Don’t Underestimate Social Security When Planning For Retirement
July 6, 2009
Most people underestimate the impact that Social Security will have on their retirement. They either assume it won’t be there for them, or that it won’t be enough to make a difference.
The truth is that Social Security will be there for you (although I suspect it will be revised several times to help improve the financial outlook of the system), and it could play a big part in your retirement years, depending on how much other income and assets you have available.
Social Security has several unique features that you won’t see in most financial products available today:
What is Social Security? A Brief History…
June 14, 2009
Social security programs first appeared in Europe in response to families moving from farming to working for others as the world became industrialized. Germany established the first social security program way back in 1889.
In the United States, the Great Depression triggered an economic crisis that caused millions of seniors to become impoverished. President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Social Security Act in 1935 in an attempt to provide economic security for the elderly.
Under the original Social Security retirement program, only workers received benefits , and only retirement benefits (there were no survivor or disbility benefits under the original Social Security program). In 1939, the act was amended to provide benefits to spouses and children for both retired and deceased workers.
The monthly retirement benefit didn’t begin until 1940, and the first recipient was Ida May Fuller, a retired legal secretary. Ida May continued to receive benefits until she died at age 100.