Estimating what SS contributions would be worth if I had invested them myself

21

My daughter this year got a W2 from her school for a program where they work/assist at local schools. It had nothing listed in the “Social security wages” box. I thought it was a very bad mistake.

Then, I was blown away to find out that students working for Universities don’t pay FICA:

So, now I find out teachers don’t pay FICA and can opt out of social security and contribute to their own retirement accounts instead?

I have been believing Clark all these years about teachers getting ripped off by 403B plan fees. Even with the fees, they must be doing way better than social security.

22

In many cases you wouldbe wrong. My wife taught K-12 for 25 years in thee states and all of them had crappy and under-performing retirement plans.

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23

blah blah blah, no offense intended.

“every man every woman to be a financial expert” is where you lose your argument. Your passive assertion is that the government will do it better. Let me know how that works for you. but I do want to thank you for giving me a little side project. I can go pull my SSA payments for the last 45+ years and I’ll run some analysis. The real issue is that people need to be responsible for themselves, and the SSA is a payment system for others being responsible to them.

See you soon with the numbers.

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24

Why torture yourself? But you’d also be leaving out the “insurance” component of the “Old age, survivors, and disability insurance program.” It’s not just retirement, it’s mostly insurance and not intended to be the equivalent of a 401K or a pension.

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