Social Security Expected to Dip Into Its Reserves This Year

Exactly! And that's a system I don't want to be a part of. I don't want to pay for other people's stuff when they were wasteful and irresponsible their entire life

 

Yes. That's what you said. (I think you're trying to impress me with your knowledge.) But what is the alternative to this? My alternative is to dramatically raise or eliminate the taxable income cap.

 

We need to abolish the SS system and have people pay for their own crap.

 

Irrelevant to the discussion I was having.

 

IOU's are not redeemed, they are converted/swapped to public debt, thus, from non-marketable securities to marketable securities, and that's not good due the fact the interest payment on the public debt is a budget expenditure.

 

No, it is absolutely relevant because our government is living on borrowed money.

 

You can't know that unless you plug each of your SS contributions for each year you worked into a spreadsheet and calculate the IRR. I'm quite sure you didn't do that. I did. It is like investing in a fixed investment paying a 4.8% annual, compounded return.

 

That's because republicans mostly lack the natural human compassion and kindness of others.

 

I see you don't understand. Toddle off now.

 

For your info, in the 90's when both Repubs and Dems were JUST arguing about reforming SS, the Canadian federal government PRIVATIZED its Social Security Trust fund, and several other countries have done the same.

psst; I've studied several countries' social programs/social expenditures, and social structures.

 

Whooptie-doo! What does that have to do with my comments that you quoted?


psst: I was a financial planner years ago.

 

The above comment reminds me of the line "don't [urinate] down my back and tell me it's raining." So are any of the marketable securities you mention going to be sold with the money put back into the SS Trust Fund? Can you describe in plain language how the money taken from the SS Trust Fund is going to be returned to the SS Trust Fund?

 

What does this have to do with Republicans?

Are you saying that only Democrats are wasteful and irresponsible?

 

In the 90's, an alternative was to invest people's surplus contributions in stocks, bonds, real estate, and infrastructure, and said alternative was recommended several times by our Trustees.....TOO LATE NOW.

Now, in reference to raising or eliminating the taxable income cap; IMO, that would be a good immediate alternative, however, will it reduce or eliminate a long term financing shortfall?

 

What "trustees"? Investing only in equity assets is a very bad idea, and I don't know how you would invest in infrastructure. But everything you mentioned either equity or it fluctuates with market changes. Diversity also means investing some money in fixed assets that will never return less than was invested due to market changes. That would included fixed annuities, Treasury securities, and savings bonds for example. S.S. can be considered one of them too.

S.S. was originally conceived to reduce or end elder poverty. And immediately the poverty rate among the elderly decreased dramatically. But some people, being..... ummmm...... well, greedy, only want to invest in what could make them rich. The problem is such investments can also make you poor. Some prefer to bet on the hare instead of the turtle. Wise investing utilizes both.

It would eliminate it.

 

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/mspd/2015/opds062015.pdf

lol...take your semantics somewhere else son. a debt based asset is only as good as debtor's ability to make good. don't believe me, ask the Bear Sterns people.

You have to feel bad for these individuals whose entire retirement is going to be funded by Social Security. They're always broke at the end of the month waiting for that next check. When payroll taxes and interest from the "Trust Fund" are less than outlays the money will have to come from the General Fund which will increase the deficit. So the next time the debt ceiling becomes an issue and government is borrowing to fund the Social Security budget shortfalls there's going to be a problem getting the checks out. That's the biggest reason why there's no Trust Fund. If it actually existed, the Treasury could use its "asset" as it sees fit.

 

My wife works with a woman, who recently had her husband pass away unexpectedly in his 30s. She was stay at home mom, three kids, ones of them disabled. They are getting survivor benefits.

I am personally very happy to have some of my money I pay into the system help those unfortunate people stay on their feet. She has life insurance too (don't know how much), but even with a $1 million policy, try to make that last when you are mid 30 with a disabled kid.

I am also very happy that, should I pass away, my wife and kids will be supplemented with survivor benefits too. Do these benefits reduce my rate of return for my own retirement payments, should I get there and nothing goes wrong? Yes, they do. However, peace of mind is often more important than getting rich. If my only goal was to get rich, I could gamble all my retirement funds in emerging stock markets. Yet, I don't. SS counts as part of my fixed income of the portfolio, and a very important one. A check that I can rely on monthly, unlike return from money invested in the stock market.

 

let's get the money from the right wings, alleged wars on crime, drugs, and terror; they don't want to pay for those socialist programs, anyway.

 

SS is fine, the republicans are salivating over that 3 trillion dollars though

 

SS is fine.

 

Add 1.5 trillion to that for the tax cuts

 

Is this number offset by tariffs?

 

QUOTE: You have to feel bad for these individuals whose entire retirement is going to be funded by Social Security. They're always broke at the end of the month waiting for that next check. When payroll taxes and interest from the "Trust Fund" are less than outlays the money will have to come from the General Fund which will increase the deficit. So the next time the debt ceiling becomes an issue and government is borrowing to fund the Social Security budget shortfalls there's going to be a problem getting the checks out. That's the biggest reason why there's no Trust Fund. If it actually existed, the Treasury could use its "asset" as it sees fit.[/QUOTE]

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Very simple;

The buyers of Government Account Series/non-marketable securities are the contributors, and the government is the borrower, thus, an asset to the buyers, and a debt to the borrower.

 

Lots of trust funds include T Bills. What would you prefer the reserve SS funds be invested?

 

What would you prefer the reserve funds be invested in?