333. What If Social Security Disappeared?

More than 70 million Americans receive Social Security benefits every month. For millions of retirees, disabled workers, and surviving family members, that monthly check is a crucial part of their financial stability. But what would actually happen if Social Security suddenly disappeared? In this episode of A Wiser Retirement® Podcast, we break down how Social Security works, why it matters so much, and why its disappearance would have massive economic and social consequences.

Related Podcast Episodes: 

Ep 109. Common Social Security Questions Answered

Ep 222. When should I claim Social Security if I don’t need it?

Related Financial Education Videos:

How Do You Apply for Social Security?

Claiming Social Security at 62 vs. 67 vs. 70: What’s the Real Difference?

How Much is Social Security Reduced if I Have a Pension?

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Transcript

Setting The Stakes

SPEAKER_03 0:00

More than 70 million Americans receive Social Security benefits each month. What would happen if that income suddenly stopped? Stay tuned to find out.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Welcome to a wiser retirement podcast, where we cut through the noise and bring you real, honest conversations about investing retirement and building lasting wealth. No sales pitches, no gimmicks, just everything your financial advisor won't tell you.

Why Social Security Exists

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Welcome to Wiser Retirement Podcast. I'm Casey Smith. Today I'm joined with Shauna Therrial, our senior financial advisor here at Wiser Wealth Management. Today we're discussing what would happen if Social Security disappeared. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening. Let's get started. Hey, Jana.

SPEAKER_04 0:39

Hello.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

So how many times in a planning meeting do you hear people say, just don't count Social Security?

SPEAKER_04 0:46

A lot.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

And after a few minutes later, they say, no, no, you can add it back in.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Right? Uh well, I I don't ever not count it, except for like very, very, very young. But um most of the time I'm like, no, we should definitely count it.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

But well, we'll start with the basics. Where did Social Security come from?

SPEAKER_04 1:03

Where did it come from?

SPEAKER_03 1:04

How do we how do we get started down this this this social security track?

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Well, I'm I'm assuming it was started by the government years ago because the government created three things for seniors. They created Social Security for income, Medicare for medical insurance, and then actually reverse mortgages to you have a place to live. People don't know that. It's a heckum product. I don't recommend reverse mortgages. I'm just saying podcast. I'm just saying it's that's the three things. So you have income, medical insurance, and a place to live. Um, so it started, I don't know what year.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

1935.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

Okay. So 1935, and they had a whole bunch of working people pay into the system to help pay the people that were not working or the retirees.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

During the Great Depression, and they basically said, Hey, we got to help this older crowd, this can't work.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

To help poverty.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

If you if it started that way, it would take a whole lifetime for the first generation to benefit from it. They needed people to benefit right away. So they had working people pay into the social security system, which then immediately paid people of age.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

So really they had a shortfall from the beginning is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Yes, uh, it's always it's always running out of shortfall, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:20

So but I'm really less worried right now because it's always at a shortfall.

Who Depends On The Benefit

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Right. So you have so you have these baby boomers that created a problem and that there are more people working than people retired. So we created this fund that would go into this trust, and that money would go into the trust so that when the baby boomers got became more people retired than people working, then then we we pulled the excess out of out of that trust. And what happened was the government borrowed from that trust, never paid it back. Trust is gonna default probably in 19 or uh 2033, somewhere in there. So the issue is um people go, oh, well, social security probably won't be around by the time I I get there. And that's not true. Because 75% of of what social security pays out is paid from us working already.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

Right.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

And that will continue to be 75%. Uh and unemployment rate has been historically low for a very long time. Uh, even when we think it's bad, it's still historically low. So that's not real issue with Social Security. Um, now we do have to solve that 25% gap. And I don't know exactly um how that's gonna be how's how that's gonna be done. And we can talk about that later in the podcast. But if you look at the Pew Research Center uh as of 2025 uh study, you have that in front of you there. Um, who is being served by Social Security? These numbers are staggering.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

It really is. So basically, there's a total of about 73.9 million Americans that are on Social Security. So that breakdown is 52.6 million retired workers. So most of it's retired workers, 7.2 million disabled workers. So that's the SSI disability, and then 5.8 million survivors of spouses and children. So it's 73.9 million people.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

And of 73.9 million people, yeah, uh, how many people are actually relying on this?

