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Could You Live On Social Security?
$1,130.33 is the average monthly social security benefit. Assuming you worked 40 hours a week, every week, that's the hourly equivalent of $6.40. Where can you live? Will savings save you?
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Don't give up...stay away from ne'er do wells and open a small business. Be clear eyed level headed and say yes sir or yes ma'am whenever appropriate. Throw yourself at your small business 18 hours a day 5/7 days a week as if you have 4 children at home who will starve if you let up one moment. Find a smallish town (though your hometown may serve you better) somewhat isolated from larger cities to minimize competition and lastly if possible discount your services for cash payments. Barter and connect and never be afraid to make a deal. Get to know the wealthy people in your community and make them respect you as a hardworking up and comer...opportunity WILL present itself. No fear.
I keep hearing that Banks are not lending to small businesses but if memory serves they never have been willing to lend to start ups. Think small and grow.
and if you need a Doctor this guy only charges 5 bucks...cash I suspect.lol
http://news.msn.com/pop-culture/dollar5-doctor-practices-medicine-from-b...
@ Banjamin --
Nailed it, dude!
My first understanding of a Ponzi scheme was my H.S. Anthropology teacher's explanation of Social Security. That was awhile ago.
"That doesn't sound like it'll be there for me when I'm old," I said.
He said, "You're onto something kid. I don't think it'll be there for you either."
So I figured I'd just work 'til I die, which meant I'd have to work for myself -- not some paperdick shit, but doing something real. Something that was weird enough -- i.e. not on most folks' top-100 list of occupations -- into which I could grow and become one of the best. It's hardly a crowded field; there's just a handful of us in the nation, and most of the other guys are old now. My little gig is growing commensurate with my capacities. No matter how thin the market gets, I've got work -- as much as I want. It's a matter of scale. I don't have to gross enough to underwrite a company of others. I just need enough for my family. There's a lot of work I have to turn away.
This weird little highly specilized thing I do, a thing I like and can physically do for the balance of my days, this is my Social Security.
I can't say what I do because I'd be too easy to pin. But in figuring out what work to do: 1) I looked around at seeming archaic products and services that had not really been invalidated, but only set aside by "post-modern" mentality (there are lots of stuff in that category); and 2) I went with what interested me.
I have fun, long-time clients-turned-friends, and the work process is self-styled; so in this narrow thing, I am the authority. For all practical purposes, I entered "retirement" -- if defined as what you do (or not do) for the rest of your life -- in my prime years. I'm still in my prime years.
As for the tending of my more sporadic needs, I get by with a little help from my friends. Then again, I'm one of the friends with whose help other guys get by.
Yeah? Tell me...you got a DNR order written up?
Don't lecture me about personal responsibility. I busted my 4 front teeth out at 25. Blue Cross refused to pay. I made good on my own to the tune of $10K in 1990 dollars. What is that amount, inflation adjusted? You are goddamed right you don't know me. So don't generalize and argue from Armageddon.
The requirement to service was mandated by government. Not my fault. The inability to re-import life-saving drugs is a result of government. Prior to Govt involvement, the system relied on charity. Dont fucking blame me for the bullshit vote buying of a bunch of politicians.
A Nanny - the inability to re-import drugs is a result of the people who researched, developed and manufactured the drug not wanting it to. Those drug companies are forced at the barrel of a gun to "sell" those drugs in Canada and other countries at below market prices. Letting them be resold into the US where they are able to seek market price would violate their intellectual property and undermine their abaility to do the R&D to create the life-saving in the first place.
The enemy in the re-import issue is the foreign nation who is forcing Americans to subsidize their way of life. Not the US government or the drug companies. Though the vote buying bunch of politicians who have confused the issue can get in line, too. With all respect, I state that to you so clearly because you said you were a no bullshit type person.
" If you have the misfortune of needing ongoing medical care because of something cancer"
Forget that. Cancer treatment to transfer wealth to the healthcare system. If its something that serious I avoid treatment, make peace and die with dignity. If the pain becomes too much, I pay a visit to Doctors Smith and Wesson. They have a very quick, low cost, and permanent solution to long term pain management. FWIW: most doctors would choose to avoid cancer treatment if they get something serious.
These days more people catch something more serious at the hospital then problem the walk in with. People are getting C. Diff, pneumonia, TB, staph infections, from the hospital. Probably 20% of patients that go in for treatment for a major issue die because of secondary infections acquired during a hospital stay. My advice is to avoid hospitals accept when you have a life threating illness and have no choice.
Yes, Mr Rand' view on life is interesting. In addition to Insurance for all of the vagaries of 21st century life, I am sure he believes that each and every organism is entitled to legal representation in a court of law.
