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Of the things I have learned from HumbleDollar, and more specifically from Jonathan, is that increasing birthrates and immigration alone won’t solve our Social Security and Medicare quandaries. People need to work longer.
I have pushed back on that idea by pointing out that for many employed in what I call the brutal occupations, working longer is easier said than done. While I stand by that sentiment, I know people who have changed lanes, expanded their wheelhouse and learned some new tricks.
I know an old plumber who got a job with the county as an inspector. An electrician who went into sales for his employer. A carpenter turned foreman. A sheet metal worker who took a job with the city rooting out un-licensed contractors. A steelworker who got a job in a supermarket’s produce department. My brother became an attorney after a disability caused early retirement from the police department.
The moral of my story is just because you’re not a Rhodes Scholar doesn’t mean you don’t have options. Heck, I know a guy that drove a beer truck for 30 years who ended up owning an income tax practice. Perhaps you know someone who could benefit from a little encouragement.
Having paid 50 years into SS, I was happy to work until I reached 70 and then decide – what next? As it turned out I was let go in a downsizing at the age of 66. So after getting my head screwed on straight again I decided to retire. This personal experience left me with the thought that…
Everyone should work as long as they have to in order to receive a secure retirement. After that, everyone should work as long as they want to. For each one of us it is different and I would not presume I know what is best for you or anyone else or the circumstances driving those decisions. I did what worked for me
I’m one of those who decided to work well beyond the age at which I could have claimed social security. I worked 12+ years longer, for a total of 58 years in the work force and with 196 quarters accruing social security benefits.
I stopped in 2022 because of health issues and switched to volunteering, and to writing more.
No one forced me to do this although economic factors when I was much younger did incentivize me. As I approached early retirement age (63) I switched to consulting in my field of expertise. I’d planned and prepared for this. As a consultant I was able to reduce my annual work hours. I called that a “phased retirement”. The freed-up time allowed me to travel, and continuing to work allowed me to contribute to my Roth-IRA each year and save even more.
I did not consider working that way to be a burden. It allowed me to contribute in a meaningful way to society, and I spent a part of my semi-retirement time training others and young engineers. It also allowed me to gradually shift from being a net saver to a net spender. That shift was difficult; habits honed over a lifetime can be difficult to break.
I retired with my savings, a SEP and 401(k), as well as social security. The SEP and 401(k) were accrued at companies I started and ran. My employees benefited from these plans and when the Roth became available, I encouraged people to contribute bonuses, etc. to a Roth.
I’ll admit I’ve been lucky because I have never been unemployed. [I began working full-time at age 17]. I’ll take some credit for that because over the decades I transformed my company several times, and I have spent a lifetime of continuous learning, too.
I’m very much in agreement with you Norman. I also worked long and made the most of my options on the jobs. All the overtime and shift differential bonus over the decades really added up. I maxed out my retirement opportunities as far as I could, and didn’t have to think about that much.
For instance, with S.S. my official ‘full retirement’ age was 66. BUT, at 67, I would receive more, 68 even more! My FULL retirement was 70 for me. I did what I could to get the most and then not have to worry about it. Of course, married folk have many options and having a plan for that circumstance is prudent.
So, yes, work long, work wise and enjoy the freedom of time and money in retirement. Freedom to be productive as you want and decide to do.
Norman, I’m no engineer, not even close, but there’s much that I identify with in your post. For example, cutting back on hours, the good feeling of helping others, volunteering after retiring. The thing that hits home the most is continuing to learn.
My brother was a police officer turned lawyer in his 40s. I acquired accounting and tax preparing skills, became licensed in insurance and securities over a period of 30 years while driving a truck.
By continuing to learn we give ourselves the ability to walk through a new door after an old one closes.
That sounds a lot like means testing, no thanks. Because you scrimped and saved to invest you don’t deserve your social security? It would be better to remove the income variable and just make all income subject to social security.
I think Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak say all we need to know about job quality and working longer. A very nice salary, and a job where you only work 3-4 months a year makes for a very good life. Both worked to 80ish, and both could easily pass as 40 year olds based on their looks.
So the people I described in my post (including myself) are real people who were either dissatisfied with or could no longer perform the duties of their current jobs. They desired a different situation and made it happen.
I can also provide examples of guys that thought their dreams came true when the big three automakers offered buyouts. I never considered $80K a reasonable buyout amount for a job that paid $120K, but several thousand employees took the bait, some as young as age 49.
Many of those people are back in the workforce now in jobs they have no desire to do. They are working because their pension has no COLA, and they had to claim SS at age 62.
There is a big difference between the former and the latter. No one is proposing to force anyone to work longer. The people I first described are working on their own terms, the latter folks are not. I choose the former.
Life is full of surprises, a lot of them not so great. Roll with it, make the best of things. A great message!
While we’re at forcing everyone to work longer we should be “encouraging more efficient” benefits payments for those that can already easily support themselves sans Social Security income. That would help make the hole smaller. The average American works for something like 40 years already, how much more of their time and energy do we need to take? We can’t just be putting this on workers, retirees are gonna have to take some income hits too. It’s lousy, but it’s only fair.
Nope. Change the retirement age? Change the contribution rate (tax)? Get rid of the earnings cap? Sure. But the last thing I want is the Government deciding that, in furtherance of efficiency, I don’t get the benefit that I am entitled to because I don’t need it. Says who? Thats a slippery slope. Based on what? All income? Certain income? Total assets? Net worth? Whatever the current administration decides? No thank you.
Everything’s a slippery slope these days 🙄 Cuts are one option among many. They don’t have to be big, and they could just be a small part of a larger strategy. What about the retirement age people thought they were entitled to? I don’t need to retire until even later because I have all these extra wasted years of life that could be better spent stabilizing a government program?
We already received a benefit cut during our early working years when the last major Social Security overhaul, in 1983 gradually raised the age to 67, effectively cutting benefits by 13 percent according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Forcing? Forcing? Who said “forcing”?
“People need to work longer.”
Yes, that’s true for the broad population — but that’s not the same as forcing any one individual to work longer. Still, isn’t it fun to cause a ruckus by twisting the words of others? After all, isn’t that how we’ve ended up the lovely civil discourse we have today?
We should try to do better at HumbleDollar.
I’m not sure that there is any twisting going on here. The “people need to work longer” thing is often said as a generality but in the mouths of those saying it it often sounds like “other people need to work longer I deserve my benefits”.
That’s a microcosm of the reponses in this thread. Gen Yers and Zers can see the writing on the wall which is why when boomers say things like that it is another gut punch from the generation that has probably as a cohort enjoyed the golden era of economic growth and wealth creation while affording decent homes.
I don’t like the idea of reducing SS either, like it or not it is a bedrock of most people’s retirement plans even if they don’t “need” it in a subsistence level sense. But as you seem to have a society that as a whole will always vote in self-interest regarding taxes, something at some point will give. We all have to hope it doesn’t result in civil unrest – what was the trigger for the War of Independence again?
Welcome to my world🙁
Yes, Mr. Clements 😮💨