Social Security benefits are a lifeline for millions of older adults, and a new study shows that the majority of Americans can’t get by without them.

According to a 2025 report from the Nationwide Retirement Institute, 61% of U.S. adults currently collecting Social Security benefits admitted that they could not survive financially if they missed even half of a monthly payment. Among those not yet receiving benefits but expecting them, 54% said the same.

Unfortunately for many retirees, benefit cuts could be a possibility in the next decade. Here’s why, plus what you can do to prepare.

Cuts could be on the table by 2034

One of the biggest problems Social Security is facing is the depletion of its two trust funds — the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) fund and the Disability Insurance (DI) fund.

In recent years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has been paying out more in benefits than it’s receiving in income. The program is funded primarily through payroll taxes from workers, and with baby boomers retiring in droves, the income from taxes hasn’t been enough to pay out all the benefits owed to older retirees.

To cover the deficit, the SSA has been pulling money from its trust funds. This is a short-term solution to avoid benefit cuts for right now, but those funds are quickly running out of money. When they’re depleted, the SSA will have to rely solely on payroll taxes and other income sources to fund benefits.

According to the SSA Board of Trustees’ latest report published earlier this year, the OASI and DI trust funds are expected to run out by 2034. If nothing changes between now and then, the SSA will only be able to pay out approximately 81% of scheduled benefits.

What does this mean for you?

If the trust funds run out in 2034, benefits could potentially be slashed by close to 20%. However, this assumes that lawmakers won’t come up with a solution before then.

While nothing has been agreed upon, there are a few proposals on the table. Taxing wealthy workers is one of the most popular and effective solutions, with 81% of voters across both political parties agreeing on this approach, according to a 2022 survey from the University of Maryland.

Currently, only income up to $176,100 per year is subject to Social Security tax. Some lawmakers have proposed taxing wages above $400,000 per year as well, creating extra income for the program and reducing the amount that the SSA would need to pull from the trust funds.

Other lawmakers have suggested raising the full retirement age or reducing benefits for higher earners, both of which would reduce Social Security’s expenditures. Again, none of these solutions are set in stone yet. But even if the SSA can avoid benefit cuts, any changes to the program could affect you in other ways.

What you can do to prepare

The future of Social Security may be largely out of your control, but you can still take steps to prepare for any potential cuts.

• Delay claiming benefits: The average retired worker collects around $807 more per month at age 70 than at age 62, according to 2024 data from the Social Security Administration. Delaying filing by even a year or two can boost your benefits by hundreds of dollars per month, taking some of the sting out of any potential cuts down the road.
• Consider a side job or passive income: Even if you’re already taking benefits, working while on Social Security can both increase your checks and strengthen your savings. Passive income sources can generate wealth long into retirement, reducing your dependence on benefits.
• Get creative with reducing your expenses: You’ve likely already exhausted all the ways to reduce your day-to-day expenses. But if you’re serious about helping your money last longer, major lifestyle changes like moving to a more tax-friendly state or downsizing to a smaller home can make an enormous difference in your budget.

If none of these options work or you’re already well into retirement, your options may be more limited. But staying informed can be a powerful way to protect your finances. The more you know about the state of Social Security and how it affects you, the more you can do to prepare.

Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors.

Adria Cimino has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Data isn’t hard to come by on Wall Street. Between earnings season — the six-week period each quarter where the vast majority of S&P 500 companies unveil their operating results — and economic data releases from the U.S. government, investors are rarely struggling for catalysts that can move the broader market.

But among these market-moving data dumps, nothing has been more anticipated than Nvidia (NVDA 3.67%) lifting the hood on its fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year operating results (Nvidia’s fiscal 2025 ended on Jan. 26, 2025) following the closing bell on Feb. 26.

Nvidia has been the face of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution for the last two years. The company’s Hopper (H100) graphics processing unit (GPU) and next-generation Blackwell GPU architecture are the undisputed top options in enterprise AI-accelerated data centers, and are what allow AI software and systems to make split-second decisions.

