{"id":240713,"date":"2025-10-26T05:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T05:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/240713\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T05:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T05:32:14","slug":"what-it-means-for-your-retirement-savings-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/240713\/","title":{"rendered":"What It Means for Your Retirement Savings Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By 2032, the Social Security Administration<\/a> projects that its OASI Trust Fund will become insolvent.<\/p>\n

Social Security reform is inevitable and could take many forms. The SSA could cut benefits, or freeze or slow cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs)<\/a>. They could start means-testing recipients to deny or reduce their benefits. Tax attorney and accountant Chad Cummings of Cummings & Cummings Law<\/a> notes that Congress could raise the retirement age for benefits: \u201cLawmakers in both parties have proposed raising the full retirement age from 67 to 69.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Be Aware: Social Security\u2019s Biggest Lie: Why \u2018Full Retirement Age\u2019 Isn\u2019t What You Think<\/a><\/p>\n

Read More: 10 Cars That Outlast the Average Vehicle<\/a><\/p>\n

Congress could also attack the problem from the revenue side, raising FICA taxes or eliminating the income ceiling on them.\u00a0With all of these daunting options on the table, how should workers revise their retirement strategy<\/a>?<\/p>\n

No one wants to hear it, but you might need more money saved for retirement<\/a> than you previously thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone under 40 should plan for retirement as if Social Security will only be a small supplement, not the foundation,\u201d advises financial planner Adam Spiegelman of Spiegelman Wealth Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find Out: Need To Cut Expenses While on Social Security? Here\u2019s the First Thing To Get Rid Of<\/a><\/p>\n

Aim to reduce or knock out your largest fixed monthly expenses. That could mean paying off your mortgage before retiring<\/a>, downsizing to a less expensive home, or paying off all auto loans and other debts.<\/p>\n

Financial strategist Linda Jensen of Heart Financial Group<\/a> puts it succinctly: \u201cEntering retirement with fewer fixed expenses gives you breathing room if your benefits change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roth accounts let you pay taxes once, then never pay them again on your retirement savings. Your investments compound tax-free, and you pay no taxes on withdrawals in retirement.<\/p>\n

That protects you from rising tax rates in the future \u2014 which most financial experts see as likely, given the federal government\u2019s growing spending, debt, and debt-to-GDP ratio.<\/p>\n

\u201cConvert traditional IRA<\/a> funds to Roth while tax brackets remain low,\u201d urges Cummings. \u201cLock in today\u2019s tax rates, because they will almost certainly rise in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting more of your money in Roth accounts could also shield you from means-testing. Roth withdrawals don\u2019t count toward your modified adjusted gross income: the likely metric for means-testing and excluding higher earners.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t count on the same Social Security benefits or tax rates by the time you retire. When Social Security reform comes, the new math could require you to work years longer than you planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By 2032, the Social Security Administration projects that its OASI Trust Fund will become insolvent. Social Security reform…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,113349,113350,133,131,132,12985,2438,113348,17403],"class_list":{"0":"post-240713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-chad-cummings","12":"tag-cummings-law","13":"tag-finance","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-retirement-savings","17":"tag-social-security","18":"tag-social-security-benefits","19":"tag-social-security-reform"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}