Saturday, February 26, 2011

Tales of a Pensioner


If I wait four or five years, my Social Security check will be a few bucks a month fatter than it will be if I start drawing it now, in theory. 


(That theory is predicated on the notion that Social Security will still be around in a few years. Or that I will be. In order for things to go smoothly for me down that road, both need to happen. My crystal ball needs cleaning, 'cause I can't see that answer in it.)


After due consideration, I decided to go ahead and start drawing the stipend now. Lord knows I paid enough into the system for forty-odd years that I'm happy to get a little of it back, and while I have to be careful how much income I earn for the next year and a half–after sixty-five, all bets are off–I'm figuring that carpe pension might be the better way to go. 


If I live to be ninety, I might wish I'd waited for the larger check, but in the meantime, three-quarters of a loaf would seem to be better than none. If you suspect the bank is gonna run out of money, it seems, I dunno, prudent to withdraw yours before it's all gone, doesn't it?


Of course, that assumes that the United States Congress doesn't shut the country down and stop paying SS because it is playing chicken and refusing to fund governmental operations, waiting to see who blinks first. Last time the R's shut the government down, it turned around and bit them on the ass pretty good, helping Bill Clinton to four more years. Might be too much to hope that they'd be that stupid again ...

4 comments:

Some guy said...

I'm one of the few grumbling even if Social Security is funded forever. Seems there's a rule that if they don't take ENOUGH social security from you they never have to pay any of it back. So I'll never see a cent of money they took when I was poor, supposedly for my own benefit. Grrrr.

Jim said...

It'd be nice if I could designate my donation to the federal Ponzi scheme that is Social Security go to you, my folks, and some others that I respect...

Even if I can't do it in reality -- let's pretend, OK? At least I can feel better about what I'm paying into that way!

Anonymous said...

The left-wing conspiracy theory that the people who say 'Social Security is doomed' are right-wingers trying to scare you? I believe it.

And I don't believe much from today's left.

Bruce

Dojo Rat said...

Social Security is fully funded for almost thirty years to come.
Listen;
The "Conservatives" want to take back the entire New Deal. They want to take your Social security and put it in Wall Street Schemes.
How's that working for everybody.
Did you forget about the "Great Bank robbery" of 2008?

Point is, we need social safety nets. I don't want to go back to 1929, and we don't need these modern robber barons on Wall Street in control of public money any more than they already are.