People who have jobs that do/did not pay into social security-retirement is affected adversely? Single? How can we live? (55, pension)

[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

[texdav]

I know quite a few fireman that live here that they don't pay into social security. The police do. I know several who retired at 55 and loss every little income per month because the city pays the same amount into their retirement fund as they would to social security.

[GloridaBG]

IrishTiltedkIlt, If you have an idea where you want to move, I would be more than happy to look up resources, housing, etc. I, too, will be a walking wounded if I don't get my act together, so I can relate. Please remember, you are not alone.

[texdav]

If you don't pay into socail securityt aht came about when the sate;counties and city had a vote along time ago to join or not when the federal courts rules they couldn't be made to. But regardless most of those retirement plans pay more than most retire plus social security.Your plan must be really crummy run to put you in that shape with enough years to retire.If I had put all the money intop the retirement plan that i put into SS ;I get alot more than social security. Not thinking about retirement is a common error with many people;but its really our responsibilty.

[forest beekeeper]

I have a Federal pension of $1400/month.

It does depend a lot on where you retire to.

A low-cost area with low-taxes, and it is enough to support a family.

Many or our neighbors here are raising children while both adults work part-time minimum wage jobs while raising teens and most are able to own their own homes.

Single income families pretty much require that one income to be full time to make it though.

With a depressed economy there are very few job that pay more than minimum. The economy here has been depressed for many decades. And has not been effected by the current market crash.

[texdav]

When you consider that 50% of the population pay no income tax now and 69% receive more benefits than they pay thing are going to change. The heath care program proposal means that more people are going to pay income tax as congress chaes pay for it by making benefits for example taxable income. We also will see other taxes such as cap and trade passed on as higher prices. What works today may not in the near future which makes planning very hard for everyone really.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by texdav

When you consider that 50% of the population pay no income tax now and 69% receive more benefits than they pay thing are going to change. ...

I thought that the percentage of non-payers has been running around 25% to 30% of us.

[loveautumn]

If you didn't pay into SS, didn't you pay into a 403(b) or whatever it is...and I thought city, state workers got a very high percentage of their pay as retirement?

[Tesaje]

Originally Posted by texdav

When you consider that 50% of the population pay no income tax now and 69% receive more benefits than they pay thing are going to change. The heath care program proposal means that more people are going to pay income tax as congress chaes pay for it by making benefits for example taxable income. We also will see other taxes such as cap and trade passed on as higher prices. What works today may not in the near future which makes planning very hard for everyone really.

This seems to be quite an exaggeration. According to the Tax Foundation, the most recent hard numbers are from 2006 and 32% of tax returns resulted in no tax payment. The bulk of these were from low income singles and especially heads of households. And that is of tax filers not the total population of the US.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/1410.html

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Tesaje

This seems to be quite an exaggeration. According to the Tax Foundation, the most recent hard numbers are from 2006 and 32% of tax returns resulted in no tax payment. The bulk of these were from low income singles and especially heads of households. And that is of tax filers not the total population of the US.

Households with one working adult can easily fit in this, once you have children.

During my career a large part of my income was tax-exempt [due to my profession], having a Dw and children the deductions always kept us entirely tax-free.



Also consider retirees.

Now I have a pension, my Dw works part-time, and our children have all left. Our income is still such that with our deductions we do not pay income taxes.



Americans who do not pay income taxes are not only low income singles and heads of households; but also some professions, single income families, and retirees.