👴👵 What Are YOUR RETIREMENT CONCERNS today?

Part B went up a little but all other insurances skyrocketed!

Yes, @GeorgeM80439 - NO TRUST FUND ledgers have any money directly in them - but we have NO reserve for anything - we print money for our needs, and with each printing of more and more - the dollar is worth less and less.

A far cry from those of us who have managed our finances well and have a reserve to fund our retirement, our healthcare, our other needs - 

The Budget details certain spending as discretionary and NON-discretionary (mandatory) - meaning that Congress either has to fund it annually (discretionary) OR  it is suppose to run on its on via various funding sources - NON-discretionary (mandatory).  

In the case of the Social Security and Medicare (Part A) Trust funds, they are funded primarily by payroll taxes and then SS also get funds from the taxes paid on Social Security benefits which some of us have to pay plus interest from the special treasuries where the reserve is shown to be in the bookkeeping of our government.

The SS law does require that these programs be self-sufficient but currently they aren't because we have too much going out (benefits) and too little coming in - 

Without a correction to these numbers (outgoing or incoming, or some of both) we will reach insolvency in the programs of SS and Medicare not too far into the future.

Insolvency means that the trust fund is unable to pay benefits in full and on time. It does not mean that Social Security will be completely eliminated and unable to pay any benefits. But the law also covers a situation such as this specifying that future benefits could only be paid from taxes collected.  At the present time, the Social Security Trustee Reports says that current benefits would be cut about 20% in order to meet this requirement - The dates of this drift around 2033 - 2034 for Social Security and a bit earlier for Medicare 2031(paying out about 89% when insolvency hits the HI Trust fund).

Numbers Don't Lie - so even if we had the cash readily available in each of these Trust Funds under some lock and key - we would still be short.

Some links for those that are interested:

Social Security Trust Funds Trustee Report 2023 - Summary 

Congressional Reserarch Service - Social Security: What Would Happen If theTrust Funds Ran Out?       Updated October 15, 2021

SSA.gov - Social Security Trust Fund Data

The problem is easy to describe - it is the solution(s) that we seem to have a problem doing something about.  There are tons of proposals to fix it but it seems many of them want to expand it before any fix.

SSA.gov - Proposals to Change Social Security to fix Insolvency

Happy Reading 

@k40013h 

If Eligible, you do get a $ 250,000 or $ 500,000 if married, tax sale exclusion on the sale of your personal residence.

IRS.gov - Topic no. 701, Sale of your home 

Of course, you use the modified basis in the house as your starting point in determining your gain.  

Yes, gains reported on your tax return are counted as income for IRMAA (Medicare taxes) computation because any capital gains you make over this exclusionary amount is income that you can use in retirement, just like any other income you get after retirement from wherever. When you add all these income sources together and they go over whatever the higher earner income limit for whatever year, you pay these IRMAA Part B added premiums because you are classified as a higher income earner receiving the Medicare benefit. 

I pay IRMAA Part B added premiums and if I ever sell my home I will also be in this same situation since the amount that I am paying will go up.  I am also a [long term] widow so I only get the $ 250,000 exclusion even though my husband and I shared this house together before his death many years ago.

It is what it is - being old does not exempt us from many tax requirements.  However, sometimes at the state level you can get a break with an additional property tax exemption for being old(er) or a state may be very generous in any retirement income exclusion.  

The income exclusion amount does not cover all of mine in my state but it does cover a fair portion of it.  

I am grateful for at least some offset - we still participate in life in this country so we still have a financial stake in it too.  

Have you ever thought about the fact that when people sell their home and receive thousands of dollars in equity from escalated market values, that it is adding to the affordability of home which so many are having to face nowadays.  I hope that there is never a limit of capital games put on such a sale but that would be an option to create a more affordable home marketplace for the many.  

Just something to think about -