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Fogies Are Working for the Weekend, Not Retirement
Folks are waking up to the fact
that the market crash and looming state insolvency mean the dream
of a pension-and-government-funded adventure vacation retirement
starting on their 62nd birthday is dead:
Just over half of all working adults ages 50 to 64 say they may delay their retirement—and another 16% say they never expect to stop working.
Members of this so-called "Threshold Generation" are twice as likely as younger workers to say they never plan to retire (16% vs. 8%). Moreover, the Thresholders who do plan to retire someday say they plan to keep working, on average, until they are age 66—when they would be four years older than the age at which current retirees age 65 or older report that they stopped working.
More Social Security reading here. More on why your pension is screwed here.
Stretch|8.17.09 @ 11:38AM|#
Can't say I feel sorry for them. They spent their lives spending their money and others' money like there is no tomorrow. But, tomorrow finally came.
creech|8.17.09 @ 11:44AM|#
Stretch, not all of us. Delayed retirement means not being able to spend full time on libertarian activities. I guess that's a "feature" to our leftist friends. But then, they'll not have time or resources to pursue their political activities either.
squarooticus|8.17.09 @ 11:45AM|#
I hope their progeny learn the lesson that believing the promises of politicians leads to financial ruin.
Gunboat Diplomacy|8.17.09 @ 11:46AM|#
My grandfather was born in 1880. He started working as a ranch
hand breaking horses at the age of 15. In 1955, at the age of 75,
he retired his position as Secretary/Treasurer of a railroad union.
He died 11 years later in 1966. I inherited his estate.
I plan to work until I'm 75 too. i figure if a guy born during the
19th century could pull it off, I certainly can.
Xeones|8.17.09 @ 11:51AM|#
I'm not 30 yet, and i've made my peace with the fact that
conventional retirement is just never going to happen for me. But
i've balanced this with the conviction that a conventional "career
path" is also not something i'll be bound by.
I mean, i'm typing this from a cubicle (for now), but i am
optimistic regardless.
|8.17.09 @ 11:52AM|#
Retire from work and do what, exactly? No thanks, I will have a job, of some sort, until I die or become incapacitated.
Xeones|8.17.09 @ 11:55AM|#
Retire from work and do what, exactly?
Well, i hope to make it until transhuman immortality becomes an
option, at which point i will upload my consciousness into a bunch
of space probes and go explore the galaxy.
Xeones|8.17.09 @ 11:56AM|#
What does that mean?
Move your mouse over the picture of Senator Kerry and his hair, and
a lil' joke will pop up.
|8.17.09 @ 12:09PM|#
another 16% say they never expect to stop
working.
I'm pretty sure they're going to stop working. Well, unless hell
has a carpet factory that needs help.
Mike in PA|8.17.09 @ 12:10PM|#
Oh great! This means more fogies staying in the workforce
preventing the youngsters from getting those new jobs...
Where are those death panels when you need them?!
torpid|8.17.09 @ 12:13PM|#
the people who got an honest job working for the government won't be worrying about their retirement. Those capitalist people whose paychecks were expropriated from the pennies of the working man are just getting their just desserts.
Rich|8.17.09 @ 12:19PM|#
The concept of "Retirement" is sooooo 20th century.
In the 21st, folks enjoy their leisure fully *now* and promise to
work in the future.
|8.17.09 @ 12:23PM|#
Retire from work and do what, exactly?
I plan to travel all over the world (and if Xeones can help me with
this transhuman consciousness thingamabobber, the galaxy) at a
leisurely pace getting in the way of anyone who may be in a hurry,
telling kids to pull up their britches, and just being a
cantankerous old fart who fakes hearing loss when his wife
speaks.
And, instead of going into a nursing home when I can no longer take
care of myself, I'm going to spend about the same amount of your
money on cruises where they'll change my sheets every day and feed
me my dinner in a funny shaped glass with an umbrella in it.
Oh, how I will enjoy that surf and turf margarita at 4 in the
afternoon! And when they find me dead in a deck chair, they can
just shove me off the side of the boat.
Old Geezer|8.17.09 @ 12:23PM|#
Where are those death panels when you need them?!
