Today's Social Security benefits are too small to give retirees financial stability

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

50. Social Security has essentially a ten year vesting.

For Social Security to be twice what it is, we'd all have to pay double into it.

Suggesting that employer pensions be rolled into SS doesn't really make sense.

One problem with pensions is that many of them are underfunded. I know. My pension is one third of what it should be, thanks to my former company underfunding, going bankrupt, and passing the pension obligation to the PBGC, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. In many ways I'm lucky, in that I worked for that company from 1969 to 1979, and even though when I left I was vested in the pension, I always figured it would be maybe $100/month. It is somewhat more than that, but looking at mailings from some years ago, it ought to be a whole lot more.

I'm lucky. I always assumed that my pension would be quite small, maybe enough to by catfood for my several cats, and so I never counted on it as a significant source of income. But a lot of people who worked for that company for thirty years or more, assumed the pension would be a major part of their retirement. Instead, it was cut significantly. Which is why I think 401k plans are vastly better. The money is there.

Various government entities are similarly in a crisis. They have likewise underfunded their pension plans for a decade or more. Often they've simply assumed (foolishly) that increased tax revenue would bail out the pensions. At some point, the house of cards will collapse. Again, this is an argument in favor of things like 401k plans, or 403b plan (which I had recently when I worked for a hospital) as well as additional savings on the part of the individual.

I'm old enough to remember when my grandparents were among the earliest of Social Security recipients, and how truly modest that sum was. Back then the assumption was that old people would probably live with adult children, meaning their financial needs were quite small. A lot has changed since then, mainly the assumptions about where an elderly person might live.

I think a lot about where I will end up in the future. I'm currently 71 years old, in very good health, on my own, in a small home in Santa Fe, NM, that I just love. I would like to live here the rest of my life, but that may not be possible, depending on various things.