Income After Retirement

Income after Retirement

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Income after Retirement

Many Americans believe they do not have to save for retirement. Americans believe Social Security will take care of their needs after they retire. With the controversy about Social Security ending, many people are worrying about what they will live on when they retire. Still people are not saving for retirement because they still believe Social Security will be able to pay for all of their needs. Even though Social Security going bankrupt may be because the current economy is down right now, people should still think further and ask if Social Security was set up to fail years ago. We cannot solely rely on Social Security to meet our financial needs after retirement because Social Security may decrease its payments or diminish completely because they are paying out more than they are taking in.

To understand how Social Security payments could decrease or diminish a person needs to know some history. Some may think this here is where the problem began and Social Security was set up to fail. “Originally, the Social Security Act of 1935 was named the Economic Security Act” (SSA online) “The Social Security Act was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14 1935. Taxes were first collected in January 1937 regular ongoing monthly benefits started in January 1940.” (SSA online) When Social Security began in 1935 it was only available to the primary workers. It was not until 1939 when there was a change in the law that added survivor benefits and benefits for retiree’s spouse and children.(SSA online) Disability benefits were not available until 1956.(SSA online) Regarding survivor and dependent benefits, many wonder how they figured they would have enough to cover everyone and still be able to continue. Especially, in 1939, most of the workers were men, women were homemakers this increased their life expediency, which would mean they would receive Survivor Social Security benefits longer than...