Us Social Security Work Credits And Working Lt In Thailand

I think that you'll find that the system gives you a poorer return if you have been contributing all of your life rather than just in the last 10 years of your career.

I'm sure you're right: marginal return with SS decreases the longer you've been paying in.

My numbers looked at what one contributer had mentioned: Get your 40 quarters, then go elsewhere, if you can -- at which point, it looks like you'll be breaking even. Stay a lot longer (as your numbers show), and you'll be getting back nickels on every dollar you contribute.

Yes, it's a welfare system. And it will be even more so when the cap is done away with.

I've always viewed the Social Security contributions as being just another form of income tax, I only looked at in in terms of "rate of return" here because it was being discussed whether it was worthwhile paying into the system if you had the option not to. In a way, I actually find Social Security taxation to be more fair than the regular income tax that is paid to the IRS. At least with social security tax everyone who earns the same amount of wages pays the same amount of tax. That's my main gripe with the US income tax system, not that the rates are too high but that two people making the same amount of money will often pay vastly different amounts of tax depending upon how they spend their money and upon the lifestyle choices that they make.