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We met with an Edward Jones agent as an initial meet and greet session. Haven't decided weather or not to use them yet. We both make really good money and will both have state pensions when we retire. Will also have our house paid off. She made it sound like we are in trouble however when we retire because social security will most likely not be around. We currently make way on excess than we need and I feel that our pensions plus social security will give us a nice retirement. Is social security going away?
Social Security isn't going away. What we can't know is what the benefits will be 22 years from now. That's why it's best to omit it from your planning until you are very close to retirement age, when you'll be better able to predict what your beneifit will actually be.
And for what it's worth, I'd recommend either Fidelity or Charles Schwab over Edward Jones if you want face-to-face investment advice.
Don't use that idiot, she's clearly playing loose with the facts (or just naive) using fear to steer your financial decisions.
The Social Security Administration is quite transparent with their books, and estimates on viability are compiled by both SSA and GAO. I'm not exactly sure the latest but I believe that without any changes in 2034 they will be able to pay 75% of promised benefits using income only, until at least 2070. I don't know how anyone would interpret that as "not around" especially since it's doubtful nothing changes. There might be a higher payroll tax, maybe a different cap, maybe the age is moved up a year or two, etc.
I get it when people say they are basing retirement planning on the assumption of it not being there with it just being gravy if it is (to me doesn't make sense to plan that way but whatever) however that is a far cry from someone in the financial planning industry telling you it won't be there.
We met with an Edward Jones agent as an initial meet and greet session. Haven't decided weather or not to use them yet. We both make really good money and will both have state pensions when we retire. Will also have our house paid off. She made it sound like we are in trouble however when we retire because social security will most likely not be around. We currently make way on excess than we need and I feel that our pensions plus social security will give us a nice retirement. Is social security going away?
Whether or not it goes away (completely would be unlikely) you'd better save some money beyond that. First of all, you don't know for a fact you'll both stay at those jobs and get a full pension or that the pensions will survive intact over the years! For that matter, you don't know for sure if you'll be together as a couple either. If you're making such good money then there's absolutely no reason you're not saving!
Well did you discuss your current expenses and what you expect them to be in retirement? What are those figures? How much will your pension income bring in? How much will social security bring in? What other savings/investments do you have?
We met with an Edward Jones agent as an initial meet and greet session. Haven't decided weather or not to use them yet. We both make really good money and will both have state pensions when we retire. Will also have our house paid off. She made it sound like we are in trouble however when we retire because social security will most likely not be around. We currently make way on excess than we need and I feel that our pensions plus social security will give us a nice retirement. Is social security going away?
No social security is not going away.
That financial person is the one who needs to go away. Donot use anyone who tries to "scare" you into investing with them
We will definitely retire with the state. Husband only has 10 more years to qualify for the full benefit and 10 more years for me with the reduced benefit. That will be age 50, however he does not plan to retire until age 57. Yes, they have changed the pension, but we always get grandfathered in based on when we came on. Here are the numbers:
Based on today's dollars because they take the highest 4 yrs of salary to calculate it...so our salaries will go up a little:
$5,400 per month combined for pension before tax
If SS is the same then $3,400 combined for social security at age 62
Both get free state health insurance when retire.
We are saving, but our Roths aren't going to be super impressive by the time we retire. The entire time we've been out of college, the economy hasn't been stellar...plus our incomes doubled in the past several years.
We are saving aggressively for our kids college (in 15 years) and will be covered free and clear.
Mortgage will be paid off when we retire
We are simple, could easily live in a small condo and are not big travelers. I just figured we would have enough.
I think the right answer is "a form of public pension will be around pretty much indefinitely." Will it be Social Security as it now exists? Probably, for at least the next 20 years. After that, it may well morph into something with a substantially different composition but serving the same end. The way SS funding is tangled within government funding bothers a lot of people and could be rearranged in several ways, to several ends... but is very, very unlikely to go away short of total (and I mean total) economic collapse.
I see it as disappearing the other way - the safety net accorded seniors being expanded to all adult citizens.
You should both consider contributing to your state's 457 plan, if you haven’t already. As income rises you can easily increase your contributions. You won’t regret it.
It better be around as my retirement will depend on getting those monies.
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