President's Message

2012 has been a busy year for all of us. Because of your telephone calls, email messages, letters, and meetings with your congressional representatives and senators, Federal employees and annuitants dodged the bullets of extending the federal pay freeze, decreasing the government workforce by 10 percent, requiring Feds to contribute more to their pensions, and lowering COLAs using a chained Consumer Price Index.

 In addition, NARFE celebrated its 91st anniversary.

Although my position with NARFE Florida has changed, I am still traveling around the state, visiting our chapters and having the good fortune to meet many of you. Without you, our most valued members, NARFE would not exist.

 As 2012 draws to a close, I would like to thank you for your hard work and your loyalty to NARFE. Also, I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year. 

 Regards,

 Ken Thomas

 Kenneth J. Thomas
President
NARFE Florida, Inc.

Earned Retirement Income

SOCIAL SECURITY NOW CALLED 'FEDERAL BENEFIT PAYMENT'/ENTITLEMENT!

The government is now referring to Social Security checks as a
"Federal Benefit Payment."

This is NOT a benefit - its earned income!
Not only did you contribute to Social Security but our employers did too.

It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.

If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both your and your employer's contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate
compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved! This is your
personal investment.

Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive
$39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.

That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the
Social Security Administration (Google it - it's a fact).

And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're  98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.

Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They "forgot" that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them.

And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed.
And recently, they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer. But is it our fault they misused our investments?

And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a "benefit," as
if we never worked to earn every penny of it.  It is given to us.
Just because they "borrowed" the money, doesn't mean that our
investments were a charity! 

Let's take a stand.

We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare.
Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government -

Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going, for the sake of  that 92% of our population who need it.

Then call it what it is:
Our Earned Retirement Income.