your paycheck every month and holds it in
an account so that it will be available to you when you retire.
It provides you “security” for your retirement.
Unfortunately, as you have probably heard in the news,
social security is in danger. This is because people have a
much longer life expectancy. When the Social Security
Program was first started, most people didn’t live to be 70
years old. Even twenty years ago, most people only lived for
five to seven years after retirement, which means they were
only drawing social security benefits for 5-7 years. Now,
people are living into their eighties and even their nineties.
This means the government is issuing social security checks for
twenty or twenty-five years when the program was originally
budgeted to sustain someone for only five to seven years
past retirement.
Because of concerns surrounding the viability of social
security, it is a better strategy not to count on any money
from the government as part of your retirement planning.
Even though it might be unfair to be contributing to a system
to which you will get no benefit, it is better to put yourself in a
position where you are not dependent on it.
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Section 18 – Planning For Your Future