Posted on 12/16/2009 6:06:47 PM PST by BenLurkin
It's time to retire the idea of retirement--or at least push it back by a few years. Although it's fun to dream about a permanent escape from a grueling commute or an overbearing boss, think about how much you gain from your friendship with coworkers and having a daily routine where you feel useful. The financial incentives to delay retirement are obvious and dramatic. And recent research even suggests that working part time in retirement can improve your health. Here are 10 reasons you shouldn't quit your day job.
Your health. Seniors who work part time in retirement experience fewer major diseases and are able to function better day to day than people who stop working altogether,
Your marriage. After years of spending mostly nights and weekends together, being together all day every day can be stressful.
Delay taxes. If you delay tapping your retirement accounts, they have more time to compound, tax deferred.
Higher Social Security checks. Social Security eligibility begins at age 62, but your checks are reduced by 25 to 35 percent if you sign up at this age. For each year you delay signing up for Social Security between ages 62 and 70, your benefit will increase by 7 to 8 percent
Work adds meaning to your life. Retirees sometimes lose the sense of purpose of getting up to go perform a necessary role in society and being an active member of the community.
Your social life.
Health benefits. Those who retire before age 65 have to worry about how to pay for expensive health insurance premiums and what to do if they're excluded from coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
Society needs your skills.
Job perks. Pick out a part-time job that comes with perks.
Haven't saved enough. You probably haven't saved enough to retire.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
* When you retire the government cuts your health benefits because you are just a drain on society.
Everyones situation is different. The math works out for each of us in different ways. Then we get some jackass in DC that screws everything up and changes the math.
I retired at 53 (I’m 61) and I have had only one regret.... I should have done it 10 years sooner. Life is NOT getting longer.
I won’t say that I don’t miss some of the money, but a guy who is interested in everything, is never bored.
Time, my time, the time I get to spend on whatever I am thinking about, is worth much more to me than the extra bucks.
I suppose the most difficult thing for me to get use to, is not having the adrenaline high. I have always been an adrenaline junkie and my job provided that, even on days that I didn’t want it. LOL
About the only time I get the adrenaline kick anymore, is when a fish takes my hook, my dog alerts on something he thinks I’m supposed to be afraid of or when I can’t seem to get my 26 chickens back into their house.
Oh, I figured out what I want for Christmas and it would be a great gift for us retired guys.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXqtMkBipIs
My dear father is nearing 70 as an auto body man who’s in great shape for his age. I imagine his employer will force retirement on him. Last year, he said to me, “The more I read about this Medicare crap the more I think to myself I’m never going to retire.”
Or just call it quits.
Retirement is yet one more abnormality of WWII that is disappearing.
I have been retired for 20 yars now. I often wonder how I found the time to go to work.
I work with the American legion, I drive an ambulance as a volunteer, I sometimes am asked to fill in with meals on wheels. I cut the lawns of a couple of widowed ladies in the neighborhood and my wife and I vacation when we can.
It’s amazing how busy you can be if you wish to be, or you can sit and vegetate. It’s up to you.
I also haunt Free Republic in my spare time LOL.
#1: The growing legions of retired public employees needs working stiffs to pay for their platinum-plated pensions. Plus they appreciate having the beaches and golf courses all to themselves during the week.
I would think South or Southeast Asia unless you plan on staying in great health the rest of your life. That’s where all the good English and some of the Canadian doctors have gone. They have built state-of-the-art hospitals and clinics for cash customers and it costs a whole lot less than in the US. Those doctors make more money that way than they could make in England and patients get much cheaper medicals.
On the other hand, if you retire when you’re still healthy and can actually enjoy retirement, you’re freed to do all sorts of creative and productive things that can give you joy and benefit the world. My father, who loved trees, organized a land conservancy to preserve virgin prairie and taught children about nature. He worked in his garden, painted pictures, took care of animals, did political volunteer work, and was well-loved in his community for all his contributions. He always regretted the years he had to waste working.
As to winters, try the Antalya area of Turkey. It rarely gets below 55 degrees Fahreinheit down there.
.....staying too long and dying on the job trumps all 10.
Retired since 1999 and still damn’d happy about it!
I'm metal aged myself - Silver in my hair, gold in my teeth and lead in my ass.
RE: “Slow down there champ, save some for us middle aged!”
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Since I have no job and no prospects here in commie CA, where unemployment is some 17%, and can collect no unemployment benes because I became unemployed before all of this crisis began, I plan to take what is due me at 62.
Way back in the sixties we young working types were convinced there would be no social security for us. Well, that may be true but it has not come to pass yet. So although you think you will be left out, you probably will not be left out -—let’s see how you feel about collecting ‘early’ when you hit 60ish.
Fully 66% of all eligible 62 year olds decide to take soc sec ‘early.’ Did you know that if you collect early for awhile and manage to save those funds or have other savings, that at full ‘retirement’ age you can REPAY the govt what you’ve already collected, with NO interest charge to you, and restart your payouts at full benefit?????? Yep, that’s true.
If I live that long, and still have the funds saved, that’s what I might do.
But don’t worry, Obamacare will make sure most of us die off more quickly so you will almost certainly be able to collect ‘your’ portion of soc sec.
No worries bro. You might be right on the social programs increasing and allowing some my age to collect.
IMO the system will collapse by the time I get there. If not, they will stop giving increases for inflation and the amount you get will pennies compared to the time most people in mid-life contributed to it in actual dollars.
I’m not bitter, just a fact of life. The only thing I can be thankful of is that my money is actually being collected by my parents, so that does give me some satisfaction.
I wish the government would just come out and say that SS will stop for all people my age and younger. Let us pay off the past generations bad mistakes, but not make my kids (and their kids) have to pay for continually putting bad policy on top of bad policy. Somewhere it has to stop and I’d be willing to be the first to bite the bullet, but it won’t happen because everyone has to “get theirs”.
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