Economic Shock If It Disappeared

SPEAKER_04 4:12

That well, that and that's what I always say when people are like, I don't think it's gonna be here for me. I'm like, well, it's gonna be really bad because 43.6% of adult beneficiaries provides at least half of their income. Okay. And then 27% of the beneficiaries, it's their only source of income. So if they didn't have social security, you know, first of all, 22 million more Americans would fall below the poverty line. Yeah. Right. And and just think about that, because we, I mean, we meet with people that may or may not become clients that, you know, may be looking for help, but there's so many people that are reliant on social security because not everyone has saved like, you know, like we want them to, or like, you know, we're we're teaching them to. And not everybody has done that, or they just fall on hard times. There's other situations, not because they didn't save or other situations, but this is a huge source of income for retirees. So if it went away, then then what it would have to, you know, there's no way we would have to have some other sort of means to help them.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

So let's let's kind of walk through that. If if you know, you think about what a shock to the US economy if you didn't have Social Security. Um, so you basically have 74 people, 74 million American people, as you just said, yeah, would lose monthly income. Right. So you can only assume that their spending is gonna drop.

SPEAKER_04 5:29

Which is gonna hurt the economy, obviously, which is bad for everyone.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

And they don't have the savings to most people don't have the savings to replace that.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

No.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

Um, this is sh was shocking to me because we we're in wealth, we're in the wealth management business. So we we have um average account size is very high.

SPEAKER_05 5:45

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Right. Uh average 401k balance in 2025. This is in America, people. Average 401k balance in 2025 was$127,000.

SPEAKER_05 5:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

That's that's produced by AARP.$127,000 is the average in your 401k month. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

You can't live off that.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Right. So there's no way that those people with those kind of those kind of uh balances are are gonna be able to survive without having their social security checks.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

Definitely not. Definitely, unfortunately, you know, it's um I it would we would have to find a way. I mean, the it there's no way they would sustain it long term. I mean, the poverty rates would rise dramatically. We would have to help them in some way. Right. Um, so you know, it it's currently helping them live above the poverty threshold generally. Um then if you think about it, it's like, okay, what would that do to even their families? You know, we always talk about that squeeze generation where it's like, okay, we're trying to help our parents, but then, you know, also, you know, raise our kids in in the college. You're not gonna let your parent just flounder. So you know, so then it's gonna pr it would be cause pressure on everyone. Not only would the taxes go up, because they're they have to find a way to make it work. Yeah, because otherwise it's gonna be a bigger problem than it even is right now, I think.

Will It Actually Go Away

SPEAKER_03 7:08

I mean, you you would lose$1.5 trillion in economic spending, according to uh USA Facts, which impacts everybody. Yeah. I mean, that means the shop owners, the stores, they're not getting the revenue, which means potentially they lay off people. I mean, it would be a huge economic reset if it were to disappear. Um also to you think about the family family dynamics, like social security helps people pay for assisted living.

SPEAKER_05 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Um, helps people uh which you know, assisted living in our culture, assisted living allows for working parents to keep working and not stay home take care of mom.

SPEAKER_05 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Where uh in other cultures it's just not necessarily that way. But but you'd have to have mom and dad come live with you, most likely.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

Probably.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

So the the family dynamics would greatly change in uh what we're used to as a in our in our cultures.

SPEAKER_04 7:55

Um which would be less spending for everyone because then they would be helping and feeding more mouths and helping, you know.

SPEAKER_05 8:02

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

And then it's like, okay, I guess I guess you could say, well, you'd have more money in your paycheck because then you're not putting it towards that. Maybe that would help. But I mean, think about how much money you've poured into that over the years. Do you think they're just gonna not have a mutiny on their hands when you put all this money in and you get nothing?

