tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7334408760351487944.post8026269885496381068..comments2023-11-12T06:43:00.060-05:00Comments on Notes on Social Security Reform: Retirement income: How bad is it?Andrew G. Biggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617460431856611873noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7334408760351487944.post-9622507520258110082014-01-31T14:20:29.059-05:002014-01-31T14:20:29.059-05:00JoeTheEconomist is correct today's beneficiar...JoeTheEconomist is correct today's beneficiaries are doing far better than future beneficiaries (retirees) will.<br /><br />My father paid a life time payroll tax on all income of about 4.5% while my children are paying 15.3%. We all know that if you have less take home pay, you have less to save.<br /><br />Therefore, those born prior to 1940 have had far more taken home pay to save than today's workers' as a percentage of wages. This means they were better able to participate in the growing economy.<br /><br />The recent reports on wealth gap proves that point. Those who had investments participated in the growth in companies while those who only had real estate fared less well.<br /><br />Social Security and Medicare disenfranchise workers from participating in the economy by taxing them on the first dollar earned at a much higher rate than any previous generation.<br /><br />To add insult to the wound, those born prior to 1940 are reaping multiple times what their payroll taxes would have yielded while today's workers will get pennies on the dollar.<br /><br />Single Largest Ponzi Scheme there is!WilliamLarsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00226403551284640494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7334408760351487944.post-5538668057380409142014-01-30T14:38:01.506-05:002014-01-30T14:38:01.506-05:00Joe -- Unfortunately the article is gated, but I t...Joe -- Unfortunately the article is gated, but I think it will eventually be up on my AEI web page. The short story is that the CPS misses around 2/3 of DC pension income, and so obviously undercounts incomes in retirement.Andrew G. Biggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16617460431856611873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7334408760351487944.post-53536211671243533562014-01-30T09:11:06.792-05:002014-01-30T09:11:06.792-05:00Your article is not visible unless you have a subs...Your article is not visible unless you have a subscription, but your comment "based on data from the Current Population Survey" says you will end up in the wrong conclusion.<br /><br />Today's retirees are in a much better shape financially than generations following.JoeTheEconomisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15000542138416955049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7334408760351487944.post-45917461801641394062014-01-27T20:25:06.493-05:002014-01-27T20:25:06.493-05:00Saving for retirement is a long term process. The...Saving for retirement is a long term process. The objective when you reach retirement is to have enough capital to last. This means that in the first year of retirement you may consume 97% of all your income and with drawl 3% of capital in order to provide for your needs/wants. When you get to the last year of retirement your income from capital may only amount to 1% of your needs/wants and 99% from you capital.<br /><br />Income in retirement is not a good measure of ones ability to meet needs/wants.<br /><br />Income in retirement is not the goal, but capital is that can be converted to cover needs and wants.<br /><br />In simple terms at any given time the retirement community is most likely getting 50% of their needs from income and 50% from capital conversion. So if a person let's say is 75 years old and has an income of $20K, then it is most likely they are converting another $20k in capital so that they have $40K to use to cover needs and wants.WilliamLarsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00226403551284640494noreply@blogger.com