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Some of the retirement calculators are extremely conservative - assume social security will no longer be available, a real investment return of 2-3%, 35 or more years in retirement living to age 100. No wonder they calculate you need several million dollars to retire. I agree with the previous poster that social security is not going away although there may be some changes. Assuming you retire with your house paid off, some social security and public sector pension, and access to health insurance until Medicare age, $1M in investment savings is probably sufficient.
Living to age 100??? huh?
1 million is NOT neccessary if you have a pension AND social security.. with your house paid off? Some of you people live DELUSIONAL LIVES. Do you realize how LITTLE OF the population has even 500k at retirement? And do fine.
while ss retirement /survivor fall under the same heading each dollar of fica that comes in is allocated differently to all 3 funds . there are three distinct allocated amounts and 3 distinct funds getting the money .
i see nothing wrong with the money moving between those internal funds . they are all funded with the same dollar from fica .
Mathjack, this is not true. The money is allocated between the OASI and the DI. There is no further division. Normally I would not bother correcting your assumption but I think it's important to understand this because of possible proposals that might affect retirement and/or survivor benefits. Any change to either one of those benefits could have a significant impact on the other because both of those benefits come from one big basket - the OASI trust fund.
I can't find any source that would support your statement. If you have one, please provide it.
1 million is NOT neccessary if you have a pension AND social security.. with your house paid off? Some of you people live DELUSIONAL LIVES. Do you realize how LITTLE OF the population has even 500k at retirement? And do fine.
I agree. IF you're lucky and never need any care that can only be found in Assisted Living, Memory Care or Skilled Nursing Facility. Remember, the choice is NOT yours. After a hospital admission, it's up to the staff to decide if you can return home. Usually they'll discharge you to a SNF and you can get stuck there with them threatening to petition the court for a guardian if you and your family insist on taking you home and they feel it's a "danger". You can also be involuntarily committed by the state if a case is made that you are a danger due to cognitive problems.
Barring that....
I can actually budget a mere $550 per month for my condo expenses. That still allows me ALOT to live on just on Social Security. My healthcare was a lifetime benefit from my employer (plus pension I'm not including)
That being said, I feel like renting for a bit more would be a more practical option for me, and less aggravation.
The people with problems budgeting on Social Security, IMO, are those who worked part time, or for very low pay and wind up with low Social Security at FRA. And without healthcare.
BUT.
I have three dogwalking clients approaching 100. And the oldest resident in another Assisted Living I work in died at 101. She only died because of a fall, and had a brain hemorrhage. With a DNR.
Not only was she the oldest but the MOST ACTIVE. They had bells on her walker to find her. They had to put a dutch door on the kitchen because she was always going in to "engage" the chef and hang out. Social Butterfly.
She was the rockstar of the place. At her request, her aides put her in full makeup, hair, jewelry and outfits every single morning and again for dinner (and cocktail hour hahaha).
She may not have been able to tell you who the President was on a given day, but you could find her checking out her hair in her bathroom and picking out her outfit for the day.
She was paying $6000 per month to the ALF and an additional side payment for her private part time aides that ran around another couple/few thousand per month. To keep her there under supervision and content - since Assisted Living is for activities of daily living, NOT following someone around all day innocently disrupting the staff and residents even if she was cute about it.
OTOH, plenty of residents in their 90's are quietly happy, cheerful and content to be very easy to manage. But it would be very difficult to replicate that level of care in a home setting. Even WITH the money to do so.
Mathjack, this is not true. The money is allocated between the OASI and the DI. There is no further division. Normally I would not bother correcting your assumption but I think it's important to understand this because of possible proposals that might affect retirement and/or survivor benefits. Any change to either one of those benefits could have a significant impact on the other because both of those benefits come from one big basket - the OASI trust fund.
I can't find any source that would support your statement. If you have one, please provide it.
i showed the following break out for both halves of the fica dollars we pay in plus the employers half last time i read an article about it. 5.30% to social security retirement, 6.20 to surviver benefits and .90% to the ssdi fund
I agree. IF you're lucky and never need any care that can only be found in Assisted Living, Memory Care or Skilled Nursing Facility. Remember, the choice is NOT yours. After a hospital admission, it's up to the staff to decide if you can return home. Usually they'll discharge you to a SNF and you can get stuck there with them threatening to petition the court for a guardian if you and your family insist on taking you home and they feel it's a "danger". You can also be involuntarily committed by the state if a case is made that you are a danger due to cognitive problems.
