On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 22:03:23 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 20:13:45 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 12:47:01 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 11:06:10 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Dec 2017 23:57:04 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 00:09:37 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Dec 2017 20:36:37 -0600, Terry Coombs
wrote:

Ed Zachary ! That money was supposed to be in a trust and invested
for our retirement . Instead the ****in' politicians stole it to buy
votes . Had that money I paid in been invested in something that had a
return similar to what I invested on my own I'd be getting about 3 times
what I draw from SS .

That is true. If my SS money had been put into the stocks of the dow I
would have about 2.5 million bucks and If I had the dividends
reinvested it would be more like 3.5 - 4 million depending on the
stock mix.

More likely the entire stock market industry would be entirely different.
Boom and bust, panic, vast corruption. Public revolts, lynch mobs.
Maybe we'd have a different form of government by now.
Probably would be lucky to get a dime back.
Unless the government was running the stock markets, which presents it own problems.

There are other investments, I just used that as an example. Besides,
having that much pension money in the market would tend to stabilize
it since most would actually be in funds.
I will agree that we might face the same fate as SS since the boomers
will be pulling that money out, never to return but that may still be
a problem when the wave hits the 401k money.

Besides, nobody stopped you from investing a similar percentage on your own.

I did. That is why I could afford to retire at 49.

Hey, too bad you have to settle for a paltry 2.5-4 million, huh?
Is this country ****ed up, or what?

I did not start saving early enough to get all of that money because
Sammy took his 13% off the top and I did not have enough income to
match that for a number of years. The money I was saving, I used to
buy big ticket items without having to borrow. The last time I
borrowed any money was in the Ford administration.

Probably more like 7% when you started paying in.

Six point 4 percent on my pay stub and another 6.4% of my labor, that
my employer got to write off as a business expense. (plus MC)
You pay both sides of that FICA tax as part of your compensation, the
employer just gets credit saying he paid for half of it.
When they are budgeting the value/cost of your labor, it is all in
there.