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Right.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

I mean, I guess it would just be a regular tax like any other tax, but I mean, just imagine, I don't know. I just feel like uh I d I just don't think that would fly over very well.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

Yeah. All right. So if Social Security, um, will Social Security actually disappear 100%? Uh alluded to this earlier. No, I don't think so. But it's simply because um 75% of it would still be there. But we do, we do need to solve the problem though.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Uh and I I I really think that that's probably gonna happen with some politician at the last minute saving the day. Um, but right now social security stops at uh contribution stops at 188,000.

SPEAKER_04 8:58

Right. So what in other words, your paycheck when you're making up to 188,000, anything beyond that doesn't defer, you know, towards social security. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Um there's a lot of people who make more than 188. So if if you said okay, we up to 400 or maybe there's no limit, yeah you always have to pay in social security. Right. The only problem with that is that your benefit needs to be more. Your benefit's not gonna be more, so you'd never get that back, most likely.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

Yeah. So then you're just subsidizing.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

Then it becomes a little more socialistic and it's uh and how it's used.

SPEAKER_04 9:27

But but I mean, we even looked back. What? So even 10 years ago in 2016, it was 118,500 and now it's 188,000. It's gone up 70 grand. So I mean that's almost double in like 10 years.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

That's not inflation, that's that's um Congress moving the needle. It has to be.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

It has to be because before that it was not going up in those staggering numbers. In fact, like it even stayed the same in 2016 and 2015.

Policy Levers To Fix The Gap

SPEAKER_03 9:53

So I yeah, I again I think it's uh unfortunately politicians use this as a um kind of a pulpit talk. I don't know uh what word I'm looking for, but um just use on the campaigns, right? And scare scare tactics, get people to vote vote for them. Well, they're trying to get rid of your social security, they're trying to get rid of whatever. And yeah, well, it is scary. If it went to zero, um they're gonna show up at your church doors, your house probably asking for food. I mean, people are there'll be there'll be food lines like you've never seen before.

SPEAKER_04 10:35

It's probably gonna feel like the depression again.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

I mean, seriously, that's yeah, I don't I just don't how do they solve for it? I mean, like you said, they could they could give you less benefit, they could do it um, you know, income-based, which is still kind of well, you if you have higher income, then you've probably paid more in, but yeah potentially, but they could do that, they can make the ages later like they've done.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

When they fix it, it's gonna be uncomfortable for somebody. I I think 99% of it's is probably solved by no matter what you make, you you're just gonna pay in that percentage to the Social Security.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

Uh and then they've already adjusted the age a little bit in some of the recent stuff. Um right now, full retirement age is 67 for most. And then if you wait till seven, you get a higher payout, those are different things that you could tweak with potentially. Uh I it's hard to believe they would take take it above 67.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

But if people are living to over 100, which But isn't the isn't the life expectancy declining because the health in America, I really feel like I've heard that.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

You know, I see that, but then at the same time, I see these medical journals about this medicine coming down the pike that's gonna make us live to 120. So I don't, I don't, I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel like these articles are written for the narrative of the person that you're probably right of what they want you to believe. True, you know, true. If you're if you're selling healthy food, you're like the food's killing you, everyone, everyone's dying sooner. You need to be my product buy this product, right?

SPEAKER_04 11:54

You're selling drugs and the drugs are gonna help you.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

If you're selling drugs, you're going to 120, right? So I don't know. Or or 3D printers, evidently, they can print hearts, which is crazy. What? Yes, that's a thing now. Really? Yeah, we can we can start we can 3D print organs now, which is crazy. Wow. Obviously, it's not uh no, every city does not have this, but still experimental. But isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_04 12:16

That is really crazy.

Midroll: Pre‑Retirement Checklist

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Before we jump back into the episode, do you know if you are ready to take off and launch into retirement? Get your pre-retirement checklist, a free guide from Wiser Wealth Management, from cash flow to social security. We've got your countdown covered. Go to wiserinvestor.com slash guides to download your free guide today. Now let's get back to the episode.

