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Advice on Social Return On Investment

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Q: What is better – a financial or social return on investment?
If you had some money to invest, and you knew a way to invest it in a local environmental or social community project, rather than a conventional investment, would you do that – even if it meant your money would be at more risk and would not produce a high financial return, but it would develop local projects and you would be able to see the good work your money was doing – and hopefully get a small level of interest?

A: What goes around, comes around.

I would invest for the social return.

Actually seeing the people earning the money is a greater satisfaction. AND, who knows what financial return would be gained, keeping the investment closer to home? In fact, it very frequently happens.

Thanks for asking your Q! I enjoyed answering it!

VTY,
Ron Berue
Yes, that is my real last name!

Q: How does social media help in measuring the return of investment of a company?
With social media being a prominent mode to gain popularity, companies streamline their efforts to build an entire presence through twitter, facebook & other popular social media outlets.
Talking about ROI, it is indispensable to form parameters before measuring the profits for a company.
Hence, business and marketing professionals who embark on the journey of social media should define what they want to achieve from using social media outlets

A: Investment in social media efforts CAN be measured and should be tracked with a beginning baseline and an end goal in mind. Mashable has a great article about social media ROI that includes an informative and entertaining slideshow by Olivier Blanchard. (http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/ )

Here’s the overview:
A business that wants to track their ROI from social media should start with a baseline of your company’s current growth, website visitors, online transactions, telephone inquiries, etc. If you don’t have this information, start tracking it.

Next, create an activity timeline that tracks all new social media projects: blog launches, new Twitter campaigns, press releases, etc.,

By stacking these timelines on top of one another, your company can create a picture of which efforts are working, and which ones aren’t. Over several months, you can graph your progress and watch for correlations between events, such as certain blog articles equaling more customer calls, or positive online mentions and a jump in site visitors.

Keep in mind, though, that another part of a good social media campaign and tracking ROI is having a goal in mind when you start so you know where you want to be. Your goal could be monetary return (more sales), or non-monetary (brand awareness, increase in social media mentions). It’s not too late to start tracking your progress so your business will know how your social media efforts are affecting your company.

-natalie, Red Humpy Design

http://www.RedHumpy.com/blog

Q: Has anyone else calculated the return on Social Security after they received a projected benefit statement?
I figure that I will have to live to 104 years old, just to get back the principal. This does not include the potential simple interest that I could have received on CD rates.

Is Social Security a good investment?

A: The whole purpose of the healthcare reform was to give the government the power to make sure you don’t live to 104.

Q: What’s the average return on ones Social Security payments?
In that if one contributed say an X amount of dollars into Social security over 40 years of working how quickly would I (considering I received the average SS monthly payment, whatever that number is) recoup my initial investment and what type of a total return would I receive over the life of my SS checks? Would I recognize 2X my money? 10X? 30X?

A: Every person is different and your return can range from zero to jackpot.

On average, a dollar paid in benefits represents 15 cents, employee tax, 15 cents employer tax and 70 cents interest earned on US bonds that Social Security invests in.

Q: Does America get a bigger return on investment by fighting in foreign wars, or by the wasteful social programs?

A: Its necessary to care for those who need it. It isn’t necessary to create an entire class of people dependent on the Nanny State for their existance.

Q: Is social security a good investment? Put in $1,000 and get $750 in return.?
How can I retire on this?

A: No its a losing proposition, and since we borrowed it in to insolvency it is a ponzy scheme

Q: What is the best way to tack results with social media marketing?
How does a business owner track their results? Are there tools or software that can show true return on investment numbers to meashure their social media? Example: Google Analytics is one great tool to identify online traffic by impeding a code within your website or blog. What other tools are on the market?

A: I use Google Analytics as a baseline approach. It gives you a lot of information. The other one I like is Quantcast.com. It gives me all sorts of weird information, such as 9% of my visitors are African American. How they arrive at that number I have no idea.

A better answer to your question is here though:

http://mashable.com/2009/04/19/social-media-analytics/

The basic answer is to Optimize your existing analytics software using plugins or built in tools.

Q: Would you be willing to forefeit your Social Security “Benefits” if they would quit taxing you for it?
A decent size portion of my salary goes towards Social Security. Last year on my deferred compensation retirement plan, I got a 35% return on investment, with no major planning.

I would be willing to just cut my losses, and quit paying into SS and invest myself for my retirement. What do you think?

A: I would love to do that. I could take that money (about $500 a month in my case) and invest it as I see fit. I’m pretty confident that by the time I retired I would have a much larger nest egg than anything the feds would ever be able to give.

Q: How much money would you have if you invested a few hundred a month for 40 years?
It’s safe to assume everyone would be millionaires upon retirement if they invested monthly. Think of all the money we are missing out on because we are forced to give it to Social Security for a negative return on investment. Wouldn’t you like to leave millions for your kids?

