Monday, June 22, 2015

THE STOCK MARKET vs. SOCIAL SECURITY ... JEB BUSH CAUSES US TO REVISIT THE ISSUE

Most knowledgeable and sentient Americans know that Social Security has been running surpluses, and that the federal government actually owes the the program trillions. 

Then we have Jeb Bush, who apparently didn't get the memo. 

Jeb Bush recently said that we need to raise the retirement age on Social Security in order to "lower the deficit" ... 







What Jeb is actually doing is engaging in the con game of the century. He wants people to believe that Social Security is in trouble so that he can help out his Wall Street friends (again).

Specifically, Jeb wants to start the conversation that Social Security is in trouble so that you and I start thinking that it needs to be "saved" by shoveling the programs resources into the "private sector." Put another way, he and his GOP friends want to take the trillions in Social Security funds and payments and then send them to Wall Street

While this option sounds sexy and exciting for many, all it does is create a perpetual source of cash for our bailout dependent Wall Street friends to play with.

What Jeb Bush and his Republican friends want you to ignore - or never learn - is how Social Security actually stacks up against private retirement accounts. Consider this: If you and your spouse contribute $598,000 into social security over a 40 year period and retire at 65 you can expect to collect $556,000 (i.e. if the man lives to 82 and if the women lives to 85). 

Conversely, if a married couple contributes enough into their private retirement account and build a $500,000 retirement nest egg things don't turn out quite so well. They are more than likely to end up with about $350,000 after deducting for "private" administrative and management fees.

For details you can check out my three part series on The Stock Market vs. Social Security here:

Part I: Which pays more ... Stock Market or Social Security? 
Part II: Worst case scenarios ... Stock Market vs. Social Security.
Part III: Social Security Privatization ... Bailout in Perpetuity.

So, thank you Jeb for encouraging me to bring out my Stock Market vs. Social Security series again. 

- Mark

No comments: