A question to those LIVING in America today

[nonothing]

Yes Sandhusker I did get some answers. and thank you to all that enjoyed using the oppertunity to name call and run me down....I knew i would get some of that from the lesser stand up folks of this site....

To those that answered in good faith I appericiate the response....

Aplus,as much as I and you battle,sometimes laying down the swords for a brief moment in time to show your oppenent you care,is not always a bad thing...,I offer my condolences upon just reading about your father passing away recently....It hurts to lose a parent no matter how old we are....I hope your mother is getting on ok and that she has lots of grand kids to get hugs from.......

 

[aplusmnt]

Yes Sandhusker I did get some answers. and thank you to all that enjoyed using the oppertunity to name call and run me down....I knew i would get some of that from the lesser stand up folks of this site....

To those that answered in good faith I appericiate the response....

Aplus,as much as I and you battle,sometimes laying down the swords for a brief moment in time to show your oppenent you care,is not always a bad thing...,I offer my condolences upon just reading about your father passing away recently....It hurts to lose a parent no matter how old we are....I hope your mother is getting on ok and that she has lots of grand kids to get hugs from.......

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Lets JUST take Social Security. It gets spent. Each and every year they spend it instead of using it for its intended function. SS should be treated just like a 401K and never go to pork barrel ventures or be used for anything else.

I remember getting my SS paid up in May or June each year. Then it went up, then it went up some more, and more, and then you can never completely pay it up and they added medicare payments on to that. Once they get their foot in the door, they never stop.

My father drew one SS check. That's it. He and my mother were not married at the time of his death. Of all those years he paid, there was not much return. I have been paying for 36 years now and they tell me there will not be any nickels for me when I retire. Where did it go?

It is the exact same story for the nuclear repository. Every nuke plant (each unit) in America has paid 10 million per year for a repository dating back to the early 70's. That is nearly 400 million per unit (some plants are multiple units) not ocunting the interest that would have acrued if that money had been ear marked for its intended function. When the subject of the repository came up, Hillary's EXACT words were, "Where are we going to get the money to build that?"

Where did the money go? Where did the SS money go?

I am not going to address any more of your questions in this post.

My dad was the same he recently died and had only received his SS for a little over one year. My mom will get a small boost in hers since dads was more than hers but other than that all that money he paid in gone! My mom could have lived comfortably that money if it was allowed to be privately invested!

Even worse they take our money that is ear marked for specific reasons and then just blow it on what they see fit, any little social program they want instead of the one the took it out of our checks for! And health care is next!

Aplus you are so wrong about SS. What if your Dad had died while you were a child. SS would have helped your mother while you were a child and any other children. What if your Dad had become disabled before retirement would SS have helped you bet it would. If there were no SS and your Dad started saving and only had a year saved and died then what would you and your mother have done. Saving for a year would not go very far. SS is there for more than the old people.

 

[Anonymous]

Lets JUST take Social Security. It gets spent. Each and every year they spend it instead of using it for its intended function. SS should be treated just like a 401K and never go to pork barrel ventures or be used for anything else.

I remember getting my SS paid up in May or June each year. Then it went up, then it went up some more, and more, and then you can never completely pay it up and they added medicare payments on to that. Once they get their foot in the door, they never stop.

My father drew one SS check. That's it. He and my mother were not married at the time of his death. Of all those years he paid, there was not much return. I have been paying for 36 years now and they tell me there will not be any nickels for me when I retire. Where did it go?

It is the exact same story for the nuclear repository. Every nuke plant (each unit) in America has paid 10 million per year for a repository dating back to the early 70's. That is nearly 400 million per unit (some plants are multiple units) not ocunting the interest that would have acrued if that money had been ear marked for its intended function. When the subject of the repository came up, Hillary's EXACT words were, "Where are we going to get the money to build that?"

Where did the money go? Where did the SS money go?

I am not going to address any more of your questions in this post.