A: It depends on what you invested in.

Houses a few years ago wouldn’t have worked out.

GM. Chrysler?

Q: Social Security question. Should we invest it or keep it in the general fund?
Today all social security money goes into the US General Fund and our politicians spend it on EARMARKS and other CRAP we do not need. So the question becomes, do we invest the money and save it or do we allow our politicians to continue to write IOU’s with a 0% return on investment.

A: Invest. Social Security is running out. It will not be there when I retire. I don’t like the idea of the gov stealing money for anything other than its original purpose.

Q: Social Security Benefit calculation problem,need help~?
-Assume Tom’s base salary is $90000 per year.

-He is 28 now and plan on working until the end of his 65th year.

-The current withholding rate for Social Security is 6.2% for the employee, and the current withholding rate for the employer match for Social Security is 6.2%.

-Assume that the Social Security Administration can make an annual return of 2 percent of Tom’s account.

-Assume that the stock market rate of return is 11 percent.

-Assume that the 65 the maximum payment Tom can receive from Social Security is $1800 per month.

Please answer the following:

1.What is the future value of all of Tom’s contributions using the 2% rate of return? What does it look like with the 11% return?

2.Assume that Tom live until he is 80,what is the total value (constant dollars) that he will get paid out of Social Security?Compared to his contributions,is it a good investment?

3.Assume that Tom could take his lump sum investment is Social Security at age 65 (both the employee and employer contributions) and invest in Treasury bonds that yield 4.5 percent (paid quarterly).Using just the coupon rate,how much income would this generate for Tom at retirement?

4.Does it make sense to keep the current system or allow people to invest part of there own Social Security?

A: Question interesting!!

Good Luck!!

Q: Social security benefit calculation problem,need help~?
-Assume Tom’s base salary is $90000 per year.

-He is 28 now and plan on working until the end of his 65th year.

-The current withholding rate for Social Security is 6.2% for the employee, and the current withholding rate for the employer match for Social Security is 6.2%.

-Assume that the Social Security Administration can make an annual return of 2 percent of Tom’s account.

-Assume that the stock market rate of return is 11 percent.

-Assume that the 65 the maximum payment Tom can receive from Social Security is $1800 per month.

Please answer the following:

1.What is the future value of all of Tom’s contributions using the 2% rate of return? What does it look like with the 11% return?

2.Assume that Tom live until he is 80,what is the total value (constant dollars) that he will get paid out of Social Security?Compared to his contributions,is it a good investment?

4.Does it make sense to keep the current system or allow people to invest part of there own Social Security?

A: 1, 2, 3. Using fixed rates of return gives completely unrealistic answers. You really need to do a Monte Carlo Simulation. These are incredibly complex calculations. The output of which is not dollar amounts but rather it provides a graph of the odds of a possible results.

4. This is a complex issue. Most important is that few people would save (or if they did, would make poor choices) for their retirement if allowed. The few that did save would then have to pay higher taxes to provide for the basic needs (food, shelter, etc.) of these people. (We are not going to let them starve to death on the streets.) At least with the current system these people contributed something to pool.

Factors that also need to be considered:

If Tom were to die after working just a few years his children and wife would be provided for. This is part of the cost of the current system and needs to be included in any calculation of return.

The rates ( 2%, 4.5%, 11% ) are not long term realistic.

The $1800 monthly payment is self adjusting for inflation.

Congress can (and often has) change the rules and rates at anytime

Q: Is the Social Security a ripoff to the American workers ?
We all know that the government takes our money and when we reach a certain age we get back some of it , but would we not be better off if we could invest some of that money in a private retirement account. All calulations show that americans would be getting between 2 and 3 times what the government now pays, and here is the huge injustice if after 40 years of work and hundred of thousands of dollars paid in, you drop dead on your 60th birthday the government keeps all that money at least if it was your account you could leave that wealth to your heirs the average black male lives to about 62 that means he is contributing to a system without any return on his investment if this is such a good system why is congress exempt from it.

A: I think Social Security is a rip off simply because in only a few years there will be no more money because the Democrats have been raping the coffers for other projects and state headed pork so they can impress voters. The older Americans who have paid in for all of their lives, may be receiving payments now but how long can it last since the money has been spent and little of it has been paid back. That is a sad state of affairs for those who will be eligible in 10 years. Then what about the laborers that are paying in faithfully now? If something is not done and soon, even those people will get nothing back when they retire.

