Katherine Sullivan

The program is extremely popular.

Around 40 percent of seniors rely on Social Security payments to make up at least half of their monthly income.

Between 12 and 15 percent rely on it for over 90 percent of their income.

But a lot of Americans believe it will run out completely in their lifetimes.

This isn't true.

Social Security is not disappearing.

But it is facing a budget crisis.

According to the Social Security Trustees report, the funding shortfall will come in 2033.

If Congress doesn't find a solution to this problem, benefits could be cut by more than 20 percent across the board.

This year, the Office of the Chief Actuary published a menu of over 140 potential changes that could be made to fund the program.

Social Security has faced a funding shortfall before.

In 1983, Congress passed bipartisan reforms to shore up the program just months before funding ran out.

To close the gap, they made several different changes, including raising both taxes and the retirement age.

This time, they have about seven years left to stabilize the program.

Despite all the uncertainties in our current system, Jason Zweig, our investment columnist, doesn't think we should just go back to the old system of pensions.

Even at their peak, pensions only provided payouts to less than half of Americans.

And often, those payouts were very small.

In the present as in the past, a comfortable retirement was never guaranteed.

We may have created the illusion that all Americans could retire into a life of leisure, but that was never true for everyone.

There's always been some risk.