Back hoe I do not know how far you are from retirement. But SS could help you if you fell off of the tractor or a bull got you down and you become disabled. You could then go on disiability. With in a year after you go on disiabilty you will qualify for Medicare. You might not want it and it would not be forced on you. But I suspect any private company would turn you down. Also if you had employer furnished insurance then that would also be gone. Your part of SS when working is 7.5% I think I may be wrong on that. You should be able to save another 7.5% above that. SS should never to be your sole source for retirement. Also could be if the MFG we have shipped overseas were still here then the wages would be here and SS would be okay. Also the shipping jobs overseas is the fault of our government.
I will admit that the government should not have borrowed from the trust fund. They put IOU's in there.

 

[Sandhusker]

There is a thing called disabilty insurance, Hurley.

 

[aplusmnt]

Lets JUST take Social Security. It gets spent. Each and every year they spend it instead of using it for its intended function. SS should be treated just like a 401K and never go to pork barrel ventures or be used for anything else.

I remember getting my SS paid up in May or June each year. Then it went up, then it went up some more, and more, and then you can never completely pay it up and they added medicare payments on to that. Once they get their foot in the door, they never stop.

My father drew one SS check. That's it. He and my mother were not married at the time of his death. Of all those years he paid, there was not much return. I have been paying for 36 years now and they tell me there will not be any nickels for me when I retire. Where did it go?

It is the exact same story for the nuclear repository. Every nuke plant (each unit) in America has paid 10 million per year for a repository dating back to the early 70's. That is nearly 400 million per unit (some plants are multiple units) not ocunting the interest that would have acrued if that money had been ear marked for its intended function. When the subject of the repository came up, Hillary's EXACT words were, "Where are we going to get the money to build that?"

Where did the money go? Where did the SS money go?

I am not going to address any more of your questions in this post.

My dad was the same he recently died and had only received his SS for a little over one year. My mom will get a small boost in hers since dads was more than hers but other than that all that money he paid in gone! My mom could have lived comfortably that money if it was allowed to be privately invested!

Even worse they take our money that is ear marked for specific reasons and then just blow it on what they see fit, any little social program they want instead of the one the took it out of our checks for! And health care is next!

Aplus you are so wrong about SS. What if your Dad had died while you were a child. SS would have helped your mother while you were a child and any other children. What if your Dad had become disabled before retirement would SS have helped you bet it would. If there were no SS and your Dad started saving and only had a year saved and died then what would you and your mother have done. Saving for a year would not go very far. SS is there for more than the old people.

That's where life insurance comes into play as well as disability insurance. All the answers you are seeking are there in the private sector you do not need the Government for these problems!

So many in this nation have became brain washed into believing they need the Government for financial security! Everything we need is out there for the grabbing in the private sector! Government just screws things up!

 

[MsSage]

apps sending prayers .....loosing your Dad is hard I am sure. I cant say I know since that is the only family memeber I have left ...the others were tough.

 

[aplusmnt]

apps sending prayers .....loosing your Dad is hard I am sure. I cant say I know since that is the only family memeber I have left ...the others were tough.

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

There is a thing called disabilty insurance, Hurley.

I never thought about that. Do the premiums stop when you become disabled. The term life insurance you talk about. Will the premiums increase as you get older. I had a term life insurance policy that was cheap at the start. My need for the policy was to insure a mortgage on some land. The banker required it and I could buy from someone besides his company for a lower price. We dropped it on the first premium increase after the mortgage was paid. We also had to have a medical checkup to get the insurance.
Every ten years the premums increased. How much insurance do you need. For how long. Are you sure that your investments will outlive you. I am asking this not to put you on a spot. Maybe some of the younger ones on here could learn what to do and manage their life. Aplus, backhoe, steve please mentor someone younger with your advise on how to get along in life, explain to them about insurance and such. How much they should be saving to provide for any thing that happens to them.

 

[Cal]

Some excellent answers! Having so much dependancy and government control over our lives should scare the shitt out of all of us.

