Work till you drop dead. 80 is the new 65

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by noob_trad3r, Nov 17, 2011.

  1. retirement is over-rated
     
  2. Ha. The new trend will be to collect SS disability when you're in your 50's. You'll qualify for free phone, 10 dollar internet, food stamps, and subsized housing cause the health care costs will stip you of your assets. Go long Bingo parlors, the new casino.
     
  3. MKTrader

    MKTrader

    And SSI and all the state welfare you can get before that!

    Seriously, though, where did we get idea that everyone deserves to retire in their early-to-mid 60s? I guess it's from SS, which started in the 1930s when life expecatancy was much shorter. The basic idea was that you could collect at the end of your working life, and, statistically-speaking, just live a few more years. Now it's considered a God-given right to retire somewhere between 50 and 65. People who haven't ever worked a day in their life are protesting out in the streets about it.

    Personally, I have no plans to retire. If it's still legal/possible, I'll be trading, and hopefully have a small side business I enjoy. I also think Tim Ferriss (4-Hour Workweek author) has some good insight into taking "mini-retirements" when you're young and questioning the whole "defer everything until you're old and won't really enjoy it" mentality.
     
  4. it's fine If a person wants to continue working - why not
    the major individual problem for some is Having to work because they don't have
    enough money to live on, delaying retirement
    at the other end are new workers trying to find employment, would more vacancies
    be available if retirement were compulsory at age . . . ?
    union jobs have 25-30 years and out which does leave a lot of room for new hires
    then there's the problem of paying for state pensions but also will the 'guaranteed'
    pension plan pay up. these days a lot of companies don't want the responsibility
    of guaranteeing a pension, likewise local governments, and studies report that most
    people are under-pensioned at retirement age

    UK:
    "In a statement, the government said it had brought forward the increase in state
    pension age to 66 because of dramatic increases in life expectancy and the need
    to ensure that no unfair burden is placed on the next generation. It added that it
    would spend £45bn extra on pensioners by 2025 because of the triple guarantee
    to uprate the basic state pension by the highest of earnings, prices or 2.5%.

    When the state pension age was set at 65 in1926 there were nine people of
    working age for every pensioner. There are now three people of working age for
    every pensioner and that is set to fall to nearer two by the end of this century."
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/oct/13/state-pension-age-rise-delay

    UK: 'Compulsory retirement age at 65 fully abolished'
    "The default retirement age in the UK has been fully abolished after being phased
    out from April this year.
    New legislation stops employers from compulsorily retiring workers once they
    reach the age of 65."
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15127835
     
  5. dumb article. what type of jobs are there for 80-year olds? they can't do physical labor, and most can't do intellectual labor. that leaves jobs like Walmart greeter, but how many such positions are available?

    if many people start working into their 70s and 80s, it would drive wages down because of the increasing size of the workforce competing for a very narrow set of jobs. this means their $9/hr job as Walmart greeter would be reduced to $6. i don't think they'd work for $6.

    not likely to happen
     
  6. exactly. if you want to lower unemployment in this country let/help the old folks retire so younger people can take over those available jobs.
     
  7. "Work until nearly dead" isn't a new trend, it's simply a reversion to historical norms.