Is now a good time to talk about making your social security funds accessible to the stock market by others?

[sincere12_26]

I mean, the stock market IS infallible, and it is (was) your money; right?

[PJ]

Yeah, lets talk about that.

[madeit]

Now is a good chance to look up ever legislator that voted against that and send them a Thank You note.

[General Custer]

I would have invested mine in GNMAs.

[doreen k]

McCain still advocates for privatizing Social Security. He thinks it's a good idea.

[Sahara]

I worked in the industry. There is a reason I left even though I worked with wonderful people that are not typical. It's important to note they are still very successful because I keep in touch with them. You can be successful and moral. The stock market is not in my estimation an appropriate place for social security funds. I view social security as a back up. Most people do not understand the stock market. I worked with retirement accounts. It's not a good idea to let most people run wild with them so to speak. They just do not have the sophistication. I started working with them before the fees that they charge were made public. People had no idea how much they were being charged. It was a lot, as much as they could get away with. We employees weren't making that much. We worked very hard. My managers told me that I was a big asset to the company because of my high productivity.

I advocate for keeping social security as it is. I know it's in trouble but letting it be privatized is going to create more problems, not less.

edit: If they went ahead with privatization then widespread financial education should be mandatory to get people up to speed. Wall Street is against financial education. You can find articles in financial magazines that talk about what a mistake that is. I read one. The educated investor is an investor that is less profitable for Wall Street. It's a fact.

[Marcello]

How can you NOT advocate having some or all of it privatized?

Of course, its the popular thing to be against the idea because the market is so down this past year, but when you consider:

1 - there has never been a 30 year period in the history of social security where the S&P has not far surpassed its returns. Yes, that is accurate…even if you invested the same money that went into your SS for the last 30 years instead into the S&P (even with the market as far down as it has been) you would have MUCH more money than you get with Social Security.

2 - as bad as the markets have been, Social Security has much bigger problems at the moment. Remember baby boomers that are starting to retire? Remember the fact that without drastically changing how the Government allocates its funds, there will be no funds for SS?


Don't get sucked into the idea that a paltry 2% return from Social Security is better for you just because the markets are currently down - that is only the claim of those unwilling to face facts.