Raising the retirement age is not an easy pill to swallow – especially if you had something else in mind. Raising the retirement age is also not an easy concept to accept if you have your sights set on retiring in 3 to 5 years! No one likes it when the goal post is moved further away on third down! But that is exactly what seems to be occurring around the globe these days. France is doing it. China is also joining in on moving the retirement age.And now, the U.S. the retirement age is also in-the-que – being considered for future increases which will impact the full retirement age.
Recently, Mr. Howard Gleckman, Senior Fellow at The Urban Institute, and author at Forbes wrote (in Forbes), “the fundamental demographic problem is the same in many countries across the world: The number of working-age people paying taxes is insufficient to support a growing cohort of retirees.”
There are multiple forces at work in this phenomenon of ‘kicking-the-retirement-age” down the road. One has nothing to do with saving. The fact remains, people are living longer today than they were 20 years ago – or even 10 years ago. Fred Barstein addresses this topic and subject in this week’s 401(k) Real Talk Episode 52.
The news in France comes at a time when some lawmakers in The United States government have toyed with the idea of raising the retirement age regularly over the prior 20 years.
Currently, many United States citizens are in the position to claim some Social Security benefits at age 62.
In the U.S., research has shown that the vast majority would receive substantially more money over the course of their retirement by waiting until age 70 to claim. Currently, there are no credible proposals calling for congress to raise the early claiming age above 62. The focus today is more of an interest in raising the full retirement age.
A bipartisan group of U. S. senators is discussing making recommendations to improve Social Security’s solvency. Discussions include raising the full retirement age from age 67 to 70.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called for changing the retirement age during a town hall meeting in Iowa.
It is best to assume that some type of revision to the to U.S. social security will be arriving at a neighborhood near each of us very soon. This conversation concerning adjusting the Social Security age limits is far from over. Expect to hear more concerning Social Security reform proposals throughout 2023.
