worth more broken

[mellowtigger]

year	taxed SS earnings	job description
1986	3,050	college. tried co-op programming at IBM. tried part-time jobs. discovered i was no good at work and school simultaneously.
1987	6,376
1988	3,878
1989	4,008
1990	2,518
1991	6,266	escaped school. temp job for nearly a year.
1992	14,264	started a night job as mainframe operator. averaged one promotion every 7 months. eventually left at highest grade of mainframe programmer (without having to become a supervisor).
1993	18,583
1994	19,614
1995	22,966
1996	25,952
1997	31,877
1998	38,838
1999	42,270	mainframe programmer. also made switch to unix operating system. wrote a few bash shell scripts to replace mainframe jcl. wrote a small c program to deliver email. dabbled in java support.  got some great raises until the last 2 years when plans were in place to shut down my platform and get rid of the old programmers.
2000	50,676
2001	60,060
2002	62,772
2003	62,988
2004	18,245	various tech support jobs. want to retrain for a new career, but there'd be the same old simultaneous work/school problem.  my theory is that this part-time schedule might work, if i can just accumulate the necessary money.
2005	22,063
2006	22,586
2007	20,305
2008	13,000 (?)

I got my Social Security Statement in the mail today. It always makes for an interesting read.

If I retire at age 62, I get $859/month.
If I retire at age 70, I get $1512/month.
If I become disabled today, I get $1535/month.
 

Except that I won't live to 70. I don't expect to live to 62 either. And I don't even want to see the paperwork necessary for a declaration of disability (of any variety).

It's a little disturbing to think that I'd be taking home more money on disability than with my job.  I remember being slightly angry back around 1989 when I saw old people on tv complaining about how little money they received from social security.  Angry not on their behalf, mind you.  I was angry that they were shown living in better conditions than I did.  I was angry that they were taking my scarce money to live a better life than I had.  I don't expect to see any of the dollars that I've paid to social security over the years.  Meh.  Such is life.

 

Comments

Snerk

[arkanjil.livejournal.com]

you sound just like my dad, who never, ever expected to live past 40. His list of regrets is long indeed...

Unless your speaking of some undisclosed medial condition, it's really really good to have some manner of fallback in place, just in case. S'the whole point of it, really.

Re: Snerk

[mellowtigger]

Well, I never expected to live to 40 either, but here I am obviously. (Soon to be 41.) Still, preparing for the improbable seems like a costly matter with few benefits. (Nuclear winter, armageddon asteroid, etc.) I have expected to work until I die, and it still seems like as good a plan as any.

T'Reese (my cat) likes her kibble. I will continue working (and avoid walking off into the forest without coming back) to keep her content. Having obligations to dependents seems like a good way to add benefits to the equation when measuring the costs/rewards of preparing for the improbable.