MONEY MATTERS

THE SOCIAL SECURITY FUND WILL BE TAPPED OUT . . . BY 2037:

Just when you thought the economic outlook couldn't possibly get any bleaker . . . we get THIS news . . .

Yesterday, the federal government announced that Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes . . . in the year 2016.

That's ONE year earlier than officials predicted just last year. At that rate, the Social Security fund will be completely depleted . . . by the year 2037. That's FOUR years earlier than predicted.

And Medicare . . . which was already paying out more than it collects in taxes A YEAR AGO . . . is in even worse shape. According to officials, the Medicare fund will be completely depleted by the year 2017 . . . which is TWO years earlier than previously predicted. (KPIX News 5 - Bay Area)

-So you know, on Monday, major health care providers promised to cut costs by $2 TRILLION over the next decade, which sounds easy enough . . . if you don't know how much a trillion dollars truly is.

Here's some perspective . . .

--One trillion is the number "one" followed by 12 zeroes . . . as in 1,000,000,000,000.

--If you counted at a rate of one number per second, it would take you 31,546 YEARS to reach one trillion.

-- If you placed $100 bills side-by-side, you could circle the equator nearly 39 TIMES before you reached $1 TRILLION.

--If you spent $1 MILLION every day since Jesus was born, you STILL wouldn't have spent $1 TRILLION.

--And you can take a look at a visual representation of $1 TRILLION here . . http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html