WSJ - Social Security, Medicare Face Depletion Within 17 Years, Trustees Say

[ATCclears]

Social Security, Medicare Face Depletion Within 17 Years, Trustees Say

This is not new news, just a reinforcement of what is coming hard and fast. I think by 2025. Separately, pensions will likely be in dire straights too. Have a Plan B for your personal finances...

The article may be paid content so here is a snippet:

The annual report from the trustees of the nation's largest entitlement programs revealed Thursday that the trust fund for Social Security's disability program will last until 2028, five years longer than previously projected, owing in part to lower-than-expected applications for disability benefits.

The Social Security system has two trust funds, one for disability and one for retirement. The fund for disability benefits is the smaller of the two—$46 billion for disability, compared with $2.8 trillion for retirement. The longer projection for the smaller fund means Congress isn't immediately forced to grapple with looming shortfalls in any of its programs.

The overall financial health of the entitlement programs hasn't improved, according to the report. If Social Security's retirement and disability funds are combined into one program, their funds will be exhausted in 2034, unchanged from last year.

The trust funds were built when more people paid into the system than received benefits. As the population ages, benefit payments are projected to exceed revenues, drawing down fund balances. Under current law, when the trust funds are emptied, benefits from the programs will be abruptly reduced. The latest projections say retirement benefits would be slashed by 25%. The status of the funds is thus a potential trigger for reforms in the programs.

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[Bushman]

Pensions, lol. Yeah, I love all the federal employees who think they can't be fired (they fire 10K per year, about half of what private sector does, but still happens) and with the country 20 trillion in debt and counting, I wouldn't plan on retiring in 20 years with even a meager pension...

 

[Rickenbacher39]

Social Security was never intended to be a retirement source.
It was originally intended to protect Americans from a life of financial strife including old age,
poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children.
That was it, nothing more nothing less.

 

[JRuby]

Social Security was never intended to be a retirement source.
It was originally intended to protect Americans from a life of financial strife including old age,
poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children.
That was it, nothing more nothing less.

Then we should not have to pay into for fifty plus years. Dont call it an entitlement it has been paid for for a long time and many years.

 

[Sstrand]

In 17 years I'll likely be dead. The rest of you can worry about it!!!!!

Sheldon

 

[CoastRange57]

With all due respect, the WSJ is the last source I would read for any financial news. I follow the markets pretty close and I have not read that piece of fish wrap crap in 10 years. SS is a ponzi scheme like a lot of public pension plans are, and they will all collapse at some point.

While I do have SS income in our 10 year budget spreadsheet, I also have others sources of income, and like others quite frankly, I do not give a damn about the public pensions, and if SS does collapse we are probably in some sort of SHTF anyway, and it will take time to develop and I likely won't live that long, so all you youngsters can deal with it, and toast my memory.