After the top executives at the Social Security Administration themselves raised the alarm about a potential future without the retirement fund, questions loom about the changes that would have to be made to protect it.
Many in the younger workforce have already started planning a financial future without Social Security payments, but financial professionals say to not count it out just yet.
"Obviously there's a problem. The trustees came out and said the fund could be completely depleted by 2024 — that's only 12 years away," said Stewart Willis of Asset Preservation Wealth and Tax.
If it became solvent, the thinking is the system would transition into a pay-as-you-go model so the current workforce would pay for the current class of retirees and the benefits would be lower.
Willis says to make that work, congress could boost the wage cap. Right now, incomes over $160,000 don't get taxed.
"The problem is, is it fair that someone has to pay that much more into Social Security themselves when they're never actually going to receive those benefits?" said Willis.
More people are living and working longer so he says another option would be to increase the full retirement age past 67.
Many in the younger generation are already optimistic about retiring early and living off healthy investments, not even factoring in Social Security, but Willis advises they still stay up to date on Social Security rules just in case as early withdrawal can cost you and incur penalty fees. He also says workers of any age should be verifying their income history now.
"Sometimes there are zeros in years you know you worked, or missing zeros, say you made $100,000 and you're only getting credit for $10,000," he said.
Anyone over age 18 can create an account at SSA.gov to verify their annual income and estimate their benefits.
