Could you live on $1000/month?

Yep, that's about what ours are. I put away $1200 a month to pay the bill in January, March and May.

I wouldn't live somewhere that had taxes that high. My current taxes are too high already.

Paying to use my own land/house is shameless anyway... but that's a different thread.

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"Just had to say that SS was NEVER intended to be a person's only income when they retire."

Wendy you are wrong. SS is NOT ment to be a supplemental income. As soon as a retired person begins to make additional income, or has income from an investment his SS is reduced. If it were ment to supplement your other incomes this wouldnt be the case.

I would love to move where taxes are lower but:

* I grew up here and my dad and my in-laws live here.
* We love the area - living right next to the water and can sail for 8 months of the year.
* We have a church here that we love and couldn't leave it that easily (my husband is the pastor).
* I just don't know where I'd want to go!

So we suck it up and cry when we pay the bill but rejoice the rest of the time because we live in a really great place.

It really was pitched to the American public as a supplement. I remember it well.

When I was a kid, retired folks pensions and savings were gutted by inflation. It was widely reported that elderly people were eating dog food because it was what they could afford, even though they had been prudent and had what *HAD* been a generous pension.

The solution the government figured up was SS. Basically, everybody pays in and everybody gets money out THAT IS ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION! For a while it worked as it was intended, but the government has changed the regulation again and again and again. It no longer works as well as they had intended.

No, I am not much of a writer. We have been thinking of opening up a school of sorts. Having a family or a couple come stay in our guest house for a week or 2 and work with us every day just to see if its for them and how to do it.

I have to say, none of what we do is unique to us, we have just been doing what MEN, Countryside, Backwoods Home have been showing people how to do for years. I guess we were just too naive to realize it couldnt be done. So we did it.

You were a kid in 1935??

Yoiks! I was not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't realize SS was that old. I must be remembering when SS was changed in the 60's, LOL!

Yup, I totally get that. That's why God calls us all to different places.

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What are you talking about? There is no offset of SS for working or having investment income and you can be a multi millionaire and draw social security. Social security was indeed meant as a supplement to a regular retirement and when I can draw it in a few years (if its still around) it will just be pin money in addition to the multiple retirements I am already drawing.

I think you are confused with social security disability payments.

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No car payment, no house payment, house/car insurance is 100 a month, electric expensive here, at least 100 a month, gasoline to work is biggy, I am a contractor and sometimes have to drive a long way, 250 a month, food 200, prop taxes, 100 a month, critter feed, 100 a month, satellite internet 80, cell phone is 50, and then I am out of money. So probably not unless I don't want to do anything but sit in my driveway and get rid of my animals.

If I didn't have my cows to feed, I could live like a queen on $1,000 a month.

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Also when SS began the average life span of a man was 61 yrs old. At the time they figured many could pay in and a very few would get paid in old age. Now almost everyone pays in and almost everyone lives long enough to get paid. Not to mention the children who get checks after parents pass etc. It was a system designed to fail for that reason.

Nope Social SECURITY INSURANCE was meant as a net, a catch all. It was not meant for people in your situation and that is why its losing solvency.

That is so sad.

It's a good thing I'm not his wife. A month or two of me yanking a kink in his arse and he'd be whistling a different tune.

But I wouldn't be attracted to someone like that..

I do SwagBucks for a few extra dollars a month. It's a lot of work for a few bucks but I'm home anyway so I do it. I had a survey ask what income bracket I was in:

$0 - $250,000
$250,000 - $500,000
$500,000 - $1,000,000
$1,000,000 +

I clicked on the first one obviously and was disqualified. I commented on the SB Facebook page about how many millionaires were doing SwagBucks and a woman said that her SIL made over $250,000 and did SB because she had 3 kids in college. LOL Seriously? Even if you actually paid every penny of college, you still have about a hundred grand leftover for yourself with three in college! I've got 2 in private college and make quite a bit less than 1/3 of that!!! She said "Well, money is tight for them!!" Umm - just because that's their choice, honey!

I think you misunderstand my point, right now there is nothing stopping a wealthy person or a person still earning a good salary from drawing SS even though they dont need it because it is age based and not need based. On my last statement I have paid in over 72K to SS lifetime and am eligible to draw 1200 and change a month when minimally eligible. I will have recouped my 72K in 5 years and my life expectancy is far beyond that 5 years...that is why it is failing.

SS was implemented as a safety net for the poor and a supplement to individually earned retirement, it was never meant to be the primary retirement program of most people. The poster I was responding to put out incorrect information that if you work past SS age they deduct what you earn from what you are drawing on SS which is false. The subject of needs based SS eligibility is precisely what is being debated in Congress right now.

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Melissa, true, you can get most or all of state and federal income taxes back. But in most cases some is still deducted and you have to file to get what little was taken back. That's all I was trying to point out, it's still deducted unless you file the W-4 exemption for federal income taxes. As for the city taxes, if you live or work inside city limits it's still taken out and you never get it back. Really stinks IMO.

So yes, in order to have $1000 a month take-home pay, you have to earn more than $1000 a month. How much more depends on how you figure and file your taxes, where you work and where you live.

Just kind of reminds me about the time when Mom moved out on her own with us kids in tow. $120 a year in taxes would have been an extra $10 a month. There were months when that $10 would have made a HUGE difference. I don't like living that close to the edge.

My household couldn't function on $1000 per month. Our monthly bills are higher than that. Our primary residence has a mortgage as do a couple of our rentals. Luckily for us, our rentals provide more income than $1000 per month and we don't have to earn it at a job. In other words, if one of us were to get sick, we still have an income.

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~TheMartianChick~

My latest novels:
Bystander: A Tale of the End of the World as SHE Knew It!

Christmas in Bystander & Other Village Tales

Coming Soon: A Slice of Heaven

My dad drew SS for about six months and then went back to work full time (he was 68 at the time and retirement in full was age 65 for him). My mom had to pay back every penny he earned to SS. My Dad was not on SS disability either. He had regular SS. My dad continued to work until he passed away at age 72. The SS office said he made too working at his regular job and was not "retired". In other words, if you don't retire, you cannot draw SS. So we had to pay it back. My mom still rants about that, but my dad retired, hated it and went back to work within months of his official "retirement".

Here are the rules on working and drawing SS:

http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answ...ement-payments

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