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The Need for More Than Just Social Security

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The Need for More than Just Social Security
Stacie M. Warnock
University of Phoenix

Many people do not plan accordingly for retirement and rely on Social Security alone for their retirement. According to the Social Security Publication Number 05-10035 (January 2010) to have a comfortable retirement it is recommended that the average American worker have 70-80% of their preretirement income saved in savings, pensions, or investments because Social Security only provides about 40% of the preretirement income for the average worker. Investments, pensions, and savings can all help toward the goal of 70-80% of the preretirement income by collecting the money in interest bearing accounts.
Inflation is a problem that we face if we rely solely on Social Security when we retire. Social Security is adjusted annually to reflect the increase in the cost of living as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Social Security Administration, 2009). There will be no COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) for 2010 based on the calculations made by the Social Security Administration. Other possible increases to Social Security include the contribution and benefit base and Retirement Earnings Test exempt amounts. Since there will be no COLA increase in 2010 there will also be no increase in the contribution and benefit base and the Retirement Earnings Test exempt amounts. Since the Cost of Living Adjustment is not a steady or given thing it is hard to rely solely on Social Security for retirement because of the ever changing market conditions.
Life expectancy rates have also increased over the years since Social Security has been enacted. People are living longer and working longer past their retirement age which has a direct effect on their retirement earnings. If you choose to work past your retirement age you could possibly see an increase of benefits in two ways; each additional year you work adds another year of earnings to your Social Security record, and benefits automatically increase by a certain percentage from the time you reach your full retirement age until you start receiving your benefits or until you reach the age of 70 (Social Security Administration, Publication Number 05-10035, January 2010). By living longer and working longer we see an increase in our Social Security benefits and it gives us additional time to save the recommended 70-80% preretirement income.
The price of medications and insurance premiums will rise with inflation and therefore your expense base will be ever changing. Medicare is the country’s health insurance program for people aged 65 or older and certain other people younger than 65 with medical issues such as permanent kidney failure or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Medicare is paid for through payroll tax deductions from your employer and through monthly premiums deducted directly from your Social Security earnings (Social Security Publication Number 05-10043, April 2010). Medicare is designed to pay a portion of health care costs, but does not cover all medical expenses or the cost of most long-term care (Social Security Administration Publication Number 05-10043, April 2010). Due to the rising costs of medical insurance premiums and prescription drugs it is important to have extra retirement income to cover what Medicare does not cover. There are four parts to Medicare: Part A which is hospital insurance helps to pay for inpatient care at a hospital or skilled nursing facility (following a hospital stay), some health care and hospice care, Part B which is medical insurance helps pay for doctors’ services and many other medical services and supplies not covered by hospital insurance, Part C is the Medicare Advantage plan and is available in most areas and to most people with Medicare Parts A and B, Medicare Part D is prescription drug coverage and helps pay for medications doctors prescribe for treatment (Social Security Administration Publication Number 05-10043, April 2010).
Another factor to include is the fact that Social Security is in a desperate cry for help. With the upcoming retirement of the “Baby Boomer” generation Social Security is dwindling and could possibly not be around come the year 2030. The Social Security Administration projects the number of people aged 65 or older will rise by more than 90 percent in the next three decades, and at the same time, those under age 65 will only grow by 15 percent (Chastain, 2002). Those aged 65 or younger are the ones paying for Social Security for those aged 65 or older. So the numbers don’t add up. There will be more people taking retirement than there will be putting into retirement. This is currently an issue with the Federal Government that needs to be addressed soon before there is no Social Security.
In conclusion, it is best to have some sort of preretirement account to set money aside for the later years. According to a recent poll (2007 Retirement Confidence Survey, Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates, 2007) 68% of workers aged 25-34 have less than $25,000 set aside for retirement. It was also found that only about one third of the workers aged 45-55 had less than $25,000 set aside for retirement. While it is recommended that the average worker have at least 70-80% of their preretirement income, there is no magic number for any individual as there will be too many factors into the equation. Having a nice nest egg already in place would ensure that inflation is met, Medicare is taken care of, and the extra years of retirement will not be wasted working. Retirement is a time to reflect on what you have done with your life and where you have gone, not a time to work to make ends meet. Planning now for retirement will greatly impact how retirement is spent, whether it is on a beach in some foreign locale or spent laboring over your work just to pay the medical bills.

References
SSA Publication Number 05-10035, January 2010, ICN 457500. Retrieved from www.ssa.gov/pubs/10035.html
Electronic Publications, Cost-of-Living Adjustments, October 2009. Retrieved from http://www.socialsecurity.gov/cola/2010/factsheet.htm
SSA Publication Number 05-10043, April 2010, ICN 46000. Retrieved from www.ssa.gov/pubs/10043.html
Chastain, Jane (2002). The State of Social Security. Retrieved from http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26232
Employee Benefits Research Institute, Mathew Greenwald & Associates (2007). 2007 Retirement Confidence Survey. Retrieved from http://www.ebri.org/pdf/PR_764b_11Apr07.pdf

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