What is your opinion about Government increasing the age of retirement to 68?

Johnjoe,
It's certainly an option to consider reducing retirement to age 60, but your social security deduction for the past 25 years would need to have been increased by about 55%. Or you could retire at 60 and have those young unemployed (now employed) pay 55% more for your early retirement. Or you could retire at age 60 and take no pension until age 67 or 68. But then you would need to save up for this. As you can see, there is no free lunch (or free retirement in this case).

In my area builders are building 55+ communities and also new Independent Living/Assisted Living as fast as they can... and there are still long waiting list.

When I turned 70 it was like a light switch going on and I found myself having mobile issues... like trying to get up when doing something on the floor... oh gosh, now what, how am I going to get up. This scared me, as it felt like just a decade ago I was a gym rat... so much for doing weights, doesn't help get up off the floor :P

And now I find after I come home from work, after working only mornings, I find myself dozing off right after lunch. And government wants to raise the retirement age to 68?

There was an article on yahoo today stating there will be a housing crisis as the baby boomers hit their 80s in staggering numbers

i saw the article had quite a few comments attached so I perused them and there was almost a common hatred of the elderly espoused- most by millennials I suppose who seem an entitled bunch anyway

I have often wondered how the country is supposed to simultaneously defer retirement and get jobs for young people. I retired a few years ago. I had increasing health problems and an elderly mother to care for. For the last two years I worked, I assessed younger employees. I found two part time people I thought could do different parts of my job. I started logging my activities carefully. I approached the two and offered t o train them....no pay.I said there is no guarantee, but employers usually take the path of least resistance. I should add, my job brought in money. When I told my boss I was going to retire, I also suggested she make the two people full time. Even with the substantial pay increase and benefits, it was still somewhat less cost. I was right, she was glad to have a quick solution. Two people had full time work and I was happily retired.

The only reason the social security fund is in trouble is that for the last 10 years the Republican have raided the fund for the general use. They drive it to insolvency, then yell about how it is insolvent! No kidding....go read the annual budgets.

The whole point is to have just as much money to raid while cutting the payouts.

Friends don't let friends vote Republican.

Let's say the SS retirement age bumps up to 68 or 70. Fine. But I can't work til 68 or 70 if I'm dead, senile or losing mobility by the day.

My family tree:
*Paternal g'pa died at 57.
*Paternal g'ma died at 74. (Entered nursing home at 68, because dementia was at a level where she was leaving stove burners on; wandering the streets handing out $20 bills; mis-identifying family members.)
*Maternal g'ma died at 66.
*Maternal g'pa died at 67.
*My Dad died at 64.
*My Mom died at 74. (Cognition and mobility deficits started in late 60s and advanced steadily.)

Social Security loves gene pools like mine. Big pay in. Small payout.

And to someone else's very good point: The cutthroat business world has no interest in ushering its workforce into their 7th decade. Companies will be "right-sizing" their way to the bank -- moreso than usual.

Linda22; To answer your question - it's difficult to be hired for a job at that age, regardless of your knowledge, training, education, and experience. Retraining for a new job isn't necessarily difficult for a person in their late 50s - 60s, but even if one were to retrain, one still probably won't be hired due to one's age. What we need is to enact measures that make it attractive to employers to hire seniors. There is a very large group of seniors who would work if employers would consider them. I find it almost incomprehensible that employers would rather hire young and inexperienced workers rather than older seasoned workers, but it is reality. We need to change that reality. Retraining programs specifically for seniors and hiring programs that favor seniors would go a long way towards enabling seniors to keep working. It would take pressure off SS. Until that happens, seniors need to take measures to save themselves. They cannot and should not count on taxpayers to give them a comfortable retirement for as long as they live.

lotstolose, I reread your line about "people who can't work in their current positions ...should look for another line of work". Nice thought, but what about the person in their late 50's to mid 60's, doing physical work? Just how feasible is it for them to 1) retrain for a new job; 2) be hired at that age.

People living longer means that the current system MUST be adjusted, or go broke. This is not a question, or discussion. It is simple math. Either 1) people wait to receive benefits: 2) benefits are reduced considerably; 3) people start paying higher taxes; or 4) all of the above. I believe that we should phase out/eliminate spousal benefits. When the majority of spouses are both eligible for SS, there is no reason for spousal benefits. A person who marries five times can theoretically convey spousal benefits to five people. That is absurd! The people who can't work in their current position until FRA should look for another line of work or adjust their current spending to enable more saving.

