Finally released today, almost 3 months later than any other time in recent history, the Trustees Report on Social Security for 2010 is finally available. I’ll be posting more on this later, but the highlights:

On the front page of your last Social Security statement, based on last year’s Trustees report, you can see where they estimated that more would be paid out in benefits than collected beginning in 2016, Social Security funds would be completely exhausted by 2037, and there would only be enough money to pay 76 cents on the dollar in benefits.

The last two numbers remain the same this year, sort of (more on that later), but as for the first number, it is now…. drumroll please……

2010!

That’s right, we have already arrived. The Trustees have split that number in two parts this year, however, saying that Social Security will run a deficit again in 2011, be back in the black again from 2012 through 2014, then permanently be in the red beginning in 2015.

Much more later…