The Goal Post is moving. Again.
Posted by RiplyBelievesNot@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 830 comments
Retirement age change could hit 257 million Americans by 2033 under new plan:
According to this article, 69 is going to be the new ~~65~~ 67 for exactly us, GenX.
Awesome. Awesome.
Outside_Ad1669@reddit
Typical response to Gen X. In 1983 I was old enough at 13 to somewhat understand my retirement will not look like my grandparents. It was clear then that I would have to wait until 67.
So now, coming up on 12-13 years before hitting that magic date. And they are gonna pull the rug out from under us.
Reminds me of a discussion I had to get into with the assistant principal of my high school. When they changed some student code of conduct, off campus lunch, hall pass, smoking, and tons of other rules alto start my senior year
It's like they got something in their mind that we are a generation that needs to be subjugated and assimilated.
Fish-Weekly@reddit
The article is just speculation at this point but if they really do ramp up the retirement age quickly like that, it’s going to be seen as a benefit cut (which it would be) and piss off a lot of people. Anyone in office that votes for something like this is going to have a tough time.
Gibbons74@reddit
I don't agree. Republicans are going to republican, which means voting for the Republican candidates no matter how badly they get screwed.
LadyBos64@reddit
I’m a cusp Gen Xer. I remember when they changed the rules in 1983. We were told we wouldn’t get SS. I believed them. Politically, they’ll have to fix it. They’ll just wait until the eagle screams.
Noisy_Pip@reddit
They’re going to keep at it until life expectancy and retirement age are the same number, aren’t they?
Rhetorical question; we know the answer is yes.,
Potential-Whereas442@reddit
But this was the origin. At inception 62 was life expectancy and coincidentally the eligibility age.
Beneatheearth@reddit
Life expectancy for a man in the US is now 73 isn’t it? Four years to enjoy life after giving it all to the boss. Sounds fair right?
sadtrombonemaker@reddit
73 is the life expectancy for a male who has just been born. If he makes it to 65, his life expectancy is more like 82. Actuarial tables are interesting.
Avasarala77@reddit
They want us to work, evidently in a factory screwing together iPhones, until we drop dead.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
What they don't want to do is raise the cap on SSI payments, that's the real answer. They'd much rather raise the retirement age to 70 than make high earners pay in a little more. Remember that next time when you don't vote.
Avasarala77@reddit
If they got rid of the income cap for SS tax that would also help solve the problem. Plus that would be fairer. Why do middle class people have 100% of their income taxed but rich people only maybe 50% or less?
Taira_Mai@reddit
That's not how it works but yes, the cap is silly and a hold over from a different America.
There should be a"doughnut" - small business owners shouldn't be taxed until they hit at least 800,000 in income. Small businesses operate on thin margins, but those who sit in the c-suite making $1 mill or more should pay.
But your millionaires could definitionally put money in the pot.
Companies will argue that they play the SS employer tax - they do- but their shareholders and the C-suite can enjoy their gains thanks to that cap. Time for them to pony up with the rest of us.
CommonCoast23@reddit
I thought this was what tax cuts and trickle down was supposed to solve 😉
Avasarala77@reddit
That's a terrible idea. Taxes benefit everyone and small businesses need to contribute. Low tax rates for businesses is a big part of the reason why we have such an enormous and out of control deficit (even without the new stupid tax cut bill). I have run several small businesses and just factored taxes into my operating budget.
Conscious_String_195@reddit
If raised the cap, one could argue the payments should also be raised in a system where the more that you put in, the higher your SS payments.
LizO66@reddit
So correct. The entire tax code needs to be rewritten. I’m fortunate that I did pretty well in my federal career, but I didn’t come from money and I’m not “wealthy”. I don’t have the option to hide money or create some kind of tax shelter. I was paid by US taxpayers - not through bonuses that I didn’t have to classify as income. The tax code is nothing but a playbook for members of Congress and their pals. It really frosts my cookies.
Patient-Individual20@reddit
This ^
tristand666@reddit
Or when they do.
swagn@reddit
As someone who saw that cap for years and could wait to exceed it as my career grew only to see them start raising it little by little as I approached it really fucking pissed me off. If you’re going to raise the cap, just fucking eliminate it to solve the problem. Stop teasing me and moving the goalpost.
Competitive_Yak_1047@reddit
SS solvency isn't all of a sudden a new issue. The Dems have done nothing about it for years either. They will talk about doing "something" but neither aide will make any real change.
inhabitshire77@reddit
You're in Asia?
Avasarala77@reddit
No you must not have been paying attention to what the US Secretary of Commerce wants as the future of work for Americans. He says our future is working in factories screwing things together, and so will our children and our grandchildren. https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-secretary-commerce-says-model-172111761.html
Squidalopod@reddit
The American dream 😑
CallmeSlim11@reddit
According to Howard Lutnick people will work in "factories, you'll work in a factory, your kids will work in a factory and you'll have job security". Fact check me, he's really heinous.
RogerClyneIsAGod2@reddit
Nah, that'll still be done in China by 5 year olds.
GreatShaggy@reddit
Or until the robots replace yes.
NHRADeuce@reddit
That's what we voted for, so it's not surprising. Well, it's a surprise to those who voted for it, but that's a different conversation.
DJDeadParrot@reddit
My eyesight is never again going to be good enough to work on components THAT small.
rufowler@reddit
Actually, 81 for women and 76 for men (in the US).
Patience247@reddit
I’m throwing up a little bit right now 😫
cool_side_of_pillow@reddit
Jesus. When you put it that way.
Quiet-Strawberry9444@reddit
If you make it into your 50’s, life ex is around 80.
ProfessionalGur5451@reddit
Kinda interesting how US's life expectancy is going down while retirement age is going up.
HKatzOnline@reddit
That sounds more like life expectancy at birth - some men do things where they end up dying young. Those that don't can expect to live to around 79.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Man, I was a late settler, and I have kids that will be college age right at retirement age, so it's just... like another layer of fukd.
I love my kids & wife, but I was FIRE til... Love Came to Town... and I caught that train. To po'ville.
See ya at the salt mine tomorrow! ... and 20 years from now.
Temporary-Break6842@reddit
We never wanted kids for a myriad of reasons and now I can take advantage of FIRE.
kelly1mm@reddit
I am seeing with all my gen X friends/cohorts/myself that the child free couples are all retiring ‘early’. Spouse fully retired at 56 and I work 9 hours a week. (Before anyone asks, ACA for insurance)
Temporary-Break6842@reddit
Yup. I retired at 50 and my husband still works as he loves what he does and has no plans of retiring for years. I am covered under his health insurance at no additional cost to him. Very grateful for that.
Laszlo_Panaflex_80@reddit
With you too. End Gen X with a four year old. Going through a divorce and going to be wiped out. It will be up to me to send my daughter to college and try to build something for retirement. Watched my grandfather die at 68 and my father at just barely 69. Already have heart issues myself. Doubt I see 69 tbh.
Constant-Field-1858@reddit
I'm in the same boat. When my youngest leaves home in 15 years to start college, I'll be on the cusp of 64. Don't plan to ever retire at this rate.
Popular-Resolution33@reddit
I hear you. I'll be 61 when my youngest graduates high school.
mtcwby@reddit
63 when my youngest graduates. But I might retire then too.
Temporary-Break6842@reddit
So you had a kid at 45????
mtcwby@reddit
Graduates college. I was almost 40
Unlikely-Section-600@reddit
I will be 63 as well, we will send him off to a good state university and dad will retire to SE Asia. I will be back in the states for my 6 month checkup and anything important
Mr_Tort_Feasor@reddit
66 for me. It was not intentional. We adopted a sibling pair from foster care several years ago and the same birth mom had a third kid who was also removed from her due to extreme drug exposure in the womb. I agonized whether we should adopt the third, but ultimately I just felt it was the right thing to do. I love my kids, what can I say.
GenXrules69@reddit
62 but the plus is the house will be paid same year. Gives me a few years to feather the nest....
atomicavox@reddit
Sames! Holy shit.
Average_Random_Bitch@reddit
I'm 58 and just adopted my 2 and 6 yo grandkids. I'll work til the day I die. It's just me.
Strict-Square456@reddit
Here! I have twins that graduate high school in 3 yrs. Ill be 62. 😟
ButterflyVioletta112@reddit
I’m with you, I will be 58
rcook55@reddit
My one and only turned 18 two weeks before I turned 40. Now that doesn't mean I'm rolling in money and will be able to retire early but I believe it will be before I'm 70.
RipOdd9001@reddit
Loans from 401ks and helocs are what I am thinking for the twins.
b-lincoln@reddit
Same here. There are a lot of us.
Potential_Camera1905@reddit
When our son graduates high school my husband will be 66 and I will be 59. We will be working until we drop dead.
acreekofsoap@reddit
I’m happy to hear I’m not the only old parent here. I just hope to live long enough to see her marry and see a grand baby before I go on to my great reward (or punishment)
Electrical_Moose_815@reddit
Boat... that would be nice.....
No_Kangaroo_2428@reddit
Same here. Borrowing for the kids' education when I should be paying off debt.
Happy-Bluejay-3849@reddit
Just wait til they go to college. If you’re poor, it is free or very low cost. If you’re wealthy, it is nearly free with all the scholarships they throw at you to lock your kid in as a future big donor. If you’re middle class, you’ll pay full price. It’s on you to find scholarships had hope you can cobble together enough $500 or so ones to bring the cost down slightly. Better start putting the money away now unless you can easily afford $100,000 per kid. And no, no one cares about your mortgage, car payments, other kids you have in college, etc. They decide how much aid you get based solely on your income as though you have absolutely no expenses to pay during the year.
acreekofsoap@reddit
At least I have an office now, so I can die in privacy there instead of my cubicle.
RightHandWolf@reddit
https://i.redd.it/k02d58an665f1.gif
Far_Winner5508@reddit
My officemate died at work a few years ago. Came in on a Saturday and didn't leave.
Potential_Camera1905@reddit
💀💀💀
mediaogre@reddit
My brother from a nutter butter, I’m in the same leaky-ass boat. And our little is special needs which is a challenge in many ways including financially. See you in the mines unless I get that sweet greeter gig at the entrance.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
We have one on the spectrum as well, my butta-brotha. Wife who just beat cancer and still battles MS. The struggle is real. Worry is a waste. One foot in front of the other.
ImaginaryVacation708@reddit
On the up side I’m glad your wife kicked cancers ass
mediaogre@reddit
Excellent outlook. My sweet wife has a basket of ailments but she’s a warrior princess. (And 13 years my junior and out of my bush league which ahem doesn’t suck). Take care.
Moody_GenX@reddit
Early settler, early retired here. We ain't seeing social security but my pension rises with cost of living so I got that going for me. One kid in his 30s and another in college now. Fuck dem salt mines.
AdAdditional7542@reddit
Same, but no pension. My spouse still works, and we dump a lot into retirement accts, but they figure retirement is out. I plan on getting something part-time simply because I'm bored. We are blessed, though, and have very minimal debt. It's our kids we worry about.