What is this world coming to? Sometimes I wonder if there is some asshole in england who thinks Iceman should be opened up as a cold case.
Funny, I don't recall saying any of that. But if it helps you make your point to argue against a straw man, then carry on. Many here won't care about the complete absence of logic behind your point, so long as you agree with them.
You sound like Steve McQueen. Look it up. He ended up getting all kinds of treatment when he actually got cancer, after saying exactly what you said above while he was healthy. Perhaps you will be an exception. I doubt it. Especially if your disease that you now say you don't want to treat is treatable and you could live a long life rather than blow your head off and not be a complete hypocrite. Spoiler alert -- you will be a complete hypocrite.
First time I've seen someone who thinks as I do. Big thumbs up to ya pal. My choice would be Doctor Colt though. Just sayin. ;-)
I pray for your sake that you will never have to make that choice.
I was diagnosed as being Stage 4 (terminal) right off the bat, so my choice was already made for me. It would be six months without further treatment, or possibly two years if they hit me with everything. The only additional treatment I opted for was targeted radiation and pill form chemo to shrink the rectal tumor in hopes of avoiding having a colostomy. It worked for a few months, but I wound up with the bag anyway last month. Still, I'm some two months past my "sell-by date", and the pain is considerably less than what was expected, so I'm really glad that I didn't ruin what's left of my body with treatments.
I've thought about ending my life at my own hand, but have rejected this because of the effect my suicide would have on others, especially on my kids. I have not always lived well, but I pray that I might die well.
BTW, I saw the bill from my doctor for "oncology services", which consisted of the nurse taking my vital signs, then a short consult with the doctor - $1,106.94. Obscene.
Social security disability.........check. Snap card benifits..........check. Government subsidized housing.........check. Obamaphone.........check. Obammycare...........in the bag. Livin the dream, bitchez.
-average obama voter-
We could live very well on my check if these three young chickadees would get outta this bed long enough to hustle up a few "luxury bucks".
This reminds me of younger days of discovery, and some really strange and ''ironic'' happenings at the motorcycle shop, where I learned that being another version of a bar tender means you can look the customer in the eye and tell when they will wreck the taste of the short term commission on the dinner table.
One day;
after this Grandpa came in with his Grandson, and I mentioned that my favorite statue was on the Post he was once at, where I once lived too. He and I teared up because this Vet posed for the artist, while he was stationed there back in his day.
...a retired Colonel came in looking for a part or something. We got to talking. He lived on the other side of the U.S. Border, which was not far from the shop. He, and a whole community of retired military vets, and regular Americans, live South of the Border, because, they cannot afford to live in the country they now do not support with the reward for having done so before.
You do not need to be a veteran bartender to know the person, tipping you big after the 44th Presidential Shot, is about to die, after they leave the bar and try to ride over the limit of the borderline of a global borderless crime scene. Preserve your customer, and your sanity, mix'd with the bills somebody did not pay? Yeah riiight.
Live free, yer gonna die, and now you will need to fix your own bike. There is nobody behind the bar able to pay the price to stop you this time.
From what I've seen of retiree households, family and friends mainly, if the household income is less than about $2000 per month, then even the austere retiree household ends up taking on debt to make ends meet, but predatory high interest is universal for non-cronies, so after only 1 or 2 years, they're fiscally crushed which forces someone in that household to reenter the workforce.
What workforce????
they can join the Census and count themselves out
Squirrels and road kill, bitchez!
Road kill requires cars right? No one is going to be driving on their SS monies.
I figure I have about as much chance of collecting on SS as I do finding the mythical body of water where all the boats sink with peoples gold and silver stashes. So I have determined that buying a boat with side scan sonar, and chasing rainbows, is more particle then relying on The Bureaucracy in my later years.
You forgot to add the extra $25/month of interest that 30k is currently generating.
Happy Fucking Days are here again People!!!
No social Welfare in America -
the US Corporate Welfare bill (bail-out of Banks and Corporates) is probably $6.4 billion per hour or more.
American Unemployed can of course live on less than $6.40 per hour.
Millions of people manage on less than $1 a day world-wide.
The average adult human can actually survive without food for ca.4-5 weeks
but needs water (hydrating fluids) at least every 4-5 days.
Since US Corporate welfare is more important than US social welfare,
you get shafted multi-ways: No social welfare - No medicare - no free Education
after Hurrican Sandy you will even have to pay the FEMA Loans for Emergency help.
There is NO Revenue, since Apple, Google, Amazon, Car-Companies and Starbucks
don't pay much Tax anywhere.
so this is not only an American Problem... but what did you expect ?
