Anne Tergesen

The tax cuts that Congress passed last year means that a lot of Social Security beneficiaries are not paying as much tax on their Social Security benefits.

And so that tax revenue is declining.

And both fertility rates are declining and also immigration.

Those declines mean that there are

projecting fewer numbers of workers who are going to be paying into the system in the future.

And that means less revenue for the Social Security trust funds.

The payroll taxes that come in don't cover 100% of the benefits that have been promised.

So we have to draw down on the trust fund, which is like a savings account that Social Security has amassed.

That trust fund will be depleted at some point in 2032.

People who are receiving benefits are still going to get their benefits.

In a worst-case scenario, they're going to get about 78% of their promised benefits because that's what the

Payroll tax will cover.

There will be no Social Security trust fund to make up the difference.

That is one source of serious alarm for people is that when they hear that the trust fund is going to be depleted, they think that all of their benefits are going to go away and that that's not the case.

I think Congress is likely to come up with some kind of funding system to avert a situation in which 22% of Social Security benefits just disappear overnight.

It's important for people to try to take a long-run perspective and try not to panic about this.

So it's a little nuanced.

401K plans have always had the ability to invest in alternative investments, but because of the fear of litigation, a lot of employers who run 401K plans have really shied away from alternative investments.

So President Trump this summer issued an executive order instructing regulators to make it easier for

for employers to add alternative investments to 401 plans.