Moody_GenX@reddit
Yeah I worry about mine too. I depletedmy savings during the pandemic to keep the oldest and his family afloat while also helping my youngest in the form of double child support to his mother for him. Technically I'm paycheck to paycheck right now but that's because I'm always buying stuff I want/need. This month it was a new dining room table, next month it's a new gaming computer, lol. I'll start saving again probably after Christmas.
Aggressive_Power_471@reddit
Similar but I was saving, then I met my husband and had kids and now I have to resave while worrying about college for a 10 and 5 year old. So in 20 years I will likely not have the money to retire anyway.
RandoReddit16@reddit
Lol the key is to be 40's and have a HS grad..... I was not going to be starting a family at 50, got the snip.
ElectronicTowel1225@reddit
I'll be 58 when my last girl goes off to college, but at least the house will be paid off. Ive been honest with my girls. They have a college prepaid for 2 years each. Anything after that is on them to get scholarships or work studies. Me and their dad will be in our final savings time before retirement.
susannadickinson@reddit
On the same train! That's what happens when you decide to have kids at 40. But I do think it made me a better parent.
mr_electric_wizard@reddit
Haha, no shit. And with my kids using a roll of paper towels in like 2 hours. 😂🤣
GreatShaggy@reddit
I'm in the same boat. My son will be just going g to college at my retirement age. I've pretty resigned that I'll be working until mid toate 60s. Won't be retiring early like my parents were able to.
FairRinksNotFairNix@reddit
I hear ya, BB🎸🎶
bellydncr4@reddit
Yeah we considered another kid but if we have one TODAY we did the math and it wasn't mathing... that exact realization of hitting college when we're both 65 was a big NOPE😩😩
zilsautoattack@reddit
I wouldn’t trade a thing. Poverty sucks. We should t impoverish families.
NsubordinatNchurlish@reddit
I'm with you. Think of it this way...you don't need a separate college fund for your kids. You'll go right into your retirement benefits.
twoaspensimages@reddit
I'm going to be 65 when our daughter graduates high school. We're working on another. If that goes according to plan I'll be 69.
We're in Po'ville also. Day care for two adds up real quick. Bye savings.
CunningBear@reddit
Well with the current trajectory, Americans are dying sooner so maybe they’ll be able to lower it again. Win-win!
/s
Dick_of_Doom@reddit
Pretty soon the retirement age will exceed life expectancy.
kelly1mm@reddit
Tat was how it was when Social Security started …..
No_Kangaroo_2428@reddit
It already does for Black men.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
Social Security is for white people and always has been.
Dick_of_Doom@reddit
You're right, and this is tragic.
thebondsman@reddit
Then the goal will have been reached.
CunningBear@reddit
Exactly.
citymousecountyhouse@reddit
The only think these creeps are interested in lowering is the tax rate for millionaires.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
We voted these assholes in, if people cared enough they could vote these assholes out.
GlassZealousideal741@reddit
Joke is on them I'm 52 and 1 year away from pension, don't think I'll ever see social security anyway boomers are going to drain the trough.
couchwarmer@reddit
That's not how SS works. The current workforce funds the current retirees.
Lucky_Difficulty3522@reddit
I thought it was common knowledge that SS would be gone by our retirement age, I've known this since my 20's, this is not shocking.
allegrovecchio@reddit
You and the others they convinced to believe it by beating that drum for years means you probably won't grumble when it's gone. Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me.
It was propaganda, not "being realistic."
Lucky_Difficulty3522@reddit
I don't grumble about a system i didn't build and have no control over, that's been broken from it's inception.
allegrovecchio@reddit
Yeah okay. You're pushing an agenda and a lie about it being broken from its inception. That's really utter horseshit.
Lucky_Difficulty3522@reddit
All systems have fundamental flaws, it's the nature of humanity.
allegrovecchio@reddit
And I totally agree with that statement. To me "flawed" and "broken" are qualitatively different adjectives.
Lucky_Difficulty3522@reddit
It's just an argument of semantics then.
allegrovecchio@reddit
Yeah no.
Anathama@reddit
Pension? What's that?
GlassZealousideal741@reddit
I'm a Teamster we have 80 and out retirement pension, I'll have my 80 points at my birthday next year.
Alarmed_Ferret_8715@reddit
I retired at 52 with a firefighter pension. Could have retired 11yrs earlier, but pension increased each year and I fucking loved every minute of it. I also fucking love every minute of being retired. I was always very frugal and have a nice 457b but my Fire pension is like a bird’s nest on the ground. Hope you enjoy your early retirement a much I am!
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Smart, mate.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
So many union shitbags vote Republican too
F’ng disgusting
Alternative_Hope6238@reddit
Leopards are at full capacity now.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
Fingers crossed. But the thing about leopards. They attack and maim indiscriminately.
BasicPainter8154@reddit
Teamsters especially. Biden bailed out their pension and they couldn’t decide if that was more important to their members than some trans kid somewhere wanting to be on a swim team.
GrowthDesperate5176@reddit
Unions for the win!!
Far_Winner5508@reddit
GlassZealousideal741@reddit
Yeah old man said join a union, so Teamsters we have pension, 401k, and retirement medical not to shabby.
Far_Winner5508@reddit
My parents insisted I go to college, despite wanting to go trade school.
Ended up bombing out and going into the military. At least my clearance has proved useful.
tristand666@reddit
They can't really drain it, just reduce it to current funding levels from payrolls.
kelly1mm@reddit
When Social Security started wasn’t the FRA of 65 already over the life expectancy at that time?
Socalwarrior485@reddit
This seems like just more boomers pulling up the ladder after themselves. They had 30 years to fix this effing problem and they waited until they were all grandfathered in.
NetJnkie@reddit
Can't be blaming the Boomers here. We've had significant voting power for a long time. Just like young people now. We didn't do it.
Dunkydunc1031@reddit
Or you could legalize 20 million illegal migrants so they pay SS, and get the retirement age dropped to 65
Socalwarrior485@reddit
Love that idea. We need more people in the US, not less.
Dunkydunc1031@reddit
I'm a conservative, and I see the benefits of making them citizens. It will happen. Trump's platform was to deport them all, but that's not what he's doing. It's all the behind-the-scenes fun you really gotta dig for to see.
The United States has a demographic problem. Educated women have less than the 2.1 birth replacement rate. So we needed to fix that with the boomers now retiring. We needed an influx of new workers to cover for the largest generation our nation has ever seen. This was to cushion the financial blow to the rest of us for the next generation.
To see that this is true, Tom Holman had an interview with the Shawn Ryan Show where he repeatedly said he only wanted to arrest and deport criminals and not the average illegal migrant.
Listen to Peter Zeihan - who is a bit leftist, but I trust what he says - has been saying for years that in the next few decades, if we Americans want stuff, we are going to have to make it ourselves. We have to build factories and plants for that first - think The Inflation Reduction Act (which increased inflation, but our country needed it) - because China imposed a one child policy for 3 decades and now they are screwed demographically! Big time! In twenty years they won't be able to make our stuff. So we have to.
So the IRA was a bill that paid for the new factories. We needed workers. They allowed them in in the millions. Now we have a bunch of baby-making workers that want to Americanize and enjoy the riches of America. Their kids will integrate even more and faster.
As all of the rest of the world's countries "age" other than Africa, we had a pressure relief valve that just gave us another 100 years or so.
I want a cigarette.
Sorchochka@reddit
One of the awful secrets is that a lot of undocumented workers were paying into SS and ineligible to take money out. It was basically free money for SS.
I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but it’s definitely something that happens.
Dunkydunc1031@reddit
My former stepmother was like 45 when her and my dad got together, so she had kids from a previous man. Three kids aged from like 8 to 14 when my dad married her. She was an awesome person, she was my mom, all around great woman. She found out a decade after her and my dad got married that her ex was illegal and using the youngest kids SS to work. He was also selling drugs and when he got busted had a flea market ID, so they traced the SS number back to my step brother and thats how we found out. He payed who knows what into SS for about 15 years
jadiana@reddit
I've been hearing about how SS is going to break down, since oh, I dunno, the 80s? I remember thinking that it would run out of money just about the time I could retire. The problem isn't fixable either, unless we got another Boomer generation. We have too many people at retirement age and not enough people paying in. So I'm not sure how the Boomers should have fixed this, unless you all wanted to pay more in, or the boomers died earlier.
Sorchochka@reddit
Meanwhile, we’re deporting people who were contributing, or could be.
Can’t have a baby boom when you’re deporting babies.
jadiana@reddit
ikr?
Socalwarrior485@reddit
They could have easily fixed it by raising their own retirement age or slightly lowering payouts. Instead they sat on the problem until they have to do both to us but keep their own ages and payouts. It’s classic, “I got mine, fuck you” mentality.
jadiana@reddit
I think the problem is bigger than 'slightly lowering payouts' can address.
Socalwarrior485@reddit
There are multiple levers that can be pulled: slightly raising the tax rate, raising the tax cap (or eliminating it all together), raising the age, lowering payouts.
Even small movements in those have a dramatic impact on the solvency.
For example, the personal + employer portion of SS is currently 12.4% (6.2+6.2). Changing that by only .5% (half a percent) each, raises revenue almost 10%, extending the timeline by another estimated 40 years. Removing the income cap, if memory serves, extends it by another 15-25 years.
Keep in mind that if nothing is done, the total cut to benefits would be 17%, so it's not so insurmountable that we cant or we couldn't have solved this with small movements.
jadiana@reddit
I agree, there are things that can be done.
I just don't think it's the Boomers saying 'fuck them, I got mine' but something more about classism, where the wealthy think, "I don't need it, fuck them, leave my taxes alone!"
SophsterSophistry@reddit
Or removing the payroll cap.
Socalwarrior485@reddit
I should have mentioned that first.
Queeby@reddit
It looks like the plan to have different generations / cohorts blame each other for everything is working perfectly. Meanwhile the actual "them" is the rich and the "us" is everyone else.
damnfoolbumpkin@reddit
Yes, thank you for saying this. I know plenty of older people who are struggling financially just as much if not more than GenX/GenY/GenZ. It's disconcerting how much hatred there is in this sub, with people placing the blame for all their woes on all people born between years X and Y, when it's the "haves" that have been playing the "have nots" for all eternity.
Socalwarrior485@reddit
Except the boomers are still the most new overwhelmingly voting in the cocksucking lawmakers who are perpetuating or worsening the problem.
Playful_Pianist_16@reddit
Sadly Gen Y is going all in on voting for the same c*suckers
chetpancakesparty@reddit
Lmao, y'all vote GOP too
Age, generation and party identification of registered voters | Pew Research Center
RogerClyneIsAGod2@reddit
Yeah let's not lay all of this at the Boomers feet, this is a class war thing more than a generational thing.
TinyFugue@reddit
Nah, we've been voting age for a couple decades now.
Socalwarrior485@reddit
Sure but our voting block was never even close to overcoming the boomer voting block.
AdditionalWorking637@reddit
The next generations will say this about us. The truth is, as someone mentioned below, the ones in control are not representative of the rest of our (or their) generation. The rich control the politicians and the politicians do what they want.