I see your bid and raise you the draft!
torpid|8.17.09 @ 12:24PM|#
If this were a government run website, you couldn't break the entire thread with an italics tag.
|8.17.09 @ 12:24PM|#
Apparently, reason fucked up the tags instead of me. Phew. Thought dementia was setting in early.
fix|8.17.09 @ 12:25PM|#
Xeones|8.17.09 @ 12:54PM|#
getting in the way of anyone who may be in a hurry, telling
kids to pull up their britches, and just being a cantankerous old
fart who fakes hearing loss when his wife speaks.
Aside from the 'old' part, i already do that stuff. And thanks to
rock'n'roll, i don't need to fake the hearing loss.
|8.17.09 @ 1:00PM|#
Retire from work and do what, exactly?
I plan on uploading my conciousness into that "second life" thing,
where my moniker will be Hunk Huge, a billionaire - no, make that
trillionaire - porn movie producer and strip club magnate, in
charge of personally auditioning the talent.
|8.17.09 @ 1:28PM|#
I would have retired right after high school if given half a chance. I don't define myself by working. I would be perfectly comfortable as a member of the idle rich.
|8.17.09 @ 1:44PM|#
Oh great! This means more fogies staying in the workforce preventing the youngsters from getting those new jobs...
It's amazing how prevalent that kind of thinking was among the
original advocates for Social Security.
kinnath|8.17.09 @ 1:52PM|#
Oh great! This means more fogies staying in the workforce
preventing the youngsters from getting those new jobs...
I believe the current estimate is the 50% of senior engineering
staff will retire over the next 5 years or less. The old geezers
that hang on longer will be treated like kings -- at least that's
my plan ;-)
jtuf|8.17.09 @ 2:19PM|#
The Baby Boomers are starting to learn why toppling "the system" wasn't such a great idea.
|8.17.09 @ 2:44PM|#
Oh great! This means more fogies staying in the workforce
preventing the youngsters from getting those new jobs...
Which is the theory behind the Social Security Earnings Test. It
should be fun listening to the economic illiterates in Congress try
and find the balance between policies to encourage the dead wood to
get out of the employment pool and policies to keep old people
working as long as possible to keep feeding the beast and minimize
unfunded government obligations.
Paul|8.17.09 @ 3:24PM|#
Retire from work and do what, exactly?
Noooooo imagination. Geez, what would I possibly do with
my day if I weren't sitting under these beautiful fluorescent
lights and a cubicle, all day? Why, nothing comes to mind. Without
my beloved cubicle, flashing 'message waiting' light, constant
stream of annoying emails, dumb-ass 2-hour corporate meetings that
could be solved with a memo, co-worker dramas, why, I simply
wouldn't know what to do with myself.
Lemme guess, Steve, you work in HR and you're a "people
person".
Paul|8.17.09 @ 3:28PM|#
More on why your pension is screwed
How did you know about my divorce?
As my ex-wife's punishment, she had to take my pension in the
divorce settlement.
Rich|8.17.09 @ 3:37PM|#
It should be fun listening to the economic illiterates in
Congress try and find the balance between policies to encourage the
dead wood to get out of the employment pool and policies to keep
old people working as long as possible to keep feeding the beast
and minimize unfunded government obligations.
How about "mandatory age-based demotion" as the balance? Might even
make some of the youngsters a bit happier.
Rich|8.17.09 @ 3:40PM|#
As my ex-wife's punishment, she had to take my pension in
the divorce settlement.
I know a(nother) guy who performed a detailed analysis and
engineered just that.
|8.17.09 @ 5:02PM|#
Worse, I'm in Sales and I hate people, especially those that spend the entire day in a cubicle staring at blinking lights (of any color).
alice bowie|8.17.09 @ 8:54PM|#
Let me tell all of u something.
Now-a-days, one doesn't retire...one gets RETIRED.
People in their 50s are laid off and told...good luck.
One spends all of their life working for other people, making them
rich, with the belief that the 'American Social Contract' will come
true.
It's a bunch of bull.
alice bowie|8.17.09 @ 8:55PM|#
Nobody should loose their pensions.
Even cops that do wrong-doing...deserve their pensions.
|8.17.09 @ 11:02PM|#
Counting on what I can save and nothing else...just need to walk
18 holes of golf 2x a week at a cheap muni. And if that muni was
Torrey Pines, even better
And do tell, just whom should be thanked for these wonderful
benefits ? The honest taxpayer, for starters...
"the people who got an honest job working for the government won't
be worrying about their retirement."
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