Growing worry over Social Security.

CNBC recently put out an article about people’s confidence in Social Security.

My guess is that it mirrors some of your potential confidence in that system - not great.

59% of Americans are worried that the system will be dried up by the time that they hit retirement age. It is already listed on your statements that the SSA will only be able to pay 79% of the scheduled benefits given the current path.

This is compounded by the fact that 40% of Americans rely on the benefit for more than 50% of their income.

What this underpins is the trajectory we have placed millions of Americans on - a road to poverty.

Go to ssa.gov and create an account immediately. This is something everyone should do as a first step in understanding their relationship to the future. You should be able to create an account that details your specific expected benefit. If you are under 60 than I’d suggest operating from the place of that number only being 80% of what is listed.

Let’s say yours is $2000/month. Assume $1600. How does that square with your current income and expenses? At best, maybe a third.

The CNBC article does provide a few tips for navigating the potential issues with Social Security but I want to throw in a word of caution since those are still based on trying to make the old retirement game of exiting work at 65 still work. I go into detail in The Future Poor about why that is problematic.

Here is a link to the CNBC article.

https://apple.news/AkzQFm512Qh6IbE2lJRgm9A

As always, if you come across a financially related article you’d like to send my way please do! 

Best place to send them is to me.

More next time!

Jonathan