These better off without Social Security?

Where does this money get invested? What % are in the highest quality stocks and bonds? Etc?

 

Ever hear of the word "diversification"?

Only the most uninformed investor puts all of his eggs in one basket - no matter what basket it may be.

 

I'm sorry if I don't believe that our government can properly handle money.

Sarcasm aside, there are a LOT of conservative outlets out there that could produce a decent return and always have.

Conservative in that realm is a great thing.

 

Faith and credit of the US goverment. How far away are we from becoming Greece? How much more money can we (US) borrow before our creditors call in our debts? Or will we pay some of them back with inflated dollars? Dollars that leave us folks who are on fixed incomes eating beans and rice because we can't afford fatback and neckbones. Quality cuts of some meats are already beyond our budget.

My preference would have been to invest my hard earned dollars myself, instead of the government "keeping" them for me during my whole working life. I'd rather have had the responsibility and accountability myself.

What was the price of gold 40 years ago?

We purchased some savings bonds, maybe 30 years ago. If memory serves, a $25 bond cost about $18. We held on to them. When we turned them in, we received about $120 to $125 each. What if we'd been allowed to purchase those bonds with the money the government held for us in SS? Waited, and then, turned them into precious metals when gold was $500-$600 per oz.

Remember when interest rates were sky high? Back in the late 70's, I think. "Safe" investments based on interest rates would have yielded high dollars (compared to today) for investment elsewhere when the rates dropped.

No, I didn't want SS to play the market with the results of my physical labor during those 40-80 hour work weeks. (Yes, I've worked 80 hour weeks!) If I could have been responsible for my earnings ROI, I most likely wouldn't be sitting here wearing a pair of Wal-Mart jeans and a thrift store shirt.

 

Here is the FRED graph on monetary supply from 6 days ago. This SHOULD scare the lovin' crud out of people, and would if they understood what was being done to them by our beloved President...

I agree, but the line of reasoning is that people would just spend the money and never invest it. Probably right, though I'd certainly like the chance! Make it mandatory that we invest the same percentage, but give us options like our 401K plans.

 

YIKES! It does scare the crud out of me. Of late, haven't been following the borrowing or the interest rates that closely. Simply because I'd be pulling out what little hair I have left on my head. Even that gold graft is depressing because of all those dollars stuck in that "empty" lockbox that could have been allocated to gold purchases, instead.

I agree with the portion of your post relating to a mandatory deduction. Back when we were in our 20's and had to pay our rent in installments, we wouldn't have put anything back for the future.

When we had the opportunities to roll profit sharing plan dollars over into IRA's, we took the options. Couldn't touch the dollars without penalty. Yet, we could manage the investments ourselves. We could/can allocate percentages to safe harbors, low, medium, and high risk catagories. As we've aged, our account manager has adjusted, with our approval, the degree of risk we're willing to take.

For my great nieces and nephews, I want to see SS (and Medicare) phased out. Yes, make it mandatory to contribute to some type of IRA that mandates diversification of investments with risk factors set at common sense limits based on age.

 

Bill, the only gold I own outright is in my wedding band and a few other trinkets. I'm not pushing gold purchases, either. Investing in precious metals is an alternative to the stock exchange. As are other investment options. A previous poster covered the need to diversity investments. Only a fool puts all their eggs in one basket. That includes gold eggs.

Pardon me. I'm tired. It's been a long day. Where did you get the idea that I'm or (we) are suggesting that the SS start buying up all the stocks on the exchange? I certainly didn't. At least I don't think I did. My point is to phase out the SS system altogether, not for them to be playing the market.

Bill, it's all a crap shoot today. Wishful thinking, on my part, about what I should have been allowed to do for 40 years, doesn't change today's situation.

This mess could prod along slowly as everything erodes, bit by bit. It that happens, our remaining years will gradually become more difficut than they are right now.

Or, I would wake up one morning and the whole mess crashes like that pile of bricks in the Smilies. If that happens, it won't matter where investments were made for the most of us. So, what, if I had a thousand pounds of gold sitting in my living room. I can't eat it. I can't burn it to keep warm. Maybe Certificates of Deposit would keep a fire going for a little while.

Or, just maybe, I'll wake up one morning. Go out on the front porch with a cup of coffee to watch the sun rise. And I will see the Son rise in all His Glory.

 

What I personally love is the people who paid into SS for 20+ years and didn't get to collect on it (because they passed) and their spouse didn't get to collect on it either for whatever reason.

OR...some various law enforcement agencies (DEA, etc) who have a different pension set up, so their SS gets slashed if they get any at all.

Hooray system where hard earned money you made gets invested for you and there are cases where you nor your family see a penny of it!

 

Bill, it's too late for sound investment options, according to what I understand.

An individual can't invest if all of their paycheck goes to making the minimum payments on their credit cards, and such, each month. There's gotta be a sock under the mattress with some cash in it to make investments.

Remember, the SS "lock box" is empty. There's no sock under the mattress.

BTW, are you chasing rabbits with your own thread? How the stock market functions in the days of computers compared to days of old is a whole nuther matter. Isn't this one about what the government did and didn't do with that SS payroll deduction they TOOK from my first check way back in 1966?

 

We're obviously in far too deep for a change, simply because they don't have the money to do anything else with.

Shoot, I'd be thrilled if they gave me back 25% of what I've paid into it, and then let me be free from contributing to them.

At least if they give me 25% back, I know that I'm getting something back out of what I paid into it. At this point, I'm not entirely sure I'll ever collect anything.

 

The military is not the drain on our resources -- and further, IT is constitutional. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other government entitlements (like paying people to not farm, paying people to buy cars, paying people to not or to buy homes, etc.) are not constitutional and suck up the vast majority of all the tax dollars extracted from WORKING American's payroll checks.