patrick.net

While it is possible for an individual to "save" money, it is impossible for a society to do so. At the society level all saving schemes are ponzi.

Expect the IRS to start going after independent contractors for their bull shit write-offs to reduce taxable income which includes SS at I recall 6.2%. And they'll go after W-2 employees and raise the SS pay in cap by a ton. The wife caps this out every year and those checks are a little bit nicer after that. Equates to a nice vacation once we clear the $138k income or whatever it is in not paying into SS.

The smartest move would be to go after high net-worth income people. Not go after them per se, but dangle a carrot to get them to not take their SS benefits for the rest of their lives once they hit that age. It's not a massive % of the population, but they likely will have the biggest payouts of SS recipients. Probably healthier and will live longer. Take one for the team and get a certain percentage towards say cap gains reductions or your 401k taxes or whatever taxes. Does Elon Musk "need" SS when he hits that age? Absolutely not.

My concern is the IRS is now going to get hyper focused on the middle class thinking that's where there's missing money. Then it got me thinking that we just sent $100B+ to a foreign country that is one of the most corrupt in the world.

Thing is once Boomers start dying in droves, which they're starting to, it will flatline at some point. It WILL go down probably below $2T for sure over the next decade

WookieMan says

Expect the IRS to start going after independent contractors for their bull shit write-off

Yep, those 87,000 new IRS agents are not going after the rich, they are going after Uber, DoorDash, Lyft, hairdressers, and construction workers. The non-politically connected high earners already get IRS attention and have for decades.

WookieMan says

The smartest move would be to go after high net-worth income people.

Nope, that would be to raise the cap and raise the age where one can collect SS. Means testing sounds great but would not save that much unless the "means" threshold gets lowered well into middle class territory.

It's completely absurd that social security has "cost of living increases". This is impossible in any real pension.

In my case, I send back every April roughly what I recieve in Social Security minus my Medicare "premium tax" of $329/month.

I'm fanatical about trying to avoid taxes; but it's hopeless for me eventually if I ever want to spend any of my investments.

Strangely a lot of my boomer friends are still working; they know that they can't get by on Social Security anyway; half of it goes to property tax in many places.

There is no 'pay now, get benefits later' kept in so called huge lump sum trusts that do not immediately have clusters of sociopaths scheming to parasitize or steal the money, and social security is no different. It's why you have to save your own money and not listen to the glib advertising from institutions.

European pension funds have been sacked, and as that news comes out over time, there will be chaos to pay. It is already happening with the Macron stuff in France. The solution is to keep postponing 'benefits' and murder the creditors in the meantime, which is the typical way out for the thieves.

As is typical of Government, they find a way to steal by pulling the wool over people's eyes.

That fact is, there is no such thing as a Social Security Trust 'Fund.' What the Trust Fund really represents is debt, because the Government (since LBJ) has raided Social Security annual surplus and replaced that with special Government IOU bonds that cannot be sold. The collected surplus money simply isn't there. So what can possibly replace the missing trust funds? Higher taxes, more created currency, and a reduction in benefits. (This is what's going on in France today)

A rare moment of honesty from the Clinton Administration back in 2000, as stated in the budget proposal for that year:

"The Social Security Trust Fund does not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury that, when redeemed, will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits or other expenditures."

Again, when you hear the Government or media talk about the SS Trust Fund, you'll know that they are lying. It simply does not exist.

When the government admits to a crisis and gives a year; they know they have achieved their first step: Put it in peoples heads there is a problem, oh, but don't worry the problem is so far off so don't fret it at all. Plenty of time to fix it; and good as new! Ha, silly fools!

The fact is the day of reckoning will come a lot sooner than they told you!

AND they know it; AND they already got you to except it.

AND: More and more people collecting and less and less people putting into the system. When the recession hits and even less people working expect SS to need an overhauled by 2026.

Who here has even stepped foot in a SS Office. I have: its all kids in there trying to get on disability!

casandra says

Who here has even stepped foot in a SS Office. I have: its all kids in there trying to get on disability!

