An internet email that is making the rounds actually has some interesting FACTS.
The government is now referring to our
Social Security checks as a Federal Benefit
Payment. This isn't a benefit, its earned
income! Not only did we all contribute to
Social Security but our employers did too.
It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
If you averaged $30K per year over your
working life, that's close to $180,000 invested
in Social Security. If you calculate the
future value of your monthly investment in
social security ($375/month, including
both yours and your employers contributions)
at a meager 1% interest rate
compounded monthly, after 40 years of
working you'd have more than $1.3+
million dollars saved!
This is your personal investment.
Upon retirement, if you took out only
3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year,
or $3,277 per month. That's almost three
times more than today's average Social
Security benefit of $1,230 per month,
according to the Social Security Administration
(Google it - it's a fact).
And your retirement fund would last more
than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire
at age 65)! I can only imagine how much
better most average-income people could
live in retirement if our government
had just invested our money in low-risk
interest-earning accounts.
Instead, the folks in Washington pulled
off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie
Madoff ever did. They took our money and
used it elsewhere. They forgot that it was
OUR money they were taking. They didn't
have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to
lend the money to them.
And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently, they've told us
that the money won't support us for very
much longer. But is it our fault they
misused our investments?
And now, to add insult to injury, they're
calling it a benefit, as if we never worked to
earn every penny of it. Just because they
borrowed the money, doesn't mean that
our investments were a charity! Let's take
a stand.
We have earned our right to Social Security
and Medicare. Demand that
our legislators bring some sense into our government
Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.
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