I also take issue with banking sick time. Sick time is not vacation time. I also take issue with people going to the office when they are sick - keep your germs to yourself, thank you very much. Sick time should be bankable for when there's an illness or family health emergency. It should be shareable in the event a coworker has fallen on particularly hard times. Some companies profess to be "family oriented" but fail miserably in how they treat their employees. Our work culture in America is so warped that people don't take sick time or vacation time because they fear for their jobs. It's crazy.

Partly I worked to 68 because I needed to get those 40 contributions. Later I found I need not have bothered because I would have got the same amount claiming on my husband which would have been a bigger amount.
I think big wage earners should have to continue contributing all year not just stop when their salary reached a certain level for the year.
another thing that i think should be stopped is teachers being able to save up their sick time and when they retire be paid that amount as if they are still working. I knew one teacher who was paid for an entire extra year. I see no problem in accumulating sick time so it can be used for actual sickness or donated to seriously ill colleagues. Part of my pension comes from the UK and depends on the exchange rate. It is now $200 less a month than a few years ago.

In Texas, it's not exactly "opting out". I have lots of family that are/were teachers. There is a program called TRS, teacher retirement system. Teachers pay into that program instead of Social Security (like the state government workers). Unless they have worked separately 40 quarters for Social Security, they don't get a "full benefit". And under Republican governor Rick Perry, if you get social security and TRS, you don't "double dip" - they reduce the benefit from TRS. used to be that you could get both larger retirements, but not any more.

I agree, I think the income cap needs to be raised. Right now I think when someone reaches a certain income level the Social Security taken out is on that level. Thus if someone is making multi-millions of dollars, the SS is on the very much lower income level. That should be changed, it would help put more $$ in the SS coffers.

I have a feeling that in the future people in the US are going to have to learn to take care of themselves when they retire. They are going to have to have individual savings. The US has become increasingly less people oriented. The value of money now exceeds the value of people. The young are primped and groomed because they are the future workers and customers. If the older people have to struggle a bit, then so what? They are just consuming resources, anyway.

I have been totally appalled with the treatment of old people in the US. They are cash cows to be overcharged and swindled. You can write your congress people all day about making it illegal to have phone and mail lists that target the elderly. The only protection in place for them is their family, and most of them don't even care. The government won't address the high costs of end of life care, but complains all the time about how Medicaid is driving the country broke. The answer, of course, is to find some way to regulate healthcare and medication costs -- those are the problem. Instead, they want to handle things on the consumer side. All this does is deplete all the resources of people and takes a huge dip into the tax dollars -- 25% the last I heard spent for healthcare.

I do wish countries would go back to caring about their people and less about how much money the companies can make. Hmmm... I sound like the 99% now.

In my opinion, keeping busy is important. Lowering the retirement age may make sense for manual laborers whose bodies have taken a physical toll much greater than their chronological age would suggest. That said, increasing the retirement age for "white collar" workers also makes sense.

A one size fits old retirement age does not make sense to me. A 60 year old farmer has different retirement considerations than a 60 year old accountant, for example.

I think that the income cap needs to be increased significantly for both single people and households. I also think the number of quarters someone needs to be employed needs to be increased significantly for both single people and households. That said, I think the way we define work in this country is warped. Currently, stay at home moms or dads are not included in the definition of work. And neither are family caregivers.

Looking just at retirement age is myopic but that's what I've come to expect from our legislators in Washington, D.C.

You're understanding correctly. The amount of the SS check would depend on what their income was during the 10 working years.

Jessie....just FYI....you may be correct about the 10 years to be fully vested in SS....BUT, the amount of your actual benefit/payment is predicated on both your income/SS contributions over the last 10 years of your employment AND your age when you actually apply for SS.....i.e., longer you work, more you make, later you claim SS = bigger monthly SS payment.
Re: contributions to SS and being able to "opt out" during working life....WOW....never heard of that and find it pretty shocking to think that someone working for the gov't could possibly only contribute to SS in their last 10 working years and be eligible for same amount of benefits as myself, contributing to SS for over 30 years, while they were apparently keeping those $$ for themselves.....am I misunderstanding you??