You may be surprised if you poll your extended friends and family to find out that many more than you thought are on some sort of disability.

https://jessicar.substack.com/p/hodling-to-all-things-of-value-time

Back in the 1935 day, just around the time of the Great Depression, in order to remedy the dire situation that people faced to get food in their bellies, a system was put into place to take 1% of employer, and 1% of employee earnings, to supplement a Social Security Act. It worked, but nowadays, instead of 1% of your monthly income, it’s closer to 12.5% of your monthly income. It makes up about 26% of all government spending and the U.S. is ~27 trillion dollars in debt to contributors, like you. Not only that, but to put a plastic cherry on dog poop sundae, you get taxed again on the ludicrously low amount of return to you from these ‘borrowers’.

Perspective: If the 12.5% money taken from you was set aside in a very basic savings account instead of an investment of government choice, by the time you would be able to see the returns on this ‘investment’ (if you were still alive), it would be ~10 times higher than what you are permitted to receive as per this system.

You get: 1,800/month.

You should get: 14,300/month.

clambo says

Strangely a lot of my boomer friends are still working; they know that they can't get by on Social Security anyway; half of it goes to property tax in many places.

Yes. And the renters among them pay their landlords' property taxes.

Slightly off the subject; the girls in Mexico all know about getting the husband's social security after he dies.
They have to tolerate him for 10 years however.

Patrick says

Back in the 1935 day, just around the time of the Great Depression

Yeah Patrick, when FDR pitched it , he called it "Social Insurance" and did not want it to be a retirement plan. He only wanted it as a backup to help senior citizens from living in extreme poverty.

My guess is we will see a means test and/or they will raise taxes for Social Security such as raise the Social Security tax cap on income. Maybe they'll raise the cap to $300,000 from currently $168,600 (in 2024 dollars).

I realize that impacts a lot of "tech workers" in Silicon Valley and San Fran Bay Area :-/

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clambo says

Slightly off the subject; the girls in Mexico all know about getting the husband's social security after he dies.
They have to tolerate him for 10 years however.

Good point about 10 years marriage. Social Security also recognizes common law marriage as part of that 10 year requirement.

Also, if the spouse is a widow of a deceased veteran and the spouse is poor, Veteran Affairs (VA) would provide financial assistance to ensure their income is up to around $34,000 a year

I know of American veterans (many Philippine Americans born in the USA) who moved to Thailand and Phillipines and this is popular with that community.

https://www.va.gov/pension/survivors-pension/

https://www.va.gov/pension/veterans-pension-rates/

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AD says

Good point about 10 years marriage

10 years before divorce.

Nine months if the spouse dies while married.

Every pinay knows these numbers.

Harris wants to expand Social Security and Medicare, which will bankrupt them faster.

Social Security should be allowed to go broke and disappear.
Disclaimer: I am receiving Social Security. I don't deserve a raise "COLA"=cost of living adjustment.
Some bitch I may marry doesn't deserve a dime of my social security.
(Don't worry; I'm not marrying some bitch.)
Medicare is good health insurance for me; I paid $4300+ for it last year, but it's well worth it, I won't complain ever about it.

I'm trying to consume the least amount of health care as I possibly can; I'm careful about my consumption of everything, particularly alcohol, and I exercise.

My father was an MD and once we were talking about the subject of health care; I mentioned the example of Switzerland and he asked "How do they take care of their people?" In my father's mind, the purpose of government is to "take care" of us.
I said "In Switzerland, the people take care of themselves evidently."

I was just talking to a loser attractive female I have known for some time; I now know the real problem with men and women.
Successful men (i.e. not brokeass losers) have carefully avoided making bad decisions, and have also made some good decisions.
Hot fuckable women made no decision to be that way; it's a genetic accident. They frequently make numerous bad decisions over and over.
These fuckable dimwits want us to use our resources to correct their mistakes and bad decisions.

END of rant. Fuck Harris and her loser ilk.

clambo says

I was just talking to a loser attractive female I have known for some time; I now know the real problem with men and women.
Successful men (i.e. not brokeass losers) have carefully avoided making bad decisions, and have also made some good decisions.
Hot fuckable women made no decision to be that way; it's a genetic accident. They frequently make numerous bad decisions over and over.
These fuckable dimwits want us to use our resources to correct their mistakes and bad decisions.

Quoted for troof.

@Clambo nails it. Absent luck (genetic or otherwise), "success" or "failure" in life is the result of a long series of good or bad decisions.