Posted on 02/07/2023 7:21:17 PM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
Many Americans eagerly look forward to a time when they can stop working and officially set their status to “retired.” But when asked what age they anticipate that could be, there isn’t a consensus. The average age when people say they hope to retire is 62, according to one survey.
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Meanwhile, the House of Representatives last week approved a retirement bill that would push out the age for required minimum distributions on certain savings accounts to 75, up from the current age of 72. That change, if it passes the Senate, would be gradually phased in by 2032.
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Retirement ages were last altered in 1983 under then-President Ronald Reagan. Those changes, which raised the full retirement age to 67 from 65, are still being phased in today. Even just the bump up to age 66 from 65 represented a 5% benefit cut, Elsasser noted.
Read more at the link.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
I guees you aren’t a roofer, a mechanic or a brick layer. Have fun doing that into your 70’s.
Wait, what? So I am going to involuntarily lose my employee medical at 65???
I have news for you. If you work they are going to to tax all of the SS payments away from you.
For the most part, people that can wait until 70 don't really need the money anyhow. Of course, I have no problem with them taking it then, as they paid into it all those years.
For most people, FRA is the logical choice (which is 67 for most). That is when your benefits are no longer penalized for earning a large income on the side.
I highly recommend not claiming before FRA unless you are truly out of full time work and earning less than $20K a year on the side. Otherwise, you are going to be giving much of it back in penalties.
The while thing is stupid. Once the baby boomers kick off the SS fund wil run a surplus.
Social Security was always predicated on the idea that there would be more workers than retirees. A much lower birth rate combined with a much longer lifespan makes that a system that is going to fail.
“Imagine if all your SS payroll taxes had been invested in an index fund.”
The operative words are “YOUR SS payroll taxes”.
They aren’t “YOURS” it’s tax collected by the government, so as soon as it left your paycheck, it ceased to be “yours”.
Don’t shoot the messenger. You should be angry about it, but you also need to understand what the premise of your question is fundamentally incorrect.
You are essentially asking “What if I didn’t have to pay taxes?” which would be an unquestionable benefit to every working American, but is a pointless exercise in futility.
Not sure what this is about. If you were born after 1960 your full retirement age has been 67 for social security… this was done in 1983
There are short cons and there are long cons.
Social Security is a long con.
It works great—until it does not—chaos theory in action.
No argument here. My problem is with the demand that we “Implement Taxes or whatever to pay for it”. Thats the mindset that got us into this mess.
However, when it was implemented back in the mid 1930s, it was intended to provide a nominal income for elderly retirees to keep them out of poverty. The age to collect benefits was set at 65, which happened to be the average life expectancy at the time.
The proper way to maintain a program like that, without overburdening the taxpayers, would have been to raise the age to collect to keep in line with the rising expectancy. That would mean today that one would not be able to collect on Social Security until around age 77.
Now we have a situation where the average recepient is getting about 15 years of benefits. So if that is to be the case, then it stands to reason that something has to give to keep the system solvent.
You would either need to raise FICA taxes (currently 15.3% of income split between employee and employer); raise the income cap at which FICA is taxed up to (currently $160,200); or more logically, raise the retirement age, as people are living (and working) much longer.
Nobody likes dealing with these hard truths. They want to collect as early as 62 when they are perfectly healthy and able to work another 10-15 years. It is this that is making the system insolvent. Nothing to do with it being a ponzi scheme.
You are asking the wrong questions—so you are getting the wrong answers.
It is like asking how to keep Al Capone’s “protection and insurance” collections run on a financially sound basis.
The money was taken at the point of a gun—still is.
Everything after that is fruit of the poisonous tree—and trying to “fix” it just makes you an accessory after the fact.
There is another option, if it is phased out as a portion of the taxes go to a private account it can be shifted over time and become win win for everyone. Remember, if you start contributing a fraction of the current tax levels at say 18-20 years old, at a reasonable return rate the compounding would b significant over time and allow flexibility to take it or delay it. As the population takin SS declines the amount a younger worker puts in to this private account could move higher, say from 1-2% to 5 % to near the full amount as they reach their 50's. It can be done.
It won’t be able to get that far - it will be broke long before. There’s also the problem that the pyramid scheme it was based on falls flat on its face after the Boomers as the Boomers did not actually have enough kids to continue the needed population increase.
^ Check out this guy who thinks we won’t have a highly regulated CBDC in 5-10 years.
You should calm down a little. The change in age from 65 to 67 was done more than 35+ years ago. It’s been a very slow, gradual change. I’ve known for 35 years that my age for “FULL” benefits would be 66 years, 10 months. If they hadn’t made that change then, SS would be bankrupt already.
But, I could still have started drawing reduced benefits as soon as 62, if I wanted. I will start drawing later this year, when I turn 64. It’s not technically “full” benefit, but it’s pretty darn close. Close enough for me.
I fully agree. I plan to start drawing later this year, at 64. The extra cash flow will allow me to not pull much at all from my 401k's. If I waited until I was 67, I would ~ 82 before I broke even, not even accounting for interest growth in my 401k.
I'm not even sure I'll be alive then. If I am, I'm pretty sure my health won't be as good. And, I should still have enough money to get by. "Bird in the hand" is my philosophy.
The wife and I did the math and opted to start at 62 - if we make 83, we will then be losing money - plus, the money we already took out can’t be denied us if they decide to cut
benefits” (we paid for them over a lifetime of working).
It will never go broke. It is just another thing to push inflation higher.
“Wait, what? So I am going to involuntarily lose my employee medical at 65???”
No but you have to sign up for Medicare. You sign up for Part B and D when you leave employment
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