SmartYouth9886@reddit
Boomers all scream that SS is a contract and they hate it when I say, "I never signed a contract"
Socalwarrior485@reddit
Chances are high it will stay higher retirement age and low payouts until the millenials get to retirement and then they’ll raise it again.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
The Boomers never cared about anyone but themselves, they've been making tax cuts and increasing spending since the day they could take control. Now that they are dying off the Mills are taking their place and seeing the mess that their parents made. The Mills are no better than the Boomers so they are going to fuck everyone else over so they won'r get fucked.
ScrauveyGulch@reddit
They did the same thing with the drinking age.
AsianAddict247@reddit
You win the Internet for today.
e-zimbra@reddit
This “they” everyone complains about… don’t we elect “they”? Is this a system no one considered changing?
WVStarbuck@reddit
THIS!!! Either start holding people accountable for how they voted, or stop fucking complaining. These geriatric dicks don't remain in office by themselves. Voters, and those who don't vote, keep them there. I get that the system sucks but it's what we got. Or had. Whether we get fair elections again is still in question.
I did think I would work until I died. But I never thought I'd have to do it under a dictator, so thanks for that.
mayura376@reddit
Exactly!
Noisy_Pip@reddit
I dunno, man. I don’t vote for shitbags that advocate cutting benefits in order to give more welfare to the wealthy via tax cuts.
e-zimbra@reddit
Me, either. But somehow during my 40+ years of voting eligibility, everyone else has.
Noisy_Pip@reddit
Al Gore was the last one actively advocating on our behalf. W couldn’t wait to raid that cookie jar.
e-zimbra@reddit
Al Gore won. But we all lost. I remember thinking the 21st century might be glorious. Every minute of it though has been a dystopia.
Noisy_Pip@reddit
I spent my lunch hour today reading a deep dive into the history of Social Security and thoroughly enjoyed this quote. Based on your comments, I thought you may enjoy it, too.
As President Roosevelt explained in response to the criticism that payroll taxes were too regressive, “I guess you’re right on the economics, but those taxes were never a problem of economics. They are politics all the way through. We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions…. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my Social Security program.”
e-zimbra@reddit
Thank you.
bp3dots@reddit
Nothing like the feeling that you're coming in at the tail-end of a good thing.
NarcanPusher@reddit
Eeesh I miss the 90’s. That was the last time I thought things might turn out well for all of us.
ImaginaryVacation708@reddit
I was a teenager in the 90s and thought it would be great. What I’ve found is every teen thinks that. Adulting just sucks
etherdesign@reddit
Yeah I gotta say looking back now is when that 90s hope just f'ing died and we had another goddamn Bush in the WH.
punktualPorcupine@reddit
We’re just repeating the 20th century.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
70MM Americans did.
Noisy_Pip@reddit
If only I could designate all the tax dollars I've paid into SS never go to them, believe me, I would.
Avasarala77@reddit
The Republicans want to screw us and take away programs we paid into our entire lives just to give billionaires a giant tax cut. That's exactly what this "big beautiful bill" they just passed does. It's the biggest transfer of wealth from the lower and middle class to the billionaire class in history and it's the reason they'll need to raise the retirement age, to help pay for billionaire tax cuts. Plus it will make the debt even worse, so kids today probably won't get any programs like Medicare or Social Security when they're old. People need to stop voting for the party that wants to screw us. Democrats are definitely not perfect but they're trying to protect these programs.
jamesdmccallister@reddit
THEY = They Hierarchy Enslaving You
angrypacketguy@reddit
>This “they” everyone complains about… don’t we elect “they”? Is this a system no one considered changing?
The system will not give you the tools to undo it.
z44212@reddit
They = Republicans
newwriter365@reddit
We are few, they are many. And unfortunately, some of us (not me) did vote for this.
masscelt@reddit
Who is they? Who is moving the post?
WeekendQuant@reddit
OASDI originally only covered about 5 years of life expectancy for the wealth groups it benefitted the most. If we wanted to go back to this measure then OASDI should kick in around 75.
Fun4TheNight218@reddit
It started with life expectancy and retirement age at the same number. If you were a white man anyway. If you were anyone else life expectancy was lower.
SolarPunkWitch2000@reddit
They'll eventually manage to convince us that our retirements are the 10-15 days worth of vacation we get every year, like mini-retirements so graciously spread throughout our working lives.
Noisy_Pip@reddit
They'll definitely convince a certain type of people this is the case, anyway. The type that consistently votes against their best interests so they can make sure the upper income brackets pay less taxes and can buy more stock options.
Human_Morning_72@reddit
Let's remember.... When Social Security was signed into law, average life expectancy was 64 and the retirement age for Social Security was 65.
swagn@reddit
They are working it from both ends trying to cut Medicare.
Available_Leather_10@reddit
In 1930, before Social Security was enacted, the life expectancy at birth was 58 for men and 62 for women. Which is really pretty meaningless, because of childhood diseases.
At age 65, in 1930, it was about 12 more years for everyone (ie 77).
In 2020, life expectancy at 65 was about 17 for men and 20 for women.
Like for like, 69 is pretty comparable, even if it’s pretty shitty.
largesaucynuggs@reddit
My retirement planner wants me to plan to save enough to live to 90 years old. I straight up said “are you fucking kidding me? I don’t want to live that long.” My Dad died at 84, mom died at 74 (after 4 years of Alzheimer’s.) I’m hoping for 84 but we’ll see. But 90?! For this standard of living? No thanks.
Available_Leather_10@reddit
That’s the standard though. They don’t want broke 85 year olds coming to the office with a gun and nothing left to lose.
mbridgethouse@reddit
If I’m broke and 85 with a gun, it’s not the financial planner who’s the target. It’s me.
Reboot-Glitchspark@reddit
My dad died at 39, my mom at 64.
I'm taking that retirement as soon as I can damn well get it! And hopefully I'll have a couple/few years to enjoy it.
My grandparents on one side got to 60 and 62.
My grandpa on the other side lived to 89 (very close to 90 when the Covid and cancer combo got him). He retired at 55, so he got 34 years. But that is worth mentioning because no one else in my family has ever gotten close to a retirement.
unsteadywhistle@reddit
My family elders are consistently living into their late 90s, even those not prioritizing their health. I thought that was cool as a kid but now living until in 95 or 100 sounds horrible. God forbid I end up needing constant care with dementia. Not what I want at all. I'd prefer to just not wake up one morning in my late 80s.
ElleGeeAitch@reddit
Good point, but so many people are fucking trashed physically by their mid 60s in this country 😬.
FlySilently@reddit
Yeah… but does an argument also exist that the extra five years that has been added been done to a good standard of living versus Western Medicine (who’s success is ONLY gauged against lifespan with little attention paid towards quality of life) just getting really good at keeping us alive well beyond any reasonable point.
Fortunately for me: Canadian and have a visible disability. Already preparing my mindset to make the call to the folks down at MAID. I am FULLY aware that no one is going to put the time into caring for my mangled body that I do. Have to be ready to end it BEFORE I lose the ability to make the decision.
Available_Leather_10@reddit
Sure, but old folks were generally decrepit in the 30s, too. Just look at pix from then—or, really, look for pix of not-rich 60+ year olds from before the great depression.
feder_online@reddit
Ironically, that's almost how 65 was chosen back in the 1930s. Life expectancy was 61 in 1935. The alternative is to keep HHS from helping people and bring the life expectancy back dow...oh, wait, they are doing that too. 2015-2020, life expectancy dropped; the only other times life expectancy dropped in the US was Civil War and The Great War (WW1)...according to Statista
rhubarbed_wire@reddit
Life expectancy doesn't matter. Living longer doesn't mean you are able to work later in life.
Noisy_Pip@reddit
No argument from me, especially since employers have shown they don't want employees after a certain age in life and push them out due to higher healthcare costs, higher salaries for long term employees, etc. Then when they can't find a comparable paying job, they drain the system by working shit jobs that pay almost nothing, working for companies that take advantage of desperation, like Walmart.
Tim-Sylvester@reddit
You're being optimistic. Eventually retirement won't come until long after you're dead.
EnvironmentalRound11@reddit
They are working on lowering life expectancy to meet the SS age.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
RFK will kill off enough people to keep the retirement at 67
peach_dragon@reddit
When social security was enacted, retirement age WAS the average life expectancy.
CrustyBatchOfNature@reddit
That's the only way they can gut Social Security the way they want to.
zsreport@reddit
Shit man, they'll find a way to earn money off of us even after we're dead.
Whateverstillgoing@reddit
When it started and was put at 65 that was almost 10 years beyond the average life expectancy. It needs to move, and should have decades ago, in order for to still exist in the future
SelectionNo3078@reddit
Gtfo
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
To be fair, yes, overall. BUT, the last increase to 67 was enacted in the 80s, and sloped up for 33 years (to 67 from 65). This is slamming in just seven years. That is one key difference, mate.
I do agree it does have to adjust to compensate for variables in life-expectancy.
Strong_Web_3404@reddit
Well, the two were much closer together when they started Social Security.
The problem is, medical technology and related fields have advanced by so much - people are living much longer. Rather than fix the issues our parents kicked the can, are enjoying their retirement, and again are leaving us on our own....
Sherifftruman@reddit
I’m pretty sure when they chose 65, half the population could be expected to have died by then.
BengalFan2001@reddit
When SS was established the life expectancy was 55 years old and SS was 60. The current system life expectancy is in the 70's and SS is in the 60's.
I have a few work colleagues in their 70's still working and they are paid extremely well $150k+ a year. I am trying to move into one of their positions within the next year or so as they should retire.
Quin35@reddit
When it was originally set, it wasn't far off from the average lifespan.
A lot of things need to be done. Full retirement age should adjust as we live longer. Also, more people need to pay into it.
Dismal-Car-8360@reddit
You do realize that when social security was first created the retirement age was deliberately set higher than life expectancy at the time, right?
oklibrarian@reddit
In fairness back when Social Security was created, the average life expectancy was 61…
Electrical_Moose_815@reddit
No talking!! Back to work!!
ProfessorKnow1tA11@reddit
They’re supposed to be the same. When the retirement age was first established as 65, life expectancy was 66 or 67.
new2bay@reddit
Actually, no. Life expectancy in 1937, when Social Security was created was 58 for men, and 62 for women. They’re gonna crank it all the way up to like 80.
Automatic-Fox-8890@reddit
That’s actually how it started: lots of people died before the age of 65 that was set at the start of the program. It was a sort of feel-good smoke and mirrors thing that they could count as a political win.
Verbull710@reddit
As it should be
IAm5toned@reddit
This is why I have an FMP w/ 30 round mag. The zombie hordes of aging boomers, it's simply a matter of math and time.
the-quibbler@reddit
I mean, that's as intended. The system wasn't designed for so many people to survive until retirement.
Grunblau@reddit
I believe it was Noem that said as much. Social security was intended for 2-4 years of retirement not to live on for a decade.
Noisy_Pip@reddit
I wish the story about her dog had gone the opposite way.
mediaogre@reddit
BREAKING: Wirehaired pointer sh00ts mangy politician that showed aggressive behavior by lying. “It wasn’t easy, but often the easy way isn’t the right way.”
efflexor@reddit
The mental picture that just gave me 🤣
Icolan@reddit
No, they will keep at it until retirement age is beyond life expectancy, that way they get the longer lived too.
