On this page you will find some of my articles and short stories.
Articles and Stories
Hippie -- Social Security -- Make a Suggestion
When thinking of baby boomers, some people might think of the label "Hippie" form the 60’s. The Hippie culture was actually just a small portion of the Baby boomers.
Some of the Hippie beliefs were peace, love, and freedom. They believed that people should not be judged based on their race, gender, religion, or social class.
Hippies may have been considering by many as strange, weird, or as just not being normal. It seams to me however, that they were very normal. Must of us would like to see a better world were everyone was treated equally and fairly. Wouldn’t it be a better world if everyone could have peace, love, and freedom?
Hippies did protest and rebelled against "their parents society". They wanted to change the world. But isn’t it normal for all of us, as part of "coming of age" to be rebels at least to some extent? And also, don’t most of us, set out to change the world?
Did the Hippies protest? Of course they did. When thinking of protesting, for many what comes to mind is violent terms such as rioting. Actually, the Hippies were more prone to protesting by peaceful means. As I stated earlier, one of the Hippie beliefs was peace. They protested with pacifist folk songs and peaceful sit-ins.
So did the Hippies make a difference? Yes they did. Just like all generations or sub-groups within a generation they did help to change the world. We all make some changes to the world, it’s just the changes are more likely seemly small rather than an immediately large noticeable change.
Consider how do equal opportunities today regardless of gender, race, or religion compare to the opportunities of the 60’s? While there could still be some room for improvement, would you agree that there is much more equality today?
For us 40 something baby boomers, it would be more likely that we were not the typical Hippie. We may; however, have been into Disco, but we will leave that for a future article.
A thought:
They may have been Hippies, but now they may be worrying about getting Hip(y).
Derrel Clubb January 2005
Social Security
The news seam to full of articles and stories about how we baby boomers will bankrupt the current Social Security system. Depending on which stories you read and/or believe you might get the impression that retirement may not be a financial option for us, or you may not be concerned at all.
Social Security being paid in by those of us that are currently employed is "theoretically" being paid out to the folks who are currently drawing from Social Security. In other words, we (like the good children we are) are supporting our retired parents.
Currently there are approximately 45 million people of social security age and there are approximately 157 million people between the ages of 25 and 65. Assuming the 25 through 65 age as representing the number of people paying into to Social Security, then the ratio of paying in vs. receiving benefits is approximately 3.5 to 1.
Life expectancy is 77.2 years according to data found at National Center for Health Statistics http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lifexpec.htm.
Since we continue to live longer, instead of using the 77.2 years lets assume 90 years. Assuming the 90 years as life expectancy, then in the year 2025 there will be approximately 84 million people of social security age (assumes age 65) and there will be approximately 167 million people between the ages of 25 and 65. This works out to a ratio of paying in vs. receiving benefits of approximately 2 to 1.
If you listen to or read about President Bush’s recent State of the Union Address, you heard that Social Security is in, or will be in, trouble due to the number of us Baby Boomers that will be retiring. I do not believe this surprised most of us.
President Bush has proposed a plan to use of voluntary personal retirement accounts. With this he suggest allowing younger workers the ability to divert part of their taxes to these accounts.
Reading several articles on responses from both democrats and republicans, there seams to be one reoccurring response to the president’s plan. In general that response is that there are not enough details to make a commitment to the plan. From what I have been able to research, I would agree that more detail is needed before a good assessment of this plan can be made.
With a lack of details, my first question would be "If younger workers are allowed to divert part of their taxes, wouldn’t that mean Social Security would have less money coming in and wouldn’t this in turn cause the Social Security funds to be depleted earlier?"
Should we count on Social Security for our retirement?
According to the Social Security Online web site's Frequently Asked Questions, the answer is no. "Social Security was never meant to be the sole source of income in retirement. It is often said that a comfortable retirement is based on a "three-legged stool" of Social Security, pensions and savings. American workers should be saving for their retirement on a personal basis and through employer-sponsored or other retirement plans."
So how can we help ensure that we have a comfortable retirement? Well let me share my personal thoughts.
I believe that the Social Security leg of the "three-legged stool" will be short at best. This means that we will need to find ways of propping up or replacing the leg if we want a stool that isn’t going to cause us to fall.
To have a "taller stool" thus giving us a higher retirement income, we need to create additional focus on the pensions and savings legs of the stool.
We need to encourage employers to offer their employees sound and reliable pension plans. Perhaps our government should look at creating more incentives for employers, both large and small to offer reliable pension plans.
The savings leg is the one leg where we have the most individual control. Personal savings require a personal discipline and commit. It means that, no mater what our individual level of income is, we must commit to pay ourselves by saving what ever amount we can afford. Starting earlier with saving and a commit to savings will result in a longer savings leg on the "three-legged stool".
Earlier in this article I mentioned replacing the Social Security leg of the stool. Perhaps it would be better to say "add an additional leg" so that there will at least be 3 legs setting firmly on the floor.
Adding this additional leg starts with thinking of retirement in a less traditional manor. Traditional we might think of retirement as the time in life when we no longer work to generate income used to support us. In a less traditional manor we can think of retirement as a time in life were we are no longer dependent on a traditional job to generate an income. In other words, we start working simply because we want to.
For some of us it may be difficult to imaging working simply because we want to. But consider this, have you ever wished you had more time to enjoy a hobby or wished you could get paid for doing something you enjoy? Well with a little planing now, we can have the opportunity supplement our retirement by working at something we truly enjoy. In other words, working at something simply because we want to.
As a forty something baby boomer, I think now is the time to consider how we want to spend our retirement years. Actually it is never too early or late to consider our futures. Ask your self questions such as, "What can I do to work for myself?" "How much time to I want to spend working during my "retirement" years?" What can I be looking into doing now so that I can do what I want when I retire?"
Some of the answer for myself are, I find the internet fascinating, I like researching (surfing the web), I like building web sites, I would like to spend more time writing, it is fun to share my thoughts and get the thoughts of others.
Thinking of my answers, I decided to build this web site. With this site, I get to build the site, do research so that I can write articles such as this one, and I get to share my thoughts. This is all good but what about generating some income?
Well one way to generate income from a web site is through affiliate programs. After doing some of that "researching" I decided to join SFI (Strong Future International) as an affiliate.
After joining, which is free, I started taking a closer look at the information that was available to me. Now I am even more convinced that SFI is a good opportunity. I can start earning now and by the time I am ready to retire I could have a nice residue income that will continue to help support me.
If you would like to learn more about the SFI opportunity please follow the link below. But do you and me a favor, once you have opened the link, bookmark it (save to your favorites). Even if you initial decide not to join you may want to come back to it and reconsider. By bookmarking the site not only will you be able to get back to it easily but you will be getting to the SFI page were I am the sponsor.
Thank you for reading this article. My hope is that you may have learned something new and or have been inspired to give more thought to Social Security and more importantly you own retirement plans.
You can find the SFI opportunity at https://www.moreinfo247.com/8865077.4/FREE
Data sources for this article include:
- Social Security Online at http://www.ssa.gov
- National Center for Health Statistics at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lifexpec.htm
- U.S. Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov
Another useful link for getting government information is http://www.firstgov.gov