I agree that privatizing medicare is the safest and best idea. The problem is that Bush has been advocating this for years and the Democrats in congress have always shot the idea down. They want this to be a socialist country and have all the people completely dependent on the government. Come on!! If that doesn’t even work on a minnie scale, then what would happen on a huge scale. The bottom line is that the Dems want to control all of that money and would not be able to if the system were privatized. Why is congress exempt? I think it is because they get a better deal just taking it from us. They can then launder it or put off a plan to pay it back which we know will not happen. Why do you think they want to raise our taxes? They really want us to pay back what they stole even though what they stole was rightfully ours. The richest people in the congress and senate are Democrats like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Hilary Clinton, Al Sharpton, (among other billionaires). NONE of these guys pay income taxes because the keep all of their fortune in off shore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, etc. TAX FREE! We do all of the work and barely etch out a living while supporting the government fat cats who do not even pay their taxes on what they steal and what we pay them as public servants. Then when it comes the time to collect our Social Security checks, there is little or nothing left.

Q: Question for right wingers: is there something wrong with you?
OK, so someone asked whether Social Security was a Ponzi scheme and whether it was sustainable. I patiently explained the difference, and that it was sustainable (I’ve seen the figures, and it’s easily sustainable*). And three people thumbed me down.

So my question is this: is there something wrong with you? I’ve seen this behavior over and over again: someone makes a factual statement, and a right winger who doesn’t know the facts thumbs him down rather than paying attention to what he said.

Here’s part of my answer:

“A Ponzi scheme promises a return on investment, and then pays old investors with money received from new ones to create the illusion of that return.

“Social Security isn’t a vested pension fund, it is a pay-as-you-go annuity. In essence, you pay Grandpa’s benefits, and when you retire, your kids pay yours. Aside from the small amount in the Social Security Trust Fund, the money that goes into Social Security doesn’t earn interest and nobody pretends it does.”

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?…

So — if you’re one of those who ignores the facts, why?

*According to the 2009 Trustees’ report, “Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years with changes equivalent to an immediate 16 percent increase in the payroll tax (from a rate of 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two.”

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/index.html

So not only is Social Security sustainable over the next 75 years, real economic growth will easily outstrip a tax increase that’s equal to only a year or two of average economic growth.
Tarheel, to answer your question (since you don’t have an email option), I was being tongue-in-cheek. Of course that person is allowed to say whatever they want, I’m not Yahoo Answers and even if I had the power I wouldn’t censor what they say.
The OMB report is no different in essence than the report of the SS trustees, in fact, the SS trustees are a bit harsher (the projections depend on assumptions, e.g., how quickly the economy will grow). So the same remedies mentioned by the Trustees should keep Social Security solvent under OMB’s assumptions as well. Such remedies have been used many times in the history of Social Security to account for people living longer, the baby boom, recessions like this one, etc.

A: There is a reason why people thumb you down when you present the facts.

You see, people on the far right and the far left do not use logic in their arguments. This is how it works.

People start with an assumption. This is usually what they have been told, or something that they believe. This could be something like, Obama is a communist. After they cement this belief, they then look for any facts to support this belief. If they cannot find any real facts, they look for people who have the same opinion and pass it off as popular fact, and they twist around the truth to fit into their perceived belief. For evidence of this, just look at how many people still believe that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11.

Logical people start with the facts first, then draw a logical conclusion, like you have done with your social security argument.

Illogical people start with a conclusion first, like Social Security is bad, and then look for facts to back up their claim. When facts contradict the truth, they label the truth as having a liberal bias or something like that.

I find that many on the right do this. They look at their beliefs, then they look for facts to back this up. It is what Limbaugh and Hannity are very good at, and they cater to a large ignorant audience who believes their lies.

If the news would only report on the facts, without any opinion programs like Beck or O’Reily, then Americans would be much better informed. Of course, then the Conservatives would still say that the news has a liberal bias because the facts do not back up their beliefs. Just look at evolution. Conservatives still think that science has a liberal bias.

Q: Why do so many people believe the right wing lie that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme?
A Ponzi scheme is a pyramid scheme in which people are promised a high return on their investment, but instead are paid with the money that comes in from new investors. Because it relies on an ever-increasing pool of investors, it collapses when there are no longer enough new investors to pay off the old ones. Social Security is not an investment scheme — it is a pay as you go insurance plan. It promises no interest. It’s just young people paying for their parents’ retirement, and then their kids paying for theirs. And it will keep on going forever, as long as the proper actuarial adjustments are made to account for changing demographics — mostly people living longer than they used to, but also changes in birth rate, etc.
I give up. No matter how often you explain it, most of the right wingers here aren’t bright enough to understand why Social Security isn’t a Ponzi scheme. One can only do so much.

A: it is not a pay as you insurance plan first off. Professionally I can tell you it is one GIANT annuity. Life insurance is an insurance plan. In no way shape or form is it in an investment though. I agree with you. I also agree that if the proper adjustments are made then yes, it will last forever. My father who is in his sixties was told in high school that s.s. would not be there when he retires, that it would be all dried up.

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.

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