At this point, you may have heard the rumor that Social Security is on the verge of bankruptcy. But thankfully, the program is not in danger of going away.
Social Security can't just disappear because it has a pretty solid source of funding -- payroll taxes. As we all work and pay taxes on our wages, some of that money is used to fund Social Security. So that should give you some reassurance that benefits should be payable in some shape or form once your retirement begins.
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But will you get your complete Social Security benefit each month? That's questionable.
Social Security doesn't expect to bring in enough payroll tax revenue in the coming years to keep up with the benefits it's supposed to pay. The program can use the money in its trust funds to make those payments as long as they're not depleted. But once that happens, broad benefit cuts are a possibility. And worse yet, those cuts may only be about a decade away.
That's clearly an upsetting thing. But I refuse to let Social Security cuts get me down.
A situation I can't control
Does it annoy and upset me to think that I may not end up getting all of the Social Security I'm entitled to in retirement? Absolutely.
Like everyone else, I'm paying taxes on my wages like I'm supposed to. So I figure I deserve to enjoy the upside.
But Social Security cuts can't be taken personally. It stinks to potentially not get my complete payments. But if the program doesn't have enough money to pay benefits in full, that's out of my control. Instead, I'm aiming to do the things that are within my control to make the situation better.
I'm taking comfort in my backup plan
I want to be clear that Social Security cuts are not set in stone, even though they're a pretty strong possibility at this point. There's still a chance that lawmakers will be able to solve the problem of funding Social Security to prevent cuts from happening.
But once again, as an ordinary citizen, I can't control the outcome here. So the best thing I can do is try my best to save well for retirement so that my nest egg is large enough to make up for smaller Social Security benefits.
To that end, I do a few things:
- Set up automatic contributions to my retirement account so I'm not tempted to spend my money elsewhere
- Keep large expenses like housing low relative to my income to free up more money for savings
- Take on extra work when the opportunities arise to boost my earnings
- Read up on investing strategies to grow my savings
By doing these things, I'm taking action, as opposed to sitting back and sulking over potential Social Security cuts in the future. And knowing I'm making that effort makes me feel better about the situation broadly.
This doesn't mean I'm jumping for joy over Social Security cuts. But the moves I'm making are allowing me to be a lot less worried over them.
