Americans who aren't retired yet say they're going to keep working for
a while….they say 66 is the average age when they plan to clean out the desk
and head for home.
I think that's optimistic. They're probably going to work a little
longer than that, because a lot of folks are getting the idea that Social
Security benefits aren't going to get a whole lot better in their realistically
attainable future, and, anyway, most
folks who are still working only have about one egg in the old retirement account….
The Gallup poll says* that folks who are already retired hung up their track shoes at the average age of 61. In the early 1990s that number was 57, so
part of the reason that retires are getting older, aside from increasing life
expectancy, is that they're waiting longer to punch out.
The whole notion of "retiring" is a relatively new concept.
You only have to look back to the pre-World War II era to see a world in which
the average person basically expected to work until she died, or became too
sick or frail to work anymore.
American society hasn't completely figured out this retirement thing
yet.
If you're in your prime, you
really need to think carefully about the current and long term effects of
government policies on your personal future. Congress isn't doing anything that
makes sense right now.
All of us need to take personal responsibility for retirement, and we
have to make sure the government doesn't screw it up..
Attention Baby Boomers....
* Just for the record: no polling organization
today is capable of reaching a legitimate random sample of people, so all poll results
should be viewed as very approximate versions of the "truth."
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