Social Security: Will it be there when you're ready?

The long-term outlook for Social Security remains bleak, but the projected deficit has actually shrunk a little since last year's Board of Trustees report. Aiding the improvement is the fact that the trustees have decided to factor taxes paid by illegal immigrants into the deficit equation. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Don't get your hopes up, though, if you're many years away from retirement: The Social Security Administration still expects that the program will no longer be able to pay full benefits beginning in the year 2041, unless payroll taxes are increased, benefits are reduced, or the Feds adopt some combination of the two.