Do you sincerely believe people earning $14,560/year can afford investing 4% of it? - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 04/03/2013 04:10:38 AM
Your math is appalling regardless; do not quit your day jo—oh... crap.... 
View original postIf you make $7.00 an hour, working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, that comes out to be $14,560 a year. If you invest 4%, that comes out to $48.00 a month. If you do that for 50 years – this is assuming that you never get a raise - you’d have ~$1,253,000. That would give you ~$8,300 a month after you retire, and when you die, your family still has over a million dollars.
$7/hrX40 hrs/weekX4 weeks/monthX0.4=$44.80/month. Still closer than the other figures you cited: $44.80/monthX12 months/yearX50 years=26,880=/=1,253,000. Saving every penny of a $14,560 annual income (which is ridiculous; it is below the federal poverty level for a family of just 2) only gets to $728,000. Maybe you meant some kind of investment with a 4% rate of return, but I honestly have no idea how you got to the number you did; 44.8/month compounded annually at 4% only reaches $85,356.78 in 50 years; compounded MONTHLY the first month ALONE reaches about 1/3 of the current SS trust fund by then.
View original postSocial Security’s monthly benefit for the same individual (via their online calculator) is $664. However, they were taking 15% (7.5% from the individual and 7.5% from the employer) of his income; almost 4 times as much money. With Social Security, when you die, you leave nothing but Social Security’s wonderfully generous $255 death benefit (payable only once per family), and unless you were fortunate enough to die on the first day of the month, someone has to reimburse the government for your last $644 check (no prorating over the month, even if you died on the last day) in full.
First of all, 7.5% of an individuals income plus the same from their employer is NOT taking 15% from an individual. Further, saving 4%/month of $14,560/year is STILL only $26,880. At $664/month, SS surpasses that in just 4.5 years even if we ignore the death benefit.
Your first sign of trouble should have been concluding someone earning less than federal poverty level can retire a millionaire. 
View original postThe math is “..so simple even a caveman can do it.”
Then maybe you should call one.
View original postSocial (in)Security is a complete rip-off, and there can be no debate about it; facts are facts.
Social security costs you 4 times as much, and returns about 1/12th the money.
Please tell me you are a marketer, not an actuary; I NEED that to be true.
