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.

Image source: Getty Images.

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.

Let’s look back at 2022, a year when Apple redesigned the standard iPad without a Home button, and the iPad Pro upgraded from the M1 chip to the M2. After those releases, it was over a year before Apple updated the iPad line again, which resulted in the iPad mini going three years between updates, and the iPad Air two years. It led to a sense that the iPad was done. After all, iPhones got getting bigger and bigger, and the MacBook Air has always been an ideal mobile laptop. What’s the point of the iPad?

That gap in time proved to be a hiccup. The tablet made its comeback in March 2024 with the iPad Pro (which was the first Apple device to be equipped with an M4 chip; the M4 MacBook Pro was released 6 months later), and the M3 iPad Air. Apple subsequently launched an iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip, which can run Apple Intelligence, and the 11th-generation iPad with an A16 chip, an affordable tablet but it lacks Apple Intelligence support.

Even the rumor mill is in full swing, with reports of an M5 iPad Pro coming later this year, and an M4 iPad Air in development, with a possible release in 2026.

But, why?

The iPad slump is over, and Apple’s tablet is sailing close to the wind. But why do we still need an iPad at all, when it is being cannibalized from two sides? On one side are large and powerful iPhones, and on the other is the powerful and portable MacBook Air.

Apple’s answer to this question is currently iPadOS 26, but it actually exacerbates the issue. I like iPadOS 26’s approach; the new window management and the revised Files app make the iPad more like a Mac than ever before. But macOS is the better system, so why not just buy a Mac?

To take full advantage of iPadOS 26 requires a decent keyboard with a trackpad, and only Apple’s Magic Keyboard Folio or the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro and Air are suitable (for now). The 13-inch M4 iPad Pro with 256GB of storage and a Magic Keyboard costs $1,648/£1,648, $649/£649 more than the $999 MacBook Air!

What the iPad can do and the MacBook can’t

The iPad can be used without a keyboard, and Apple Pencil offers a form of input that is difficult to match on a Mac. Without a keyboard and case, the iPad Pro is also much lighter than the MacBook Air. Try using a MacBook in portrait mode or as a camera!

For use in education or as a mobile work tool, the iPad is certainly better suited than a MacBook Air, as a robust and lightweight device that can also be operated with a stylus.

There are arguments for using an iPad or a MacBook depending on the situation. But this is where the second cannibal comes into play: the iPhone. It takes even better pictures, is much easier to attach to a controller when playing games, and can even make phone calls.

Is the iPhone a better iPad?

I use the iPhone more and more often for the purposes for which I used to like using the iPad. Reading the news works almost as well, as does quickly replying to an email or message. When I’m typing longer texts, it almost doesn’t matter whether I pull out the iPad (and possibly have to search for the keyboard first) or open up the MacBook Air–like the iPad, it’s quickly unlocked and then ready to use straight away.

Apple has always taken the stance that it’s better to cannibalize itself than let others eat away at its marketshare. That’s a good strategy in itself. However, the iPad has to fend off two cannibals from its own company, and I don’t know if that will work for long.

Despite the remarkable innovations in iPadOS 26, Apple is not planning to combine the iPad with the Mac in a single device; rather, the iPad will have to fear a completely different competitor from its own company: a foldable iPhone, which reports indicate will be released next year.

iPad tests technologies

Apple has shown a willingness to experiment with the iPad. For example, Apple first built a lidar into an iPad Pro before it was used in the iPhone 12 Pro, and an OLED screen made its debut in the M4 iPad Pro before the MacBook. Tech that Apple could try in the iPad includes Face ID under the screen, especially if the iPad Pro M5 will indeed have two front cameras.

Apple is always good for a surprise, and the iPad has been declared dead before and continues to enjoy the best of health. Even other seemingly dead products didn’t end up on the sidelines because they were unrivalled in their niche, such as the MacBook Air and the Mac mini, which Apple brought back into the limelight from the sidelines at the end of 2018.

The iPad could therefore join forces with its two cannibals to form an infernal trio and nibble away at the competition.

Out of the 82 tokenized projects that emerged from the Solana AI Hackathon, only 27 have managed to sustain a market cap above $1 million.

The latest figure revealed a sobering statistic that highlights the brutal reality of this fast-moving sector.

Market Chaos Hits AI Tokens

According to Nansen’s latest findings, the biggest winners were – The Hive, Neur, TetsuoAI, JailbreakMe, and FXN – which have all ridden the wave of AI agent hype. These projects have managed to capture market attention and early adoption.

But here’s the catch: despite their initial success, even these leading projects have faced significant price declines. Data suggest that some of the tokens were down at least 70% from their highs.

Nansen found that The Hive stands out for its practical approach, offering AI-assisted trading and LP tools that lower entry barriers for users. Neur also takes a similar path but with a stronger focus on analytics, leveraging integrations with platforms like TrenchRadar to enhance due diligence.

FXN, on the other hand, positions itself as an infrastructure play, rewarding developers for contributing AI agents to a decentralized swarm – an ambitious model similar to that of solver networks.

Meanwhile, TetsuoAI boasts a strong developer community, with over 32,000 builders contributing to an evolving ecosystem of AI-driven tools, suggesting that its potential lies in network effects and collective innovation. While the price action across all these projects has been turbulent, smart money trends tell a more complex story.

Smart Money’s Quiet Bet

Large holders have been rotating out of high-risk assets into more stable options like Bitcoin and Solana, but certain projects, such as FXN and Tetsuo, have seen increases in smart money balances despite an overall decline in unique wallet counts. This suggests that while some investors are exiting, others are consolidating positions, which essentially hints at long-term confidence.

Furthermore, ongoing ecosystem developments, including partnerships with Play Solana and Chainbase, as well as the integration of new AI functionalities, indicate that some projects are continuing to build despite market downturns.

Ultimately, while many AI agent tokens may fade into irrelevance, those that manage to sustain innovation, integrate with broader ecosystems, and demonstrate real utility beyond mere speculation could emerge as long-term winners. The question is whether these projects can maintain momentum and adapt as the AI-agent narrative evolves or if they will become another chapter in the history of crypto’s fleeting hype cycles.