If you think the Medicare prescription drug bills recently passed by the House and Senate have solved your retirement problems, let me tell you about the Nebraska beachfront property where you might be spending that retirement.
The two major government entitlements affecting most retirees are Social Security and Medicare. It is widely known that the Social Security program is facing an impending crisis.
According to the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds figures [1], the Social Security Trust Fund will begin to pay out benefits exceeding receipts in 2018 and will be exhausted in 2042.
If you’re less than 45 or 50 years old today, the solution to the crisis is going to hurt. Either payroll taxes will have to be substantially increased or benefits will have to be substantially reduced. At current tax rates, only 73% of scheduled benefits could be paid beginning in 2042 and just 65% of scheduled benefits in 2077.
The number of workers contributing to the Social Security