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I recently retired from working for the State of Florida after 30 years as a teacher and juvenile justice worker. I felt it was time to take advantage of my relative youth to do all the traveling and things I have been unable to do since work took so much of my time. My state retirement is 40% of my best five years income. Needless to say, that is not enough. I am also paying 40% of my retirement for family health insurance. The premiums have increased so much that it has really cut into what money we thought we had available. When we are eligible for Medicare, it will help us with our income as we will not have to pay such high health insurance premiums.
I thought I was in great shape due to contributing to a 401K and deferred compensation through work. However, the stock market in the last four years has not treated my investments kindly and I have been unable to use the interest to supplement my retirement income as I had planned. My husband's Social Security, and later mine, were figured into our retirement plan. Because of his Social Security, we are able to retire and not spend these years working. Because of Medicare, in the future, we will be able to cut our expenditures by 35% by not paying high health insurance premiums. Our retirement fund, Social Security and Medicare will allow us to have a steady, dependable income during our retirement that does not depend on the fluctuation of the stock market.
I am a retired community college instructor and live on my Social Security checks and a small annuity check from my teacher retirement fund. My income is about $1,250 per month net. I also live in government-subsidized housing and receive $10 in food stamp aid.
Any reduction in the Social Security benefits of people living in federally subsidized housing would not help to lower the federal deficit because those of us who receive housing subsidies pay less rent when our income is reduced. So in practice, the federal government would pay more in housing subsidies in proportion to the loss of our Social Security income.
Additionally, the privatization of Social Security is a risky proposition and would adversely affect younger workers, like my son and grandchildren. I am against any measure that would put the present Social Security program at risk for workers in ANY generation.
When I was 14, my Mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Three years later, she was not able to work anymore. Soon after that, her insurance company dropped her coverage. By the time I was 17 my Mom started receiving Social Security, and since I was still a minor I received some benefits as well.
My family is not rich. I believe that one way out of poverty or near poverty is education. Had it not been for Social Security, I would have had to drop out of school to support my Mother. Not only was the treatment for her MS expensive, but my mom needs help taking her medication a couple of times a day. I would not have had the time or money to take care of my Mother and go to school.
With Social Security and TennCare, my Mother is able to get the assistance she needs from professionals, and she has been able to lead a better life. Meanwhile, I can go to school and make a life for myself. My Mother deserves the best care and we all deserve the best chance. Social Security has offered both to my family.
The Social Security retirement program was created because the vagaries of the market place make it impossible for us wage earners to create and depend upon our private retirement accounts. Even in this 21st century, my IRAs, stock market investments, and mutual funds dropped from an average of 8% to under 4%. That extra 4% to 5% made the difference between retirement or re-employment in 2003, 2004 and 2005. My $1,100.00 early Social Security check in 2004 allowed me to off-set poor interest performance of the last few years. To me, that is exactly what Social Security is supposed to be there for, especially for middle income families.
Social Security is NOT in financial difficulty. The Federal Government, through deficit spending and tax cuts, is causing the crisis.
I know that the current administration is misrepresenting the facts concerning Social Security. I believe we are watching the attempted swindle of America's most successful financial program. As economist Paul Krugman wrote in the St Petersburg Times recently, 'Privatization is a false solution to a fake crisis.'
We love the flexibility of being self employed. But it's sometimes hard to save for day to day expenses and college funds for our kids, never mind for retirement, The President’s plan to privatize social security doesn't help us, and I don’t think it will help most Americans save for retirement. All it does is take our money and force us to invest in big corporations, whether we want to or not. That scares me…not too long ago the stock market crashed. I look at all those poor people who worked at Enron and watched their savings poof, just disappear. I don’t want that to happen to us.
Social Security is part of the stable savings that my husband and I can really depend on in terms of retirement income. I'm not willing to put my hard earned retirement savings at the mercy of the stock market. There is no real crisis at the moment with social security. It is another scam by Republicans to give more money to their corporate donors.
My husband and I do not want to gamble with our futures. The president is appealing to people’s fears and greed with exaggerated claims for a scheme meant to enrich his Wall Street cronies while needlessly placing the financial security of American taxpayers at risk. There are simple, sound and secure solutions to funding our nation’s commitment to Social Security. Let's try the ones that protect the public interest and the public’s money without scheming to "profitize" our savings for private and political gain.
I've had two full time jobs and various part-time jobs in the past 5 years. The great thing about Social Security is that it takes into account all of my work experience, no matter how many different places I end up working, and puts a little away each month as a down payment on my retirement. I've got a long career ahead of me, and who knows where I'll end up or how many different 401(k) plans I would end up paying into. Social Security is the one thing I can depend on. I don't want Bush giving it away to Wall Street to make rich people richer.
It's difficult for younger people to seriously consider the decisions that will affect our lives many years in the future. While Social Security is a part of my life that lies in the distant future, it is something that I may come to depend on in old age. As a recent college graduate, I expect to have many different jobs throughout the next few years of my life, not to mention in the time before I reach retirement age. In an economy that changes as quickly and constantly as ours it's simply unrealistic to depend on a company pension in retirement. Social Security is something that I will always be able to pay into, it has the potential to expand and reflect my income for years to come. There is no reason to gamble with Social Security by entrusting it to private corporations. The question of Social Security reform is fundamentally a question of trust; I simply do not trust the private sector with my future well being. In fact, I find it very hard to believe that these corporations have our best interests at heart.
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Jean Fairgrieve
Grant Wilson
Cole Bellamy