Ok-Bug4328@reddit
That is how it started.
OldBanjoFrog@reddit
Well shit. I have been burned out for years. I won’t be able to handle this. I already know that I am going to drop dead at work.
Daniel_Molloy@reddit
Our government (both parties) has been spending money like they can shit it out for decades. Eventually it’s gonna come back and fuck us all.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Our dollar will have no value. Poof. Sooner than later. There is NO end in sight to excessive spending. The average person doesn't comprehend the leap from Billions to Trillions either.
Trillions & trillions in debt we are.
Beast6213@reddit
I’m already working the loophole. My body is so beat to fuck from working that I’ll be on SS disability by 60. I’m getting my money back somehow.
PolaSketch@reddit
In France they would go on strike and/or riot in response to this.
brostrummer@reddit
I personally want to work till age 70 anyways to keep my brain sharp, but I understand this affects a lot of people and it sucks.
w1lnx@reddit
I've been wondering of late why it seemed that retirement is further away. When I was younger, the goal was to get to 63... then it was to 65...
Now they say it's 67.
At this rate, I'll be able to retire quite comfortably exactly three days after I die.
RedTrumpetVine@reddit
If they keep changing the rules to cheat us (but god forbid, not Boomers), how about just giving us all of our contributions back.
Balian-of-Ibelin@reddit
Ponzi scheme
Pillar67@reddit
It’s only a Ponzi scheme if they don’t pay out.
renijreddit@reddit
And almost everyone gets more back than they put in. It’s insurance against poverty.
CMDR_Zantigar@reddit
That’s how EVERY Ponzi scheme works, right up until it doesn’t any more. The early contributors make out fine, so that new suckers keep joining and paying in. But when the new contributions can no longer fund the payouts to the early contributors…boom.
renijreddit@reddit
It’s a forced savings plan. Backed by the full faith and credit of the US. That’s why it’s so important for us to elect serious and competent leaders. It is worth protecting. And we each have to do our part to ensure it does. Many ideas have been floated to save the system, including raising the income cap, but the people in Congress don’t care about poverty. They only care about their donors. Until we get rid of money in politics, nothing will get solved. Sorry for the rant. I’m watching our President have a twitter feud with the richest guy in the country….
CMDR_Zantigar@reddit
“Forced saving plan” implies that the government is “saving” something somewhere, on behalf of the citizens. But it’s not. The money taken in for SS taxes this year (plus a bit more borrowed from various places) will be paid out to SS recipients this year. Nor is there anything from past years when the income exceeded payouts; Washington spent that money years or decades ago. There’s nothing in the so-called “trust fund” except IOUs from the government, better known as treasury bonds.
Again, this is exactly the pattern that every Ponzi scheme exhibits up until the inevitable crash; sooner or later the income from new payers can’t service the continually compounding debt owed to the prior payers. That’s when it all comes tumbling down. So I stand behind my remark above: the fact that so far payers have been getting paid doesn’t distinguish SS from any other Ponzi scheme. It’s always like that for a while.
renijreddit@reddit
I guess we’ll see…
bellacarolina916@reddit
That is what they want you to believe so they can steal the money and privatize it even more.. so then think of all the finance charges they can charge us to manage our money so maybe one day if the economy is good enough we might be able to retire Ha!
Grand_Helicoptor_517@reddit
Wrong. Social Security essentially lifted the elderly out of poverty and gave them ( and the disabled) some dignity. It preserves families, because our elderly and disabled don’t have to be dependent on us for every bite of food they get and a roof over their heads. Most Americans depend on it for retirement.
Balian-of-Ibelin@reddit
Still a Ponzi scheme
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
That's the worst part. It is THE definition. Not to mention, long ago, SS funds were actually reallocated to some other... fund or something. If memory serves. Like, the slot we put our cut in, doesn't lead to our bucket. It's all so f'd.
runningvicuna@reddit
That’s my understanding. Surely someone has these receipts.
NewHomework527@reddit
Precisely.
xantub@reddit
With compound interest of course.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
I'm fine without the interest, I'll just take a lump sum. Don't forget the 6.2% your employer put in for you too.
renijreddit@reddit
But by the logic above, the employer portion is the employer’s…
Illustrious-Pea-7105@reddit
No it was put in on my behalf. This system is our fucking money. Get out of her with the bootlicking nonsense.
renijreddit@reddit
Let me put it a different way:
It’s not your money to spend or do with what you like. Your money is used to pay your parents or grandparents SS. Much like the taxes on your property do not pay for your school, they pay for the younger generation’s education, not just your children, all children.
It’s a social program that does so much good. The poverty amongst the elderly was horrific. It’s worth it to sacrifice a little now for the guaranteed pay-off. It’s up to us to save it. Unfortunately, most people seem to need to actually experience something before they believe it (measles).
Illustrious-Pea-7105@reddit
Let me put it another way. Shut the fuck up bootlicker. It’s our money.
International-Ad1292@reddit
Daily
Appropriate_Oven_292@reddit
Somebody still believes the Ponzi scheme. ;)
RedTrumpetVine@reddit
I know it will fail eventually. But I would like to get something out of it considering how much was taken.
CMDR_Zantigar@reddit
The other side of that coin is “I don’t have the right to rob others just because I was robbed.” Whatever you get out of it is necessarily taken from someone else (who is likely to feel that THEY should get something in return, just like you do). But that promise can’t be kept, in the long run; someone (well, a lot of someones, actually) will be left holding a worthless IOU.
The only “safe” course is to plan as if FICA taxes are like every other tax: the government took some of your money and spent it on some foolish thing you probably disagree with. If you get a benefit now or later, it’s a lucky coincidence.
morbid_florist_@reddit
This, right here. Give me back all the money I have out into it since I was 15 years old which according to my calculations is 35 years of deductions from my pay. That's my money. Not theirs or the boomers.
Legitimate_Ocelot491@reddit
You freeloaders whining about your damn entitlements! Time to cut entitlements so we can balance the budget.
/s
They're called entitlements because we're ENTITLED to the damn money after paying into the system for decades and decades.
DJW6805@reddit
Good luck our govt is the mob they ain’t giving you half of what you put in or me or anyone else
NoValuable1383@reddit
This is pretty much what they want. They want people to feel like SS is on the precipice of being insolvent, so people push to get rid of it altogether. The GOP has been advocating for dissolving SS since it's inception. So GenX gets screwed for paying into it our entire lives, and getting less and less benefits.
RedTrumpetVine@reddit
I get that. And chasing away possibly millions of immigrants who were getting screwed by paying into SS and not having a chance to get it back... but supporting citizens... is going to further hurt SS. That adds to the plan to kill SS.
NoValuable1383@reddit
Then you have to consider that AI doesn't pay any taxes. If it does indeed replace workers, and you also get rid of corporate taxes, where does the tax base come from?
RedTrumpetVine@reddit
I had not thought of that. You added more doom to my scroll.
Retirednypd@reddit
Because then they couldn't pay the boomers
ScienceWasLove@reddit
In 1983 they created a sliding scale changing the regiment age for ALL boomers except those born in 1954 or before.
The only way to "fix" social security is to increase the social security tax or increase the retirement age.
BethN@reddit
The way to fix Social Security is to stop putting a cap on it.
ScienceWasLove@reddit
That would be increasing the social security tax.
Grand_Helicoptor_517@reddit
Only for those making $176,00 or more. So a very progressive tax increase.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
Get rid of the contribution cap and means test benefits for the highest earners
TenuousOgre@reddit
Seriously. I’m up for that. It’s not like their promise has really panned out. The “we'll never touch this and if you die your spouse gets all you’re earned” didn’t last. There’s more rules on this and they keep changing when and how it applies. Give me back contributions with interest and call it good.
BigMax@reddit
In fairness, they did raise it for boomers from 65 to 67, right? Although as the article states, that was very gradually rolled in over 33 years, this next change to age 69 would be over just 8 years.
RedTrumpetVine@reddit
If there needs to be a haircut to save SS, then it should be across the board. The number of things that Boomers have gotten and then pulled up the ladder behind them is ridiculous. Taking a few hundred a month from me is not different than the disruption of taking it from them too would be.
Astroworm2020@reddit
I know this would never happen, but I would seriously consider opting out and getting reimbursed if that was an option.
Sturmgeshootz@reddit
This is why so many Boomers refuse to retire and desperately cling to power in both the private and public sectors even when they're far past their sell-by dates. They are fully aware that they've set things up to only benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else and want to keep that scam going for as long as possible.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
That and a lot of them have spent every dime they've made full expecting the special treatment they've received all their lives to continue on into retirement and then they found out that the Mills are equally as greedy and the Boomers are no longer the king of the heap.
PE_Norris@reddit
Yeah, fuck this. If they're going to do it, do it right now with no ramp up. Let the tail end of the boomers actually feel the pain they want to inflict on everyone else...
actually infact lets just yank SS from the 68 year olds too and make them work another 2 years.
Wyzard_of_Wurdz@reddit
If they gave me back all the money I paid into SS and Medicare, I could retire right now. Like as soon as that check hits the bank.
Upset-Syllabub3985@reddit
That’s why they’re called Uncle Scam.
cybermage@reddit
Boomers making this decision for us. Maybe stop electing them.
jazzdabb@reddit
People who won’t be alive in 20 years should not be making ANY decisions affecting the future.
--2021--@reddit
Yup.
No_Kangaroo_2428@reddit
That would eliminate almost the whole Democratic wing of Congress.
jazzdabb@reddit
There are young Democrats who can step in if the career politicians step out of the way.
No_Kangaroo_2428@reddit
This is my point.
jazzdabb@reddit
I also think the old and in the way Democrats are no small part of the party's overall issues. To some degree, I think people are just looking for change. I just wish they'd do a better job of evaluating the benefits and quality of the change they vote for,
No_Kangaroo_2428@reddit
The people who control the party want it to be complicit with the GOP. This includes AIPAC, which has systematically targeted and removed from office Democratic lawmakers who took issue with Netanyahu's genocide of Palestinians.
No_Kangaroo_2428@reddit
Why are people down voting? House Democrats appointed a guy who died 4 months later instead of AOC to the Oversight Committee. The party is obsessed with "seniority."
Proud__Apostate@reddit
Stop electing the Republicans who are the best at screwing over the little guy. It started w/ Reagan
cybermage@reddit
We each can only vote out our own representatives/senators. Two of mine are boomer Democrats and pretty feckless, the other is a Gen X Democrat and kicks ass.
To really change the culture on Capitol Hill, we need to replace all the Boomers whether it is by primary for Democrats or in the general for Republicans
Askew_2016@reddit
It’s not boomers. It’s Republicans. It’s always Republicans
AndrewRP2@reddit
Not only do we elect silent generation, we (statistically speaking) vote for the party that is actively trying to take away these sorts of benefits to fund large tax cuts for the wealthy.
FingerDemon500@reddit
It is looking like there will never be a U.S. President who was a Gen-X er. Which is the maybe the most Gen-X thing ever.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
We have a required minimum age for office, we need a required maximum age and it starts with a 6.