Longevity, Work, And Payouts

SPEAKER_03 12:43

I I read this or I was at a conference uh last year, and one of the keynote speakers was talking about, you know, everyone's a 60-40 allocation, but that's wrong because we're gonna live to be 105 on average and 6040 is way too conservative. You could be 80-20 for a long time. Uh, and it was very and then it and then it flipped into crypto. It was it was really weird. It was like, it was like, wait a minute. You know, I start looking, I'm looking at the at the headline of the uh of the conference. I'm like, wait a minute, this is not what are they saying? I didn't sign up I didn't sign up for this. What do we mean? Too very you're gonna live a long time, buy some crypto. And I was like, what? I don't understand what's happening here. Um, but I think the science was correct. Um is something that and we're seeing that, we're seeing people uh live longer.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

Yeah. I I don't I don't feel it, I don't know. I don't see science though.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

Which means that social security has to pay long pay out longer.

SPEAKER_04 13:33

I don't feel our like our clients are living to their 90s. You don't think so? No, I don't I haven't seen that. I don't I don't feel like I have.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Yeah, that's true. I mean, we do meet new people that are already sick, I guess. Um yeah. So that maybe that's a little different, but I don't know. I wouldn't assume that. I mean, financially you should.

SPEAKER_04 13:53

No, maybe we run it to 95. And usually with the thresholds we use, there's still money left at 95 because you don't want to run it zero at 95. True. You know. Well, we just don't know.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

The longer we live, the more social security has to pay. So sometimes I think maybe the government has an incentive to kill us off at some point.

SPEAKER_04 14:10

But don't you think like you do you know what's happened? So isn't this true though? The longer we live, the longer we end up working because our life expectancy is longer. I mean, people didn't used to work into their 60s, did they?

SPEAKER_03 14:18

No, I mean it was y'all used to y'all be dead by the time we were 30 in the caveman age. So I don't know. We've obviously progressed since then, whenever that was.

SPEAKER_04 14:26

Thank god. Right. They weren't nice to girls back then, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:30

That's right. No progressives in the caveman age.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

Um, so I feel like you know, if life expectancy is longer, then people end up working longer. I don't know. I feel like that.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

Maybe.

SPEAKER_04 14:42

And then they're paying more in. Yeah. And then the retirement and then the social security age would get kicked.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

So yeah, I think the government would have to help them get there. Why would you be working past 67 if there was an incentive to work past 67?

SPEAKER_04 14:54

Yeah. Unless you can just afford it, which is why some people work till 67 now.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

Yeah, true, or later. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:01

We see people that that take social security and then they're still working just because they're the aver they they are one of the averages of the 127, you know, unfortunately. Very true.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

Yeah. Yeah. I I think if you are a person of means, so security means less to you, right? Yeah. But I don't uh but you you have to think about not just not just yourself in this scenario, you have to think about your community and the country as a whole. There's a lot of other programs that would need to be developed maybe locally to help people that all of a sudden lost social security. So I I I think if social security goes away, then I I think the US government probably has gone away at the same time, honestly. I I think that the two and two are just tied together. And all this bantering about social security not being there and they're gonna cut out social security. I I just don't see that happening. We control our own currency, we can go print the money to solve this problem if we want to. But we've done it for other many other things.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Right.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

So we we we have every bill every ability as a uh country to solve this because we don't depend on other countries to set our currency like they do in the European Union. So I I think that it that it's uh uh it needs to be a part of your plan for most uh I say everyday Americans, even the millionaires next door. You know, if you're a millionaire next door, just drive the Honda, live in a modest house, got a couple million dollars in your brokerage account or IRAs. You need social security, yeah. You can't I can't make those plans work without social security unless their expenses are cut way, way, way low.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

Point point of all this is that um government has no incentive to solve it right now because uh uh the opposing party would would be uh uh use that to say they increased your tax or they did whatever, right? They're gonna they're gonna solve this in 2032 at 1231.

