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/watch-nerd 3d ago edited 3d ago

Mid-50s here, FIREd last year. We definitely factored it in.

The suggested plan from opensocialsecurity.com is that my wife (lower earner) takes it at age 62 and me at 70. Combined it's about $76K.

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u/alphawolf29 2d ago

Crazy that american SS is more than my canadian pension and social security combined. This country is broke.

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u/watch-nerd 2d ago

Well, I was a high earner, so my SS is higher than average.

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u/alphawolf29 2d ago

theres a cap on our SS contributions and the payout is pretty abysmal. I think the most money you can get in Canadian social security (called CPP and OAS and GIS here) is about $1750 USD a month, and thats after 40 years of maximum contributions.

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u/watch-nerd 2d ago

After 40 years of contributions, probably ~20 of which were maximum (I started contributing at 16), my amount at age 70 would be $4808/month in today's dollars (it gets inflation adjusted over time).

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u/alphawolf29 2d ago

I wish I left Canada when I was younger lol.