Will you ever retire?

From today's news...

After falling for more than 100 years, the retirement age chosen by working Americans is edging up again, and the trend could have broad consequences for households and the economy.

In the mid-1980s, just 18 percent of people in their late 60s still worked, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure is up to 29 percent, and experts believe that the number will rise as people confront the prospect of a lengthy and expensive old age with limited retirement benefits.

More than 1 in 4 baby boomers -- born from 1946 to 1964 -- plan to never retire, a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors shows.

Full article HERE

This statistic has popped up before - and the whys of it are mixed - some people keep working because they love what they are doing. Some "retire" from their "job" and start their own business doing something they have always loved.

But - and it's a big but - many keep on working because they need the money, the health insurance and because they fear what the financial future might bring in terms of the loss of retirenemt benefits, lack of retirenemt funds, and the general overall picture of our futre sfilled with taxes to pay the debt our governemt is running up with it's Iraq occupation...

So when you are approaching what used to be considere retiebnwe age - what will you do?

It's a good question to ponder whether you are still working or if you are already sort of retired...or fully retired..

I truly believe we can all have several careers in one lifetime....so why not one you love for now?
[you can always change what you do if you so wish : - )]

Can you afford to retire?

I read an article today from the Center for Retirement Research and it was another zinger!

Their research showed that "...even if households work to age 65 and annuitize all their financial assets, including the receipts from reverse mortgages on their homes, 43 percent will be at risk of being unable to maintain their standard of living in retirement. Households are more likely to be ‘at risk’ if they are young, have low incomes, or lack pension coverage."

The full article can be read by clicking here and this page includes a link to the full paper in .pdf format.

So can you afford to retire? Almost half of the aging population will not be able afford to stop working. That's a far cry from when my parent's generation worked. Although my father died before he could retire, during his working life he supported a wife, two children, a house, a car or two and yearly vacations. All on his sole salary....

These days, middle class families need two or more incomes just to try and stay even with the bills - leaving no income to save. Americans savings rate for 2006 was NEGATIVE 1% - so we not only spent all the money we earned, we used credit and savings to pay the bills that salaries did not cover. This was our worst savings rate since the Great Depression. And do you know what is was then? It was a negative 1.5 %. And this spending is not for extravagant life styles - it's just trying to pay the normal bills that we get...

It's why I seriously suggest that all employed persons [or those who are already retired] have their own home based business. Not only do you get tax savings, you can earn what is called residual income and hopefully get into a situation where you can earn more than you spend and start saving.....so you retire when you want, how you want and not be dependent on social security or the disappearing and/or declining company pensions.

And, who knows, it may even provide the satisfaction you may not have gotten when you worked for others.

Money and growing older

For many, there is a financial need to continue working after hitting the 60's. For others, there is a desire to keep working until we are no longer able to do so..... One nice thing about aging is that we hopefully learn to work smarter and not harder.

We are living longer and maintaining our health as we age...and for some, we are getting healthier as we grow older better I am in much better physical shape than I was when in my 50's. , Maybe even better than when in my 40's.

So - do we keep working or not? It's an individual choice - and depends on how much "better" you want to grow older : ). Full retirement with sufficient funds so that there is absolutely no stress related to money is great. But with increasing costs of everything - it's wise to not totally count on what you now have if you are retired.

I complain about corporations here: http://illegitimisnilcarborundum.blogspot.com
but I will say here that they scare me. All they want is the moolah and the hell with the people. Yes I know this is not true of all corporations but too many have hurt us - like the pharmaceuticals, the energy ones, the oil people, etc. Their goal is to increase their own net incomes and those of their shareholders- they do not care about who might get hurt. [The Medicare part D doughnut hole is a good example.]

Over the next bunch of postings - I am going to look at working and aging.