Sturmgeshootz@reddit
That would require people in office that are ok with restricting future opportunities for themselves. Unfortunately what seems to usually happen is when people get into public office, they get a taste of the power and the perks and never want to let go of it.
Cranks_No_Start@reddit
Still working on getting the silents out.
LASER_Dude_PEW@reddit
I have but one upvote to give. ✌️
Beegkitty@reddit
Under rated comment.
Fuzzy-Progress-7892@reddit
I have no problem paying my taxes or SS tax as it stands now.
What I have a problem with is you socialists always want more of someone elses money!
Top 20% of earners already pay the majority of the taxes in this country.
Fuzzy-Progress-7892@reddit
Because SS benefits are already on a tiered basis. So I will never recover the 1 Million that me and my employers have paid in the last 35 years. I am already paying for your broke ass. I WILL NOT PAY MORE!
SelectionNo3078@reddit
You’re the exact problem
Probably earned more than the cap too
Fuzzy-Progress-7892@reddit
Yep I do. SS already steals a good portion of what I pay in with the tiered benefits. Why should I even pay more?
Not sure why you think your entitled to my money I earned?
SelectionNo3078@reddit
Not sure why you don’t think you earned your money without uncountable contributions from everyone that came before.
And why you don’t think you owe society anything.
Probably a ‘libertarian’
😂😂
K2TY@reddit
Assuming that you and your employer have paid 12.5% in for 50 years at THIS years maximum rate of $176,100, that would be just over a million.
modernistamphibian@reddit
Jokes on them, I'm already retired. And not by choice.
MrsAdjanti@reddit
I retired last fall. Not near financially stable as I wish I was but being out of the rat race the last six months has been good for my mental health.
With how things are going though, I’ll probably be working again in the next year.
RightHandWolf@reddit
This just in:
The rat race is over, and the rats won.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Doh, sorry, mate -- Market instability?
MrsAdjanti@reddit
Nah, I had just reached my limit so I retired thinking I’d have a shot at a federal job. No way that’s happening now.
I’m okay for now, but given all that’s happened since January, who knows how things will look in three more years.
Tardislass@reddit
With the prices increasing my Boomer parent had to get a part time job.
Jokes on Gen X who think they can retire at 65 and live the good life. Hope people like working until 80.
Moondra3x3-6@reddit
55 and a half here. 4 years to go...woohoo!
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
62.5 and out the door. I hear Greece is nice in the summer and Spain is nice in the winter. I'm going to see if they're right. Maybe I'll come back when I'm 80 and want a decent hamburger.
Moody_GenX@reddit
Same Same
BraveG365@reddit
Are you able to afford retirement?
psykocheffy@reddit
I keep telling myself "I got another 20 in me..." I am a chef, so probably not in reality, trying to get out of the kitchen and into the office is a challenge...
rebelene57@reddit
Heard
NorthLibertyTroll@reddit
Thr systems is insolvent. Time to increase taxes to 90% on corporations and $1M earners
Grunt_In_A_Can@reddit
Well join the Army jump outta a plane, burn in and retire at 57! Like I did. I have no family or friends, but I'm financially secure as the US Gov. ROFLOL, I only recommended this for the heartiest of us Americans though.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
Military pensions are out of control just like public pensions in general
They should be drastically reduced and means tested and for sure all VA benefits should be included as part of the defense budget so it is reported honestly
Grunt_In_A_Can@reddit
What exactly is "Out of Control"? That people are compensated when destroying their bodies defending the country? VA benefits are a matter of public record. It's a part of the Veterans Administration. Why would it be part of the defense budget? It's insane that you think the Military members are "Drastically" over compensated.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
majority of veterans did not see combat or 'destroy their bodies defending the country'. get real
the ease of obtaining lifetime disability benefits without having an actual disability is well known and has been shared with me by multitudes of veterans i've worked with
putting va benefits under dpt defense budget will stop lying to america about how much of our budget goes to support our bloated inefficent military
Grunt_In_A_Can@reddit
If you think it "Easy" to receive VA benefits, it's obvious you don't know WTF you are talking about. The 'Majority" of Vets do not collect any monetary benefits. Matter of fact that number is 40%.
"By multitudes of Veterans". Yes, your anecdotal evidence is obviously 100% correct. We should just take all the money away from Disabled Vets. Damn lying bastards. /S
The average disabled veteran typically begins receiving VA disability compensation around age 55. This means the vast majority of Vets suffers with these disabilities until they get overwhelming in old age. About 12.8% of veterans with service-connected disabilities have received a combined disability rating of 50% or higher. In a large VA-administered study from 2016, among 4,010,720 veterans rated for disability, 515,095 (approximately 12.8%) were classified as having a “high” disability rating, which includes ratings of 50% and above. Approximately 10% of veterans receiving VA disability compensation have a 100% disability rating. So, if it's so fucking easy to get VA disability why are only 10% getting 100%?
Those are the facts. You are just jealous of better Americans than yourself. Which is insanity, because I would give up every penny I receive every month. To end the continuous pain, I have been in since 1993.
AnswerFit1325@reddit
I expect Lucy to keep yanking the football and simply admit, I will be unable to retire.
assi9001@reddit
Noice
Navy_Chief@reddit
Just remove the cap on contributions and the problem solves itself. But no, let's just keep shifting the goalposts on the ponzi scheme.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
And reduce payoff as the amount goes up
If you won at life it’s partially due to the rest of us after all.
krustissimo@reddit
They don't even need to reduce the payout: just make income tax more progressive, including a shit ton more higher end "brackets" (actually better would be to use a mathematical formula and eliminate brackets entirely.)
One thing that infuriates me with our tax code is that every benefit has some arbitrary income limit tied to it. They should just eliminate all that means-testing crap but also include all government benefits and credits as income, then apply taxes on the total. It would be way more simple, more fair and you wouldn't get all this idiocy like "sorry, you made $1 too much 'MAGI' to get a credit on your electric car."
SelectionNo3078@reddit
there are a ton of fixes but ultimately it all comes down to one thing: the party in power wants to destroy it completely...not fix it. which is why it hasn't been fixed before now
Taskerst@reddit
Government: You have to work longer.
Companies: Over 55? u hav no TikTok so ur not a culture fit sorry!!!
MysteryMachineATX@reddit
55!?! In software it starts at around 42-43.
Taskerst@reddit
Well that's just weird. They're not pro athletes.
ElectricMan324@reddit
This is the first thing that game to mind.
Age discrimination is rampant, especially in the higher paid professional arenas. We either get let go or demoted, with a pay cut.
Lets not forget the trades, the current "this is what you should be doing" narrative that is going around. Working in the trades is like being a professional athlete. Its great while you are young, but when you are older you have a much harder time. Not to mention the toll that kind of work takes on the body. Of course at the same time they are cutting medical care for seniors, so....yeah.
Taskerst@reddit
Then when you're let go, scaling back doesn't necessarily mean you have to scale back your lifestyle (which sucks in itself), it means you may need to save less for retirement at a time when you planned on being at your peak salary. Some people never really get a peak, or it was 5 years ago but you didn't know it at the time.
A lot of people criticize the Boomers for staying at their jobs and "blocking promotions" but the reality is many of them were thrown a curveball during the financial crisis and their 401(k)s melted down. They were right where the oldest Gen Xers are in this economy.
turd_vinegar@reddit
Agism is built into the insurance premiums scam. A company that contributes toward paying the premiums will rebalance the age of employees in the insurance pool to reduce costs.
An unforseen consequence of having medical coverage tied to work is that it incentivizes discriminating on age, which is illegal for most, except for insurance companies.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
This is the same (sinking) boat I find myself in!
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
That is a sad, solid truth right there. Insanity.
TPnHBFans@reddit
Someone has to pay all those retired Boomers🫤
RazzmatazzAlone3526@reddit
I get so pissed off when they do this.
mwilsonsc@reddit
What are you guys talking about? You retire when you want to retire. If you want to retire early, work hard and save. If you are waiting for the government to tell you when you "can" retire...you're wasting your life.
TheLawOfDuh@reddit
Cut that out! That’s smart, sensible talk…no longer allowed these days because it somehow “hurts” someone lol. Seriously though-best answer!
jtrades69@reddit
51, i can never afford to "retire".
TheNolaCatLady@reddit
I'm in the same boat. 😒
5ygnal@reddit
I hope it's a big boat.
TheNolaCatLady@reddit
I hope it's like the Love Boat with Captain Stubing, Gopher, and Isaac.
lmbjsm@reddit
🖐 high 5!
videoman7189@reddit
As a fellow GenX (mid 50s) I have always thought that there would no SS or even Medicare for us. Without all that, even a million dollars in a 401k won't last very long.
Lifetime of work here I come! /s
Proud__Apostate@reddit
It’ll more than tide you over in Thailand
ghostrider4918@reddit
Already retired from one civil service job. Pension is providing. All they have to do to remedy this situation is remove cap on earnings and the fund will be solvent for the foreseeable future.
Chemical_Butterfly40@reddit
It’s such an easy fix, no clue why this doesn’t happen
ghostrider4918@reddit
Politics
Proud__Apostate@reddit
Republicans
quasifun@reddit
It's not an easy fix. If it were easy, then it would have been done already. There's a cap on both benefits and contributions. Removing the contribution cap while keeping the benefit cap is just going to make some voters think SS is no longer old age insurance, as originally intended, but just a welfare program. Maybe you think that's fine, that's fair, but some people are going to just say, "you guys can just contribute to IRAs and I'll do the same, and if you run out of money when you're old, you should have saved more."
The easy fix is to raise FICA tax by 2%, which would guarantee benefits for another 50 years.
ChilledRoland@reddit
The calculation of benefits is insanely complicated, but part of the algorithm ties benefits to amounts paid.
Increasing the cap increases the benefits for those at the top, so it doesn't actually help program solvency nearly as much as it intuitively seems like it should.
The formula could be changed by numerate, competent people, but those are thin on the ground where it counts.
Fuzzy-Progress-7892@reddit
Remove the cap on earnings means removing the cap on benefits. Cannot have your cake and eat it also.
ghostrider4918@reddit
No it doesn’t.
Fuzzy-Progress-7892@reddit
Yeah it does. If you think I am just going to keep paying SS taxes and get 0 benefits from it. You are a fool.
ghostrider4918@reddit
You’re not going to get zero benefits. How does that follow?
Fuzzy-Progress-7892@reddit
By taxing me more and providing 0 additional benefits! If you want to tax all my income for SS I expect a larger benefit!
ghostrider4918@reddit
Ok I get that. It should be an additional benefit, but only after the fund is solvent. I paid into SS all my life, by the same logic my benefit shouldn’t be decreased because the fund can only pay 80% of benefits once I reach retirement age.
Fuzzy-Progress-7892@reddit
The only true way to solve it is a larger population paying in. But that is not going to happen with birth rates in this country.
Proud__Apostate@reddit
So glad I have a union job. Can retire at 60 w/ a pension.