SPEAKER_04 16:51

I do I do think it's delicate though, too, because you you you know, you don't want to raise taxes and then that reduces spending, and then you know, we've had low interest rates for so long, and uh, you know, and and and the spending obviously drives the economy and you know, everyone's watching the markets. I mean, I think it is still delicate to even raise taxes, you know. Yeah, but you're gonna have to to solve this, especially because inflation has been so high and people are paying more. The average American feel crushed right now just because of how much everything's costing to raise kids and just live life. I mean, everyone's talking about how expensive it is. So, I mean, raising taxes to solve for it is also delicate too, because then it's less that they can save and it compounds the problem, right?

SPEAKER_05 17:32

Right.

SPEAKER_04 17:33

So it it that so then they're gonna be more dependent on social security in the future if their taxes are higher and they can save less, you know?

Planning Reliance On Benefits

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Um it creates a lot of planning problems. But again, I I don't think that it's something that we need our listeners or our clients to be concerned about. Um politicians will figure this out, but they're not gonna they have no incentive to do it until until um the the 12th hour. And we are many years away from from that scenario. Um so anyway, um how much of our clients' retirement plans depends on social security? Uh quite a bit. Uh I'd say, I'd say probably 90%.

SPEAKER_04 18:15

Yeah. I mean, because typically what we see is, you know, and we bring this up all the time, you know, that 4% rule they talk about, that's a thing, you know, not taking more than 4% of your portfolio. And a lot of times when they first retire, the withdrawal rate on the portfolio is much higher than that. Um, usually because maybe Medicare hasn't kicked in or because they haven't started taking Social Security and so it levels out once they take it. So that's really like the defining difference a lot of times in a client's plan to have a, you know, a reasonable withdrawal rate once that kicks in.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

If you're a young person and you don't want to depend on social security, you're just gonna have to save a whole lot more. Right. So probably the people the best equipped to do it are like the fire people. People that try to retire like 30 years old because social security is nowhere in sight for them.

SPEAKER_05 19:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

So it'd be it would be much like that. You're gonna have to cut out a lot of things um and and just squirrel money away in a brokerage account to be able to solve that. But yeah, I I think this you know, why why do we do a podcast topic on this? I think it's because a lot of people have these assumptions that aren't quite correct to the system. I I don't know that I've ever personally met a person that wanted that thought social security should go away because it's an entitlement.

SPEAKER_04 19:27

No.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Um although those people are out there, they're they show up in the news occasionally.

SPEAKER_04 19:32

I have not met one.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

But this is this is a little bit of like America's a very successful country. And this is one tiny s uh process in the system that can benefit everybody. Even if you don't fully benefit yourself, it raises your neighbor up as well. And it's um uh probably to a purist, like a capitalist, uh maybe maybe they they say we should just save our own and be in charge of our own selves, but not everyone's fully capable of that. Yeah, life happens and I think it's a good system, but uh it needs to not be tampered with.

SPEAKER_04 20:11

Or borrowed from for other people.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah, not borrowed from from other things.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

But it it certainly um especially when it's that many people's income.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:21

You know, yeah.

Business Owners And Credits

SPEAKER_03 20:22

I another thing too, uh maybe we'll throw it into this episode um or I will now, is for business owners. You think about all the business owners that have CPAs that say, okay, we're you didn't have to pay any tax this year. Well it's because they have all these write-offs and they didn't take a W 2. And in the end It hurts you. It hurts you. Yeah, now if your business is not worth something, which a lot of times it's not, a lot of times people just create jobs for themselves and don't really create real businesses, then you get down to retirement, you don't have anything. Yep. You've had all this big American dream your whole life, you know, being being a business owner and running a business, but you didn't pay into Social Security, you have don't have any credits, and your business ended up even maybe not even be sellable. So you're in trouble. Yeah. So typically in in those scenarios, um, I like to see in successful businesses uh the owner pays a salary of that$188,000 to get the full uh Social Security credit. And then the rest you take is draws, and that way you you skip out on uh the extra tax, a three and a half percent tax.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Um in super successful businesses, you you put a spouse in there too. So they get they get a salary for doing whatever uh of 188,000 for working. Yes, for working, I'd air quotes. Um and and then plus you're both maxing out your company 401k plan. That's how a business, a successful business owner would be would be building um their their stable future.

