“Hey Dad, do you know how much money you’ve earned over your lifetime?”
Wow, I hadn’t thought about that, kids:
Let’s see, I started working (on the books) at age 15. “Yikes, I’ve been working a long time”. I’ve kept a lot of things from my past, but I’m sure that paystubs aren’t one of them. Computers weren’t made for personal use when I started working. We didn’t have the Cloud to store information indefinitely. All we had were mainframe computer punch cards, 5.25 floppy disks, and 1x CD-ROM Drives…“don’t ask”.
The only option that I can think of is the Social Security Administration (SSA). The SSA is an independent agency of the federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. It was established by the Social Security Act of 1935 as the "Social Security Board", then assumed its present name in 1946. (There’s your free public service announcement)
To qualify for most of these benefits, most workers pay Social Security taxes on their earnings. My guess is that “Uncle Sam” knows about every dime I’ve ever made and has gotten his unfair share of all of it since “Day 1”. With that in mind, I guess I should go ask him. I would suggest that you go to the Social Security Administration website and set up your own free account:
www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount
Once you set up your account, you will have the following options available to you:
You can view and/or download your social security statement. You will see 2 earnings columns; Earnings Taxed for Social Security and Earnings Taxed for Medicare. You may notice that the 2 columns aren’t the same. Understand that some employees are exempt from social security but not Medicare, and that would therefore result in social security and Medicare amounts not being equal.
Before you start adding up the “Earnings Taxed for Medicare” column, let me share a quote with you:
“It’s not the money that you make that makes you rich, it’s the money that you keep”.
You know how certain things you just don’t want to know? “For me, this would be one of them”. Looking at how much money I’ve made over my lifetime versus my current net worth (Assets - Liabilities = Net Worth), makes me wonder, “what the heck did I do with all of my money?” I guess the logical answer to that question is, “I spent it”.
Additionally on the statement, you will see your personalized monthly retirement benefit estimates, depending on the age you start taking social security. This will help you identify whether it’s worth counting on social security, alone, to support you in retirement or make plans to move in with your children. “Hey, they lived with you all those years…just saying”.