I just checked and saw it takes 40 quarters of work to be "fully insured" in social security. So 10 years is right.

I believe you can work 10 years and be fully vested in SS. I could be wrong there, so don't quote me! In past years teacher retirement age was 55 if they wanted. They were fully vested in the TRS for their states. Then they could take a regular job until they were 55 and retire with SS when they were 65. Many continued in a job in education, but just switched to SS. People in the post office could do the same thing -- opt out during most of their working life, then take a SS-paying job later. People could live their retirement years quite comfortably.

@babalou Illinois is a state where (at least some) teachers don't pay in. I'm not sure how that works but I used to work part time at hallmark and an older teacher worked part time just to put $ in SS. I'm not aware that they get a full benefit though because I thought it was based on the average life income but I'm not educated in the facts except Illinois does have/had this situation.

Jessie; I'm unsure what you mean by "teachers opt out of SS". I work for the Dept. of Education in NYC and I CAN"T opt out of SS. Are there places where you can? I was unaware of this.

At least the people in education can work as long as they want to. But then most of them opt out of social security. That brings up a bit of a sore point to me. Teachers opt out of SS for most of their working life, then put in a few years before retirement, so get the same benefits as someone who paid in their whole lives. (Maybe it makes up a bit for them getting paid less when they were teaching.)

You have a good point, Hannah. Just because the government increases the retirement age doesn't mean businesses will. The US is very concentrated on technology now, instead of manufacture. Tech companies want young people who still have the creative daring. Older people tend to get more conservative. Sadly, many tech companies are not stable. They start up, then sell. There are a lot of personnel changes. I often see older tech people who are out of work and trying to be self employed. Tech is fun for younger folks, but can be unkind to the older. I wish the US would bring back some of the craft and manufacturing jobs, instead of putting so many eggs into the tech basket.

I don't think working later is a bad thing if you're healthy. They would have to create more jobs that aren't based on speed/strength. When the full retirement age was 62, the average lifespan was 77 so a 15 year median. I'm guessing that they are trying to get back to the same median.

My dad died at age 60 and my goal was to retire from my stressful job at 55 and do something more fun - now I'm just hoping not to throw my hands up and quit before 59 1/2 - more than 30 years in the same industry and no pension and retiree health benefits would cost $1,000 a month til Medicare kicks in at 65 or until they stop offering that and push retirees off on the exchanges which most doctors won't accept

Thank You All for Your input. I do agree with freqflyer though retirement age should be 65 years with the option of continuing to work until 70.

cwillie, how true about modern tech devices. I remember my boss asking me to answer his smartphone... all I could do was stare at it, had no clue how to "answer it". Give me the old fashioned landlines, PLEASE.

Or if you have a computer problem and get a tech on the phone... they might as well be speaking in Klingon.

Pushing back the retirement age does make sense if all you are looking at is the fact that people are living longer now, but just because we are living longer doesn't mean people retain the physical and mental resilience to continue in the workplace. What about those of us doing jobs causing physical discomfort in our 50s, how can we be expected to carry on into our late 60s or 70s? How about the computer tech from the days of DOS, can they still compete with someone younger? Can you picture an older roofer or bricklayer? How about the factory worker downsized out of the auto industry and now working the line for barely above minimum wage? Etc etc...

I hope that I live to see a retirement. Would be lovely. I hear after 70 you can work and keep your benefits with no cut off amount. My girlfriend is doing it. She is one happy bird. She is still working and is drawing her social security. I hope and pray I have it in me or have a me when that time comes. Its rough here. Rent is high if you dont own and the cost of living is going up and salaries are the same. They let you go quick and its hard to get on a job with or without pension in late fifties like me. Not to mention that work has always been my escape from my dysfunctional family and the chaos.

68 plus means I'll be working for 10 more years, and I am pretty sure I can't do my present job at that point.. too many youngsters with way more energy than I! Although at this rate I;ll be dead before then. And ff I know what you mean about one brain.. one of my BFF/coworkers and I joke that she can push my wheelchair and O2 tank, and I'll tell her where we are going and what to do!