 

[badaxemoo]

Some excellent answers! Having so much dependancy and government control over our lives should scare the shitt out of all of us.

Yes.

But just think about those poor slobs in Western Europe, and most of the other industrialized nations that pay higher taxes to support more government services.

They must be walking around crapping themselves continually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

 

[Sandhusker]

There is a thing called disabilty insurance, Hurley.

I never thought about that. Do the premiums stop when you become disabled. The term life insurance you talk about. Will the premiums increase as you get older. I had a term life insurance policy that was cheap at the start. My need for the policy was to insure a mortgage on some land. The banker required it and I could buy from someone besides his company for a lower price. We dropped it on the first premium increase after the mortgage was paid. We also had to have a medical checkup to get the insurance.
Every ten years the premums increased. How much insurance do you need. For how long. Are you sure that your investments will outlive you. I am asking this not to put you on a spot. Maybe some of the younger ones on here could learn what to do and manage their life. Aplus, backhoe, steve please mentor someone younger with your advise on how to get along in life, explain to them about insurance and such. How much they should be saving to provide for any thing that happens to them.

Term life insurance is just a bare bones death benefit. There is no cash value or any of that. Your payments are the same for whatever the term is, say 20 years. After the 20 years are up, so is your insurance. You either self insure or buy more insurance. Hopefully, you self insure.

You need life insurance for the first part of your life and the last part of your life, and for different reasons. You need it when you are young to replace the income stream that your family relies on should you die. There is no formula to determine what you need. You just sit down and figure what you want paid and for how long and the total is what you need. Maybe you want the $50K mortgage paid off, and $30K a year for your family for 10 years. That means you need a death benefit of $350K

You need it when you're older for estate issues. When you die, your heirs will have to pay taxes on what you give them. Life insurance provides the funds for them to do that so that they can keep what you give them and not have to sell it for the taxes due.

Hopefully, you don't need it in the middle of your life as you've got enough assets built up that your heirs can use them to live off of and you don't have a large enough estate where taxes will be a problem for them.

Whole life is a ripoff because your money goes into two pots - the pot to pay for the death benefit that you can get via term life and the cash value pot that grows. The insurance companies will brag that the cash value will grow tax free, but they don't tell you that they take a cut off the top of every dollar that goes in and the state takes a cut for taxes. I forget the total, but it might be as much as 10% of every dollar you kick in gets skimmed off. Then, the insurance company invests your money very conservatively so your growth is small.

You're better off to buy term, and take the rest that you would of paid toward the cash value in whole life and put it into an IRA. You will still get the tax benefits, but will also get a tax deduction, no haircut on the money you put in, and the opportunity for much larger gains.

 

[Sandhusker]

Some excellent answers! Having so much dependancy and government control over our lives should scare the shitt out of all of us.

Yes.

But just think about those poor slobs in Western Europe, and most of the other industrialized nations that pay higher taxes to support more government services.

They must be walking around crapping themselves continually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

Just think what the more ambitious Europeans could have if they didn't have to pool with the dead beats. They wouldn't need all those goverment services, they could write a check for what they wanted and skip the rest.

 

[badaxemoo]

Some excellent answers! Having so much dependancy and government control over our lives should scare the shitt out of all of us.

Yes.

But just think about those poor slobs in Western Europe, and most of the other industrialized nations that pay higher taxes to support more government services.

They must be walking around crapping themselves continually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

Just think what the more ambitious Europeans could have if they didn't have to pool with the dead beats. They wouldn't need all those goverment services, they could write a check for what they wanted and skip the rest.

Except it seems that they, as a society, have figured out that investments made to get rid of poverty end up benefitting everyone, even the rich.

But you just go ahead and keep reveling in your Horatio Alger Fantasyland.

 

[Sandhusker]

The benefits enjoyed by that society would be greater via the increased productivity that would result from being rewarded for one's "extra labors" rather than penalized.

Socialism runs counter to human nature. People won't work hard if they get paid the same as the lazy bastards. If nobody works hard, the growth of that society is slowed.

