Social Security Earnings

[LivingAlmostLarge]

My mom was showing me her social security statement and OMG . The year before I was born in 1978 (she had maternity in 1979) my mom made a $13,125 for the whole year. She was making $1093/month or $6.21 an hour. She had a master's degree in social work. Her last year of working in 2006 she was 55 years old and made $62,776. She made $29.72/hr in 2006.

Between 1966 and 1980 (15-29) made a total of $82,143 for 15 years of work. She average $5476 a year in annual salary. It's astonishing. My mom bought a house in 1975 for $27k and she made $9830 that year. She was a single parent in that home in 1980 making $15677 for her and me. She also helped my grandparents and great grandmother who often stayed with us and did free babysitting. So she was supporting a family of 2-5 people at any given time.

And this was during the super high inflation of the 1970s and the crazy longshoreman strike and hawaii food was really expensive. It's a little unreal

[disneysteve]

I don't think my father ever earned much more than $30,000/year. Maybe 40K. He was an accountant. He died in 1992 and retired a while before that so maybe late 1980s.

It's jarring to look at numbers like that but our brains just view it in today's terms. 30K today is nothing. But 30K in 1986 is equivalent to 86K today when you adjust for inflation, so if that's what he was making, it was a pretty decent income for the time period.

What your mom earned in 2006 is $98,181.23 today adjusted for inflation, so she was making pretty good money.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

She was in 2006 a department head of social work with a master's and 35 years of experience though. So I guess $98k is a lot and it's hawaii.

[myrdale]

It is a very interesting record of her finances and working life to be sure.

[Fishindude77]

My grandmother was a teacher at a local rural school in our county.
Dad has a copy of her teaching contract and she was paid around $300 for the school year. Would have been mid to late 40's.

[disneysteve]

My grandmother was a teacher at a local rural school in our county.
Dad has a copy of her teaching contract and she was paid around $300 for the school year. Would have been mid to late 40's.

Now that’s bad. That’s only $5,200 in todays dollars.

[myrdale]

Now that’s bad. That’s only $5,200 in todays dollars.

Do you think that was part time thought? If you're only talking about six or eight months out of the year, and only half a day maybe, then it isn't too far out of line.

[disneysteve]

Do you think that was part time thought? If you're only talking about six or eight months out of the year, and only half a day maybe, then it isn't too far out of line.

Maybe. I was thinking in terms of what teachers earn now. Even part time $5,000 isn’t much.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

coming off the great depression? Maybe at that time period even having an income was considered good. And inflation was high and hit in the 70s.

[CreditRules]

Does her statement show how much total she put into Social Security in her life, and how much she has gotten out of it? I think that would be pretty interesting.

[kork13]

Yeah, inflation hides the reality of what people were paid back in the day. I remember clearing out some old papers from my parents' house a few years back & coming across some of my father's old pay stubs from the early 90s. I recall he made something like $3k/mo ... that seemed ludicrously low to me, because I probably earning around $6k/mo at the time. Turns out, cumulative inflation over 30 years made it that our comparative incomes were actually pretty close to the same.

I remember having a similar experience with my grandfather, who mentioned that he earned something like $900/mo back in the 70s.... Wouldn't you know it? That's also just about the same equivalent income! It's part of why my grandfather is known throughout the family for always saying he "smiles all the way to the bank" when he refers to his SS & military pension checks.

[Fishindude77]

When we got married in 1983 my spouse was earning $6/hr and I was earning $9/hr. As was customary we had to have a few meetings with the preacher that married us beforehand and one of them was regarding finances.
When we told him that between the two of us we made $15/hr or a grand total of $30k annually he said ...... "You guys will be fine, you're making more than I do".

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Does her statement show how much total she put into Social Security in her life, and how much she has gotten out of it? I think that would be pretty interesting.

I will check