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That percentage is going to change dramatically as the oldest retirees with defined benefit pensions die off. I'd guess that in 30 years, it will be 50%.
Many of my Engineering friends who are still working are now choking on college costs. Their kids tend to be very smart and get into good schools but because their family incomes are above average, they get very little financial aid. The scholarships help but not enough.
They are having a hard time saving for retirement.
That's why our kids went to our State University rather than private. They're all adults and have done every bit as well as their friends who went to private.
I am sure you are being facetious but I would not like to live there due to the heat, humidity, the culture or lack of it and the reputation for very poor quality of healthcare.
And crawling crocodiles or are they alligators? Yikes!
Regarding pricey private colleges. I told my kid not to apply to Columbia. It's an expensive school and not even in top rank for engineering. MIT and Princeton are the two cheapest private schools and one of my kid did apply. However, in the end engineering is pretty good at most UCs, public universities.
My son got admission and a scholarship to Princeton? Yale? Something like that, I've forgotten.
However he didn't tell either his father or me about it at the time because he said that even with the scholarship, it would have put his dad in the poor house. I strongly doubt it, he is among the highest paid of government employees and had no other children. I, on the other hand, due to disability, was definitely in the Very Low Income category. I have a feeling our situation made my son assess his Dad's position more negatively than was warranted.
I feel that he should have let his DAD make that decision. Also, if he definitely didn't want to go, I would have supported him in that choice. But there you go - he turned down the opportunity due to financial concerns that may or may not have been realistic.
There are all kinds of situations out there, from people living on Social Security alone to those like me who get less than $200 a month from SS. For me SS was irrelevant EXCEPT for the fact that it qualified me for Medicare, which was huge. I have a California teachers' pension based on 34 years as a public high school teacher and that's why I don't care about the amount of my SS benefit, which is based on part-time jobs while in college plus some moonlighting jobs during my career.
Let's say for example that a retired couple derives 40% of their income from Social Security. Although that's less than half, it would be true that that couple is "really counting" on SS. But that doesn't mean they are living hand to mouth or they are struggling to make ends meet. So in that sense I agree with the thread title, although the implications of the thread title are not really clear.
I've read lots of articles about how much people should save for retirement and about how few actually are successful reaching that goal. This article demonstrates how dependent retirees actually are on Social Security.
"Based on this data, only the top quarter of all savers — and only the top 12% of all retirees in this age range — can count on a minimum of $16,000 in income each year from their nest eggs."
No news there. I have a defined benefit plan, with considerable savings. And a pension. I will count on both, AND I will also count on my SS check.
It's my parents main source of income - and they are 84 and 89. They have some savings, but it's now being eaten up by medical bills and caregivers. They'd be in real trouble now without SS.
There are all kinds of situations out there, from people living on Social Security alone to those like me who get less than $200 a month from SS. For me SS was irrelevant EXCEPT for the fact that it qualified me for Medicare, which was huge. I have a California teachers' pension based on 34 years as a public high school teacher and that's why I don't care about the amount of my SS benefit, which is based on part-time jobs while in college plus some moonlighting jobs during my career.
Let's say for example that a retired couple derives 40% of their income from Social Security. Although that's less than half, it would be true that that couple is "really counting" on SS. But that doesn't mean they are living hand to mouth or they are struggling to make ends meet. So in that sense I agree with the thread title, although the implications of the thread title are not really clear.
Well, as a teacher you didn't pay into social security, so, of course, your benefit is small..based on when you did contribute.
Well, as a teacher you didn't pay into social security, so, of course, your benefit is small..based on when you did contribute.
Yes, quite so. Perhaps I did not make it sufficiently clear that I was explaining, not complaining. I am totally satisfied with the small amount. One of my points was why the average Social Security benefit is only approximately $1200/month; people like me bring the average down.
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