 

[Anonymous]

There is a thing called disability insurance, Hurley.

I never thought about that. Do the premiums stop when you become disabled. The term life insurance you talk about. Will the premiums increase as you get older. I had a term life insurance policy that was cheap at the start. My need for the policy was to insure a mortgage on some land. The banker required it and I could buy from someone besides his company for a lower price. We dropped it on the first premium increase after the mortgage was paid. We also had to have a medical checkup to get the insurance.
Every ten years the premums increased. How much insurance do you need. For how long. Are you sure that your investments will outlive you. I am asking this not to put you on a spot. Maybe some of the younger ones on here could learn what to do and manage their life. Aplus, backhoe, steve please mentor someone younger with your advise on how to get along in life, explain to them about insurance and such. How much they should be saving to provide for any thing that happens to them.

Term life insurance is just a bare bones death benefit. There is no cash value or any of that. Your payments are the same for whatever the term is, say 20 years. After the 20 years are up, so is your insurance. You either self insure or buy more insurance. Hopefully, you self insure.

You need life insurance for the first part of your life and the last part of your life, and for different reasons. You need it when you are young to replace the income stream that your family relies on should you die. There is no formula to determine what you need. You just sit down and figure what you want paid and for how long and the total is what you need. Maybe you want the $50K mortgage paid off, and $30K a year for your family for 10 years. That means you need a death benefit of $350K

You need it when you're older for estate issues. When you die, your heirs will have to pay taxes on what you give them. Life insurance provides the funds for them to do that so that they can keep what you give them and not have to sell it for the taxes due.

Hopefully, you don't need it in the middle of your life as you've got enough assets built up that your heirs can use them to live off of and you don't have a large enough estate where taxes will be a problem for them.

Whole life is a ripoff because your money goes into two pots - the pot to pay for the death benefit that you can get via term life and the cash value pot that grows. The insurance companies will brag that the cash value will grow tax free, but they don't tell you that they take a cut off the top of every dollar that goes in and the state takes a cut for taxes. I forget the total, but it might be as much as 10% of every dollar you kick in gets skimmed off. Then, the insurance company invests your money very conservatively so your growth is small.

You're better off to buy term, and take the rest that you would of paid toward the cash value in whole life and put it into an IRA. You will still get the tax benefits, but will also get a tax deduction, no haircut on the money you put in, and the opportunity for much larger gains.

I really appreciate your answers as I am sure others do. The one on the disability insurance where I asked if premiums had to be paid after a disability occurs do they. The IRA's are a good thing but how many people participate. The 401K are good most companies match dollar for dollar up to a certain amount. Now that is an immediate return on your money. I have participated in all of them. A lot of employees at work borrowed from theirs as soon as they were large enough. Some to take a vacation, some for a new car and such they figured I might as pay myself the interest. On the vacation money gone no return, on car a diminishing investment from the time you get it. I know that taxes are a sore subject to a lot on this board. But I also think that this money when spent by the government gets into the economy and you and I have a chance at it with our products. I am sure poor people eat some of the beef I produce. Speaking of IRA's I am converting mine to the Roth while the equities are low in them in hopes that I will have appreciation on them. On the subject of social security there are some people out there that just cannot manage to take care of themselves and prepare for retirement. What do we do throw them to the wayside. If you are working for the government in any way then figure out what your salary is and divide it by 15% which is the average taxes per person and that is what someone working and producing a product or adding a value to a product will have to make. For instance if you make $75000 someone or a group of someones somewhere had to make $500,000 just so you could get yours. Aplus I suspect if it was not for medicare patients your wife cares for then she would not have job. So here is an example of you benefiting from a government program. For darn sure a poor person spends everything he gets whether working for it or from a government check. At least it gets spent and we get a chance at it if we are smart enough.
I am sure some of you remember when CD'S were 15% that means every 4 years your money would double. My father said to me when this happened. (He prided himself in making money.) you know pretty soon if people like me keeps piling this money up we will have all of it and then what. I had no answer for him. If the select few at the top keeps piling up the money and then what. Lower taxes at the top will keep it there. Higher taxes will put it in the system and anyone including the ones here that are hustlers will have a chance at it. There has always been a revolution when there is no hope for the poor ones in society. So we may have a revolution but it may not be the one you are predicting or hoping for.

