Big Jump In Soc. Sec. Payments?

The way inflation is creeping up, any increase in SS benefits, next year, will probably buy little more than a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs. News reports indicate that inflation for 2001 will be above 5%....the government will probably translate that into about 2% for SS.
 
I'll take whatever they give us and be thankful for it.

It wasn't that long ago when our old age was 100% self-funded. Imagine what it would be like if we ever had to return to those days.

150202_ret_socsecanniversary1.jpg

In this Oct. 4, 1950 photo, Ida May Fuller, 76, displays a Social Security check for $41.30 that she received at her home in Ludlow Vt. On Jan. 31, 1940, Fuller received the country's first Social Security check for $22.54. By the time she died in 1975 at age 100, she had received nearly $23,000 in benefits.

AES—AP
 
I'll take whatever they give us and be thankful for it.

It wasn't that long ago when our old age was 100% self-funded. Imagine what it would be like if we ever had to return to those days.

150202_ret_socsecanniversary1.jpg

In this Oct. 4, 1950 photo, Ida May Fuller, 76, displays a Social Security check for $41.30 that she received at her home in Ludlow Vt. On Jan. 31, 1940, Fuller received the country's first Social Security check for $22.54. By the time she died in 1975 at age 100, she had received nearly $23,000 in benefits.

AES—AP
Can't speak for everyone but I'd be much better off if they had let me keep my SS contributions and my employer's contributions and invest them myself. But I realize many people wouldn't do that and for them SS is a Godsend so I'm OK with it
 
Anyone who has to live exclusively on social security has my sympathy. I don't think it was ever meant to provide anything more than a minimal safety net, and for some it probably doesn't do that.

I was never a big supporter of social security, but now that I am moving from the paying for it to hopefully getting something out of it place in life I want it to pay as much as possible. A 6% "raise" ain't much, but its something...
 
That is incredible... I don't think it is here, but I know rents are up. Is this a national average? A lot of retired people live in apartments.
I don't know if there's really such a thing as a "national average". Different areas of the country and even different areas of each state have rental costs that can differ widely. I know we see that here in Jersey.
 
$1,700/mo is the average in our university section.

I would be more interested in the median rent. The median rent in my area is about $850/mo.

The statistic that concerns me the most is approx. half of the people in my area rent and half own. The drop in home ownership wouldn’t concern me if I believed that the renters were saving and investing the money that could be going into a home.
 

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