Are Americans Prepared for Retirement

Week Nine Assignment - Final

Christina Kothe

Com/156

December 3, 2010

Lorri Griffin

Axia College of University of Phoenix

Are Americans Prepared for Retirement?

When Americans retire he or she cannot live on Social Security benefits alone. It is not a secret that there are many changes expected in the Social Security Benefits available to Americans. The government has been working on ways to save the Social Security benefits for several years. Americans need to step up and realize that he or she need to start planning early for their retirement; they need to build his or her own savings plan so he or she can enjoy their retirement years. Many Americans believe that after all he or she paid into the Social Security plan his or her whole life and he or she is guaranteed his or her benefits when he or she retire, this is not true. No law states that a person will receive benefits when he or she retires if there is no money available. This is a serious concern that needs to be addressed before a person retires or he or she will have to work till he or she passes away.

Social Security began in 1935 and it was paid only to the primary worker when he or she retired. Social Security was paid out in a onetime lump sum payment. Regular ongoing monthly payments were not made until 1940. In 1939, the law changed Social Security to add survivor benefits and benefits to retiree’s spouses and children. By 1956 disability was added to Social Security benefits. In an editorial written in the Washington Post on January 17th, 2005, page A16, it stated that without Social Security almost half of all elderly Americans today would be living in poverty. Over two-thirds of all the Social Security beneficiaries are depending solely on their benefits to live in America today. The editorial also gave a quote from President Franklin D.Roosevelt saying “Old is at once the most certain, and for many people the most tragic, of all hazards. There is no tragedy in growing old, but...