Читать книгу Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 16

Now or in the years ahead, you may accumulate some retirement benefits based on your years of work. You may do so through the federal government’s Social Security program and/or through an employer’s pension plan.

When you work and earn money, your employer (or you if you’re self-employed) pays taxes into Social Security, which earns you future Social Security retirement income benefits. Under current laws, which of course may change, you’re eligible to receive full Social Security benefits at age 67. (You may collect a benefit reduced by 30 percent if you begin receiving your Social Security payments at age 62.)

In surveys, most young adults say that they’re more likely to believe in things like UFOs than in actually getting money out of Social Security! Although being skeptical and questioning things is useful, such deep cynicism about Social Security isn’t well founded. Those who are eligible to receive benefits (generally, folks who’ve paid Social Security taxes above relatively low threshold amounts over at least ten years in total) should get them. As a young adult, it’s important for you to also know that some Social Security benefits, such as disability and survivorship benefits for your children under 18, are a part of your Social Security insurance coverage.

Some employers provide a retirement benefit known as a pension that’s paid to you in retirement based on your years of service (employment) with the organization. Your employer puts aside money above and beyond your salary compensation into a separate account to fund your future pension payments. Pension plans are more common in public-sector organizations (governments, schools, and so on) and larger companies, especially those with labor unions. Pension plans are generally insured/guaranteed by government agency entities.

Now, I do have one exception to something that isn’t generally thought of as a financial asset, which you may or may not want to include in this category. Some people have valuable collections of particular items, be they collectible coins, sports memorabilia, or whatever. You can count such collections as assets, but remember that they’re only real assets if you’d be willing to sell them and use the proceeds toward one of your goals.