[00:00:00] Speaker A: Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Welcome to Take Pride in Retirement, the podcast dedicated to helping members of the LGBTQ community protect and grow their hard earned money. Get set for for a show full of education and insights with your host and advisor, Matt McClure. We recognize every family is unique. The goal of the show is to help you achieve financial freedom so you and your loved ones can have the retirement you've always dreamed of. A retirement you can take pride in, no matter who you are, where you're from, or who you love.
So now let's start the Show. Here's Matt McClure.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Well, Social Security is now 91 years old, believe it or not. She doesn't look a day over.
There are a lot of services online, apparently that people are not taking advantage of. There's a lot to talk about with Social Security here, so let's get right into it. And joining me to talk more about it is Bill Sweeney. Bill is the senior Vice President of Government affairs with aarp. Bill, thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it.
[00:01:23] Speaker C: Hey, Matt, thank you.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Well, thank you for your time. You know, Social Security, always an important topic and of course, having access to it and convenient access to it these days is paramount, I feel.
Talk about this new AARP research that finds a lot of people over 50 just are not taking advantage of some of the digital, you know, sort of resources that are out there, that of
[00:01:49] Speaker C: people over the age of 50, about 40% of people still don't have a my SSA account, which means that they're not getting the data and the information. They're not getting the customer service that's up and available for people on the SSA website. And that means they're not able to really maximize their Social Security. So for the 91st anniversary of Social Security, for the 91st birthday, we're really urging everyone to give themselves the gift of the information that they can get on the SSA.gov website.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Now, when you talk about that information, what all is available there? I know things like, you know, your earnings history and all of that are available.
And that's actually different than, you know, when the, the government, because I think they changed a few years ago when they send you the actual paper document or if you get that, if you even go on and the PDF document that display is a little bit different than maybe some other data that's available on the website where you can look at it year by year, right?
[00:02:49] Speaker C: Absolutely. You can go there. If you sign up for an SSA account, you can go online right now and you can see every single year of earnings history. And I saw the money I made when I was 16 at McDonald's, my very first job. It was amazing to see that you can see every single year of your earnings on the website. But it's also, it'll tell you how much you could make if you retired at 62 or at 67 or at 70. You can get information about how to apply for benefits if you're, if you're older. You can replace a. Get a replacement Social Security card if you need it, or a replacement Medicare card. You can get information about benefits or you can check the application status if you're applying for disability. So there's tons of things you can do on the website that you used to have to go and spend hours at a Social Security office or waiting on hold to do. And so it's really convenient. You can do it from your own living room and it just saves you a ton of time.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You don't even have to leave the couch if you don't want to get this information and all of that. Now talk about a little about how AARP actually works with the Social Security Administration to handle some of this and streamline the customer service experience for folks.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: Well, it's important to remember that not only have you earned the Social Security benefits that you get, but you've also earned the customer service that you're provided. That money that pays for Social Security's customer service comes out of those payroll taxes you're paying. And so we really firmly believe that this is a right as Americans to get the top quality customer service, to get it quickly, to get it accurately. And over the last few years, we've seen Social Security really struggle with this over the last decade or so, really struggling with increasing numbers of customers. Right. As more and more people are retiring and getting older and flat budgets or cut budgets from Congress. And it's been a real crisis where people have been waiting hours on the phone.
They spend a half a day sitting in a Social Security office trying to get an answer to a question. So we've pushed Social Security really hard to put more of these services online so that people can do these things without having to go on the phone or have to go to an office, but also to really work on reducing Some of the wait times, we're seeing some changes now. They just got a new modernized phone system a couple of years ago. These are starting to have some real impacts and allowing people to get the answers they need more quickly, which is a real improvement.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. So. Because I heard so many complaints about people trying to get Social Security information in the past and just that just basic customer service was a struggle. So that is, it's great that there are some improvements in the works here.
And you mentioned there that your tax dollars go to, and my tax dollars, everybody's tax dollars go in those payroll taxes to the Social Security Administration for customer service, but also for funding the program in general. There has been a lot of, of course, hay made about, oh, Social Security is running out of money in the next less than decade. Now talk about that, because it's not quite, I mean, the headline there of Social Security is running out of money can be just a bit misleading. Although still not a good situation, funding wise.
[00:06:08] Speaker C: Well, sure, yeah, it's, it is misleading because I think if I were, if most of us were to think, you know, I'm broke or I'm running out of money, it means I'm, I've got no money. Social Security has about 80% of the money it needs to pay benefits for forever.
It's. Social Security is never going to go bankrupt. Right. The problem that we have is that in about six years, Social Security does have about a 20% funding shortfall as the Social Security trust fund that has been building up as baby boomers. There were more baby boomers working than there were retired.
As more and more people retire, that, that sort of balance has shifted. Right. And so that trust fund will run out of money in 2032 or so. And, and that means that Social Security will be able to pay out 80% or so of benefits and that Congress needs to find a fix for the remaining 20%. And they've done this before. We've been in this situation before for 91 years. Social Security has never missed a payment. They've never had to pay partial payments. And I believe that the political will and the power of the, of older voters and younger voters, too, is that Congress will make sure that they fix this before the problem would impact anybody in terms of their Social Security payments.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I often say it would be just political suicide for, for any politician to not shore up Social Security for the long term. Definitely. So.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: Well, and 2032 is an election year. Right. So these folks are going to have, they're going to have an incentive to get this fixed. And I think that they're going to.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. So when voters are headed to the polls, that's no more incentive for a politician than that, let me tell you.
Well, Bill, just about time to wrap up here, but anything else that you wanted to mention or maybe where folks can go to to learn?
[00:07:50] Speaker C: Yeah, we've got a ton of information about all this in terms of Social Security's finances and what you can do on the
[email protected] socialsecurity and you can go and sign up for that Social Security website.
Your your account for Social
[email protected] Very good.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: We will direct our listeners and viewers in that particular direction. Thank you so much. Bill Sweeney, the Senior Vice President of Government affairs with AARP talking about Social Security Security today. Really do appreciate your time, sir. Thanks so much.
[00:08:17] Speaker C: Thank you so much.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: And thank you for listening and or watching the show. Really do appreciate it. As always and until next time, take pride in yourselves and take care of each other. We'll see you then.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Thanks for listening. To Take Pride in Retirement Members of the LGBTQ community deserve to work with a fiduciary financial advisor who puts their needs first. To schedule a free, no obligation consultation with Matt McClure and the team at Active Wealth Management, call 855-246-9211 or go online to take PrideInRetirement.com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, BCM, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Active Wealth Management, Inc. Are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Matt McClure and active wealth Management are not affiliated with or endorsed administration or any other government agency.
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