If the Social Security fund was invested in the stock market...?

[haele]

25. Social Security is an insurance fund, not a retirement fund...

And so, I don't mind seeing a lower return on it than I would with an IRA or CD. It's there to provide a basic allotment upon a retirement age, the loss of a provider's income (if you're a dependent child), or a disability - no matter if one thinks they are rich or poor.

If you pay into the fund along with everyone else, it's there for you when you need it. That's how insurance is supposed to work.

So long as the fund is secure and growth stable, and payments can be depended on, Social Security shouldn't care what the stock market does. That's what investment funds are for.

As it is, with a 401K and two IRAs, I figure if the market doesn't tank again, I can count on perhaps $100 a month from them for 20 - 25 years or so, or a lump sum of $70K (after fees and taxes) from the $90K + that will be in the accounts when I'm 65.
That will be enough to pay off the final 10 years of my $45K student loan for the BS I got last year, and put the rest into a college fund for the grandkids.
So I guess my retirement will depend on what I might inherit from my mom (probably around $200K, unless she outlives me - which she very well might) and my ability to continue to work for the next 15 - 20 years into my 70's (so I can wait to start collecting the max SS I can get). I also plan to start socking away the reserve retiree military pension I'll start to receive when I turn 60 (in 3 1/2 years) into both a rainy day and a trust fund.

But Social Security will be the majority of my retirement until I die. Honestly - if I had been required to put money in an IRA, or some other retirement fund instead of SS, over the ups and downs of a typical working-class experience over the period post 1980's, I don't know if I would have been able to put as much money into retirement as I have been required to do through the Social Security tax.
The amount of time I spent between jobs, or had been faced with a long-term emergency expenses, or even amount of the times I changed employers or had to work part-time would have significantly cut into my ability to put a disciplined regular 5% of all income off the top into a retirement fund. One needs to make money over the basic cost of living to be able to even think of saving money, and at least 20% of my employment over the years has provided a level equal to or just above a basic minimum income to maintain my household and basic expenditures (especially health and child-rearing).

And I certainly don't think half my employers would have been so generous in matching whatever retirement vehicle I would have gotten through work if I was dependent strictly on a 401K or pension.

While it may just be dinner and entertainment money to some lucky retirees who were able to save up a million or more before they were 60, our regular tax payments into Social Security will keep me and my disabled spouse in our double wide well into our decrepitude, and still leave us with perhaps a little to pass on to our kids. And that's taken a huge load off my mind.

Haele