People In Their 40’s Need To Ask This Hard Social Security Question

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By Austin Smith Published
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People In Their 40’s Need To Ask This Hard Social Security Question

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Prepare For Retirement, and Social Security Early

In today’s video Lee and Doug discuss the importance of planning for Social Security and considering potential changes in payouts and age requirements. It highlights the transfer of wealth from younger generations to older ones through the Social Security system and the demographic shifts impacting this dynamic.

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Transcript:

Right.

Let’s move to something else about Social Security, retirement.

Sure.

One of the things you also should look at, probably earlier than your 50s, I would start to look at this maybe in my late 40s, is what are the odds that what I think I’m going to be paid for Social Security is wrong?

That the Social Security fund’s ability to pay out 100% begins to decline.

Now, what I thought was going to be $2,200 a year could be.

Fifteen hundred dollars a year or.

I’m sorry, a month, a month.

Yeah, a month.

So should people be thinking about the fact that it isn’t just whether the goalposts get moved out?

It’s whether literally they say we can’t pay you as much as you as you’re talking about deserve to get based on what you paid in.

Is that people should think about that?

Well, it is based upon what you earned and what you paid in.

And obviously higher wage earners get more because they paid in more.

But I think one thing that’s important to kind of really understand and think about here is that while they may not lower those numbers, like we were talking about earlier, they could change the requirements, the age requirements, and that could make a big difference.

But it is important to factor both of that in.

Hey, what if it’s lower than I anticipate?

Because regardless of your age, you can get into the Social Security website and calculate because they can go back and look at your social security number and calculate what your payment will be.

So it would be smart for everybody to get into the social security website and check that number out and then see if that works for how your plans are 15 years down the road if you’re staying mid to late 40s.

There’s an interesting transfer of wealth going on right now, isn’t there?

You’ve got people starting in their 20s all the way up to their 60s, paying money into a system so that older people can take money out of the system, even though the younger people may never get all the money they put into the system.

So usually people think a transfer of wealth goes from old to young.

In some ways, this is a transfer of wealth that’s going from young to old.

Yeah, which is a dichotomy that when you consider the millennials as something they’ll never deal with because they’re going to inherit the most amount of money from the baby boomers that’s ever been dispersed in this country.

But, yeah, that’s the one difference there is that they’re – I mean, when Social Security first started in the 30s, I think there was – I forget what the number was, but there was like 45 people paying for every one person.

And now it’s like three people paying for every one person or something like that.

Those numbers have compressed dramatically.

Photo of Austin Smith
About the Author Austin Smith →

Austin Smith is a financial publisher with over two decades of experience in the markets. He spent over a decade at The Motley Fool as a senior editor for Fool.com, portfolio advisor for Millionacres, and launched new brands in the personal finance and real estate investing space.

His work has been featured on Fool.com, NPR, CNBC, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, AOL, Marketwatch, and many other publications. Today he writes for 24/7 Wall St and covers equities, REITs, and ETFs for readers. He is as an advisor to private companies, and co-hosts The AI Investor Podcast.

When not looking for investment opportunities, he can be found skiing, running, or playing soccer with his children. Learn more about me here.

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