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Yes, I don't miss that at all. With the advent of computers and cell phones that could access work email and make it easy for the boss to contact us, it became expected that you could be reached any time. I don't miss being tethered like that.
I remember taking a day off to get a new furnace installed. It was winter, and now there was no heat in my house, of course. I got a message telling me I was required to be on a conference call to do with something that had come up on the project. So there I sat at my dining room table in a coat, on the phone, my laptop opened as we reviewed and edited documents that had to go out.
Finally, one by one everybody but one of the lawyers and me had to go and hung up. The lawyer and I talked for a bit longer about the issues, and then he said, "Well, I'm going to hang up now because I'm really on vacation today but I got a message to participate in this call..." I said, "Are we idiots or what? Both of us home on a vacation day and losing an hour of our own time doing work."
That's what working for the public sector is like. Fortunately, I was able to retire at age 57 with 37 years in and collect my pension.
Time is valuable, and I appreciate being able to finally decide what I can do with it.
That’s what drove me out. Sorry, I’m not going to be available 24 by 7. I had enough money to walk at 42, and I did. Should have done it earlier.
I don't know how anyone can retire until they have their financial house in order. Social Security isn't going to pay me what I need to live. I am not even considering it as a part of my retirement program. I have no plans to retire at 70. My goal is to stay a minimum of 20 more years. That will put me at 74. I would work til 95 if I could. I have read that I will need to start taking out money from my 403B by age 70 and a half. All the better to place that money in an IRA or some other investment product.
Retirement homes and pharma companies and the AARP advertise with actors/models who are "young" elderly, in their 60s or early 70s. I've seen with my own parents a world of difference between early 60s and late 70s. My father was in terrible shape by his early 80s and my mother is getting quite frail at 80. There's a lot to be said for retiring ASAP and enjoying your remaining years while you're more vital - you may even have more of them.
If your job is sedentary and you enjoy it, or you otherwise feel compelled to work til age 70, that's your choice.
But I'd be wary of advice that counsels us to delay retirement until age 70.
Full Retirement Age is government mumbo jumbo to dance around raising the retirement age from 65 to 66 and then up to 67. If you tried to do that in France, the whole country would shut down. In the US, a small number of very rich people have managed to get to masses to vote against their interest.
You can move to France and protest with them. I’m tired of hearing about rich people managed to get the masses to vote against their interest. Really rich people, truly rich people don’t really care about SS.
Almost NOBODY can work a full time job until age 70 (unless you count being a celebrity or being employed at the family business as working). The vast majority of people I know have run into health problems that forced them to retire as close to age 62 as possible, and even without major illness your stamina is severely depleted by the time you reach your 60s.
But for heaven's sake, WHEN EXACTLY DO YOU GET TO ENJOY LIFE if you're still working 40 hours a week in your 60s?
Plenty people I know. Where I used to work, there was 4 people on the payroll that was working in the 90s. Many more in their 80s. 70s are pretty common.
The advice is usually not to stop working at 70 , but it is to hold off collecting ss and use other funds until 70
Yes, but not everyone has that option.
I have a state pension, and I can work part-time with flexible hours if I want and when I'm available. I can put off collecting SS because I can live on what I have. Some people only have SS to rely on. Or, like one of my sisters, she had a pension coming from a hospital where she worked 25 years before she retired from her last job. It's only $300 a month, but she's got that and her SS. I believe her husband also has a pension of some sort, though. He was in hospital admin.
They make it. They own in a 55+ outright and don't live extravagantly.
I have a state pension, and I can work part-time with flexible hours if I want and when I'm available. I can put off collecting SS because I can live on what I have. Some people only have SS to rely on. Or, like one of my sisters, she had a pension coming from a hospital where she worked 25 years before she retired from her last job. It's only $300 a month, but she's got that and her SS. I believe her husband also has a pension of some sort, though. He was in hospital admin.
They make it. They own in a 55+ outright and don't live extravagantly.
This sort of is us. State pension + SS - is what I brought home prior to retirement.
Husband did not have a pension but will have SS.
This - all before we even figure in our portfolio and savings.
The beauty of living well below your means pre-retirement makes living in retirement a breeze.
The "trust fund" is a scam. That money was already spent long ago. The program needs to be cash flow neutral in perpetuity. At the moment, it's long term underfunded by 20% so taxes need to go up in some way to make up the 20%. The extreme rhetoric is due to the reality that rich people, or the corporations they own, will be paying most of that 20%.
The majority of the money comes from current workers payments, it is primarily a rolling fund - collections are expected to meet expenses until next year. Excess funds are termed reserves and this is required to be invested in government bonds. Employers/corporations pay 50% of the funds for social security unless self employed. From the 2019 report to congress https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/tr19summary.pdf ;
Quote:
The Social Security program provides workers and their families with retirement, disability, and survivors insurance benefits. Workers earn these benefits by paying into the system during their working years. Over the program’s 84-year history, it has collected roughly $21.9 trillion and paid out $19.0 trillion, leaving asset reserves of $2.9 trillion at the end of 2018 in its two trust funds.
Social Security’s total cost is projected to exceed its total income (including interest) in 2020 for the first time since 1982, and to remain higher throughout the remainder of the projection period. Social Security’s cost will be financed with a combination of non-interest income, interest income, and net redemptions of trust fund asset reserves from the General Fund of the Treasury until 2035 when the OASDI reserves will become depleted. Thereafter, scheduled tax income is projected to be sufficient to pay about three-quarters of scheduled benefits through the end of the projection period in 2093.
Trust Fund Congress established trust funds managed by the Secretary of the Treasury to account for Social Security and Medicare income and disbursements. The Treasury credits Social Security and Medicare taxes, premiums, and other income to the funds.
Federal law requires that all excess funds be invested in interest-bearing securities backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The Department of the Treasury currently invests all program revenues in special non-marketable securities of the U.S. Government which earn interest equal to rates on marketable securities with durations defined in law.
There is deficiency in collections expected to start in 2020 that starts causing an issue in 2035. Something needs to be done but this is not rich vs poor - stop trying to make this issue class warfare because it is not. Point to something that the rich are doing to cause this issue.
I have a state pension, and I can work part-time with flexible hours if I want and when I'm available. I can put off collecting SS because I can live on what I have. Some people only have SS to rely on. Or, like one of my sisters, she had a pension coming from a hospital where she worked 25 years before she retired from her last job. It's only $300 a month, but she's got that and her SS. I believe her husband also has a pension of some sort, though. He was in hospital admin.
They make it. They own in a 55+ outright and don't live extravagantly.
For those with pensions that pretty much support themselves so they are not spending down assets , the pay check never really stopped for them .
That is very different than retirees that have to support themselves and when that pay check ends it ends ....most of us are on the YO-YO RETIREMENT PLAN ... you’re on your own
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