When It Comes To Retirement, 67 Is The New 55

[jeffrey]

Looking forward to retirement? You may have to wait a bit longer. Financial pressures are pushing up retirement ages all over.

William Reichenstein, who teaches finance at Baylor University, tells his students that they will have to save a lot more of their working income if they hope to retire as comfortably as their parents and grandparents, simply because they're going to live longer.
On Wednesday, France, which was the last holdout in Western Europe maintaining an official retirement age of 60, proposed increasing it to 62 by 2018. On the same day, California's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a deal with four state public employee unions to raise the retirement age by five years for newly hired workers...


When It Comes To Retirement, 67 Is The New 55 : NPR

[buildmybudget]

Seems like this is pretty inevitable given the current financial situation. I received my annual social security statement last week and couldn't help but wonder how accurate it truly is. Will there even be social security in thirty years? Makes me wonder..

[maat55]

Social security is a dying ponzi scheme. It costs each generation more to upkeep and is slowly killing freedom.

It is best that everyone in this country start making other arrangements for retirement around this sinking ship.

What people will not recognize is that it is an horrible product of moral hazard, not to mention that if it were an volentary product offered by an company, the company would be bankrupt and the management put in prison.

[JennyEvans]

There are so many elderly people who have worked hard all their lives and thought that they were providing very well for their retirement. Unfortunately though, there are too many of them who cannot manage to feed themselves very well, or those who are just too frail to bother about preparing meals. Meals on Wheels is a non-profit organization who care for these elderly people by delivering nutritious meals to their door. They have wonderful caring volunteers who devote their time to providing for them.

[snshijuptr]

The reality is that 55 is not as "old" as it used to be. My grandmother died around 55 and my mother at 60 is doing 20 mile bike rides. Also the meaning of work and retirement are changing. The average worker sits behind a desk versus 40 years ago where most workers worked at a machine. Retirement is not too feeble to work, but disinclined to work.

[disneysteve]

The reality is that 55 is not as "old" as it used to be. My grandmother died around 55 and my mother at 60 is doing 20 mile bike rides. Also the meaning of work and retirement are changing. The average worker sits behind a desk versus 40 years ago where most workers worked at a machine. Retirement is not too feeble to work, but disinclined to work.

This is definitely a piece of it. I know many people who are quite happily working, at least part-time, in their 70s and even 80s. They are young at heart and in good physical condition. They don't want to sit around and do nothing all day. They aren't working at their original careers but they are working and it has nothing to do with the money. For example, my uncle in Florida runs the snack bar at the senior condo complex where he lives. He works a few hours a day and loves it.

I also have numerous patients in their 70s and 80s who are still working because they need to financially, but at least they are physically and mentally able to do so. Years ago, that wasn't nearly as common.