Barring that....
I can actually budget a mere $550 per month for my condo expenses. That still allows me ALOT to live on just on Social Security. My healthcare was a lifetime benefit from my employer (plus pension I'm not including)
That being said, I feel like renting for a bit more would be a more practical option for me, and less aggravation.
The people with problems budgeting on Social Security, IMO, are those who worked part time, or for very low pay and wind up with low Social Security at FRA. And without healthcare.
BUT.
I have three dogwalking clients approaching 100. And the oldest resident in another Assisted Living I work in died at 101. She only died because of a fall, and had a brain hemorrhage. With a DNR.
Not only was she the oldest but the MOST ACTIVE. They had bells on her walker to find her. They had to put a dutch door on the kitchen because she was always going in to "engage" the chef and hang out. Social Butterfly.
She was the rockstar of the place. At her request, her aides put her in full makeup, hair, jewelry and outfits every single morning and again for dinner (and cocktail hour hahaha).
She may not have been able to tell you who the President was on a given day, but you could find her checking out her hair in her bathroom and picking out her outfit for the day.
She was paying $6000 per month to the ALF and an additional side payment for her private part time aides that ran around another couple/few thousand per month. To keep her there under supervision and content - since Assisted Living is for activities of daily living, NOT following someone around all day innocently disrupting the staff and residents even if she was cute about it.
OTOH, plenty of residents in their 90's are quietly happy, cheerful and content to be very easy to manage. But it would be very difficult to replicate that level of care in a home setting. Even WITH the money to do so.
Yes..I know there are exceptions to the rule. There are ALWAYS exceptions to the rule. 90 percent of people dont make 90 ..50 percent of the ones that do wish they didn't. It is what it is.
the fact we plan until 90 or 95 is because many people do not plan around a 100% success rate .they plan around 90-100% .
it is expected that many people will not make it until 90 and that adds to that success rate . one person in a couple has a 47% chance of seeing 90 if they are 65 .
it is much less for a single ,.
so that fact that you have odds against living until 90 bolsters the success rate up closer to 100%
while you can possibly survive on ss alone the question is do you want to live out the rest of your life on whatever just social security lets you do as well as live where you want to live .
I hear this a lot and yet have family members and friends that are very comfortable with Social Security being 80% or more of their retirement income... no one in my family has ever had a pension.
Mom SS is $2,100 per month and she saves money each year... in addition she has 3k from her IRA and gives/spends all of that on the Grandkids... birthdays, Christmas, graduations, team fundraisers, etc and tithe to her church.
Her 2300 square foot home of 50 years is paid for with a panoramic postcard perfect view of the San Francisco city lights.
There isn't anything she wants to do that she doesn't do and that includes 4 weeks in Europe every other year...
It does make one wonder when conventional wisdom says millions are needed to enjoy retirement.
Her home and supplemental health insurance are her biggest expenses... she drives about 2k annually on her like new 2011 Toyota Corolla S... bought used for 17k and paid cash after her 2001 Corolla was stolen... property tax and insurance run about 3k annually as do Health and Part D...
She is very active in her church... grows lots of fruits and vegetables for the food bank and favorite pastime is walking... several miles each day.
Her favorite saying is "Your Health is your Wealth" and the second one is "Keep Moving or you will Rust in place"
i can guarantee you this : i give just about anyone living mostly on ss an extra 50k to spend , they will love spending every penny of it . there is always much more to enjoy as well as to have choices about . in fact if i did it every year you would see how quickly they would not want to go back to living with out it .
I agree. IF you're lucky and never need any care that can only be found in Assisted Living, Memory Care or Skilled Nursing Facility. Remember, the choice is NOT yours. After a hospital admission, it's up to the staff to decide if you can return home. Usually they'll discharge you to a SNF and you can get stuck there with them threatening to petition the court for a guardian if you and your family insist on taking you home and they feel it's a "danger". You can also be involuntarily committed by the state if a case is made that you are a danger due to cognitive problems.
