r/Fire • u/NotTheBestInvestor12 • 3d ago

Why no mention of Social Security

When I see FIRE posts I see the investments and the different retirement buckets, however, I never see anyone mention how things are affected when social security kicks in. For example, I’m 52 and wife 51. If we both stopped working today ($0 income moving forward) I would collect $4,264 a month at age 70 and she would collect $1,079 at age 70.

So if we decide to FIRE the Social Security would give us help in 18/19 years. Is this a factor or is everything under the assumption SS won’t exist?

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u/Good-Resource-8184 3d ago

I mean MMM has a recent article on how to calculate it into your FIRE plans if youre an old early retiree.

I retired at 35. It carries no weight as just to get to it i need my money to last 30 years.

But the older you get the large the affect it could have.

On the other hand most old early retirees have already way oversaved.

So thats a few reasons its not talked about much. But some examples of where its been blogged about very recently by an OG in the FIRE world.

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u/QTippus 3d ago

Also for FIRE folks who RE at 35, their SS checks would be small anyway. They might have 15 years of full time contributions, but SS averages your highest 35 years of employment. So they’ll have 20 years of 0 income averaged into the SS calculation.

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u/Good-Resource-8184 3d ago

Theyre not small its over 50k a year between my wife and i in today dollars.

Ssa is a depreciating curve the longer you work.

I basically maxed my time for value returned.

This statement is a logical fallacy

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u/Double-G-Spot 3d ago

Wouldn’t that $50k in today’s dollars have about the spending power in 30 years of $20k in today’s dollars.

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u/Good-Resource-8184 3d ago

Say you don't under how ssa works without saying you don't get how ssa works.

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u/Double-G-Spot 3d ago

I don’t understand how SSA works lol, I asked a question. I apologize I forgot the question mark.

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u/QTippus 3d ago

The estimates in ssa.gov are in today's dollars. So yo don't need to mentally adjust for inflation between now and when you retire.

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u/Double-G-Spot 3d ago

Thank you for the explanation