As part of our march into retirement it is necessary to get all of our ducks in a row. This week it meant a trip to the Social Security office. The people were nice but only time will tell if we did what we were supposed to do.
One of the interesting, unsung policies of Social Security is looking for ways to cut your benefits. I worked plenty of quarters to qualify for some social security and I paid into Medicare. What gets interesting is that when I start to receive my pension from the teachers’ plan, Social Security will cut what they were paying me. You say, “Poor baby” and I can feel the sympathetic vibes. The issues is that the original agreement between me and the government did not involve cutting what they owed me because they thought I was getting rich. Since I will only be getting about half the money that forty year teachers will be getting, I am not sure of their logic. I still don’t know what the final numbers will be. I know I am being cheated.
And as I sat at the Social Security office I could see why I was being cheated. There were maybe 30 people sitting and waiting. Out of the 30 only about 5 were old enough to be retirement age. The rest were 20's and up. All of them were there to get some money out of the system, money which they did not pay in and which will come out of what you and I did pay.
One reason Social Security is going belly up is because the politicians have been buying votes for decades by giving people something for nothing. The problem is that you can’t give something for nothing. It has to come from somewhere and that somewhere is your pockets.
We have planned as well as we could. I don’t expect to ever be forced to go live with my kids. I may end up as trailer trash but that will still have some level of independence.
Meanwhile, keep paying those taxes.
homo unius libri
You may remember that I recently lost my medicaid because my wife began drawing SS. Suddenly, I', expected to pay 33% more than our income increase for meds alone, plus pay all other medical costs besides. You're right, the systems are ruined due to being run by vote-buying crooks.
ReplyDeleteYour experiences have been part of the warning bells that prepared me in part to expect this kind of stuff. As we move from private insurance to Medicare I expect the surprises to continue.
ReplyDeleteGrace and peace
I will be highly surprised if I get ANY of the money I paid in to Social Security (and I have 3 years before I am the minimum age of 62 to begin).
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize you were such a spring chicken. For my sake I hope you get something because if you don't, I won't. Maybe they need to raise your taxes just a little to give them more bribe money.
DeleteGrace and peace.