Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 2023 Social Security COLA

Social Security!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣


The American Sacred Cow.

Welfare for the worked!



Pensions, 401, savings.........
COLA, COLA, COLA, COLA,
"My Medicare ate my COLA!"

Wealthiest demographic in the country!


Retired, time on their hands while employers are begging for help.
HINT!


Meanwhile, 30 year olds are saving to buy a house, raise kids,
(all stuff the old folks did, admittedly) with real estate sky rocketing,
gas (necessary work fuel) $4.50/gal, and they might get
A 3% raise.

They damn sure won't get COLA.
The geezers did back in the day. Still do on SS.

It's long gone for working folks.
Someone mentioned COLA at work yesterday, most
didn't know what it meant. 50 and younger have never
benefited from it. We get little raises and stuff just gets harder to buy.


"These young kids today", the ones readers whine about, they be
the ones feeding the COLA.

Funny, no one seems to talk about them.


Wanna talk Medicare costs.

Let's compare my payroll deductions, deductibles, out of pocket,
prescription costs.....


Not ignoring the plight of some seniors. Personally know several
who are stuck squeezing the nickel. Used to buy heating oil
for one as a Christmas present. Most who are crying, aren't
denying themselves anything of substance to pay rent.

"... I think the survivor benefit is drawn from SSI.It is the higher of the two.That is why you can`t get both. ..."

Nope. Dad's retirement was through a private corporation not tied to SocSec.
The retirement system used Gov't numbers to regulate their funding. CPI linked raises, etc.

"... you can't get both ..."

She isn't entitled to what she paid in?
After 40+ years of marriage and supporting him, she isn't entitled to what he paid in?

What the Gov't is basically saying is even if my parents contributed separately to different retirement savings accounts, she can only have the proceeds of one account!

It's basically the Gov't
If you have a private account, you can't have SocSec and vice versa.

P.S. - I'm in the same boat. I paid into a private retirement fund and into SocSec.
Per SocSec. I can only draw from one or the other. Not both. My SocSec should pay me about $600 month. Would help my private funds go ALOT further!

I can tell you based on past years including the last COLA raise in Dec 2021 that everything I mentioned received the same % raise. There are a lot of people here receiving military pensions, fed gov annuities, and VA disability. If what I posted was incorrect they would of said something.

Martin,
It won't help, but my comment about "welfare for the worked"
wasn't entirely in jest. It is fact, going back to the origin of SS.

At that point in time, retirement wasn't something many people did.
They worked as long as they could, then became a burden to their
family or ended up in "County Homes".

Few ever could travel, vacation, lounge. Old or young.

People worked at jobs.
WORKED.
Movement, sweat, blood. Not time spent at a position.

SS was intended to allow someone in their 60s, old at that time and
possibly unable to continue with hard work productively, the ability
to survive with some dignity. Until they died. In a few years.


The whole system has become bastardizec and abused.
Money misused, programs added.....

People now retire simply because they don't want to work anymore.
As young as 62, then draw money for 20-30 years.

To sell the tax, and get folks on board, it was promoted like a retirement
benefit. That should have never been allowed to happen. It should
have been kept as "Relief". Left the stigma attatched, and used it to
help the poor old folks. Taxes could have been kept low, those who
need it could could have been better helped.

Someone gonna call me a socialist or communist over this.

Well...

Whadda ya think the Social part means?
Taking money from those working, (against their will)
giving it to others? Hmmm.



Whole thing has gotten corrupted.
You have pensioners getting penalized by SS.

Meanwhile, there are undoubtedly CEOs collecting max SS
while earning multiple million$/year. Getting taxed 6.2% for SS
but only on the first $100k.

And the young guy gets hit 6.2% on every nickel, 12.4% if he
is self employed.


Government!

I didn’t say that you were wrong. I said that the government pensions and SS are handled separately and I believe that is correct.

If you’ve read anything - current - about the proposed SS increases being the exact same as that for government type pensions I’d like to read that too other than just Campfire speculation.

Again, I’ve read no correlation between the two separate entities that tied government pensions increases amounts to that which is now being proposed for SS only.

You would think that the increases would parallel or mirror each other in % increases, though.

Geez. That sucks. Sorry to hear, pal.

