What is the "right" age to retire?

[LizzieMaine]

Without getting into the politics of it, the government have, in recent years, pushed the age at which I am entitled to my state pension up to 67, so there will already be two years betwen the end of my contract and that. The way it's going, though, I don't expect the state p[ension to be worth collecting by the time I become elligble, so I'm hoping that I'm either a] fit to keep working or b] drop dead just as I hit retirement age if my workplace pension can't support me.

That's kind of the way I'm looking at it. If I live to be 75, I'll be very disappointed.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm curious how many of you are factoring on social security being around? Many people my age (40s) and younger are looking at little if any social security being available to us.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

I'm 53 and am not counting on any SS as the actuarial reality is that it isn't sustainable by about the time I get there (there's no SS "saving" or "lock box -" it was designed by FDR to be a real-time, direct income transfer from those working to those retired).

And here's the Catch 22. It will be "chipped away at," with needs testing coming despite the fact that it has been promoted (and forced on almost every worker) as an insurance program not a welfare-style program; hence, if you have been both fortunate to be able to and prudent enough to save away from SS, you will effectively be penalized as you'll be told you "don't need it" and will be vilified as being "rich" because for forty years of your working life you lived below your means to have, what still is only, a modest pool of savings.

So, if you save now, you probably are undermining your chances at SS, but if you don't save, you probably have a better shot at it - how's that for a perverse incentive, but that is, my guess, exactly how it will turn out.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I've been posting here since 2005, which makes me a Fedora Lounge Elder, but I have yet to see any sort of retirement options.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've been posting here since 2005, which makes me a Fedora Lounge Elder, but I have yet to see any sort of retirement options.

You mean Lizzie isn't giving us free theater passes when we turn 65?

 

[Atticus Finch]

I retired a week after my 60th birthday. I liked my job, but it was a fairly high stress occupation, so I decided it’d be best to go. I believe my chances of living longer improved as a result of my decision.

Nowadays, I practice law as a hobby, rather than as a living. Basically, I handle traffic tickets and low-level misdemeanors for friends and relatives. When a potiential client calls me, I first look at his or her case to determine if I’m going to have wear a tie to resolve it. If the answer is “yes”, I refer them to another attorney.

AF

 

[ChiTownScion]

Retired after over 3 decades with the same employer at age 58. With payroll deductions and other costs no longer a factor, it had gotten to the point where it would have been a financial loss to keep working and not collect my pension. My wife still works and plans on doing do for about 3 more years. Her employer provides a really great medical coverage plan, and that has been good for us as well.

I maintained a small side law practice for a few years out of my home, but it got to be little more than a very expensive hobby. I hated billing clients for every minute that I put in on a case, and I'm the kind of guy who was likely to charge one hour for every ten that I put in. (Good lawyer, I think. But a lousy businessman, I will admit, in terms of cashing in on that.) With travel costs, professional liability insurance, continuing legal ed requirements, etc. it became too expensive to help folks out with modestly priced or free legal representation. So much for the altruism nurtured in my youth.

I actually love being retired and have no regrets about pulling the pin five years ago. I had a young lawyer whom I mentored who wanted desperately to get hired by my office- and a slot opened for her a couple months after I left. Really bright kid: pretty, ambitious, kind, and always willing to go the extra mile for her clients. Call it karma, but I like to think that my bowing out helped her to get a start on the career she wanted. Kids today have to face a really brutal student loan situation, and I have a real attitude toward the old pharts among my former colleagues who can well afford to retire, but cling to their jobs because they fear that their existence will, somehow, become meaningless without getting up and going to work until they're carried out feet first. Humbug, say I. There is plenty in this world to see, do and learn outside of the job you've done for decades. But I suppose I should thank them: they are paying into my pension annuity and if all goes as planned and they die in their nineties on the job, they'll never see a nickel of that back.

My wife and I plan to travel, take classes, and enjoy the outdoors in the Pacific Northwest after she fully retires. She is also planning on annual trips to Africa and elsewhere to assist in medical care mission outreaches. Perhaps I'll meet her in London after these annually: methinks that there are enough military history museums and preserved heritage railways in the UK to keep me occupied during all of her charitable medical care ventures until Doomsday.

I get an annual 3% COLA increase with my pension: when I was working, we were always in the midst of contract negotiations that never came close to this. 1% to 2% a year was often what we had to settle for in terms of a raise. And although I paid into Social Security and have enough quarters of paying into it to be vested in that as well as my pension, I really am not entitled to collect a nickel from Uncle Sam. And that's fine: my pension is quite secure, I live comfortably, and I have much to be thankful for. I just hope that my contribution helps someone else collect their old age Social Security benefits.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You mean Lizzie isn't giving us free theater passes when we turn 65?

You guys I'll pass in, and to boot, I'll give you one free small popcorn each.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I don't even take vacations because if I go more than a day or two without working I get twitchy.

I can certainly appreciate that up to a point. When we adopted the youngest kid from Russia, I took eight weeks of accumulated paid sick days* to take a paternity leave. Essentially, the kid spoke no English, and so I'd take him to & from school every day. After a week or so of that, I was dying to get back to work. Mainly because I was apprehensive as to any surprises awaiting me on my return (there really were none). By three weeks I was crawling the walls... but in all fairness I think that it took less than 2 days for me to get back into the swing of work once I returned.


Longest vacation we ever took while I was still working was about 3 1/2 weeks in Ireland. Went in the spring of the year: very few American tourists. Loved the scenery, the history, and the people: the food was another story. Not really "bad," but very bland. And yes, I did have one meal where- to fulfill the old stereotype- I was served three variety of potato.

I did get to visit the tiny village from whence my great grandmother came: most places in Ireland are quite beautiful, but this one was not. All of the exotic charms of southern Wisconsin.. including the lingering smell of cow manure in the air.


* Employer's policy was to award one paid sick day for every month worked, up to a max of 120 days. When I retired, I literally had enough sick days banked that I could have been "sick" from the middle of August until December 31, come into work on New Year's Eve, and retired. Saw many- including supervisors and administrators- play variations of that game. I never cared for it. That stunt really makes the jobs of co-workers harder, as they have to put in longer hours in order to take on "your" work. Having been handed the short and brown end of that particular stick, I did not wish to pass it to anyone else. So, I "gave back" those sick days. With no regrets.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I usually work when I'm sick, too, unless I'm too sick to get out of bed, or am passed out on the floor -- we've got too small a staff for people to lollygag.

 

[ChiTownScion]

There were a few assignments over the years where it was common for some of my co- workers to take a "mental health day" off. Some of the judges who sat in the courtrooms where assistants were regularly assigned could bring on burnout- as could the crushing case loads. I tried to rack up the sick days when I was in more low stress assignments, with the idea that I might have to "cash in" when in front of a more intolerable judge. Problem was, as you indicated, is that when you don't show up, co- workers pay the price.

I will note this also: the judges of my latter years tended to be far more experienced and up on the law than those of my early years. A lot of exceptions to that rule, but the old timers were not necessarily better judges. And a judge who was dedicated, able, honest, and well read in his/ her area of the law always made getting to work in the morning worth it.

 

[tonyb]

I'm acquainted with an 84-year-old retiree who puts in more hours in actual productive activity (tending to his rental properties, mostly) than some people of my acquaintance some decades his junior who remain employed full time. But if you asked him his occupation, he'd tell you he is retired.