Republicans should propose to phase out SS and replace it with this proven plan.

[Nostra]

It doesn't pay for current retirees. It only works as a 401K, not as Social Security, dunce.

Sure it does. Current retirees are paid from THEIR funds accumulated over their career.

 

[Marener]

Sure it does. Current retirees are paid from THEIR funds accumulated over their career.

Current retirees don’t have funds accumulated over their careers to be paid from.

 

[Richard-H]

4 counties in TX opted out of SS before Congress outlawed it. They set up their own system and the results speak for themselves.

Who here would choose SS over this plan?

But the Alternate Plan takes a different approach, one I call a “banking model.” Employee and employer contributions are actively managed by a financial planner—in this case, First Financial Benefits, Inc., of Houston, which both originated the plan and has managed it since inception.

The contributions are pooled, like bank deposits, and top-rated financial institutions bid on the money. Those institutions guarantee an interest rate that won’t go below a base level, and could go higher if the market does well. Over the last decade, the accounts have earned between 3.75 percent and 5.75 percent every year, with an average of around 5 percent. The 1990s often saw even higher interest rates, 6.5 to 7 percent. Thus, when the market goes up, employees make more; and when the market goes down, employees still make something.

Like Social Security, employees contribute 6.2 percent of their income, with the county matching the contribution (Galveston has chosen to provide a slightly larger share). Once the county makes its contribution, its financial obligation is done. So there are no long-term unfunded liabilities.

But not all of that money goes into an employee’s retirement account. When financial planner Rick Gornto devised the Alternate Plan in 1981, he wanted it to be a complete substitute for Social Security. And Social Security isn’t just a retirement fund; it’s social insurance that provides a death benefit—a whopping $255—survivors’ insurance, and a disability benefit.

Part of the employer contribution in the Alternate Plan goes toward a term life insurance policy, which pays four times the employee’s salary tax free, up to a maximum of $215,000. That’s nearly 850 times Social Security’s death benefit.

More importantly, if a worker participating in Social Security dies before retirement, he loses his contribution (though part of that money might go to surviving children, if any, or a spouse who didn’t work and therefore didn’t establish his or her own benefits). But a worker in the Alternate Plan owns his account, so the entire account belongs to the estate. There is also, among other benefits, a disability benefit that pays immediately upon injury, rather than waiting six months, plus other restrictions, as under Social Security.

And those who retire under the Galveston model do much better than Social Security. For example:

• A lower-middle income worker making about $26,000 at retirement would get about $1,007 a month under Social Security, but $1,826 under the Alternate Plan, according to First Financial’s calculations.
• A middle-income worker making $51,200 would get about $1,540 monthly from Social Security, but $3,600 from the banking model.
• And a high-income worker who maxed out on his Social Security contribution every year would receive about $2,500 a month from Social Security vs. $5,000 to $6,000 a month from the Alternate Plan.

What the Alternate Plan has demonstrated over 30 years is that personal retirement accounts work, with many retirees making more than twice what they would have made under Social Security. And that model could work for the roughly 25 percent of public employees—about 6 million people—who are part of state and local government retirement plans. It could also serve as a model for reforming Social Security.

How Three Texas Counties Created Personal Social Security Accounts and Prospered

Three Texas counties opted out of Social Security 30 years ago by switching to personal accounts, and those workers have made money every year.

www.forbes.com

While it's always a good idea to think up possible alternatives, the is a huge flaw in your plan:

It depends entirely on private enterprise any part of which can go belly up.

The idea behind SS is that the Government will never go belly up. The 'Full Faith and Credit' of the U.S. government is the most reliable financial institution in the world.

If the U.S. Government goes belly up, so does everyone else.

 

[Nostra]

Current retirees don’t have funds accumulated over their careers to be paid from.

Wow! You really are stupid.

Run along, Dumbass. You are clueless.

 

[Nostra]

While it's always a good idea to think up possible alternatives, the is a huge flaw in your plan:

It depends entirely on private enterprise any part of which can go belly up.

The idea behind SS is that the Government will never go belly up. The 'Full Faith and Credit' of the U.S. government is the most reliable financial institution in the world.

If the U.S. Government goes belly up, so does everyone else.

Nope. They never lost money in any year. That’s how the investments are set up.

 

[kyzr]

Sure it does. Current retirees are paid from THEIR funds accumulated over their career.

What happens on day-1 when millions of retirees are looking for their SS check?

 

[Marener]

Wow! You really are stupid.

Run along, Dumbass. You are clueless.

You clearly don’t understand how social security works.

