I am almost the 47%
I'm definitely not part of the one percent but I am getting much closer to being part of the newest group in this country. Next year I will be old enough to start receiving social security benefits. I'll be 62 years old. God willing and if the river don't rise too much I will continue to work at a job that doesn't pay much but $300-$400 a month will pay the cable bill and the electric bill and maybe for a stop at the gas station. At least I won't need to use my savings as quickly as I might by continuing to work. If possible I think I will wait a while to receive social security benefits. My friends think I should take the money and run. I have some time to think about that question, and while mostly retired I like the idea of working so I don't have to worry about retiring completely.
I've worked in the public sector a long time and saw many people without jobs through no fault of their own. I've worked with welfare mothers who had a difficult time finding work in the best of times, and there are folks who need to retool their skills to get better jobs. Children are a blessing but their care for a working family is a challenge.
Then came 2008 and I wondered, like my parents did during the great depression which started with a stock market crash, how bad could it get. And I was one of the lucky ones without debt and a paid off mortgage on a small condo in Miami. I also had a small but good pension from the Florida Retirement system which I qualified for.
I am part of the 53%. Ironically, I sent an estimated tax payment to the IRS on the 15th. I'm greatful that I am doing well enough to help pay for the defense of this country, to help educate others, get hurricane warnings, and continue to pay into the social security and medicare trust funds and support many of the other good things the government does.
If my parents were still alive they would have been one of a shrinking group of the greatest generation who by now would have been relying on social security payments to pay their bills as they would be in their 90's.
This country will have a difficult time paying for all its promises. Let's do something now to help secure my future and those of my nieces and nephews.
I've worked in the public sector a long time and saw many people without jobs through no fault of their own. I've worked with welfare mothers who had a difficult time finding work in the best of times, and there are folks who need to retool their skills to get better jobs. Children are a blessing but their care for a working family is a challenge.
Then came 2008 and I wondered, like my parents did during the great depression which started with a stock market crash, how bad could it get. And I was one of the lucky ones without debt and a paid off mortgage on a small condo in Miami. I also had a small but good pension from the Florida Retirement system which I qualified for.
I am part of the 53%. Ironically, I sent an estimated tax payment to the IRS on the 15th. I'm greatful that I am doing well enough to help pay for the defense of this country, to help educate others, get hurricane warnings, and continue to pay into the social security and medicare trust funds and support many of the other good things the government does.
If my parents were still alive they would have been one of a shrinking group of the greatest generation who by now would have been relying on social security payments to pay their bills as they would be in their 90's.
This country will have a difficult time paying for all its promises. Let's do something now to help secure my future and those of my nieces and nephews.
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