On Early Retirement - Helaine Olen

On Early Retirement
By Helaine Olen
Thursday, July 14, 2011

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This week, AARP released a Social Security calculator: http://www.aarp.org/work/social-security/social-security-benefits-calculator/?cmp=RDRCT-SOCI_JUNE15_011 designed to demonstrate to the bevy of 50 and 60 somethings out there on the verge of retirement, that it is better to wait till age 66 to file for benefits, instead of taking a reduced monthly stipend at age 62. This, of course, assumes there is a large group of people out there, who would otherwise work till age 65 or 67, but are simply lazy and waiting to take their Social Security benefits so they can put a bumper sticker on their car proclaiming “I’m Spending my Children’s Inheritance,” move to Leisure World and enjoy the senior vida loca.

This is a wrong assumption.

I’ve spent the past several weeks speaking with several of my former Los Angeles Times Money Makeover subjects for my book on the post-2008 world of personal finance. Many are now in their fifties and sixties, and several have indicated to me that they plan to take Social Security ages that AARP would no doubt deem less than optimum.

They are not slackers. They are people who, rather, are suffering from the vicissitudes of life in 2011. If they are unemployed, they are much less likely to find work than people younger than themselves. Others fear they won’t be able to keep up much longer. As economists know, our nation’s productivity gains have been made by longer hours – men in professional and managerial jobs often put in 50-hour workweeks. Contrary to the wishes of desk jockeys in Washington, DC, there really aren’t that many people in there sixties capable of putting in punishing hours on the job. Yes, we are living longer, but it isn’t clear we are living healthier. Sixty ain’t the new 40 or even the new 50, and no amount of wishing is going to make it so.

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More: http://helaineolen.com/2011/07/14/on-early-retirement/

:kick:

want to get up and go to work anymore. Best thing I've ever done!

My husband and I are both collecting now, and since I am 6 years younger than he, it made sense to collect it early because if he predeceases me, I would surely drop my pittance for his benefits, and if it goes the other way he would keep his.. we chose to take mine early.. even the SS website suggests the same.

there is absolutely no reason for a spouse with a benefit amount much lower than the other not to take early SS. We told people of that option all the time. And BTW, it was an easy adjustment from giving SS benefits to others to getting them myself.

I haven't had a real job in 10 years. Nobody is going to hire a 50+ with health problems. I make enough to keep me in groceries fixing computers out of my house but that's about it. What savings I had are about 3/4 gone but at least I have the house paid off.

I'll be working until I die. Or rather, when I can't work anymore, I will die.

I don't have alot of confidence that society will change for the better before then.

and they were growing tired of me.

Best move I ever made.

I had family obligations both with my aged mother and disabled brother and with my 3 (and soon to be 4) grandkids. My job had not really changed, but as an older worker I was regarded differently ... as if I couldn't "perform" so well. That had started just after I turned 60 and only grew worse. And of course, I had significant worry and guilt about not being more available to my mother and brother.

Once I faced the realization that I had to leave the full time career job, I started to plan my exit, adjust my budget to a lower income level and find part time work. Mercifully, I was able to do so. I announced in May my plans to retire in early December. I was able to bow out gracefully.

Luckily I found the part time work with a nonprofit organization where I had been a volunteer. They needed qualified people who didn't need health care benefits and who could manage on less money. It was a pretty good situation...

It took some planning and some good luck but it all worked out...

and look 10 or 20 years older than their chronological age. A lot of them also went through the stress of changing employers multiple times.

I really don't think they're likely to live longer than their parents did.