These are the Corporate Welfare States of America and the World.
so we can all go and fuck ourselves digitally -
wr;)
"Millions of people manage on less than $1 a day world-wide.
The average adult human can actually survive without food for ca.4-5 weeks"
While thats absolutely true, I certainly don't want to live on $1 a day, nor have to go through the ordeal of surviving 4 to 5 weeks without food. Sucide sound far more apealing then surviving on a dollar a day living in squalor.
Social Security feeds the fat old lazy bastards who only paid into it for 40 fucking years. They are the 47% who feel entitled to their handouts of just over $1,300 a month. Kick them off it and give the money in tax cuts to the job creators. Any old person who didn't get rich in their working life should go die somewhere.
This message brought to you by a real job creator Mitt Romney.
You forgot to mention the younger generation. They were not born so the boomers can live in retirement for 40 years. Not to mention, most boomers on SS did not work 40 "fucking years". More like 20.
Yo dude...You forgot to say "Real Chinease Job Creator"
$1,130 is WAY too much. It should be more like $400 per month. It's a safety net not a goddamn national pension. If you NEED to live on SS then you NEED to live in a homeless shelter.
Fleabag, grow up. I had two friends who worked in the airline industry. One worked for Eastern and then PanAm and lost his pension when they went bust. After all those years, gone. He commited suicide a few years ago. Another friend worked for Comair which got bought by Delta which then closed them down. He worked for them as a pilot for 17 years, only to have his pension also disappear. Notice a pattern? The robber barons are alive and well today, and us regular people just keep getting stepped on and people like you do not have enough smarts to realize that you are next. I am in the healthcare field and see the same thing on the horizon- parasitic suits coming in and looting what we built and then moving on to the next host. When 45% of my income goes to pay taxes to support everyone else, it's awfully hard to save loads for retirement. You will see that when you graduate from Burger King next year.
Notice a pattern? Yeah don't be a fucking dependent. Take some responsibility for yourself for Christ's sake. I am self-sufficient and I don't need Social Security. Jesus Christ be a man for god's sake.
Private pensions are compensation for work performed. They are a deferred payment for work already given. Why is it unreasonable to expect it to be delivered when promised? How in hell is that being a dependent? Please, use your Phd to enlighten us oafs. It is obvious from your tantrums that you have reasoned arguments and can give us the proper answer. Thanks in advance!
let me be the Devil's Advocate here:
the Problem here is not the Baby Boomers or those people who worked all their life and paid in their pension Funds and Social security taxes so they could retire with some dignity in their later Life.
The problem are the naive, dumb and stupefied Consumption addicted X-Y-Zzzzz Gernerations, those amongst you who feel they are entitled to prosperity and an elite Hollywood Life-style, simply because you watch dancing with the Stars.
The X-Y-Z Generations, those fools who go off to fight Wars in some poverty striken 3rd world Countries, no questions asked - never a question asked until it's too late.
And then,if some Kid like Bradley Manning speaks out against all the fraud and war-crimes, the rest of the XYZzzz Generation keeps their collective traps shut, like the useless bunch of Idiots and cowards they really are.
Spoiled,fat useless and dumb hopium addicted bastards waiting for free Handouts and Entitlements,
Consumer Addicts living freely at mums and dads place, living on social network sites
and existing in blissful ignorance and being totally clueless about Life and Reality!
X-Y-Zzzz Generation know this:
You are entitled to exactly Zero -
unless you first earned it!
so go back to sleep X-Y-Zzzzzzz !
wr;)
Social Security has always been meant for elderly welfare. It doesn't matter how long you worked; SS is so we don't have elderly that are too crippled to work living on the streets. NOTE TOO CRIPPLED TO WORK LIVING ON THE STREETS. It doesn't have one single thing to do with X-Y-Z generations, future consumption, how many years you worked, or how much you paid into Social Security.
IF YOU ARE NOT TOO CRIPPLED TO WORK OR LIVING ON THE STREETS, THEN SOCIAL SECURITY WAS NEVER, EVER MEANT FOR YOU.
It is a safety net and NOT A NATIONAL PENSION.
I wrote my PHD thesis on FDR and the great society, so please edify yourself before you post more bullshit opinions on why you deserve more government handouts.
It's not spellt PHD. ;-)
A good start for neophytes like you ::
Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gd6-zfeeaM
Since when were you entitled to live for 30+ years on my money. Screw you Baby boomer.
The dividing line will be those who get pensions and those who don't. A large chuck of folks over 50, 55 or so worked in companies for 30+ years and combine the two incomes.
