Let’s say you and your family made $75,000 a year. And you never got a raise, but you made $75,000 every year. And let’s say you made these assumptions so that it would be easier for me to do the math.
And instead of Social Security, you put the money into some sort of cheesy money market / bond fund at 5% a year. Right now 12.4% of your salary goes to Social Security; half of that is paid by your employer. That’s $9,300 a year.
And you started working at 25 years old and worked till you were 65. That’s when you noticed your cheesy money market / bond fund is now worth $1,179,610.
Or instead of cheesy, you bought an S&P 500 Index fund. It’s been averaging something like 12% a year, so let’s assume you could make 10% a year on your Social Security funds.
It would be worth $4,527,722.
What would it take for you to give up Social Security? I’m thinking a few million dollars would be nice. Just something to think about when President Bush gives his State of the Union speech tonight.
Chasing the Wind 
😐 I was never good with money or finances. ❓
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Correct me if I am wrong. Bush has an idea to take 4% of my social security and put it in my personal retirement fund that will allow me to give it direction and hopefully grow at a faster pace, enhancing my golden years. This will leave the remaining 8.4% of my social security to fund the nations account. If this is what I heard, it will be a great day for my portfolio.
Or did I hear that with social security on the road to bankruptcy, 8.4% will speed this process up and by the time I reach 65 all that will be left is my 4%. It will be a nice 4%, but what happened to the 8.4% they took to fund the ailing project?
A third possibility would be to raise my 12.4% to 16.4% so that I get to move a small piece to a secure location and the social security goes bankrupt on schedule.
I’m not sure I liked any of the above. Did I hear it wrong?
The rest of the speech had me on my feet and close to tears by the end of the night. My son is in the US Army and just got orders to Iraq. He is proud to serve and so am I that he is there. War IS ugly and nobody really wins but we disrupted a nightmare and push a nation towards freedom. They are now rejoicing. The bad guys are cringing.
I still support my President!
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Stephen: I have a lot of respect for you for being able to watch your son go off to war and still be able to look at the bigger picture; the people who are winning freedom and rejoicing in that freedom. Also for your support of our President. Glen and all of you will be in my prayers.
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I think the alternative is to leave Social Security alone: the government continues taking 12.4% of your salary and eventually doesn’t give you anything at all.
I’m proud of Glen, and proud of you, Stephen, for supporting your son. I heard a soldier on talk radio this morning say, “I may not have agreed with the war, but that doesn’t matter. I’m a soldier, I’m following the President, and he believes I’m fighting for freedom.”
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Um, wasn’t Social Security started during the Great Depression that was caused by a stock marked crash? So since history tends to repeat itself shouldn’t we be looking at something AWAY from the stock market?
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If the economy tanks, the government is in trouble, too. Where do you think the government gets its money?
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