Social Security... What Security?

Social Security... What Security?

In the "good old days," you didn't need to worry so much about how you would manage money-wise when you retired.

That's because you could rely on Social Security or your corporate pension to carry you through. Unfortunately, it appears those days are gone forever.

In case you're counting on Social Security for your retirement income, here are a few things you might consider:

* According to the trustees of Social Security, the system will run short of cash in the very near future. The Social Security fund could become unable to pay its promised benefits in as little as 11 years from today.

* U.S. taxpayers owe more than half a million dollars per household for financial promises made by their government... mostly to cover retirement benefits for baby boomers.

* Right now, the government's unfunded obligations are up to a record-high $57.8 trillion.

It's no surprise that the Heritage Foundation suggests that as "America's 77 million baby boomers begin retiring in waves, the Social Security checks they draw will eventually bankrupt the system."

Or perhaps you are counting on your corporate pension. But for most, those pension checks won't even cover the necessities, let alone luxuries.

And that's assuming the payments are even there when you retire...

An article in The New York Times observes that virtually every company that operates a pension fund today has "ranged far afield from the conservative bonds that secured pensions years ago."

United Airlines, for example, finished 2003 with $6.9 billion in assets - just over half of what it needs to pay its $13.1 billion of obligations to retirees.

And United is'nt an isolated incident...

In 2005 alone, about 120 corporations terminated their pension plans. Today, only one out of five corporate employees in America is covered by a pension plan, and...

…8 Out of 10 Corporate Pensions
Are Running Out of Money!

You read that right: 8 out of 10 corporate benefit plans are under-funded. As a result, U.S. corporations are defaulting on their existing pension obligations at a staggering rate:

* Two major airlines, Northwest and Delta, recently turned to bankruptcy court to delay or terminate their pension obligations.

* General Motors has a staggering $64 billion in outstanding unfunded healthcare obligations - $50 billion more than its market capitalization!

* Despite record profits, ExxonMobil recently announced that it has under-funded its pension plan by $11.2 billion (even though the company paid a $400 million severance package to departed CEO Lee Raymond).

And don't count on the federal government to keep your pension checks if your company runs out of money.

The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) is the government institution that guarantees pension plans. Over the last 30 years, the PBGC has been forced to take over 3,400 pension plans and they now have a whopping $23 billion deficit.

Experts agree that pension plans are a thing of the past. And it's likely we can expect the same for Social Security in the years ahead.