People who have jobs that do/did not pay into social security-retirement is affected adversely? Single? How can we live? (pensions, states)

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by IrishTiltedKilt

I would love to hear from anyone who has worked for a state, county, city agency that has not paid into Social Security, and has very little retirement that will come in.

I retired at 55 to take care of my Mom, and now I am having to live on $1250. a month. I don't have enough units maxed out on my Social Security, so unless I do this, I will not receive any S.S. at all. If I max out the units, I will receive some, but am subject to the Windfall Act, which penalizes you for not paying into S.S. Therefore, I am told I will receive half or less of the amount I would get from S.S. because of this.

One good thing is that I have paid in enough to receive Medicare, when I am old enough. I now pay $500. a month for insurance through Cal Pers retirement.

I am looking at leaving Calif. because if anything happens to my Mom, I can not afford to live here. I have to find a place that I can afford. I need to buy something now, and get moved out of state, so that I won't become a bag lady.

I was so dumb when I was younger, and my father did not teach me to question things, he told me, get a job with the city, and you will be fine and have benefits. My dad said, get a job, and stay with it, do not change jobs. I did this, and am in a mess.

Anyone wanting to talk, I would love to hear from you. I did not realize that there are more "walking wounded" like me, here on this board! I could use some camaraderie from others

Almost in the same boat, but was told work for the telphone company, and live happy ever after. I did it for 30 years
and also did care for my mom, anyway, moved to a cheaper state, got a
home and a job. My dad said as your dad did, so, did it. I am living
on less than you, which is not easy, however, I will get Social Security
and this medicare in another year! I guess the questions, I was always asking the Why? You also could, try to work part-time to get the Social Security money. Me, I was told a city job did not pay much, therefore went to the phone company, and stayed. They also did not pay mega money, but as you
I did stick it out! I got retired at age 50, and then did the move to another state, get a home, and yes a job! It can be done!

[janetvj]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

'DM' was meant to say:

"I will private message you" or as it is called on this forum 'Direct Message'.

It seemed to me that a discussion of who and why someone is proclaimed 'tax-exempt' would be off-topic.

Oh...ok...thanks! Guess it would be straying off-topic, except I was curious myself as to which professions would be considered to be tax-exempt.

[Teak]

Originally Posted by snkalaska

I retired from the State of Alaska 4 yrs ago and also won't get SS.

But you get State of Alaska retirement benefits, right? Are they better than SS? Probably.

[MadManofBethesda]

Originally Posted by Teak

I am ignorant on this issue of units for SS. Can you explain a little bit, please?

I believe that IrishTiltedKilt was referring to Social Security's quarters of coverage. You can earn 4 quarters per year and need a minimum of 40 quarters(10 years) for basic minimum eligibility.

What some people don't understand, however, is that 10 years only gets you minimum coverage. Your Social Security benefit is made up of an average of your highest 35 years of covered employment. If you only have the minimum 10 years, then Social Security uses zeros for the other 25 years in determining your average indexed earnings. After factoring in all of the zeros, SSA then uses a formula on the result to determine your monthly benefit. Moreover, if you are receiving a pension from employement that was not covered by Social Security, then SSA uses a different formula when computing your benefits, thus reducing it even further.

[LauraC]

Get ready to take another hit in your wallet if the American Clean Energy and Security Act passes. It squeaked by in the House last night. You are going to feel it in your energy bills but you are really going to feel it in your purchases from food to cars as costs to business are going to be passed down to you. To give you an idea of what you can expect, 3 attempts to amend the biill in the House to suspend the program if gas hit $5 a gallon; one to suspend the program if electricity prices rose 10% over 2009; and one to suspend the program if unemployment rates hit 15%, were defeated. What does that tell you? There's still time to defeat it in the Senate. Find your voice.

Honestly, I think the retiree population is going to shrink big time within 10 years because of people being unable to afford it and because of healthcare rationing treatment formulas based on cost and the number of years you are expected to live.

[MadManofBethesda]

Originally Posted by LauraC

What does that tell you?

It tells me that your post is completely and utterly off-topic for this thread. If you want to debate the merits or pitfalls of the bill, by all means feel free to do so. It just is inappropriate to hijact this thread for that purpose.

[marmac]

Originally Posted by IrishTiltedKilt

I would love to hear from anyone who has worked for a state, county, city agency that has not paid into Social Security, and has very little retirement that will come in.

I retired at 55 to take care of my Mom, and now I am having to live on $1250. a month. I don't have enough units maxed out on my Social Security, so unless I do this, I will not receive any S.S. at all. If I max out the units, I will receive some, but am subject to the Windfall Act, which penalizes you for not paying into S.S. Therefore, I am told I will receive half or less of the amount I would get from S.S. because of this.

One good thing is that I have paid in enough to receive Medicare, when I am old enough. I now pay $500. a month for insurance through Cal Pers retirement.

I am looking at leaving Calif. because if anything happens to my Mom, I can not afford to live here. I have to find a place that I can afford. I need to buy something now, and get moved out of state, so that I won't become a bag lady.

I was so dumb when I was younger, and my father did not teach me to question things, he told me, get a job with the city, and you will be fine and have benefits. My dad said, get a job, and stay with it, do not change jobs. I did this, and am in a mess.

Anyone wanting to talk, I would love to hear from you. I did not realize that there are more "walking wounded" like me, here on this board! I could use some camaraderie from others

If you retired at age 55 and were able to draw $1250 a month retirement, you got a better deal than anyone who retired on SS.

I don't know anyone who was able to retire at age 55 and draw $1250 a month from SS.

Yor dad was right in his advice !

[snkalaska]

Originally Posted by nancy thereader

New York state workers both pay into and receive social security as well as their own state pension systems. I wasn't aware that other states were any different.

From what I understand, back in the 70's, government entities were allowed to "opt out" of Social Security and set up their own retirements.

[lenora]

Originally Posted by marmac

If you retired at age 55 and were able to draw $1250 a month retirement, you got a better deal than anyone who retired on SS.

I don't know anyone who was able to retire at age 55 and draw $1250 a month from SS.

Yor dad was right in his advice !

Nicely put. I'm sure I'm not the only lurker who was thinking "I'd give my right arm for that pension!" If I understand correctly, the $1250 is NET taxes. Thus, one would need about $300,000 to purchase an immediate annuity that would provide a similar monthly amount with NO COLA built in. I'm looking at $900/mth in Social Security if I retire at age 62, $1350/mth at age 66.

This is not to say that the OP does not have a legitimate concern. She will probably need to move to a less expensive area and work for several more years. And although I think it's nice that she has state subsidized health insurance, $500/mth sounds like a ridiculously high amount considering it's supposed to be subsidized.

[texdav]

No insurance where the company pays half cost that now days. If the current health care goes thru as being discussed then evn the half the company pays will be counted as as income for tax purposes; which changes alot of peoples tax status.Its all part of rising the moeny to finance the government's cost to subsidse many people.Its going to raise prices as companies pass on thier cost and raise taxes for many.Keep your eye on the moeny as they need to raise 1 to 11/2 trillion dollar more .