Nearly everyone under that age was forced into 401k's that get corzined every 5 to 10 years.
Oh well. A lot of the pensioners will get screwed by their fund managers too...
Is it just Social Security? Or do many get Medicare, Prescpription Drugs, Food Stamps and God knows what else too?
Everyone gets Medicare at 65 and at that point you can buy a Plan D plan that covers drugs, regardless of income. The rest is means tested.
The dividing line will be those who get pensions and those who don't. A large chuck of folks over 50, 55 or so worked in companies for 30+ years and combine the two incomes. Nearly everyone under that ago was forced into 401k's that get corzined every 5 to 10 years. Oh well. A lot of the pensioners will get screwed by their fund managers too...
Zero sum for some
I believe the CFP board suggests a factor of .7 to estimate income needs after retirement so that would reflect a preretirement income of $9.14/hr ($6.40/.7)
Sucks either way but theyre going to be a lot better off than kids making $7.50 who havent had a lifetime to build assets.
SOCIAL INSECURITY.
It's meant to be welfare not a goddamn old aged dividend.
I could live off $0 if I had to.
Thank you Les Stroud and Bear Grylls.
Look people, junk all you want. Social Security was and has always been intended to be welfare for the elderly. I don't give a Durden if you don't like it, THAT IS WHAT IT IS. WELFARE. You don't like it? Then don't fucking retire. It has always been the BARE MINIMUM of subsistence. If you are like my own parents and think SS IS your 401k and that your children owe you 40 years of retirement livin then you are in for some COLD HARD REALITY. I'm not wasting my children’s future so you can spend 20 years on the golf course and then run up $1 million in public debt in your end of life care
Fucking cowards. No response, just junks for refusing handouts and taking responsibility for yourself. The difference is, I DON'T NEED OBAMA. Absolutely disgusting.
Not cowards, you are not worth the time.
Yup. Nailed it.
i got the shit end of the stick. been paying into for over 20 years now. by the time i am retirement age (20-30 years from now), there won't be a god damn thing left of it...
I hear you. I'm in the same boat, but you should plan on a lot longer than 20-30 more years of working.
'retirement age' was merely an axiom. i know i'll be working the rest of my life one way or another.
"Retirement age", for me (and most others under 55, I suspect) five or ten years from now and onward, is going to be (my age) + 10 years, regardless of whatever my age happens to be.
Look Jo they been promising me a check at 62 since I was born. I've paid in all my life. At 62 I quit. End of story. I'll let someone else worry about the quality of life it affords me.
But all you kids paying into this ponzi scheme? Well, I wouldn't blame you for being bitter about having to support 30 million illegals and twice as many welfare moms...we supported working grandfathers...
I make $1400 a month. I have NO health care. I get no paid days off. Yeah, it's $270 more than SS, but I don't get medicare, I pay for medicare for other people.
I work 40 hours a week.
And I save money. I live in one of the red areas on the map.
Where's my tiny violin?
I service people whining about retiring on only $60K per year pensions. Makes me wonder.
My parents make more than I do being retired, they have pensions and social security. They have HEALTH CARE.
Tell me again how I'm supposed to feel sorry for those on SS?
The baby boomers made themselves a nice little nest for me to pay for. And when they're dead they'll leave us with the trillions in debt that feathered that nest.
Better get a second job because I guarantee you, at least one of your parents are thinking about moving back in with you once the other one dies.
2nd job???
LMAO, it took me 2 years to find this shitty job.
HELLO!?!
"LMAO, it took me 2 years to find this shitty job."
You working at ZH ?
Parents let you out of the basement much?
Do not be so hard on yourself. You just finished college with a degree in engineering and are working a job before you find the job of your dreams. Or, you are going to be an entrepeneur where you hustle to find business anyway you can (illegal drugs not included). Be on the look out for any opportunity, metal recycling, electronics recycling, try to make friends with people who work at the city or county - these people always waste money and generally will hire minority owned business for odd contracts. You can also bid on US government contracts there are hundreds of thousands of them. Obviously you have a computer/internet accesss, start searching...or watch porn.
holy fucking shit I just fired my retirement planner. That idiot told me I would need $500k, minimum, in the bank in addition to my retirement and social security. I had no idea I could live for $1,130 in some of the states with the fewest number of assholes and the some of the best county views there are. I can retire now and live well above averge in those green states (those are greeen party states right?) even with out SS. Bring on the coke and hookers and tell the boss to fuck off. Yeeeehawwwwwwww.
I realize youre joking but thats only $32k a year in 2012 dollars if you make a 8% return at 3% inflation if you plan on living 30 years in retirement. and half of those numbers are kind of a joke in this environment.