Barring that....
I can actually budget a mere $550 per month for my condo expenses. That still allows me ALOT to live on just on Social Security. My healthcare was a lifetime benefit from my employer (plus pension I'm not including)
That being said, I feel like renting for a bit more would be a more practical option for me, and less aggravation.
The people with problems budgeting on Social Security, IMO, are those who worked part time, or for very low pay and wind up with low Social Security at FRA. And without healthcare.
BUT.
I have three dogwalking clients approaching 100. And the oldest resident in another Assisted Living I work in died at 101. She only died because of a fall, and had a brain hemorrhage. With a DNR.
Not only was she the oldest but the MOST ACTIVE. They had bells on her walker to find her. They had to put a dutch door on the kitchen because she was always going in to "engage" the chef and hang out. Social Butterfly.
She was the rockstar of the place. At her request, her aides put her in full makeup, hair, jewelry and outfits every single morning and again for dinner (and cocktail hour hahaha).
She may not have been able to tell you who the President was on a given day, but you could find her checking out her hair in her bathroom and picking out her outfit for the day.
She was paying $6000 per month to the ALF and an additional side payment for her private part time aides that ran around another couple/few thousand per month. To keep her there under supervision and content - since Assisted Living is for activities of daily living, NOT following someone around all day innocently disrupting the staff and residents even if she was cute about it.
OTOH, plenty of residents in their 90's are quietly happy, cheerful and content to be very easy to manage. But it would be very difficult to replicate that level of care in a home setting. Even WITH the money to do so.
Sounds like my neighbor who was almost 102 and passed away after only 6 weeks in a nice assisted living facility.
She was a retired bookkeeper and store manager and a widow for 22 years... also, adamant to remain in her home and had fall so brought in help... it was costing her 6k a month for company...
Her RN granddaughter said for less than 6k she could have resort living and this peaked her attention... so she willingly moved and said it was like being on vacation... with music, dancing and activities.
I have video of her dancing at 101... she loved to dance and was Miss Monterey at age 18.
i can guarantee you this : i give just about anyone living mostly on ss an extra 50k to spend , they will love spending every penny of it . there is always much more to enjoy as well as to have choices about . in fact if i did it every year you would see how quickly they would not want to go back to living with out it .
Mom comes from a 6th generation of small dairy farmers... she simply isn't wired that way...
She enjoys her gardening and sharing her bounty and still prefers to hang clothes on the line instead of using the dryer.
At 82 she doesn't hire anything out... takes pride in keeping up her home and yard... still prunes all the trees for her church... something she has been doing 35 years... it still amuses her when her neighbors complain about their housekeepers, gardeners, etc... saying they wouldn't have these issues if they didn't hire out.
In 2001 I bought her the best Honda walk behind mower for Mother's day as I could see the old push mower took a lot of effort... boy did I get an earful at work... most said they would slap their kid silly if they got a Lawn Mower and if I really wanted to do something nice I would have hired her a gardner... simply no idea how small town midwestern farm people think...
Don't get me wrong... when the house needed a new roof 12 years ago she told me to make it a good one and when her car was stolen she instructed me to find a good used one which we bought at Dealer and she paid cash.
If you gave her 50k she would add it to the MM account and increase her giving to the church and her grandkids...
She worked 40 years as an RN with and no pension and started when Nurses did everything... for laundry, cooking and cleaning the hospital... said it was so much easier than farm work and milking cows morning and night 7 days a week.
My grandparents were the same way... not a day went by they didn't feel blessed to live on their family farm in postcard perfect little valley... as a side note... my cousin that inherited the farm after my Uncle died started selling off land and living the lifestyle of a playboy... lavish vacations, expensive cars, etc... the Grandparents would roll over in their graves because it NEVER was about money... it was about living the lifestyle they cherished.... there could very well nothing left when he is done with the first thing was to sell off the farm equipment.
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 11-06-2016 at 10:22 AM..
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They had to put a dutch door on the kitchen because she was always going in to "engage" the chef and hang out. 
Social Butterfly. 