Befuddled_GenXer@reddit
Out of necessity I'm going to work until I'm too old and broke down to work anymore, then I'm going to get welfare and food stamps. I've paid into the system for decades, I plan to get some of it back in my last couple of years.
cashewbiscuit@reddit
I don't care. I'm going to work until I die. If I stop working, I'm going to rot. I'd rather die while doing something than die doing nothing
Hot_Measurement_1128@reddit
With any luck, I'l live until at least my 80s but how mobile I'll be and how much I can actually DO with the time I have after retiring is my concern..
Mijam7@reddit
As long as billionaires don't have to pay taxes, I'm happy
kzlife76@reddit
Government won't tell me when I can retire. I'm already planning on living without social security and retiring at 55.
-DethLok-@reddit
Meanwhile, in Australia, there is no retirement age.
When you decide to stop working, you're retired.
Now you can't access your superannuation pension until you're 60 (for most people) and you can't get the age pension until 67 (for most people) so if you retire before those ages you'll need to be living off your savings.
But here? You can pick your retirement age - and some wealthy people do. It just means you've stopped working, that's it.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
Technically that’s what it means in the US too. However it is somewhat understood that when someone says the “retirement age,” they’re referencing the age at which someone can get their full retirement benefit — which is not based on DOB.
In fact, Americans get benefits as early as 62, I believe. It’s just that the benefit is greatly reduced compared to one’s full retirement age.
It does sound as if the system is better in Australia (as with all other Western countries) than in the US.
-DethLok-@reddit
From what I've been reading for the last few decades, I believe you are correct. And that's not even considering healthcare, employment regulations (we have them!), welfare nets, unemployment benefits and so much more (guns? Nope!!)
ghjm@reddit
It's an article of faith among online people that the US system must be shit, but actually the Australian system looks worse to me. The maximum benefit is much less, the Age Pension is means tested (unlike Social Security), and it looks like Australian superannuation funds have limited investment choices and hundreds of dollars a year in fees.
-DethLok-@reddit
In Australia there's currently an animated discussion going on about limiting the tax incentives to superannuations funds to a balance of $3 million, and decreasing those incentives to funds who hold more than that amount per person.
In a country where, now, less than $1 million in super will ensure a very comfortable retirement for the rest of your life. Assuming you own your home when you retire.
Meanwhile our super funds are widely investing all over the world, having pretty much run out of investments in Australia, though they remain heavily invested here.
And the Aussie age pension does not require aged people to have paid into the system. It's paid from the general taxation system.
If you're an Aussie, and old, you get it, regardless of how much you've paid into the system - it's socialism, you see. Not a return of your money + investments - you get it if you qualify when aged, regardless of how much tax/social security you've paid previously.
Our superannuation system, though - that's a return on your investments. Your tax advantaged contributions + growth in the investments the fund made + compounding interest = tax advantaged retirement income.
On top of the age pension - if you manage to qualify for any age pension at all, as that's means and asset tested.
TL:DR If you want to get a comfy retirement in Australia, put good money into your super fund (which you get to choose) and you'll get good money out of it when retired.
ghjm@reddit
Yeah, Social Security does require work credits (as do the Canadian and UK systems), so you've got me there. But it also pays more. I'm happy you're happy with Australia's system, but on balance I wouldn't switch, even if I could.
On retirement investments, I'm not sure what your point is about the Australian super system being invested outside Australia - I mean, of course it is, right? US retirement funds have a total of $44 trillion (appx. 25 years of Australia's entire GDP) invested in them, and these investments reach every corner of the world. They haven't run out of investments within the US - you kind of can't - but it's prudent to seek diversification. And US IRAs seem like a better deal - lower fees, more control of what you're invested in. The US system limits the tax benefit by capping contributions rather than balances, but it amounts to the same thing.
I'm all for "socialism," if what you mean by it is capitalism with a strong safety net. And the US undoubtedly has room to improve, most notably in the medical system. But it's not nearly as bad as the reddit hive mind thinks it is.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
It’s very dismissive to refer to a “hive mind” when referring to people who believe differently than you. Some people value other things more than you, and value other things less than you obviously. It’s called different values. Not hive mind.
ghjm@reddit
Yes, this is correct, by using the term "hive mind" I did in fact intend to be dismissive of the reddit consensus. As everyone ought to be.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
It's not even reduced at age 62, its the actuarial equivalent of claiming later, they just spread the same amount of money over more years.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
Okay, that makes sense…-ish? More accurate to say “reduced monthly benefit” then, I guess?
Skwarepeg22@reddit
I’m trying to think how to do that math…. Because it’s an 8% increase every year you wait (until 70), so 67 vs 62 = 5 * 8% = 40%…. But I’m tired and that seems like it’s missing something. Lol
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
The social security math nerds figure up how much you'll collect from FRA until you cross the rainbow bridge. Their 8% discount per year reflects you getting the smaller monthly amount, but getting that amount for more months because you start earlier.
For an average life expectancy, actuarially it's designed to give you the same amount whether you start at 62, 67 or 70.
The payoff for starting sooner (like 62) comes if you die early. The payoff for starting later (like 70) comes if you live beyond your life expectancy.
So just know the date you'll die and its easy to figure out!
Firm-Needleworker-46@reddit
I’m on track to sign my retirement papers 3weeks after my 55th birthday.
whiskeygirl@reddit
I retired last year on my 55th. So far, so good!
CallMeSisyphus@reddit
Fuck that shit. My 401k is nowhere close to enough for me to retire until 70 at best. Given my family history, I won't live that long.
But my 401k plus the sake of my house would be more than enough for me to buy a cargo van for cash, build it out as an RV, and hit the road, staying only on BLM land.
I'm alone most of the time anyway, and I love camping. The sacrifice of a little luxury in trade for being able to get up and go for a proper hike with the dog every day... it's very tempting.
A_Bridger_really@reddit
Sorry but if the current administration has its way there will be no BLM land (or any government land).
CallMeSisyphus@reddit
My old ass will be out there protesting. Fuck Temussolini.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
Yes, BUT WHERE TO PUT THE POOL TABLE?? 😩 🤪
Also, really wish I had your screen name right now. Lol
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Ride, Sally, ride.
Jezzyrulescoco@reddit
I’m so livid. Gen X keeps getting fucked. We can never catch a break.
Kangaruex4Ewe@reddit
Carlin was right. About so many things.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
100x up vote.
ScreenTricky4257@reddit
Mr. Carlin from the Bob Newhart Show?
RightHandWolf@reddit
Saint George of the Seven Sacred Words!
“ . . . But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s a reason for this, there’s a reason education sucks, and it’s the same reason that it will never, ever, ever be fixed. It’s never gonna get any better. Don’t look for it. Be happy with what you got. Because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the real owners, the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls.
They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don’t want: They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That's against their interests. That's right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table to figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you, sooner or later, 'cause they own this fucking place.
It's a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club. And by the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table is tilted folks. The game is rigged, and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people -- white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on -- good honest hard-working people continue -- these are people of modest means -- continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don't care about you at all -- at all -- at all. And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on; the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes everyday. Because the owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”
tristand666@reddit
Yet here we all are paddling down the wrong fork in the river.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Supporting evidence for those senile citizens a lot of people opined on:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/05/us/politics/congress-age.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Mk8.Llt_.H54SEkTYEEfZ&smid=url-share
Lucky_Difficulty3522@reddit
It's just a semantics argument then
captliberty@reddit
great, love central planning, more govt please.
geritolman@reddit
Just so you know, we are all Boxer in the novel.
animalfarm
K2TY@reddit
"I must work harder"
geritolman@reddit
...as they load us in the knacker's truck. All for whiskey.
Iko87iko@reddit
Good luck at finding a job at 60. Sure, its not all that big of deal to have to work a couple more years, but the problem is in corp America how many times do you see the 58 year get fired in cleaning out the high salary & health care costs. Even if money isnt an issue at that point, and for most it is, where are these jobs going to come from to hire 55-69 year olds?
pachoo13@reddit
this is exactly right
FishInk@reddit
What is this retirement you speak of?
For my entire thirty year tattoo career, I’ve expected to drop dead of a heart attack in the middle of a tattoo. Now, I’ve got cancer so I’m hoping I’m not forced to retire since I blew all my savings on my shop.
captkirkseviltwin@reddit
Remember when it used to be 65? 😄
Honestly, I currently have no plans to fully retire. I work in I.T. and software development, so fortunately I’ll find work or work for myself for a good while yet.
NarwhalPositive8232@reddit
They always told us social security would be defunct before we could collect it, so I never trusted in it. I spent my career in a union job with a pension. I don't trust the pension so I started a 401k. I don't trust future tax rates, so I started a Roth.
Nearly 50 with a pension, 401k, Roth IRA, and maybe social security. I plan to work until at least 65 and fear I am not prepared for retirement.
As a genX latchkey kid I've never put faith in anyone but myself to do anything for me.
Naive-Emergency-7254@reddit
This is the way.
SpecificJaguar5661@reddit
I think maybe the boomers got tired of your generation complaining so much and they just said hey, let’s make these guys work a couple extra years so that us boomers get all of our Social Security paid in full.
I have a hard time identifying with either of those generations
TheHrethgir@reddit
Doesn't matter, I'm never going to be able to afford to retire anyways.
CombatRedRover@reddit
I'm sorry for all of our generation that weren't paying attention and relied on the idea of Social Security for their retirement.
🤷♂️
We were told.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
Bs. Too many voted for people that hate the middle and working classes
CombatRedRover@reddit
This is not political.
We were told that Social Security wouldn't be there for us. If you didn't hear that growing up, you weren't paying attention.
Math is math. We're GenX. We have literally known our entire lives that the Boomers outnumbered us and would fuck us over at the job and in many other ways. This is another example of that.
If you want to get super neoMarxist and put everyone into silos, this isn't about the class silo, it's about the generational silo: Boomers vote for what makes sense for them, Millennials vote for what makes sense for them, none of that makes sense for us, and we're outnumbered.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
It’s absolutely political
Because one group of politicians has been telling us they intend to kill it and the other side has kicked the can of saving it down the road (mostly due to pressure from the right and not having the votes)
If you think it’s not political you’re the reason it hasn’t been reformed and rebuilt sooner
CombatRedRover@reddit
Ok, if you want this discussion...
Kill it... how?
By converting it into an IRA-based retirement system?
How financially literate are you? I mean, do you have a 401k/IRA/Roth IRA/whatever? Do you actually meet the advisor every year? Do you actually understand what the advisor is saying? Do you grasp both where conventional wisdom makes sense and where it's... well, it's like blackjack basic strategy? It makes sense 90% of the time, and if you don't know what you're doing just go with that, but if you're really on the ball you know when not to follow the rules (split 10s, for instance)?
Not saying you have to know the financial planning equivalent of knowing when to split 10s in blackjack, but that you're aware that there's a time and place for that, even if you're self aware enough to know YOU probably shouldn't dabble in that?
Because if you're that level of financially aware, you would know that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. It's a bad design for a financial product. If a private individual tried to set up a VOLUNTARY system like Social Security, they'd go to prison: that's what (eventually) happened to Bernie Madoff.
The US government created that Ponzi scheme and then made it INvoluntary (which is worse).