 

[aplusmnt]

There is a thing called disabilty insurance, Hurley.

I never thought about that. Do the premiums stop when you become disabled. The term life insurance you talk about. Will the premiums increase as you get older. I had a term life insurance policy that was cheap at the start. My need for the policy was to insure a mortgage on some land. The banker required it and I could buy from someone besides his company for a lower price. We dropped it on the first premium increase after the mortgage was paid. We also had to have a medical checkup to get the insurance.
Every ten years the premums increased. How much insurance do you need. For how long. Are you sure that your investments will outlive you. I am asking this not to put you on a spot. Maybe some of the younger ones on here could learn what to do and manage their life. Aplus, backhoe, steve please mentor someone younger with your advise on how to get along in life, explain to them about insurance and such. How much they should be saving to provide for any thing that happens to them.

Term life insurance is just a bare bones death benefit. There is no cash value or any of that. Your payments are the same for whatever the term is, say 20 years. After the 20 years are up, so is your insurance. You either self insure or buy more insurance. Hopefully, you self insure.

You need life insurance for the first part of your life and the last part of your life, and for different reasons. You need it when you are young to replace the income stream that your family relies on should you die. There is no formula to determine what you need. You just sit down and figure what you want paid and for how long and the total is what you need. Maybe you want the $50K mortgage paid off, and $30K a year for your family for 10 years. That means you need a death benefit of $350K

You need it when you're older for estate issues. When you die, your heirs will have to pay taxes on what you give them. Life insurance provides the funds for them to do that so that they can keep what you give them and not have to sell it for the taxes due.

Hopefully, you don't need it in the middle of your life as you've got enough assets built up that your heirs can use them to live off of and you don't have a large enough estate where taxes will be a problem for them.

Whole life is a ripoff because your money goes into two pots - the pot to pay for the death benefit that you can get via term life and the cash value pot that grows. The insurance companies will brag that the cash value will grow tax free, but they don't tell you that they take a cut off the top of every dollar that goes in and the state takes a cut for taxes. I forget the total, but it might be as much as 10% of every dollar you kick in gets skimmed off. Then, the insurance company invests your money very conservatively so your growth is small.

You're better off to buy term, and take the rest that you would of paid toward the cash value in whole life and put it into an IRA. You will still get the tax benefits, but will also get a tax deduction, no haircut on the money you put in, and the opportunity for much larger gains.

About the only thing I would add to Sandhusker is I believe in having a Term life insurance policy that equals 10 times your yearly wages. Even though it is not an exact you can come pretty close with decent investing to replacing that income lost with a 10 times ratio. So if a spouse makes 40,000 a year you should buy a $400,000 dollar term life policy for them.

Disability Insurance works like Term life, you pick the amount you want to receive per month of being disabled and the time period to be covered. This may be more important than Life Insurance since most of us are 3 times more likely to be disabled than die in near future.

I also recommend having Credit life on any loans you have.

I also recommend looking into checking and savings accounts that offer some free small policies in case of death, might as well get any free insurance you can.

 

[Sandhusker]

Hurley, that's probably a good idea to convert to a Roth now. Personally, I think this market is headed lower, but you can't go wrong converting when it's cut in half.

I don't know if you have to continue paying premiums if you're collecting on disability. I kind of doubt it. If you're already disabled and collecting, why keep paying? Seems kind of like paying auto insurance after you've wrecked the car.

Yes, there are some that can't save for their retirement, and they can have soc. sec. if they want. However, the investment returns on contributions don't even match inflation, which means you're actually losing purchasing power. That's one step above "investing" in a coffee can. I can do better. Let me out, I'll take that money and do much better and be less of a burden on the system when I'm collecting. I'll have an estate that can be taxed.

