Congressional Democrats need to run on saving social security in 2024

[TexasTiger 12,956]

They need a reasonable plan to shore up social security. Here’s a list of options with bipartisan support. They need a plan that lays out the impacts of not acting and they need to relentlessly focus on it. Which proposals do you support?

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/07/20/heres-why-so-many-americans-cant-handle-a-400-unexpected-expense.html

[homersapien 11,392]

That's shocking.  One emergency car repair away from sliding down the hole of debt.

We desperately need to improve financial literacy in the country.  Perhaps make David Ramsey mandatory reading/listening in high school?

But it goes far beyond that. Our culture is designed to promote consumption.  Living within your means - which really means living below your means - is a foreign concept.

We also need increase the minimum wage.

As far as SS, increasing the income level for FICA is an obvious move.

Edited August 30, 2023 by homersapien

[arein0 970]

2 hours ago, homersapien said:

That's shocking.  One emergency car repair away from sliding down the hole of debt.

We desperately need to improve financial literacy in the country.  Perhaps make David Ramsey mandatory reading/listening in high school?

But it goes far beyond that. Our culture is designed to promote consumption.  Living within your means - which really means living below your means - is a foreign concept.

We also need increase the minimum wage.

As far as SS, increasing the income level for FICA is an obvious move.

Not David Ramsey. Dave Ramsey gets people to fear all debt, even though not all debt is bad debt.

I do know this. The public school I went to required all students to take a semester of Econ and a semester of Government before they were allowed to graduate. The home class with the babies wasn't even offered at my school, neither was any of the shop classes. Go one county over and it is reversed.

We also had Sex Ed in 5th (It was part of the pueberty class. Local physicians came in, one took the boys other took the girls) and 9th grade (part of health/gym). The school system said they knew it was going to happen, might as well get in front of it and teach them how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. We also had DARE 5-9 for the same reasons.

[creed 1,641]

Saving and living below you income is a tribal tradition for some. For others it's spend as much as you can to keep up with the neighbors. IMO, as previosly mentioned, teach a basic economics class in high-school.

[CoffeeTiger 5,135]

2 hours ago, arein0 said:

Not David Ramsey. Dave Ramsey gets people to fear all debt, even though not all debt is bad debt.

Dave Ramsey is good for certain people who have high debt, low impulse control and no planning skills, but I agree, a lot of Ramsey's advice isn't correct or needed for most people. And the stuff he's right about is also just a lot of generic, obvious advice that any program could teach. His investing advice is also suspect and too much of a 'one size fits all'. 

Not having credit card or a credit score can be a big hindrance in todays society and you WANT a credit card that you pay off every month just so you aren't using your actual debit card for purchases and risking your actual bank account getting compromised. 

[LPTiger 5,167]

Simple way to become a millionaire in 40 years.   Save $100 every week and invest it in a low expense mutual fund.   At the end of 40 years, you would have invested just $208,000 but at a 7% AROR, your money would have grown to $1.1MM.   The market's return historically is closer to 10%.   That would put you past $1.5MM.   But, how do I find $100 every week.  1. Never stop at Starbucks, ever; 2. Take your lunch to work everyday, stay away from the fast food habit; 3. Cook at home for dinner; 4. Never buy a car that isn't at least 3 years old; 5. An iPhone 10 is more than adequate; 6. drop the gym membership you never use; 7. do your own laundry, learn how to use an iron; 8. don't smoke, dip or drink.

[TexasTiger 12,956]

Young folks putting all they can in a Roth IRA makes a lot of sense.

[arein0 970]

41 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

Young folks putting all they can in a Roth IRA makes a lot of sense.

I wish the limit was higher than 6.5k...

[TexasTiger 12,956]

2 minutes ago, arein0 said:

I wish the limit was higher than 6.5k...

I can tell you’re under 50. 😉

[arein0 970]

2 hours ago, LPTiger said:

Simple way to become a millionaire in 40 years.   Save $100 every week and invest it in a low expense mutual fund.   At the end of 40 years, you would have invested just $208,000 but at a 7% AROR, your money would have grown to $1.1MM.   The market's return historically is closer to 10%.   That would put you past $1.5MM.   But, how do I find $100 every week.  1. Never stop at Starbucks, ever; 2. Take your lunch to work everyday, stay away from the fast food habit; 3. Cook at home for dinner; 4. Never buy a car that isn't at least 3 years old; 5. An iPhone 10 is more than adequate; 6. drop the gym membership you never use; 7. do your own laundry, learn how to use an iron; 8. don't smoke, dip or drink.

Those are all expense cuts and how do you save $100 if you already do all of those things?

What I tell my friends that want to get better at saving is for the next 2 months, track all of your expenses and your income. Then look at your expenses and circle anything that you can live without. Go through those and eliminate the spend that makes no impact to your happiness. For some people, eating out with a different group of people is their hobby and would rather cut out something else, like where they live to lower housing costs, might not watch TV so completely eliminate TV bill, etc.

You could also apply and get higher paying jobs. I have heard stories of people going from 50k to 300k per year just from getting good at interviewing and strategically setting up their interviews to get offers to come in at the same time.

Edited August 31, 2023 by arein0

[auburnatl1 4,975]

And if their parents haven’t saved a dime - what about helping their kids go to trade school or college? (To their credit, most Asian immigrants are fanatics about this - and look at the success results).  Loans are an option sure but that’s its own rabbit hole.  It’s become an infinite generational loop of failure. The end game obviously should be short term savings, kid savings, and retirement savings.  

Back to the OP - the first step is educating the population that there’s a social security train wreak coming, it’s basic math.  All there all are imperfect solutions with impacts - and as a nation we need to start planning and executing quickly. Or very bad is coming.  We can argue led light bulbs later.

[AURex 2,015]

This is a NATIONAL STRATEGY for rescuing Social Security for our millions of beneficiaries and coming retirees? hahahahah BWAHAHAHA