If Social Security were set up as an IRA-based system, with each of our Social Security contributions invested into really vanilla index funds, all of our Social Security checks would be multiple times what they would be under the current system and when we each passed away we'd be leaving our families big, giant lump sums of money instead of the $255 Social Security death benefit. AND be making enough money on the margins to fund SSDI, Medicare For All, etc.
But, you know, 90% of the American electorate (like every electorate around the world) is the financial literate equivalent of someone who doubles down on 20 in blackjack.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
😂😂😂
Yangoose@reddit
Why is everyone acting like this is real?
It's an article published by a tabloid about some theoretical thing that no politician has even suggested enacting.
Calm the fuck down...
sweetcherrytea@reddit
It’s in Project 2025.
Yangoose@reddit
LOL
You mean that insane conspiracy theory that's been bouncing around the Internet that claims a wish list created by some religious group makes one like of difference to what is actually happening in government?
sweetcherrytea@reddit
No, I mean the blueprint this administration is working from. Things move fast, here’s how you can keep up:
https://www.project2025.observer
Yangoose@reddit
Thanks for the chuckle.
That website is hilarious.
YoSettleDownMan@reddit
Same thing.
Eastern_Habit_5503@reddit
I plan on working until I’m 72 anyway. Retirement sounds boring to me. I need something to do all day rather than sleep.
Guitar_Nutt@reddit
Nice.
Shumina-Ghost@reddit
Vampires are monsters and their goal is to survive by killing you. They aren’t sexy. They aren’t sparkly. They want your life blood. Until we accept them as such and treat them accordingly, they’re going to feed. Bottom line.
Highlander1168@reddit
Have we made America great yet? Asking for a friend.........
dowbrewer@reddit
Ha! to being able to keep a job other than at a fast food restaurant (if that is even possible) until we are 69.
BraveG365@reddit
Yeh but what about the people that might have to hold out till 72 for better SS benefits....dont see to many places hiring a 72 yr old to work.
Far_Winner5508@reddit
I've been expecting it to be 72 years old, by the time I get close to any retirement age.
BraveG365@reddit
Dang at 72 what will many of us be working in wheelchairs.
SyntaxWhiplash@reddit
Wwtfd.. What would the French do? Not take this bullshit that's what.
Helmett-13@reddit
Retirement?
You mean, ‘drop dead at work’.
Agreeable_Initial667@reddit
I'm 54. We're not going to get dyck. Now just go ahead and die before they have to pay you back. The retirement age will be 90 by the time I hit 62.
It's nothing more than another BOOMER scam. Worst fckn generation ever.
Helmett-13@reddit
Yeah, I've been paying in Soc Security and Medicare since I was 15 years old.
If am allowed to retire at age 69, that would mean paying into that system for 54 years. Conservatively, I'd probably have paid $2 million dollars into it by then...
...and I'm going to be repaid, WITHOUT interest on that amount, a few grand a month until I kick off?
Bernie Madoff would drool with glee at that kind of deal.
K2TY@reddit
Not even close. If you don't care to do the math, you can always log into your SS account and see exactly how much you and your employers have paid.
lottadot@reddit
Your math is... failing.
Per Google, in 2025, the maximum contribution would be $176,100 * 0.062 = $10,928.20.
Even if that ~$11k contribution was maxed for 30 years you'd only have contributed $330. For 54 years, $594k. And that's ignoring that 30 years ago the contribution limit/year wasn't near $11k.
K2TY@reddit
I came to say this but you had it under control. Although I do think you should include the employer contribution since it is part of his compensation.
Agreeable_Initial667@reddit
I mean can you imagine the ideal of buying a home for $20k like my father did in 1977. And now having a solid $800k equity value in that property, while also taking in Pensions and SSA payments for income. That's a great life!
The boomer generation has fucked everyone.
BigMax@reddit
One terrible part about every extension is that past age 50, age discrimination just gets worse and worse every year you age.
Imagine being age 67, getting laid off, and trying to find a new job to fill those last 2 years? It would be impossible. Even walmart isn't excited to hire folks that age.
Agreeable_Initial667@reddit
They got theirs. And they see big problems with other's getting theirs.
Boomers.
Playful_Pianist_16@reddit
GenY is voting for more of the same so now you have two generations to blame.
Avasarala77@reddit
Boomers have destroyed America.
BigMax@reddit
It points out how brutal this is for people who work in physical jobs too.
If you're a construction worker... you're not going to be able to just tack on years at the construction site at age 67.
Granted, white collar workers are screwed too, as age discrimination is in FULL force by that age. So even if you have a cushy job in accounting or software... you're target #1 to be fired or laid off, and you're not getting another job very easily in those industries past age 50, and it's almost impossible past age 60.
Dhampri0@reddit
That would be why some employers have life insurance on there employees. A ex boss collected on 3 in the 11 years I worked there.
RCA2CE@reddit
Imma slide in before the change
Woot woot
Choice_Student4910@reddit
I’m retiring 5 years after I die
Hairy_Yam5354@reddit
Y'all do what you want. I drew a line in the sand that I won't work a day past 60, even if I have to go live in a van... down by the river.
rubyslippers70@reddit
The funniest thing to me about that old joke ( that meant van living was a shameful,loser thing) is kids are actually living in a van down by the river and making TikToks about it. What a world.
Hairy_Yam5354@reddit
Back in the Chris Farley days I think it was meant as a loser thing. Now, I think it's just doing what ya gotta do.
rubyslippers70@reddit
Exactly.
limitless__@reddit
I'm with you. My wife and I have already discussed this and it's age 62 for us (because she hits a magic number with her pension) not a day later no matter what the finances look like.
Sintered_Monkey@reddit
You and me both. Whether I have enough or not, I'm out at 60.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
I don’t know… Have you ever lived in a van? As bad as it is, it’s still overrated… 🤪 Admittedly my temp residence wasn’t down by the river. That might have … improved it? Maybe? 🤣
Vandilbg@reddit
Honestly a van is to damned small but I've seen some really nice converted cab pass through box trucks. I guess I already live my summers as much as possible in a 30ft camper so I'm semi used to it.
gum43@reddit
This is when we’re retiring too. It’s the year our youngest graduates college. You can actually retire whenever you’re ready, it’s really not up to the government. We planned financially for our retirement and are certainly not expecting much from SS, so that won’t be an issue. What will be an issue is insurance.
t00zday@reddit
I’m just planning of working to 85 or until dementia kicks in
HAFr00@reddit
The easy political thing to do today. Still have to raise taxes AND cut benefits for this to be a longterm solution
CrankyDoo@reddit
This is not at all set in stone. In fact, it’s just something they are supposedly “looking at”. You will also notice if you do a google search that nobody else is even talking about this. Relax, they know it would be political suicide to change the retirement age that drastically that quickly.
littleredd11_11@reddit
Yes, just like they know it will be political suicide to cut Medicaid for millions of people, but yet, here we are. Don't believe any of these fuckers. They don't want "the people" to have anything. If they could end social security, they will.
CrankyDoo@reddit
Medicaid is not nearly as popular as Social Security. Nearly everybody gets SS if they live long enough. Also, current recipients of SS happen to be the demographic that is most likely to vote (senior citizens).
littleredd11_11@reddit
Medicaid means a lot to a lot of people. Even people our age. And as for boomers and the silent generation, it's Medicare. And if you don't think that's on the chopping block, along with social security, then keep living in your dreamland. They want to cut everything and privatize it. Capitalism baby. Gotta squeeze that money out of every little thing. It's sad and it's sad to see so many in my generation totally cool with this. When any minute, your job can be gone, like those who worked for the federal for years, or coders now losing their jobs to AI. Idk where this false sense of security is coming from.
skoltroll@reddit
"Just looking at" = we're gonna do it in a bill no one reads.
They fucked us moving it from 65 to 67 and told the "kids" (us and millennials) a BS line that we're gonna live longer than them.
Fuck this crap. I'm not working to 69. Or, if I am, it's gonna be part-time or on MY time. And when the country's rich is BEGGING for employees (b/c it's coming HARD for rich assholes soon), I'm still fucking right off.
And with Gen Z's general attitude of the "grind" not worth it... well, fuck off, rich people.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
I believe the current plan is to gradually raise it until it’s 69, but that won’t be until 2070. Maybe by then it will be a feasible age? 🤞🏼
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
I thought I read 2033?
Skwarepeg22@reddit
Yes, I originally read 2070, but when you wrote that, I re-researched and there are more sources saying 2033. I should have dug in. Can’t say what happened on the first go, but have to agree with 2033. It still won’t be for my DOB though (older/OG 🤪 GenX), so not all GenEx at least . 🤷🏻♀️
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
111% -- You're not wrong. I did my due diligence and searched for a more reputable source when I came across this and, like you, found none. It is the Sun. However, there is some basis for facts in there.
All we can hope is it's just chatter and, like most things, the 'they' will just kick the can on down the road.
RascalOScrimp@reddit
Show of hands. Who’s surprised? Gen X kicked in the nuts again.
EdlynTheConfessor@reddit
laughing in despair but of course we got 69!!
International-Ad1292@reddit
Also according to the article we’re gonna lose 420k from our lifetime payments
EdlynTheConfessor@reddit
Omg that’s so sad and so ridiculously funny.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Schyznik@reddit
Uhh-huh-huh-huh-huh…uh-huh-huh-huh-huh…”69”…uh-huh-huh-huh-huh…
TK-385@reddit
Bill and Ted's favorite number.
NunyaKoo@reddit
Gen X: First of the Fucked.
Leinad0411@reddit
At the risk of downvotes, this is the risk of Social Security. It’s not you saving for your retirement. It’s payroll deductions that go right out in checks to current beneficiaries. Your retirement savings are what you may have socked away in a 401k or earned in a pension plan. At some age we’ll become eligible for benefits. The catch is b/c the Boomers are so numerous, can collect at age 62, and generally live longer, so changes are inevitable unless there are going to be benefit cuts. Maybe some combination of both plus tax increases. Sorry. Hope I didn’t ruin your day. Carry on.
Ok-Limit-9726@reddit
Since American age has gone DOWN, shouldn’t the retirement age decrease also?
Australia is literally 5 years longer life expectancy than USA now…
We have 67, but thats just for ‘the pension’
I can officially retire on my superannuation at 55 (401k usa)
But i plan to keep working as long as i can
gkcontra@reddit
We have the rule of 55 where we can tap 401k at 55 also.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
No. 59 1/2
gkcontra@reddit
You should research rule of 55 then, because it is a way to tap into 401k at 55 instead of 59 1/2. While you’re there also search for 72t/SEPP, it’s another way to avoid paying the early withdrawal penalties.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
This rule Only applies to your 401k tied to your current employer
I’ve only been in this job 9 months
gkcontra@reddit
That doesn’t change the fact that it is available, you just don’t have the ability to partake in it.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
It’s not much of a solution for an awful lot of people
Given the state of the economy and the likelihood of cuts to SS and the impact of the continued reduction in opportunity for mid50’s workers it should be made penalty free from the get go
It’s our money. We should have to pay taxes on it of course but we should not be penalized for using it on our schedule
gkcontra@reddit
I know several that have done it just to cut down work time. They aren't fully retired but part time just to keep active. I would've used it but retired at 53 instead.
