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July 17th, 2019:

Your Account(?) at Social Security

One of the biggest misconceptions about Social Security is that each individual has a specific “account” which holds all the money you’ve had withheld from your paycheck over the years. Nothing could be further from the truth… as we’ve mentioned before on this blog, the Social Security system is a pay-as-you-go system (largely) where withholding today is used to pay benefits for current recipients. It is for this reason that much consternation has been brought about in recent years with regard to the question of the Social Security system’s running out of money. You see, for quite a while the Social Security system has had a surplus over current expenses, with the surplus amounts being placed in the trust fund. In 2020 it is expected that current benefits being paid out will become greater than the payroll taxes are bringing in, so the difference will come from the trust fund. […]