Current retirees are paid with social security taxes by current workers. This plan has current workers send their money to accounts, meaning it’s no longer available to pay the benefits of current retirees.

This is a huge problem. The article has no solution.

 

[Flash]

4 counties in TX opted out of SS before Congress outlawed it. They set up their own system and the results speak for themselves.

Who here would choose SS over this plan?

But the Alternate Plan takes a different approach, one I call a “banking model.” Employee and employer contributions are actively managed by a financial planner—in this case, First Financial Benefits, Inc., of Houston, which both originated the plan and has managed it since inception.

The contributions are pooled, like bank deposits, and top-rated financial institutions bid on the money. Those institutions guarantee an interest rate that won’t go below a base level, and could go higher if the market does well. Over the last decade, the accounts have earned between 3.75 percent and 5.75 percent every year, with an average of around 5 percent. The 1990s often saw even higher interest rates, 6.5 to 7 percent. Thus, when the market goes up, employees make more; and when the market goes down, employees still make something.

Like Social Security, employees contribute 6.2 percent of their income, with the county matching the contribution (Galveston has chosen to provide a slightly larger share). Once the county makes its contribution, its financial obligation is done. So there are no long-term unfunded liabilities.

But not all of that money goes into an employee’s retirement account. When financial planner Rick Gornto devised the Alternate Plan in 1981, he wanted it to be a complete substitute for Social Security. And Social Security isn’t just a retirement fund; it’s social insurance that provides a death benefit—a whopping $255—survivors’ insurance, and a disability benefit.

Part of the employer contribution in the Alternate Plan goes toward a term life insurance policy, which pays four times the employee’s salary tax free, up to a maximum of $215,000. That’s nearly 850 times Social Security’s death benefit.

More importantly, if a worker participating in Social Security dies before retirement, he loses his contribution (though part of that money might go to surviving children, if any, or a spouse who didn’t work and therefore didn’t establish his or her own benefits). But a worker in the Alternate Plan owns his account, so the entire account belongs to the estate. There is also, among other benefits, a disability benefit that pays immediately upon injury, rather than waiting six months, plus other restrictions, as under Social Security.

And those who retire under the Galveston model do much better than Social Security. For example:

• A lower-middle income worker making about $26,000 at retirement would get about $1,007 a month under Social Security, but $1,826 under the Alternate Plan, according to First Financial’s calculations.
• A middle-income worker making $51,200 would get about $1,540 monthly from Social Security, but $3,600 from the banking model.
• And a high-income worker who maxed out on his Social Security contribution every year would receive about $2,500 a month from Social Security vs. $5,000 to $6,000 a month from the Alternate Plan.

What the Alternate Plan has demonstrated over 30 years is that personal retirement accounts work, with many retirees making more than twice what they would have made under Social Security. And that model could work for the roughly 25 percent of public employees—about 6 million people—who are part of state and local government retirement plans. It could also serve as a model for reforming Social Security.

How Three Texas Counties Created Personal Social Security Accounts and Prospered

Three Texas counties opted out of Social Security 30 years ago by switching to personal accounts, and those workers have made money every year.

www.forbes.com

The replacement plan is really simple.

You do the proper things to provide for your retirement.

 

[Nostra]

What happens on day-1 when millions of retirees are looking for their SS check?

Why would that happen?

 

[kyzr]

Why would that happen?

Because we're retired now.

 

[Nostra]

The replacement plan is really simple.

You do the proper things to provide for your retirement.

Believe me, we have done that. I don’t expect there to be a dime of SS when I get that age, which isn’t far off.

 

[Nostra]

Because we're retired now.

I’m talking about the plan in the OP being a replacement for SS.

I never claimed the link spelled out a transition plan.

 

[Flash]

Believe me, we have done that. I don’t expect there to be a dime of SS when I get that age, which isn’t far off.

I am retired. The combined SS for my wife and I is about 16% of our total retirement income. Some people it is like 75% or even more. If anybody thinks they can retire on SS alone and have anything close to a reasonable standard of living then they are crazy.

I would gladly give up the money we get for SS if my children and grandchildren didn't have to be burdened with it.

 

[Marener]

I’m talking about the plan in the OP being a replacement for SS.

I never claimed the link spelled out a transition plan.

That's a huge hole in the plan.

 

[Dragonlady]

4 counties in TX opted out of SS before Congress outlawed it. They set up their own system and the results speak for themselves.

Who here would choose SS over this plan?

But the Alternate Plan takes a different approach, one I call a “banking model.” Employee and employer contributions are actively managed by a financial planner—in this case, First Financial Benefits, Inc., of Houston, which both originated the plan and has managed it since inception.

