Social Security is based on your highest 20 years of salary and what age you start collecting benefits. My projected monthly payment, if I start collecting at 70 is $3,600.00 a month. I'm 56.
That's also a good point as to why people aren't saving money....
> The overall median income for all 155 million persons over the age of 15 who worked with earnings in 2005 was $28,567
Which, divided by 12, is $2380.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...
It could be pretty adequate if the potential retiree has planned well and has already paid off their home (a typical house payment in an area of the country with a sane cost of living would probably be between $1k-$1.5k). It'd really help to have some decently-sized retirement accounts.
Basically, $3600/mo is adequate maintenance money, but add one or two major expenses to that (like a house, car, or major medical bill), and it gets dicier. If you want to travel during your retirement, or do anything besides buy groceries, you'll need significant savings to draw from.
Hell, five years ago, I was supporting myself, my wife and a kid on about something like that.[1] It was rough, but just barely manageable.
[1] "Something like that" because I was making significantly less, but had some familial advantages (I was driving a car in decent condition that I got from parents when I was younger, parents bought the kids lots of clothes, and of course I had a safety net, which is huge--not having that would've moved me from constant stress to full blown panic).
Edit: Ohhhh, I forgot the EITC, which makes a big difference. That nudged us a lot closer to that line back then.
Still, where I live, $3600 a month would be fine for a single person who didn't have enormous health care costs (and I know that's a real "aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln?" comment. Retirees are pretty likely to have big medical bills).
I grew up in north-central Arkansas. The median household income there is substantially less than that.