HERE'S AN E-MAIL BEING PASSED AROUND THESE DAYS

SOCIAL SECURITY NOW CALLED 'FEDERAL BENEFIT'

PAYMENT'/ENTITLEMENT!

Have you noticed, your Social Security check

is now referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment"?

I'll be part of the one percent to forward this.

I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve

in me, and I hope it will in you.

Please keep passing it on until everyone in

our country has read it.

The government is now referring to our Social

Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.”

This isn’t a benefit – its earned income!

Not only did we all contribute to Social

Security but our employers did too.

It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.

If you averaged $30K per year over your

working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.

If you calculate the future value of your

monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both

your and your employer’s contributions) at a

meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of

working you'd have more than $1.3+ million

dollars saved! This is your personal investment.

Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per

year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.

That’s almost three times more than today’s

average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the

Social Security Administration (Google it -

it’s a fact).

And your retirement fund would last more than

33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)!

I can only imagine how much better most

average-income people could live in retirement if our government had

just invested our money in low-risk

interest-earning accounts.

Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a

bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever did.

They took our money and used it elsewhere.

They “forgot” that it was OUR money they were taking.

They didn’t have a referendum to ask us if we

wanted to lend the money to them.

And they didn’t pay interest on the debt they

assumed.

And recently, they’ve told us that the money

won’t support us for very much longer.

But is it our fault they misused our investments?

And now, to add insult to injury, they’re

calling it a “benefit,” as if we never worked to earn every penny of

it.

Just because they “borrowed” the money,

doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!

Let’s take a stand.

We have earned our right to Social Security

and Medicare.

Demand that our legislators bring some sense

into our government –

Find a way to keep Social Security and

Medicare going, for the sake of that 92% of our population who need

it.

Then call it what it is:

Our Earned Retirement Income.