@buildingwealthwithbrock: Social Security is the worst investment most Americans will ever make, and it's mandatory. The carousel above runs the numbers on a $65,000 earner: $8,060 a year goes in, about $28,560 a year comes back out. Invested instead at a 7% average return, that same money becomes $1.6 million paying $64,362 a year. Same dollars, more than double. Here's what the slides don't show: the deal gets worse the younger you are. The trustees project the retirement fund runs dry in the early 2030s, after which payroll taxes cover roughly 77% of promised benefits. Younger workers pay the full 12.4% price for a benefit already scheduled for a haircut. And the system was built for a different world. In 1935, life expectancy was about 60 and full retirement age was 65. Most people were never supposed to collect. Today life expectancy is near 79, and the worker-to-beneficiary ratio has collapsed from 16-to-1 to under 3-to-1. The math never had a chance. So what do you actually do with this? Treat Social Security as a bonus, not a plan. Build your retirement as if the check will be smaller than promised, or late, or both. That means tax-advantaged accounts first: capture the full 401(k) match, fund a Roth IRA, then taxable investing. Every dollar you invest yourself is a dollar earning market returns instead of 1 to 2%. The system isn't changing because no politician wants to touch it. Your plan can change today. Save this one. Follow @buildingwealthwithbrock for practical financial education.

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2026-10-11 03:13:56

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