I'm Stuart Varney and this is “My Take.”
Well, well, well! It appears we're feeling a lot better about our personal finances. What a switch! For years we've been harangued about not having enough money saved, or not being able to meet a financial emergency, or we're going to have to suffer in retirement.
Well, thank you, Mr. Trump. Thank you for the stock market rally, which you helped along, because it has made an enormous difference to our retirement years.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute finds 82 percent of retirees are "optimistic" they can live comfortably. That the highest level since the annual survey began in 1990. Isn't that the exact opposite from what you've always heard? One-thousand retirees and 1,000 workers aged over 25 took the survey.
They're happy because their retirement savings are largely in stocks, and stocks have gone straight up since President Trump was elected. Fifty-five million have a 401(k) and 35 million have an IRA. Those are private savings and they're doing well.
In contrast: the public pension plan, social security is not doing well. It starts paying out more than it takes in next year. In other words, it's going into deficit soon. And it will totally run out of money earlier than predicted.
You see, Social Security doesn't invest in stocks, so the trust fund has not benefited from the market rally. I'm not suggesting for one moment that you won't get your money. To me, that’s out of the question. No politician could survive the collapse of Social Security. Period!
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The one and only way to avoid exactly what you describe is to do what Chile did under General Pinochet :
Privatize the damn system.
In theory, it is not that difficult to do what they did:
Well, well, well! It appears we're feeling a lot better about our personal finances. What a switch! For years we've been harangued about not having enough money saved, or not being able to meet a financial emergency, or we're going to have to suffer in retirement.
Well, thank you, Mr. Trump. Thank you for the stock market rally, which you helped along, because it has made an enormous difference to our retirement years.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute finds 82 percent of retirees are "optimistic" they can live comfortably. That the highest level since the annual survey began in 1990. Isn't that the exact opposite from what you've always heard? One-thousand retirees and 1,000 workers aged over 25 took the survey.
They're happy because their retirement savings are largely in stocks, and stocks have gone straight up since President Trump was elected. Fifty-five million have a 401(k) and 35 million have an IRA. Those are private savings and they're doing well.
In contrast: the public pension plan, social security is not doing well. It starts paying out more than it takes in next year. In other words, it's going into deficit soon. And it will totally run out of money earlier than predicted.
You see, Social Security doesn't invest in stocks, so the trust fund has not benefited from the market rally. I'm not suggesting for one moment that you won't get your money. To me, that’s out of the question. No politician could survive the collapse of Social Security. Period!
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The one and only way to avoid exactly what you describe is to do what Chile did under General Pinochet :
Privatize the damn system.
In theory, it is not that difficult to do what they did:
- Age 60 and over-- no change.
- For each year under 60, reduce by 3% and invest in a choice of privately managed funds.
- Age 26 and under, the taxes and social security benefits shrink to zero, but you invest the comparable amount.
This plan moved Chile from a third world economy to a first world economy in less than two generations.
