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A recent paper published by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research examined changes in the SS claiming age since 1985, and more recently during the Covid pandemic. The study shows that there has been a fairly dramatic decline in the percentage of those people claiming at 62 in the 20 years leading up to Covid, and that trend has remained steady since then. The study also shows that the average claiming age has increased by about 2 years. The study looks at several sources of data, and describes some interesting demographic anomalies (like a large spoke in the number of 62 year olds per year due to the baby boom). It’s an interesting read and seems to indicate a gradual move toward retiring later, as has been discussed previoulsy in various HD posts
Rick,
Always enjoy your posts. One nit to pick however is this sentence, “It’s an interesting read and seems to indicate a gradual move toward retiring later” where the study is about Social Security claiming.
These are two different, distinct choices. My wife and I both retired (I define as stopping a regular work schedule) at 62, but will not claim Social Security until 70, living off retirement assets and a small pension.
David, thanks. You are correct about the distinction, and my wife and I made similar choices to you and your wife. In the referenced article the CRR provides a different number for average retirement age and average cleaning age. I thought about addressing that but chose not to make the post longer, assuming interested people could read the full article. The article states that the average retirement age went up 3 years while the average claiming age went up 2 years. Thanks for pointing out an important distinction.
I’m 60 and struggle to open a water bottle. I swear they krazy glue them on just for fun.
I’m with you on the tiny bottle caps.
Plus after the 3rd or 4th attempt, I’m missing about 3 layers of skin on my fingers