13 Comments Add your own

• 1. Billybeermonicagar  |  September 18th, 2008 at 10:34 am

  The stock market or the Federal Government with my money. Hmmm, I think I’ll take my chances with a portion of it in the market. History shows it is more reliable than Government no matter who is in charge.

• 2. Uncle Bouncy  |  September 18th, 2008 at 11:33 am

  What’s Pat’s plan?

• 3. swamprat  |  September 18th, 2008 at 11:54 am

  Billybeer. It’s easy to say that when you don’t have any skin in the game. Play it for real once. I have friends who have lost $125K. Tell me where the market goes from here. It took many years after 1929 for the market to recover. I haven’t heard anyone losing any SS money. In order to make the same withdrawal from your retirement fund as you get from SS will require that you save $500K in your working years. Tell me where you would put that money today. Remember it’s all you have and need it to live. I’ll check back for your answer.

• 4. Billybeermonicagar  |  September 18th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

  Swap, Stocks that pay dividends. It is called compounding–for those of you who “have no skin in the game”.

• 5. Mike Carroll  |  September 18th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

  Swamprat-I\’ll give that answer a shot. Invest in a diversified portfolio of stock mutual funds, bond funds and cash and you\’ll do fine over the long run.Since the average return on your Social Security dollars averages about 1%, you are sure to do much better.

• 6. swamprat  |  September 18th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

  Mike. Actually I will receive 15% per year of the amount I paid into SS. If I live 20 years I will receive 3 times what I paid in. Stock funds average 8-10% return, but they are now down 15% to 35%. In 1929 they lost 89% and took 25 years to get back to where they were. Bond funds are fine unless we have a bond accident. Your principle will go down like the stock market. Cash is fine if your bank remains solvent. Most are in trouble and FDIC is almost broke.
  Most people are withdrawing their 401’s and IRA’s to pay bills now. I suppose they will want a bailout someday.
  Some people would take the time to learn to invest. Most would not.

• 7. swamprat  |  September 18th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

  Billybeer. Missed your reply before. So, would you put all of your retirement into an ETF of dividend paying stocks or individual stocks doing thusly? Vanguard’s ETF of dividend paying stocks is down 13% this year. If individual stocks? Are you prepared to study to determine which stocks are paying dividends and can be trusted to continue in the future? Do you believe the “decider” can turn this market around? Remember. It’s your life savings.

• 8. Billybeermonicagar  |  September 18th, 2008 at 11:07 pm

  Swamp. Don’t think an exchange traded fund is where I would be, but is an interesting option.
  I did a few calculations on my own SS. If my income and the amount contributed to SS do not change(which I assume they will)by my 67th birthday my total contribution will be about $320,000. If I live 20 years past that, I will collect $571,440. That is far less than the 3 times paid in amount you will get. I think you may not have included what your employers contribution is. This is a very important part of the equation. Your comment of most banks being in trouble is a stretch also. In contrast, most banks are doing quite well. I know that our local giant is hurting at this moment, but look beyond them and our other local banks are fine.
  By the way, my SS is not close to being my life savings, as I am sure it is not yours either

• 9. SNuss  |  September 19th, 2008 at 7:13 am

  One thing that too many Liberals forget, is that Social Security was intended as a SUPPLEMENT to your own retirement income, not part of a cradle-to-grave Socialist total care package.

• 10. swamprat  |  September 19th, 2008 at 10:18 am

  Billybeer. I forgot. You Republicans make more than the rest of us. Your return may not be as good as mine, but it’s not bad. 9% is OK. And I stand by my figures. Yes, I have included the employers contribution. In fact I paid it myself.
  As to the banks safety. You do not have access to their balance sheets. Most are carrying the bad debts on off balance sheets. Do you remember Enron? They will blow up before you know it happened. And yes I did check. There are more than a few banks in Rockford that could go boom.
  You may have other savings but most people don’t. The savings rate is minus 2%. If they can’t manage their money to save how are they going to manage their SS in the markets?
  This idea to privatize SS was put forth by the pigmen through our sock puppet leader so they could steal more of the taxpayers money.

• 11. swamprat  |  September 19th, 2008 at 10:25 am

  Snuss. So what is your point? That wasn’t the question. If you want to argue about socialism, let’s argue about Paulson’s socialism program for the pigmen.

• 12. snuss  |  September 19th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

  Anybody notice THIS?

  Investors jumped back into the stock market Thursday afternoon after the world’s central banks embarked on a coordinated effort to ease the fear coursing through the global financial system, sending the Dow industrials up more than 400 points.

• 13. snuss  |  September 19th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

  BTW, the point was that you shouldn’t be relying ONLY on Social Security for retirement income.

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