Tom Perez Quotes

Retirement security is often compared to a three-legged stool supported by Social Security, employer-provided pension funds, and private savings.

Social Security is the very foundation of retirement security for millions of Americans.

If you put nothing away for retirement, I can tell you, to the last penny, how much you will have when you retire: nothing.

We need to make sure people continue to have access to retirement plans because everyone deserves the opportunity to retire with dignity and financial independence.

People just haven't saved enough for retirement. And they're going to outlive their money.

Social Security is the only thing most Americans can count on to keep them out of poverty during retirement.

Since Social Security faces a large gap between what it promises younger workers and what it can afford to pay them, private savings will likely need to play a larger role in retirement planning for younger workers.

With or without a Social Security fix, Americans don't have enough assets to retire on. There has to be a much larger debate.

On the other end of the spectrum, these women who do live long enough to collect Social Security face the challenge of being disproportionately dependent on the Social Security system for retirement income.

But with a rate of return of 1.6 percent or less, or a negative rate of return, our children and our grandchildren, if we do not make changes, will in fact not have a secure retirement. Indeed, they will not have the funds when they go to retire to even minimally get by.

Though Congress continues to explore possible solutions to ensure social security solvency, everyone must take personal responsibility to prepare their own retirement savings accordingly.

Americans are not saving enough for retirement.

There's a lot we can do to improve American's retirement security, but it's wrong to replace the guaranteed benefit that Americans have earned with a guaranteed benefit cut of forty percent or more.

A secure retirement is one of the pillars of middle class life. For all too many Americans, however, that pillar needs more support.

But while the state pension is a critical foundation for people's financial security as they age, it must be supplemented with other forms of retirement income.

We need to take steps to strengthen and mend Social Security so that its promise of a secure retirement is just as real for seniors in the future as it is today.

Well, we certainly need to raise the retirement age. I've told my 19-year-old and my 22-year-old that they're not going to be getting retirement benefits at age 62.

There are times when the presence of more choices can make us choose things that are not good for us. For me the clearest example is that the more retirement fund options a person has, the less likely they are to save for their old age.

You cannot go to someone who is 65 or 70 years of age and tell 'em, 'This program that you retired relying on is now being pulled out from underneath you.'

Many seniors understand that Social Security is social insurance as opposed to a program where we put money aside for our own retirement. But most elderly individuals think they're getting their money back. So it isn't selfishness as much as a misunderstanding.

The rate of return on Social Security for people nearing retirement is about 1.5 percent. By the time young children like mine are ready to retire, that rate of return will be a negative percentage.

There is a kind of fear, approaching a panic, that's spreading through the Baby Boom Generation, which has suddenly discovered that it will have to provide for its own retirement.

Today, I'm 60, I'm not married, I don't have any kids. I would give up some Social Security to save a system that Americans are going to depend on now and in the future.

If a woman did not work and have the opportunity to save and invest on her own throughout her lifetime, she is often totally reliant on her family and Social Security for her retirement years.

Privatizing Social Security will take dollars out of young folks' pockets.