Your analysis of the viability of Social Security may make you wonder, "How much will I need to retire?" You can get an idea of what you will need by using one of the many retirement calculators online. Try using one of the tools to estimate what you will need at retirement. Most likely, you will see that Social Security will not provide nearly enough money to support you during retirement.

Estimate your Social Security benefits

Retirement calculators:

• AARP
• Bankrate.com
• Bloomberg
• CNN
• MSN

If you want to help the members of your community but do not have money to donate to a non-profit, you may want to consider a new trend that is spreading across cities all over the world. Organizations like Trade School and Communiteach allow you to teach people in your community a certain skill in return for them teaching you a new skill, or trading you a possession you need that they no longer need.

For example, if you would like to learn to play a guitar, you might find someone in your community who is willing to teach you to play a guitar in return for you teaching them how to sew.

Sample answer:

Republican view:

The general political philosophy of the Republican Party is that citizens should take care of themselves. They believe that the answers do not lie with the government generally, but rather with the people. They want less government interference and tend to believe more strongly in property rights and less strongly in welfare rights, holding economic equity above equality.

Democratic view:

The general political philosophy of the Democratic Party is that the government should take care of people who cannot take care of themselves. They believe in a larger federal government, and often implement tax plans to try to help the less privileged. They tend to believe the government must look out for the greater good above the individual person in terms of welfare and do what is necessary to make the populace more "equal."

I tend to agree with the Republican view. Our founding fathers stated that we could pursue happiness, not that we were entitled to happiness. If you make bad financial decisions, then you should be prepared to handle the consequences. To expect the government to fix your bad decisions is ludicrous and the type of thinking that will only lead to Socialism and/or Communism. However, matters such as Social Security and Medicare are not government handouts. We have all paid taxes specifically for these benefits.