One of the first things that you want to do when you buy groceries is buy in bulk. Whatever you can find that you can buy a larger container of, you should purchase that container instead of the smaller one. For example, if you want to buy paper towels, you want to purchase the package of 8 rolls instead of the 1, 2, 3, or 4 roll package.

It costs the manufacturer less to package them in groups of 8 than it does to package them in groups of 2 and this savings is passed to you, the consumer. Buying larger quantities also cuts down on the amount of waste packaging that you throw away every day, as well. So, you’re not only helping your budget, you’re helping the planet buy buying in bulk.

Leave the kids at home. When you take the kids with you to the grocery store, they typically begin begging for things as soon as you walk in the store, whether it is in the candy aisle or the cereal aisle.

Don’t listen to your kids or deal with putting items that they have snack into your cart back at the last minute, it is easier to leave them at home. Ask them what they want before you leave and make a list, so they feel included.

Coupons! When do you use them? Well, the obvious answer to that is before they expire, but you might want to keep a check on your local store’s sales and try to double up on your savings. This takes a little effort and depending on your schedule, it may or may not be worth the time you put into it, but doubling up your coupons with your grocery store’s sales can save you bundles.

Do not forget that you have a freezer at home! Odds are good that if it’s perishable, you can freeze it, even if you do have to prepare it first. Broccoli and other produce items, for example, can be bought fresh, but they need to be blanched before they can be frozen.

When Social Security starts paying out more than it takes in, whether it be 2012, 2015, or a few years later, the system will be running a deficit in real terms because the trust is virtual.   If you put $10,000 in the bank, take it all out for some home repair and maybe a few weekends in Vegas, that money is gone, IOU or no.   If you write an IOU to yourself to replace that ten-grand, and you stick to your word, you still have to come up with the money somewhere…that original 10k, again, is already gone.   The Social Security Ponzi Scheme thus was a not-so-elaborate method of shoveling trillions of dollars into the mouths of politicians and out onto their pet projects…original intention aside.

Where did those payroll taxes go?   Who knows?   Could be to Star Wars funding, Farm Subsidies, Tax Cuts, Tomahawk Missiles, appropriations within the infamous Black Budget…the possibilities are as vast and spooky as Karl Rove’s imagination. We are left with the government’s promise that the trust exists. Granted, if the government defaulted on a promise like this, there would be revolution in the streets and in the retirement towers. The people wouldn’t stand for it.   At best, if tens of millions of seniors and near-retirees feel shafted, and these folks tend to vote, our next batch of leaders will make Ted Kennedy look like an arch conservative, which would mean financial ruin in a permanent way.   Uncle Sam will, one way or another, make good on those trust fund promises until 2042, but he’ll either have to raise trillions in taxes or trillions in more debt to make it so.

At this point, we should all agree that there is a problem.   Yes?

There is no one solution for saving and strengthening Social Security.   Wise tinkering and incremental changes should be cobbled together for the effect we want, which again, is a stronger and safer public pensions system. Fixing Social Security requires a holistic approach, and both sides of the partisan isle will need to honestly address some tough questions, check their sacks, and then swallow some potentially bitter medicine.

Trivia: Lou Pearlman ( former Backstreet Boys and N Sync Manager / Producer) was part of this illegal business.

Next year will be the retirement year for Uncle John.   He’s been toiling in one Flint GM factory or another for 35-plus years, and he’s about done with it.   Work— tinkering with cars, boats, and home remodeling tasks— can still give him a charge, but crawling out of bed every weekday morning at 5 to slap together torque converters wears on him.   He’d rather spend time hunting and fishing, and also with his grand-kids.

John is pretty young for retirement.   He’s in excellent shape— SAY NO TO Alcohol and Cigarettes and he’s able to carry his 150lb outboard trolling motor down a flight of stairs into his basement every winter’s eve for storage.   He’s paid into the Social Security pensions system since he was a teenager, when payroll taxes were 6%.   Most of that money went straight to retirees drawing direct benefits at the time.   Today, payroll taxes are 12.4%, a partial reflection of a trust fund set up in 1983, so John’s kids and grand-kids, and nephews, wouldn’t have to worry about their Social Security later on.   Just like John isn’t one to worry.

“You get old in your head,” John says. “Age is different. That comes whether you think about it or not.”

John’s got a lot left in his tank, and his retirement should be a good one. He’ll draw from his GM pension upon retirement, then from an IRA when he’s 59.5 to compliment his GM pension.   Finally, at either 62 or 65, John will add Social Security as his third stream of income. As it happens, some company pension systems (like GM’s and Ford’s), and the Medicare system, are deeper into crisis than Social Security, though our government won’t speak on this.

So, maybe tackling Social Security’s existential issues first is a way of trying to fix the obviously fixable before grappling with some real monsters. It’s going to be challenging enough to keep a constant stipend stream flowing to a growing gaggle of seniors; God knows how much it’s going to cost to keep them all medicated properly. Thus no one knows how to fix Medicare right now without doubling taxes— and killing our economy. Like our leaders, I’ll leave that hornet’s nest for future treatment.

Folks like Uncle John symbolize why Social Security is facing a long-term solvency crisis. Baby Boomers, some seventy million of them, are healthier than their parents, and certainly healthier than their grandparents (being weaned off Spam, succotash, and filter-less Lucky Strikes surely helped). They could spend up to a third of their time on Earth collecting social security benefits. In Uncle John’s case, his retirement could last as long as his 35 years in the shop.

Unfortunately Boomers have not produced enough GenX’ers and PlayStation Babies. Boomers certainly lived up to their part of Social Security’s social contract by paying for the retirement of their forefathers. Yet while working hard to build a hyper-tech society, Boomers tended to keep their families small. Aside from the grief this demographic wedge causes a pay-as-you-go pension system, the reproduction drop makes a lot of sense. We don’t need hordes of large families to mind the farm. Children today are expected to move from birth through high school graduation without getting whacked by the measles or polio. Furthermore, the costs associated with raising children to where they’ll compete successfully in modern society have skyrocketed.

An 8th grade education and a strong back won’t cut it anymore. Reactionary conservatives look at the demographic crunch and point to issues of selfishness– the popularity of the Pill, and the fact that maybe disco dancing till 4 in the morning was more fun than wiping up baby vomit. In fact there are too many factors to list for the population decline of Western Society. Trying to weigh each one properly is futile. What we know for sure is that, in 1960, there were 5 workers for every retiree. Today it’s ~3.4 to 1. In 2030, given generous immigration quotas, the ratio will be ~2.2 workers per one retiree.

By assuming those generous immigrant inflows, it’s important to remember that new Americans typically make less than the 7 th generation WASP, and thus contribute less in payroll taxes…so we can’t go there for the panacea. I should add that manufacturing a homegrown population explosion to increase the worker-to-retiree ratio is off the table. Mom earth doesn’t need to be made angrier, and anyone who suggests otherwise needs to be dragged off in manacles to the nearest inpatient rehab facility.

So, more old people, drawing benefits and living longer, against fewer working people, equals financial rupture for a pay-as-you-go trust system. No serious person can dispute this, not to dismiss the metric tons of seriousness people milling about, but monolithic cultures are boring, and all I seek is a solid consensus.