I have known about this for decades. As a recently retired Boomer who spent a lucrative career in the Oil & Gas business, I did not retire at 60 (a common age for professionals to hang up the career) and instead worked till I was 65. I did this because I planned retirement assuming only getting 5 years of Soc. Sec together with the equivalent UK old age pension. The rest of my income is private pensions and investments/savings. I now assume these "national" security pensions will eventually be means tested and once my RMDs start in 2029, I will lose them. This may or may not happen but I think it's a conservative yet sensible approach.
There are few more perturbing issues than the fact that neither political party in the USA has addressed this issue. The UK took some steps toward bolstering their Social Security system about 10 + years ago but the UK old age pension is not nearly as generous as the US version, especially for higher wage earners. Australia made some radical changes to its system about 20 years ago and probably has a much better system now than most countries.
If you think the USA is bad you should consider some of the European countries e.g. France where the problem is comparable but as we know once the French get annoyed with government they start throwing petrol bombs!
Something has to be done that will certainly involve a combination of the things James mentioned. The problem is that neither party will address it until it becomes a crisis and that will be almost immediately before the fund runs out in the early 2030s. The good news is that the overall debt crisis is going to arrive sooner than that anyway.... so I expect the Social Security problem will simply be part of that farrago either during the next administration or the following one latest.
A related topic here is how sick we are as a nation…. Consider that the 4th path (and likely the hardest). Check out Blue Zones on Netflix or Fiat Food by Matt Lysiak. Our healthcare costs much higher than needed because of food supply, diet and lifestyle.
I have known about this for decades. As a recently retired Boomer who spent a lucrative career in the Oil & Gas business, I did not retire at 60 (a common age for professionals to hang up the career) and instead worked till I was 65. I did this because I planned retirement assuming only getting 5 years of Soc. Sec together with the equivalent UK old age pension. The rest of my income is private pensions and investments/savings. I now assume these "national" security pensions will eventually be means tested and once my RMDs start in 2029, I will lose them. This may or may not happen but I think it's a conservative yet sensible approach.
There are few more perturbing issues than the fact that neither political party in the USA has addressed this issue. The UK took some steps toward bolstering their Social Security system about 10 + years ago but the UK old age pension is not nearly as generous as the US version, especially for higher wage earners. Australia made some radical changes to its system about 20 years ago and probably has a much better system now than most countries.
If you think the USA is bad you should consider some of the European countries e.g. France where the problem is comparable but as we know once the French get annoyed with government they start throwing petrol bombs!
Something has to be done that will certainly involve a combination of the things James mentioned. The problem is that neither party will address it until it becomes a crisis and that will be almost immediately before the fund runs out in the early 2030s. The good news is that the overall debt crisis is going to arrive sooner than that anyway.... so I expect the Social Security problem will simply be part of that farrago either during the next administration or the following one latest.
A related topic here is how sick we are as a nation…. Consider that the 4th path (and likely the hardest). Check out Blue Zones on Netflix or Fiat Food by Matt Lysiak. Our healthcare costs much higher than needed because of food supply, diet and lifestyle.