April 1, 2001 - 14:06 MDST

THE WONDERING JEW

Thinking ?

The recent downturn in the stockmarket seems to have made a few of the people so eager to get to their Social Security funds to invest for themselves to draw back a little and wonder how wise it is. They see what they might have invested in go down, down.

Social Security in its original form was meant to be a supplement to a retiree's pension. It didn't work that way.

Pensions were not vested then, loss of a job meant loss of a pension, companies went out of business too.

Therefore many of us people from the respectably poor had nothing to look forward to but our Social Security income after our retirement.

I myself have a small pension from the company I retired from, fifteen years worth which doesn't amount to a hell of a lot in this era. I did work until I was sixty-nine years old and so get a better monthly sum from Social Security, plus I earned four years wages while going from sixty-five to sixty-nine. Those four years wages amounted to more per month than I could have received from Social Security alone. I am lucky that I could keep working that long, I figured that I would continue to work forever, but the company made a sugar sweet early (early for me ?) retirement plan plus what I knew was coming down to those left behind that it was common sense to give up and get re-tired, all four wheels on the 69 year old rims.

I think that many people who want to invest their Social Security money don't realize how technical and specialized investing money can be. You can't just get the money and sock it into something and realize immediate profitable returns. And even the experts can lose ground heavily. And, I don't think that many of those people have taken the trouble to acquaint themselves with the ins and outs of investing. Nor do they realize the risks involved.

So, if Joe Blow takes his dough and wades into the whirlpool of investing and makes disastrous choices and loses what is in the backside of his pants, what then ?

Well, the taxpayers (US) will keep his butt alive by paying extra taxes on top of what they are already paying for Social Security.

In conversations I have heard mentioned that it is a person's right to have access to Social Security funds, right now.

Well, maybe if they sign a waiver stating that they will never depend on the tax payer or any charity if they lose it in the stock market and can prove that their mates and children will be taken care of by other members of the family - - - then - - - - maybe.

Does the down turn in the market have a few of them doing a bit of cautionary Thinking ?

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