Burns: How much are Social Security benefits worth?

[serie1926]

Burns: How much are Social Security benefits worth? - Houston Chronicle

Interesting read on SS.

 

[2B]

Their imputed worth is heavily dependent on the prevailing interest rate, whether the COLA actually gets paid and what deduct is taken for Medicare. It's always been that way. Now with effectively no interest rate on savings an otherwise modest SS check is the same as the interest someone could collect on a fortune.

Do you think we could "sell" our SS for its "worth?"

 

[justplainbll]

Before the advent of the computer financial handbooks contained tables which showed the values used to calculate the cost of annuities for various time periods and discount rates. These days an Excel spreadsheet can perform this task. Example 2 at the below URL shows how.
http://www.tvmcalcs.com/calculators/excel_tvm_functions/excel_tvm_functions_page2

A 20 year (240 month) monthly annuity discounted at 1% per annum has a present value of $217,441.27 per $1,000 (and $869,765.06 for 240 monthly payments of $4,000).

A 30 year $1,000 monthly annuity, discounted at 1%, has a PV of $310,907.07.

 

[mickeyd]

At least 15% of SS benefits are not taxed. Wonder how that will screw up the calculations...

 

[harley]

At least 15% of SS benefits are not taxed yet. Wonder how that will screw up the calculations...

FIFY