While I don’t necessarily factor in my future Social Security benefits when determining how much money I need to retire early, I do plan on having it someday. As you will read, there are lots of reasons to expect it will be there, even if it’s not in the same form.
How much can you expect? I built a calculator to help you determine how much you could expect based on your work history to date. SSA.gov can help you with the earnings history, but the on-site calculator assumes you’ll work until full retirement age.
First of all, I don’t personally think Social Security is going anywhere. In my opinion, this is one of the best government programs we have. Even if you don’t think it’s a good program, you cannot argue it is not immensely popular.
Now, Social Security’s detractors have many good points. Social Security needs to be shored up. This isn’t the first time, though. It’s been shored up before. The formula isn’t that tough.
You can raise the retirement age. You can raise taxes a little. You can lower benefits a bit. You can tax the benefit a little more for some or all people. You could even take the benefit away from certain people, I suppose, but that also seems an unlikely solution.
A typical high-income professional’s Social Security benefit is extremely valuable. Take a look at your most recent Social Security statement if you don’t agree.
You can ignore Social Security if you like, but you can’t ignore the consequences of doing so. Those consequences are either saving 10% more of your salary or working an extra 8 years. Your choice.