Those CDs in the early 80s that paid 15% seemed like you were making money, but you really weren't. They were paying 15%, but the problem was that inflation was 18% - thus people were actually losing 3%. They don't realize it, but they were doing much better making 5% when inflation was 3%. At the end of the year, they could buy more than they could at the start, where they couldn't even after making 15% in 1980. It's all about purchasing power.

The people that make money know that that it isn't made by sitting on it. They buy things, they invest, they get that money back into the system creating more wealth. They pull everybody up with them. If you tax them to death, they just leave and then there's nobody around to create anything to pull others up. That's economics 101 that Obama and Pelosi and all the other socialists just don't understand. If you keep hitting the fisherman up for fish, pretty soon he'll go to another lake and then you've got no fish supply and no fish to eat. You can't bite the hand that feeds you, and it's the net worth people that feed us, not the Joe six-packs and the Tyrone and Latrelle's that only know how to chug 40s and rap.

 

[Anonymous]

Hurley, that's probably a good idea to convert to a Roth now. Personally, I think this market is headed lower, but you can't go wrong converting when it's cut in half.

I don't know if you have to continue paying premiums if you're collecting on disability. I kind of doubt it. If you're already disabled and collecting, why keep paying? Seems kind of like paying auto insurance after you've wrecked the car.

Yes, there are some that can't save for their retirement, and they can have soc. sec. if they want. However, the investment returns on contributions don't even match inflation, which means you're actually losing purchasing power. That's one step above "investing" in a coffee can. I can do better. Let me out, I'll take that money and do much better and be less of a burden on the system when I'm collecting. I'll have an estate that can be taxed.

Those CDs in the early 80s that paid 15% seemed like you were making money, but you really weren't. They were paying 15%, but the problem was that inflation was 18% - thus people were actually losing 3%. They don't realize it, but they were doing much better making 5% when inflation was 3%. At the end of the year, they could buy more than they could at the start, where they couldn't even after making 15% in 1980. It's all about purchasing power.

The people that make money know that that it isn't made by sitting on it. They buy things, they invest, they get that money back into the system creating more wealth. They pull everybody up with them. If you tax them to death, they just leave and then there's nobody around to create anything to pull others up. That's economics 101 that Obama and Pelosi and all the other socialists just don't understand. If you keep hitting the fisherman up for fish, pretty soon he'll go to another lake and then you've got no fish supply and no fish to eat. You can't bite the hand that feeds you, and it's the net worth people that feed us, not the Joe six-packs and the Tyrone and Latrelle's that only know how to chug 40s and rap.

The reason I was asking about the disibility insurance was this. The palce I worked before retiring offered disibility insurance.. Most everyone jumped on it thought it was a good deal. They way it worked was like this. They did not pay your full salary. They paid what you would take home. Then after the disibility SS took over then the disibility insurance would take up the rest.
I sit with my Dad one day eating lunch when a young man selling securitys approached him. It was known that my Dad had money but was not rich. Any way the young man made the statement to my Dad you know that the cost of living is eating up your return every day with those CD.s, you know inflation you need to be in the stock market.. My Dad's reply If I aint spending it then I am not losing it. After he left my Dad said to me I aint never going to send my money to the stock market in NY. If I did some Jew would get up ever morning and see what I had and try to screw me out of it.

Also do you think through IRAs and 401Ks there might have been more money put out to be managed by money mangers to point that risky investments were made by the manager trying to show a return. The more you have chasing opprunties the less opprunites that are quality will not be there.

 

[Sandhusker]

Some of the investments take more risk than others, but it depends on where you put your money. With a 401, you've probably got 10 (give or take) choices that cover all the different levels of risk, and if you've got a IRA, you have 1000 choices that go anywhere from emerging growth to goverment bonds to bank CDs. You can read the prospectus (which is hard and boring) or a Morningstar report on the funds to see how risky they are going to be managed before you put your money in.