Baby Boomers Are Overestimating Future Social Security Income ( www.bloomberg.com )

Baby boomers anticipate that 47% of pre-retirement earnings will be replaced by Social Security, according to results of an annual survey from the Nationwide Retirement Institute. But the reality for someone making what the Social Security Administration considers the average wage in recent years, about $60,000, is more like 37%, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. And the percentage drops as household income rises.

Alternate: archive.ph/Hx1PM

Very_Bad_Janet ,

I would guess that most Americans do not know that Social Security payments are considered taxable income. If you take out money from pretax retirement accounts and/or get a pension from your work, that plus SS payments could push you into paying income tax.in retirement.

spez_ ,

Australia has done quite a good thing with the pension. We implemented a superannuation system, which is owned by the individual rather than the government. We cannot take it out until retirement and it’s mandatory.

The government released an intergenerational report which indicates that the government can spend less on the pension but keep the quality of life the same, if not better, due to superannuation

niktemadur ,

One has to wonder how many of them have been conned by reality-distorting right-wing propaganda into the stance “Keep your dirty government hands off my Medicare” and vote republican.

utiandtheblowfish ,

I’m a good ways away from retirement (unfortunately), but I’ve always run my retirement scenarios with no SS included in my math.

I think it’ll still be there in some capacity in 20-30 years, but I have no idea what it’ll look like, so it’s easier to plan without it and be better off if it is impactful in the future.

Slagathor ,

I’m 40, and I would be surprised if social security, Medicare / Medicaid, and veterans benefits (basically the VA as we know it) endure in my lifetime. The right has been gunning for that shit my entire life. Just look at their success with abortion regulations.

Very_Bad_Janet ,

Seniors are a reliable voting block. So I believe that those social programs will endure. They might be diminished, but they will exist.

Froyn ,

Seniors were also one of the hardest hit groups with regards to Covid. Doubly so for those senioRs who avoided the vaccine.

tburkhol ,

Almost all of GOP’s “reforms” for social security start with people 50 or 45 years old at their inception. It’s a lot easier to get current reitrees to reduce benefits for future retirees if you assure them that their own benefits are safe. But I agree that SS/MC will still be around, even if the purchasing power of benefits erodes substantially. It’s easier, and more conservative, to plan without SS, though, and retirement is so important that it makes sense to have safety factors at every step.

alianne ,

The annual survey linked in the article gives me the impression that this comes down to a lack of understanding about how social security works and what we can expect from it. Apart from addressing the actual issues with the system itself, we also need to ensure people are properly educated on it.

I know the common suggestion is better financial education in schools - although the likelihood of it sticking long term seems low to me - but that would have a greater impact if resources were also more readily available to adults. Financial advisors were mentioned in the survey as becoming more popular with younger workers - perhaps we’d see better success with a combination of school instruction as well as access to resources/advisors via HR benefits?

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Here is an interesting tool to understand how Social Security works. It walks you through it, but basically you grab your earnings numbers from mySSA and paste them into the tool, and then the tool will give you a breakdown of what benefits to expect based on predicted future earnings.

AFKBRBChocolate ,

Yeah, that’s the weird thing about the article: why make guesses about what you’ll get when the SSA will give you a breakdown/projection.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Yup. It takes about 30 seconds to get a pretty accurate estimate of SS benefits. However, you need to be careful to know whether it’s inflation adjusted. The first tool I linked is in today’s dollars, whereas mySSA is in future dollars.

So maybe that’s where the confusion lies? Regardless, it’s really not hard to figure out, there are tools available.

Deftdrummer ,

Very little information contained here, and riddled with ads. Thanks for the effort I guess.

deconstruct OP ,

Does the archive.ph link also have ads? I use a blocker so I don’t see any.

Blaze ,
@Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

The archive.ph looks good, thanks for sharing

HellAwaits ,

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