Retirement Benefits: What to Expect in 2011

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Retired now eight years. According the the Dept of Labor stats,
more specifically, Source: http://www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus
using their calculations. our 2002 retirement dollar has lost 15.96638655%.
We lost a 2009 COLA plus a whole lot more and NO COLA for 2010 and 2011.
Ten years projection using the loss of 2.375%/ year brings the loss of
21.37% loss. By 2022 we will have lost 38.17% of our original usd retirement
dollar value. Likewise when we perish, our wifes anunities at 60 years of age also have decompensated likewise, leaving them little to survive on.
The new agencies, of 2010 have no bearing to compensate railroad retirement.
These new medicare benefits are not, and never were part of the railroad retirement fund. In 2010 $43 billion has been printed for the unemployed and then again it is now repeated at another 43 billion, however the RRB anuniant
having put in 33% more during their working years are being deceived by the agreement that quarantees income. The dollar are the same, but the value loss is but another "Medlow scheme".
Anuniants remaining silent need to write, bu the question is to whom.
Whom do we write, as the railroads don't care, the unions no longer represent retired folks and our U.S. senators have little input. We are better off than SS anuniants, however, we too put in more into this private fund, one of the worlds strongest retirement funds, but we're losing our hard earned contrubutions to the devaluation of the USD and then the Congress is going to rig the CPI again to scale back the real consumer price's to take more from us.

dave of NE 6:59PM January 01, 2011

I question the inflation basket used by the number boys in Washington. Basket items such as gasoline, natural gas, heating oil, and other volatile everyday consumer items should never be used to calculate inflation. If just one item offsets all the others in the basket of itmes used for this purpose its disaster time for retirees. Fact: Almost every consumer item has inceased in price with the exception of Housing. While this has happened the Fed holds our saving hostage by having an interest rate at .05 percent. This is just devastating to those retirees that did save for their "golden Years." Ugh!! Even the Dentist wants more to clean our teeth. I look for more horiffic wrongs in the coming year. Obama care is a complete idiots paradise. We have far too many career politicans in office to ever get this nation back on track. They have no idea what it takes to put bread on the table for some low paid, ill SS recipients in this time of turmoil. Changes must be made, and it would be nice to see the Federal Government start with downsizing the fat standing around the drinking jugs.. We have more pencil pushers than we have soldiers protecting us, and this is just crazy.

Rambling Account of GA 2:25PM January 01, 2011

How many "vacations" does the average CEO take in one year? How many has the "CEO" (el presidente/king obama) of the US taken?

carol of TX 9:57AM January 01, 2011

I do not understand why my fellow Americans born in the United States did not pay attention to their junior high teachers and high school teachers when they were in school ! I guess since the whiners are older and after years of squandering their lives on instant gratification... they are complaining about money issues as they've gotten older. Aesop said it best ... to work today is to eat tomorrow and to prepare for want before it comes. The United States is the land of opportunity ! We the prepared should have zero sympathy for those did not listen to their parents, teachers, and religious leaders !

Clark of OKC of MT 12:08PM December 29, 2010

My wife retired this week, I expect to work a little longer (I like what I do)We saved and planned and saved some more. SS is not the end it is a start of retirement funding, just a base line. I too have paid in for 44 years, put three kids thru college and paid off the house. I am responsible for me and mine, if SS went away my wife still would have retired this week. We live simple and need little..I live with in my means. Oh yes by the way I have been to Maui twice it is nice.

Frank of IL 12:06AM December 26, 2010

Look where he is vacationing. Have ant of us ever gone there?
Or should I say or will we ever be able too!

Kathy of NE 8:22PM December 25, 2010

I am retired and you did not pay my way. I have worked since the age of 12 and I started paying into SS at the age of 16. Served my country 4 years during the Viet Nam era. Received an engineering degree and for the next 38 years paid the highest rate into SS.
You are NOT paying my way. However, I paid for your disable or unemployed parents and grand parents; who paid very little or nothing into the SS system. Many other elders like me have contribute into this funds without regrets.
I hope you don't become disable at an early age; them come back here and apologised to those of us who are collecting a meger amount of what we put into SS.
Ernest in Southern CA

Ernest of DC 7:18PM December 25, 2010

Social Security was never intended to cover the full cost of an individual's retirement. If you failed to put aside extra savings -- while working -- to fund a proper retirement -- that's your problem. Please don't come to me (the current worker whose taxes are funding your retirement) for your own personal bailout. Where do you think the money comes from to pay your current benefits? Because Social Security payouts are highly progressive, the vast majority of people currently collecting benefits -- and their surviving spouses -- will receive far far more in payments from Social Security than they ever paid into the system, including assumptions for very optimistic returns on the Social Security taxes paid in while working. And complaining about inept legislators? In the context used, that's just plain stupid. These so-called "inept legislators" are the ones who have continously sweetened Social Security benefits without worrying about how to pay for them They added COLA adjustments in the first place (there were no COLA's in the original Social Security bill) - and they just provided you a windfall in the form of Medicare payments for prescription drugs. No current retiree paid a penny for that benefit -- the responsibility of paying for it was "kicked down the road" to current workers and their offspring. They're inept allright -- but for an entirely different reason. I feel badly for anyone struggling in retirement. But saving for retirement is a personal responsibility -- any anyone expecting Social Security to pay for 100% of their retirement needs is simply, and unfortunately, naive.

joel of CA 5:22PM December 25, 2010

I have just gotten a 3% increase from my electric company, my heating oil is 30.00 more a month this year,groceries are out of sight,gasoline arbitrarily goes up&down(but never stays low),tires have increased,tolls have,mdeicare subsidiary deductables also have risen.Yet the indexes that reflect our COLA somehow,bookwork ballet,I'm sure,says NO INFLATION!NO cost of living adjustment,yet the money goes away faster,well Here is the "RUB".Just recently our Pa legislators received an "automatic"COLA-every year this is built in,and every year our elected politicians say they cant help it,its AUTOMATIC!
So what indexes are used to substantiate their inflation?This is blatant hipocracy,your precious vote is irrelevant,good people are corrupted once they get elected &join the Politicos gravy train.Face it AMERICANS,if your not a ,CEO,POLITICIAN,or TRUST FUND baby,we are all at the bottom of the food chain.No wonder there are so many EX-PATS.SEE you guys soon!

david Boacuro of PA 10:55AM December 25, 2010

Career politicians operate on one philosphy -- how can I fool the chumps out there into reelecting me? There emphasis is on constantly promising the sky. Unfortunately, all they deliver is the Marianas Trench. Vote them all out. Don't throw the tea overboard, dump them.

Michael of MO 7:05AM December 25, 2010