The contributions are pooled, like bank deposits, and top-rated financial institutions bid on the money. Those institutions guarantee an interest rate that won’t go below a base level, and could go higher if the market does well. Over the last decade, the accounts have earned between 3.75 percent and 5.75 percent every year, with an average of around 5 percent. The 1990s often saw even higher interest rates, 6.5 to 7 percent. Thus, when the market goes up, employees make more; and when the market goes down, employees still make something.

Like Social Security, employees contribute 6.2 percent of their income, with the county matching the contribution (Galveston has chosen to provide a slightly larger share). Once the county makes its contribution, its financial obligation is done. So there are no long-term unfunded liabilities.

But not all of that money goes into an employee’s retirement account. When financial planner Rick Gornto devised the Alternate Plan in 1981, he wanted it to be a complete substitute for Social Security. And Social Security isn’t just a retirement fund; it’s social insurance that provides a death benefit—a whopping $255—survivors’ insurance, and a disability benefit.

Part of the employer contribution in the Alternate Plan goes toward a term life insurance policy, which pays four times the employee’s salary tax free, up to a maximum of $215,000. That’s nearly 850 times Social Security’s death benefit.

More importantly, if a worker participating in Social Security dies before retirement, he loses his contribution (though part of that money might go to surviving children, if any, or a spouse who didn’t work and therefore didn’t establish his or her own benefits). But a worker in the Alternate Plan owns his account, so the entire account belongs to the estate. There is also, among other benefits, a disability benefit that pays immediately upon injury, rather than waiting six months, plus other restrictions, as under Social Security.

And those who retire under the Galveston model do much better than Social Security. For example:

• A lower-middle income worker making about $26,000 at retirement would get about $1,007 a month under Social Security, but $1,826 under the Alternate Plan, according to First Financial’s calculations.
• A middle-income worker making $51,200 would get about $1,540 monthly from Social Security, but $3,600 from the banking model.
• And a high-income worker who maxed out on his Social Security contribution every year would receive about $2,500 a month from Social Security vs. $5,000 to $6,000 a month from the Alternate Plan.

What the Alternate Plan has demonstrated over 30 years is that personal retirement accounts work, with many retirees making more than twice what they would have made under Social Security. And that model could work for the roughly 25 percent of public employees—about 6 million people—who are part of state and local government retirement plans. It could also serve as a model for reforming Social Security.

How Three Texas Counties Created Personal Social Security Accounts and Prospered

Three Texas counties opted out of Social Security 30 years ago by switching to personal accounts, and those workers have made money every year.

www.forbes.com

Count on Nostra to latch onto an apples and oranges idea. This plan was limited to COUNTY EMPLOYEES. So our have to be a lifelong employee of the county to benefit.

This is no different than a private pension plan except it has municipal backing and access to tax dollars to cover fraud and economic collapses. And as we’ve seen with private pension plans, if the company is sold, goes bankrupt or is subject to fraud, the money is gone and the workers have nothing.

Giving municipal workers access to millions of dollars is a classically bad idea. The worst corruption and theft from the public purse takes place at the local levels of politics, the county, or the state. This is where the lowest paid public officials work, and they are the ones who are most easily seduced by bribery or extortion.

 

[Dragonlady]

I am retired. The combined SS for my wife and I is about 16% of our total retirement income. Some people it is like 75% or even more. If anybody thinks they can retire on SS alone and have anything close to a reasonable standard of living then they are crazy.

I would gladly give up the money we get for SS if my children and grandchildren didn't have to be burdened with it.

That’s because YOU can afford it. For the more than 40% of American workers who have no savings or 401Ks, they’re going to need that guaranteed income down the road.

95% of the general public don’t have enough money to retire on. That’s WHY SS and Medicare were created in the FIRST place.

 

[WEATHER53]

That would be the Liberal Mooching plan to take monies that people have paid for 3, 4,5 Decades and give it to deadbeats because their “plight” is more “noble”

 

[WEATHER53]

Current retirees do not need to do one freaking thing. They did it already and fullfilled their responsibilities.
Get off your dead assess hoochie mommas and deadbeat grifters and take care of your own business which will take care of those who did what they should and preceded you.

 

[Nostra]

That's a huge hole in the plan.

Why?

 

[Flash]

That’s because YOU can afford it. For the more than 40% of American workers who have no savings or 401Ks, they’re going to need that guaranteed income down the road.

95% of the general public don’t have enough money to retire on. That’s WHY SS and Medicare were created in the FIRST place.

They should have worked harder and/or smarter, like my wife and I did. It is not my responsibility to pay your goddamn bills or to subsidize your bad life choices.