“Do it while your health is good and you can enjoy life”
There is a lot to be said for that but it’s tough to enjoy life if you have to watch every penny. Money is not important if you have enough but if you don’t it becomes pretty damn important. So it retirement is a balance. I got on SS as soon as I could because I am convinced they are going to move the goal posts. They are going the have to something very soon. I am lucky enough to have a stable pension to help the cause. But those days are finished. Schools spend much time cultivating SJW’s but they do nothing to educate kids about financial security.
I worry about that too. I eligible to start collecting but am trying to postpone starting due to the increase in $ if you can delay. I get a small pension and collect some for my investments but the real blessing is owning all of my stuff and being debt free. You are right about the schools not teaching financial management. I never got schooled formally and had to learn the hard way. Everyone needs to learn to live within their means, including to save a bit for the future. Give up pizza one night a week, stay home instead of going to the movies, etc. The nickel and dime spending will hurt you. Hmmm... Maybe the government should go to a financial management class...
Same here. I retired 10+ years ago and took it at the first opportunity. I spent uncle's money while my investments grew and grew.
As far as moving goalposts goes, the SS Trustees issue an annual report. For several years they have been warning that the "SS Trust Fund" will be completely depleted in the 2033-2034 time frame and benefits will have to be reduced to ~77% of current levels.
Over the past few years, the depletion date has kept getting sooner and sooner. The current date seems far in the future, but is actually within the expected lifespan of someone retiring today.
My personal opinion is that they will do nothing until a full blown crisis is on us, and then will add:
1. Even more means testing than they have now, and
2. Even higher SS taxes for those still working, and
3. Even less inflation adjustment of payments than we now have.
I strongly suspect that the means testing will be based on total net worth rather than retirement income. The reason is that government workers will be the only ones left with pensions in 14 years, and they are notoriously bad at saving for retirement. So, they will be exempted from the cuts by leaving their pensions out of the calculation.