GREENSBORO, N.C. — Whether you get paid every Friday, every other week, or just once a month,
our paychecks all have two things in common: you earn money and you pay taxes. When it comes to taxes, you pay Federal, Medicare, Social security, and state taxes.
For both Medicare and Social Security, you're paying now for someone else to use those benefits now. The promise is these benefits will exist when you're ready to use them
But recently viewer Rhonda asked, “I keep hearing social security will run out in about 16 years, so why are they still taking it out of our paychecks when we will not have it when we are old enough to retire?”
“Social Security is not going away, it may look different from the way it does now and when you retire. We're going to have continuous reform. They can adjust how much folks pay in and increase that, can adjust the retirement age. if you're born after 1960 as of right now, your retirement age is going to be 70. So, they could adjust that and keep adjusting that up,” said Scott Braddock of Scott Braddock Financial.
Braddock says the biggest mistake folks make is to take Social Security benefits too early. For example, if your full retirement age isn't until 70 years old but you start receiving Social Security benefits at 62. You won't be getting your full benefit, it will be at least 25% less.
Rhonda also asked, “People who have never worked, do they get social security, if so, why?”
You have to have worked 10 years to earn 40 Social Security credits to get benefits. Social Security provides survivor benefits to spouses, whether they worked or not.
“80% of the folks receiving the survivor benefit are females and that's what happens when once spouse passes away the ladies outlive us guys and this is a women's issue in the future, just imagine the political representatives we vote and elect if they say they want to do away with Social Security it would be a political nightmare,” said Braddock.