Ahhh,the good old days.CDs at 15 to 18%.Save,try to do right.Nahhh,fuck em now.Id rather go bust and screw em.
glock or bren?
$1130 per month?
DREAM. FUCKING. ON.
Minus 5-15% per year from here on out. And that's the "Best Case Scenario".
I never planned on SS contributing anything to my future financial security.
I do, however, know some very nice third world country spots to hole-up through retirement. Fortunately they don't meet too many other people's standards.
Emigration, Bitchez!
[Disclosure: I'm still 20 years away from 'official' retirement age.]
[But: Fresh out of high school I knew SS wouldn't be around for me to benefit. 30 years later, now, everyone acts surprised.]
Hey the benefit of a "Third World Nation" is that you know it can only get better.
Hell yes. That's plenty of money to buy fresh peanut oil and kerosene to fry tasty squirrels with when you're living under a bridge.
That's plenty to live on...if you get them to pay you in pre-1965 dimes.
You get a four bedroom house with 3 other retirees of the opposite sex and party until there is no tomorrow. Might not be a pretty sight when its over but that's how you do it.
By the time I'm ready to retire, that $6.40/ hr will only be worth $2.00 and hour. That's if we don't get a complete dollar collapse, of course, in which case, that $6.40/hr will be worth less than the paper the check is printed on.
$1130??? Damn, you can't even buy three Congressmen for that.
In the next 20years I am fairly certain we will see either the dollar inflated away to the point that lotto winnings from 2013 will not be enough for retirement in 2033. However, we could get lucky and have a dollar collapse that leads to a stable currency tied to gold.
Question is how many Bernake dollars will the Govmint take for every gold or commodity based dollar?
The other gotcha will be food. The food supply is suspect and quality food is getting expensive. Imagine 20 years from now. Better prepare to grow some of your own, and find a way to ensure clean water. The infrastructure investment in clean water is terrible. All the municipalities are in debt because of new court houses and riot gear. They have no way to maintain their debt and basic services such as clean water.
Yup. Our water bill just made a clean double from $55 a month to $102 a month. Poof happened overnight and the "oh, we had a city council meeting about it but only 3 people showed up" was their response. Funny that I never heard abnout any of it until I got the bill and said wtf. And this is in a municipality right outside DC that has the highest property taxes in the state of Va. Curiously it also has the highest minority-majority ratio as well but I'm sure that has nothing to do with it...
In our case it was a new taj majal police station, new firehouse and new community center which nobody uses and is bleeding the city dry.
You forgot to mention all the new jails they building. They are building a new jail in my city that will cost $200,000,000. Paid with Muni- bonds of course.
Blow off a body part & go on disability....it pays more & you can retire in Florida
and who givea a shit about Carl WTF Rove?...anyway
Or you could take a dip in a pool with brown paint and apply for social benefits and save your limbs. Seems to be working pretty damn good for the homies in my hood who live in the same 2000sq ft townhomes that I do courtesy of section 8 and are most likely on WIC and food stamps judging by all the rampant, out of control little under 10 shitbirds that run unchecked around my hood. This all while I schlep my ass to work at o' dark thirty every morning to fight the ridiculous traffic because of all the illegal mexican overcrowding here. But at least they go to work...
we can start by kicking the little ass with no taste . just like the girls did in 6th grade. bash this little prick with his latte and he and rove can have something in common. two little pricks worth nothing and beaten up by girls....couldnt waste my time on either of you loathsome shits
See, we are still the riches country in the world, we're the best!
When I go on SS, the check will be $10,000 a month, and it might buy me a loaf of bread.
Going to Montana, bitchez!!
watch out for the unibomber(s) and lonely preppers.
The solution is for local social institutions take care of their own families and communities. That is what we did before big nanny government screwed everything up. We should rely on ourselves and take responsibility for our old people, and not rely on bureaucrats to take care of us.
Social Security overall is a bad deal. It takes money from people who will not share in the booty, and it tricks too many people into thinking that they will be taken care of by the government. It gives the illusion that responsibility for managing a community's resources can be handed over to others and still achieve satisfactory results.
This message brought to you by Ron Paul.
yes if we had mild deflation in a gold standard environment -- in other words on mars
Yes, we can ! Just give us all the benefits the welfare crowd gets .... rent stamps, utility stamps, SSI, SNAP, cell phone stamps, stamp stamps, dental stamps, legal stamps, doctor stamps, meals on wheels stamps, assisted living stamps, motor voter stamps ................ ad infintum .... Tums stamps !
well, when i reach retirement age it will no longer exist, so No. No i could not live on SS.
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