What they're doing is trying to buy our senior vote with this petty insignificant COLA.

If they tripled mine I'd still vote against 90% of the rat bastards.

They just recently gave themselves HUGE raises.

Through TriCare?

100% of your Prescription Benefit Pal?

I receive both a Civil Service and SS benefit....... the COLA will 'attack' both....

They eliminated 100% of my prescription benefit due to this last COL increase (which did not even come close to making up for inflation alone).

You guys make me feel guilty…almost, not quite. I get a pretty decent SS benefit each month and a pretty decent pension. I retired with a lifetime, no cost to me, great health insurance plan that, beginning when I was Medicare eligible, reimburses me every July 1 for the Medicare premiums deducted from my SS. (This year it was enough to push my tuck money account over what I needed for that new Benelli sporting clays gun.)

I am between jobs now but have a couple possibilities I’m looking at. At 74 I sometimes want to work and sometimes don’t. One thing that surprised when I reached the “work without penalty “ SS age, was that whenever I left a job, sometime down the road I’d get a notice that my SS benefit was increased due to my additional employment. I didn’t think that happened, but apparently it did. Always kind of rubbed me wrong, seeing that SS deduction on my pay stubs and thinking it wouldn’t do me any good.

Sounds like someone needs some cheese with their whine....

30 years olds buying a house - same as what was going on since 1945.
COLA, Don't know what it means. Really!! Sounds like a bunch of dumbasses, or youngsters, are working with your outfit.
You get little raises? Go work somewhere else or realize that lots of us did not get raises every year. And, yes we could have gone elsewhere or whined about it. Most generally do not whine about it though.
Feeding COLA - damn it has been this way for a long time. Perhaps profits and increased sales feed the COLA.
And, damn, lets talk about your payroll deductions, deductible, out of pocket, prescription costs like none of us have been thru that [bleep].

Tell you what, take all of your Social Security deductions and employer social security match and post them to a spreadsheet with an interest rate of your choice. You will be damned surprised to see what that adds up to for 50+ years of contributions. Then let us know if you believe you will get it all back in Social Security Benefits. Odd are you won't and you will not think of it as "Welfare for the worked" anymore.

I’m in the same boat. Sucks....

That’s good to hear.
Thanks.

You didn't understand a word.

Why would young workers know much about COLA.
It has been gone from working people for 20-30 years.
And like many, they aren't well read/informed.

Small raises?
Look at the average American wage compared to inflation over the
last 30 years.

Insurance $$$. You turned it around and made MY point, but are
too self absorbed to see it. I hear retired folks crying about
Medicare and supplementary. And it does cost money.
But it's no different than what everyone working is facing.
And probably not as bad. But you don't hear workers cry near as
much.

The return on SS tax?
You didn't understand one thing.

It's not a retirement program!

Was intended as welfare for old folks that couldn't do the labor
of that day. And most were to be dead before 70.

There was never an intended return. Just as welfare doesn't provide
any return at all. We pay. Supposedly, those down on their luck
get a helping hand.


I've been paying SS at 5%+ my whole life.
Can't draw the maximum until over 67, and may never see that.
Will likely never get what my miney would have equaled if invested.
Unless, I were to become disabled. And darn sure don't want that.

Welfare for the worked?
If I were disabled? That's exactly what it would be.

If retired. Able bodied, quit because I didn't want to work anymore?
Then I'd be tapping a social program to get money to allow me
to sit at home.

That's the way it's setup. If things work out well, I'll get there.
My opinion won't change. And i dont intend to rely on SS.
By then, it may be means tested.

Houston 2, your last sentence re means tested, I’ve expected that for a long time. I think that will happen eventually.

Dale in a manner of speaking it is already in effect. An example that I’m very familiar with is let your AGI exceed 200k$/yr and watch what happens to the cost of your Medicare deduction from your SS payments.

Supposedly if you drop below the 200K$ AGI it goes back to the normal deduction amount.

AND, Congress is paid and retire 'Federally', a pension AND SS...... so

If inflation sucks THEY get a raise, if they are not yet retired the raise is 'waiting' on them when they retire.............

MAYBE, just maybe, if inflation sucks they should get a cut, they hold the reins......

correct on both points. Dammit.

FISH CAMP!