Social Security’s short in long term

Your retirement years won’t be very golden if they’re primarily funded by Social Security.

That’s what retirement plan advisers are telling clients, warning that they need substantial private savings to augment Social Security income, which averages only about $17,500 annually.

“Generally, I don’t want to see someone have more than 20 percent of retirement income from Social Security,” said adviser Charles Hughes in Bay Shore, adding that 10 percent of their current income is the minimum people should be saving for retirement. Employees should take advantage of all employer savings matches, he said.

A Heritage Foundation study found Social Security’s rate of return of 1.25 percent is “vastly inferior” to what retirees receive from most private investments.

The long-term annual return of the stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, is about 10 percent.

Anthony Ogorek, an adviser in Buffalo, thinks most people should save 15 percent for retirement. “If you get a client match at work, and you can save 20 percent, that’s good.”

However, many don’t or didn’t. Among “elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 21 percent of married couples and 44 percent of unmarried persons rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income,” the Social Security Administration says.

“Some 63 percent of Americans are unprotected for retirement, meaning they have no source of protected lifetime income — such as a pension or an annuity — other than Social Security,” according to an Alliance for Lifetime Income study.

Social Security is difficult to incorporate into a plan, as it has been cut and may be again.

“Today’s report,” the Social Security trustees wrote in the latest annual report, “shows that, as a whole, Social Security is fully funded until 2034, and after that it is three-quarters financed.”

That means cuts are possible in 15 years.