Although investors should have a good bead on what to expect from Nvidia following the release of its operating results, as of this writing on Feb. 25, we’ve already witnessed a number of billionaire money managers weigh in — and their sentiment regarding Wall Street’s AI darling couldn’t be clearer.

Wall Street’s prominent billionaire asset managers speak volumes with their actions

In addition to publicly traded companies reporting their operating results on a quarterly basis, institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management are required to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission no later than 45 calendar days following the end to a quarter.

A 13F provides a snapshot that allows investors to see which stocks Wall Street’s most prominent money managers have been buying and selling. Even though these filings are stale for active hedge funds, they can still clue investors into the stocks, industries, sectors, and trends that have the full attention of top-tier asset managers.

As you can imagine, Nvidia’s historic ascent tied to the AI revolution made it a popular company for billionaire investors to keep an eye on. But based on 13F filings over the last two years, billionaire money managers have been decisive sellers of Nvidia stock. Note: All figures below have been adjusted for Nvidia’s historic 10-for-1 forward stock split in June 2024.

• Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management: Sold 39,795,532 shares of Nvidia stock since the first quarter of 2023, equating to an 80% reduction.
• David Tepper of Appaloosa Management: Sold 9,569,999 shares since the third quarter of 2023, which works out to a 93% haircut.
• Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Family Office: Sold the entirety of his fund’s 9,500,750-share stake since the second quarter of 2023.
• Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital: Sold his fund’s entire stake of 6,416,490 shares of Nvidia since the second quarter of 2023.

The “why?” behind this persistent selling activity can likely be explained by five factors.

Billionaire investors are selling Nvidia stock hand over fist

The most-logical of all reasons for these four billionaire investors to ring the register is simple profit-taking. These are relatively active fund managers who likely recognize that Nvidia’s roughly $3 trillion increase in market value isn’t something that happens to public companies on a regular basis. The worry is that this selling is tied to much more than just simple profit-taking.

A second possibility is that billionaire fund managers were concerned about an inevitable uptick in competition for Nvidia. Interestingly, while direct competitors tend to get the most attention, internal competitive pressure might be the bigger concern.

Many of Nvidia’s top customers by net sales are developing their own AI chips, with the goal of using this hardware in their AI-accelerated data centers. Even if these AI GPUs fail to match Nvidia’s chips in terms of computing speed, they’ll be notably cheaper and not backlogged. In other words, Nvidia is at serious risk of losing out on valuable data center real estate with its top customers and seeing its pricing power weaken over time.

The regulatory environment for AI chips and related equipment marks a third potential sell-side catalyst for billionaire money managers. The Joe Biden administration clamped down on exports of high-powered AI chips to China from 2022 through 2024. Donald Trump’s administration seems intent on keeping America’s AI intellectual property protected from the world’s No. 2 economy. This means billions of dollars of Nvidia’s quarterly sales to China are now at risk.

Historic precedent is the fourth worry that may have encouraged Laffont, Tepper, Druckenmiller, and Mandel to head for the exit. Every next-big-thing technology for three decades has navigated its way through a bubble-bursting event early in its existence. This is a reflection of investors consistently overestimating the adoption rate and/or utility of a new innovation. If history were to rhyme and the AI bubble bursts, no company would, arguably, be hit harder than Nvidia.

The fifth catalyst that may be responsible for spurring aggressive selling activity by billionaire fund managers is Nvidia’s valuation. While it’s not egregiously expensive on the basis of forward-year earnings, Nvidia’s price-to-sales (P/S) ratio peaked at more than 42 last summer. Businesses that have been on the leading edge of next-big-thing trends have often peaked at respective P/S ratios of roughly 30 to 40 over the last three decades.

Although all eyes have been on Nvidia’s operating results for weeks, billionaire investors spoke with their wallets long before the company’s full-year report came into focus.

Sean Williams has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.