SPEAKER_04 21:49

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Then you sell, hopefully you can sell a business and you have a maxed out 401k plan and you have maxed out social security. That that's how you would build it. Yeah. Um, for everybody who's just working. Uh you can't really control things like that, but uh just know that you're you're you're paying into the system and those higher earning years are really important to your overall calculation.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

Yeah. And make sure you get enough credits too the ten years paid in.

SPEAKER_03 22:13

Yeah, even when we're working years.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

I've had I've seen some people that you know maybe do it well, sometimes you get spouse with a stay-at-home mom, but you know, there's I've seen some people that don't pay completely in and then they don't get a benefit, and they were like really close there. Yeah. And so I've seen them go back to work and you know, frightening.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

Yeah. When they've been gone so long. You have to remember um when we have whole episodes about social security, and I didn't necessarily want to dive into that. I just want to address this one thing of social security is not going to be there. But um if you if you think about uh different ways to take social security, a spouse can always get half of what um the higher wage earner gets. So that's good. Uh waiting till 70, you get the highest payout.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Uh between 67 and 70 goes up eight percent per year.

Claiming Strategies That Matter

SPEAKER_04 22:58

Which a lot of times, if we're looking at it, it depends on life expectancy. But if you have, you know, husband and wife and something happens to one of them, then you only get the higher of the two. So sometimes it makes sense if there's longevity in one of the families to max out the higher income earner to age 70. So that way if something happens to one of you, you have you have that higher benefit.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 23:19

So, because that's going to be your income, you know, for the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

And then you can also get half of your ex-spouse's social security if you're married for 10 years. So maybe you're a stay-at-home mom and you found yourself divorced and you have a very, very small social security. Once you're 67, you would qualify for the full half of the spouse. No, that it doesn't hurt them. Right. Um, right. But it it's it's uh it might be a a a way to increase your your social security payout.

SPEAKER_05 23:47

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Or if your spouse is deceased prior to social security age, being able to claim 100% of their benefit.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

Yeah, and let yours build. I've seen that too. It just depends. You have to look at the numbers.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

Right. So there's there's like a five hundred different ways if you include disability to take social security, it can get kind of complicated.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

And disability is actually social security disability is hard to get. Yes, because it's any occupation. If you can flip a burger, I mean it's just it's hard to get generally. Most people get denied, especially the first second time, but um it's it is not easy to get.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

Well, enjoyed the conversation today. Yeah. Hopefully this calms some fears, maybe. But social security is out there. I think it will stay, uh, has to stay for these reasons and this data that we talked about. And um, we'll find out in 2032 what they're gonna do to solve it, I guess. Right. Because they're not gonna solve it before then. Uh thanks for listening to this episode. If you like this podcast, please leave us a review wherever you're listening. Uh, your review means a lot to us. If you have any questions about your financial journey, feel free to reach out to us at wiserinvestor.com. We'll see you guys again next week.

Final Thoughts And Sign‑Off

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Thanks for listening to a wiser retirement podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening. That way you don't miss any new episodes. We'd also appreciate if you could leave a rating and review. If you have any questions about anything that was discussed today, head to wiserinvestor.com and reach out. This podcast is strictly for informational purposes only and is not to be considered as investment advice or solicitation to buy or sell any financial products, securities, digital assets, or any other investment vehicles or basis to make any financial decisions. Wiser Wealth Management Incorporated is a registered investor advisor with the SEC. The host and or guest may personally own securities, digital assets, or other investment vehicles mentioned on this podcast. Neither the host nor guest of the show are compensated for their participation, and no referral fees are paid to or received by any host or guest for clients, listeners, or similar interests. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed, be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor, tax professional, insurance professional, andor legal professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.