It's not going to help those that didn't plan, but there's not much that will other than the lottery
SelectionNo3078@reddit
I need my 401k to last and hope not to have to draw it before mid 60’s but that’s likely a pipe dream
Ok-Limit-9726@reddit
But like, "as if"
I have approximately 17% of what my teachers told me i needed to retire on( i distinctly remember in 1986 being told i need 1 million dollars as inflation will always rise in a commerce class)
At almost 55 now how fucked am i lol 😂💀
At least i can get a "part pension" and get discounts
warrior_poet95834@reddit
I’m going in September at 59 1/2. Whatever.
margaritasnguacamole@reddit
No effing way I can work another 15 years. NO WAY. I’m barely hanging in at 54 - burned out, pissed off, and completely over dealing with corporate world BS.
Lucky_Difficulty3522@reddit
You're trying to tell me the system that makes payments to people based on the current economy, not just what they payed into the system, isn't fundamentally broken?
International-Ad1292@reddit
How many of us have no healthcare and feel like we’ll be lucky to make it to that age. Which is the whole fucking plan. These system is broken from the top down. Only solution is to rip it apart. Seize the means of production and abolish the owner class. New constitutional convention actually by and for the people. Never happen tho. I’m just glad I’ll be gone before the complete collapse of this empire
atari-2600_@reddit
The good news is that at the rate the climate is changing, most of us will likely be dead before our retirement age.
YoSettleDownMan@reddit
We have been hearing this since 1982.
It seems that this update keeps getting pushed back by the developers.
atari-2600_@reddit
lol yeah. They honestly can’t tell the truth, as it would cause society to crumble. All I’ll say is, don’t make any solid plans past about ~10 years from now. And enjoy what you have while you still have it.
YoSettleDownMan@reddit
I respect your opinion, and you may know more about these things than I do, but I really don't believe that.
I was told that ten years ago, and ten years before that.
atari-2600_@reddit
No worries, not here to convince anyone. I work for one of the top 5 environmental nonprofits that does research on this. Believe me when I say that everyone, myself included, hopes the data is wrong. But I’m not optimistic.
International-Ad1292@reddit
Motherfuckers
arwenjinn@reddit
Ill be working until I die anyway
argenman@reddit
Fuck it…I don’t even need SS benefits financially. The current administration doesn’t care about us anyway….
fedexmess@reddit
It'll eventually be like the movie Logan's Run where you hit a certain age and they have a little party for ya, float you up the air with the rest of the expirees and zap you with a death ray.
JThalheimer@reddit
So, retirement age is going up to 257.
genx_horsegirl@reddit
If Social Security is still around I will not be taking it until I'm 70. And retirement- that's probably never happening at this point.
Comprehensive-Bee819@reddit
You retire when you've got enough money to live on, right? Surely we don't just spend our lives waiting with a hand out waiting to be paid at the end?
Infamous_Campaign687@reddit
Fuck the boomers. Fuck them so hard. They ensured they postponed all such changes until after their retirement pretty much all over the globe.
l_rufus_californicus@reddit
Keep voting for the people who want you to work longer for less.
mwonch@reddit
I don’t work for politicians, so…your point?
PudgyGroundhog@reddit
It sucks when you were promised something or entered a program being told one thing, and then it changes. I'm in the same boat and I definitely get it
But the current model of social security is not sustainable and the US is going to be seriously screwed if we keep the same pace. Something has to change. It would be nice if they could grandfather people in. But someone will always get screwed. Definitely no easy solution.
Consistent_Term_8098@reddit
Boo!
johntwoods@reddit
I read this as "Retirement age to hit 257." And I thought to myself, man that sucks, but hey at least we're all living a lot longer.
Sethaaroncohen@reddit
I don't plan to live that long anyway. I'm touring this summer as drummer for Spinal Tap.
Putrid-Grab2470@reddit
Add long as they don't change the age when you can access retirement plans like 401k's, I don't necessarily care. Moving the Medicare goalpost would be a far bigger deal.
thatsaTastyDonut@reddit
The republicans I mean conservatives did this in Canada. Trudeau brought it back down to 65 thankfully
CeilingUnlimited@reddit
It’s 65 or bust for me.
Dede0821@reddit
Retirement age could hit 257
I got this far into the sentence and thought “yep, that sounds about right”😏
Healthy-Brilliant549@reddit
Something got to give. How do we all work until we die and be ok with it this is ridiculous
l_rufus_californicus@reddit
That’s the plan, man. If you ain’t making them money, you ain’t got no reason to be here.
raw_source_2025@reddit
Its a scam , didn't you figure that out yet?
Retired myself couple years ago when I was 42. Fuck the govt.
Usuallyinmygarden@reddit
The French poured into the streets and turned the country upside down when they tried to raise the retirement age. We need to do the same. This is fucking nuts.
rubyslippers70@reddit
Yes. Got to love how the French handle their government! I think because of their ancestors, the folks running the government are a little scared of them. It would probably be good for ours to be scared of us, but we can’t come together and fight.
Flat-Stranger-5010@reddit
Don’t rely on Social Security for your retirement. Take control of your own life.
rubyslippers70@reddit
Yes true but all of us paid into this system. It’s our money and their messing around with us with our own money.
412_15101@reddit
Looks like that “redneck retirement fund” (aka the lottery) is going to have to pay me at some point or I might as well take a header of a bridge
Where the hell is the nuclear war? Just drop the bomb on me
digawina@reddit
Yeah, god forbid they, you know, raise the taxable income cap instead. Wouldn't want to tax the rich more or anything.
SunshynePower@reddit
When social security was started, the age was right around life expectancy. This is not a program ever meant to pay out on the bulk of the people. They expected half to for BEFORE they reached the age of pay outs.
Once you think on that for a bit, none of this is a surprise. Plan accordingly.
Similar_Profile_7179@reddit
Well, that's awesome. I was wondering what about those of us who have been doing physical work our entire lives. I read through the article, and no big surprise, I guess we can just go pack sand. Or apply for SSI benefits, which probably won't be there either. Also, as expected, raising the retirement age won't fix anything anyway. It just pushes the problem a little farther down the road. Gee, I can't imagine why our generation is so cynical.
TheJokersChild@reddit
80 will be the new 50. 110 will be the new 80, and by then you may just be able to retire. Whether or not there'll be anything left to collect, however, remains to be answered.
shooter6684@reddit
As a 59 year old GenXer- It doesnt matter to me since I will be working till I die with little/no retirement and probably no Social Security.
rubyslippers70@reddit
We keep saying that but that’s under the assumption places will keep us and not replace us with younger,cheaper people. I have seen so many people in their 50s get laid off and haven’t found work in months.
shooter6684@reddit
I'm so gun shy on keeping a job... its like 75% of my stress. I have gone through life with plan B and C and started a little side business as another avenue. I really didnt do life right. I got a Bachelors of Science but it wasnt in like engineering, and I got it later in life. No one gave direction on this as I guess I seemed smart and always "landed on my feet". But I never got that job when I could work at it for 25+ years and build up a 401K or even better a pension. So now its just too late and we will see how the cards fall. I hope above all to NOT be a burden on my two amazing sons.
All i know is, I will need to try to work as long as possible to keep my wife and I afloat.
Major-Specific8422@reddit
Is there a link?
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
It's hypertext in my comment.
Major-Specific8422@reddit
Thanks it was tough to see. I found another article. It’s not official, but being considered.
jmarler@reddit
Given the US's financial trajectory, this is inevitable, and will likely happen far sooner. By the time we retire, it will be 73. It sucks, but it's just math. Unless we get an administration that actually cuts defense spending and stops borrowing money. {extreme laughter} We all know that's not ever going to happen.
goalmouthscramble@reddit
Never figured retirement was on the cards.
daniel940@reddit
Nice.
Delicious-Bat2373@reddit
I can't do this for another 21 years.. I really can't. I'm gonna fucking snap.. :(
NullRazor@reddit
Perhaps, Lawmakers should have to also mandatorily retire at whatever the retirement age is.
helpthe0ld@reddit
fletcherkildren@reddit
They kinda already do- except their jobs give them power and money so they don't wanna leave and stay till they have mini strokes live on TV
No_Kangaroo_2428@reddit
The retirement age would be 110.
Automatic-Unit-8307@reddit
Congress and Senator should have exact same retirement package we have
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
We definitely need mandatory retirement for all elected officials and judges at age 67, get these feeble geezers off their grift.
If you can't run your iPhone, toruble shoot Wi-Fi or legally fly a commercial airplane, you have ZERO business making laws for 330 million Americans.
Beegkitty@reddit
What we should do is tie their health insurance, salary, and benefits to minimum wage and the country's health insurance options. Campaign reform...throw that in for good measure too. Yeah I know. Stop dreaming.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
~~Absolutely!~~ Wait... then retirement age will just go up higher, faster so they can f'n stay in office.
Let's regroup on this.
NullRazor@reddit
Lol.
himey72@reddit
That’s a terrible idea. They will just raise the retirement age to 95.
NullRazor@reddit
Lol, yeah, I know, I was just pointing out the obscurity of it all.
Lovesyubreddit@reddit
When people say “I’m never going to retire” or “my retirement plan is to die at work” I often wonder if they have an awful lot of faith that anybody is going to LET them keep working? Estate these jobs??
TheRealJim57@reddit
Gen X already had it moved from 65 to 67 on us within our lifetime. Now they want to shove it out another 2 years, because of course they do.
Fish-Weekly@reddit
At least with that we were in our late teens or younger so you knew the deal from an early age
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
I was already working in 1983 when they raised it last time.
Big_Wave9732@reddit
Right, because heaven forbid they do something like eliminate the wage cap on social security.
Silly-Mountain-6702@reddit
how bout we just all come out every November and vote republicans out of office, COMPLETELY, and fix all this stupid sht? That good for everybody?
Both-Mango1@reddit
The idea is to deny a retirement for the common folk and work us til we die.
Senior_Mongoose5920@reddit
In this economy my current retirement plan is likely to be find a way to become imprisoned…. 3 meals a day. Roof over head. Way better health care than nursing homes….
Or homeless vagabond under a bridge.
feder_online@reddit
Where TF is AARP THIS time?!?
mrkurt426@reddit
Just the Republicon Study Committee, their "big idea" group that talks about legislation that might be proposed. Nothing in legislation as of now.
Ok_Effort8330@reddit
yep, and no real details in the article about what birth years are in jeopardy.
CasualBi24@reddit
I saw "retirement age could hit 257"
Sounds about right.
doghouse2001@reddit
Who defines retirement age? I thought you retire when your retirement plan (you have one of those, right?) has enough funds for you to retire comfortably. No government can tell you when to retire. You retire when you have saved up enough. I'm retiring the moment I turn 60. In fact I have two weeks until I'm on permanent holidays with retirement later this summer.
DigiSmackd@reddit
As time goes on and I see more and more people in my circles dying before they even hit 62.... No way I'm planning on working until I'm 67. Or 65. Frankly, I don't want to work until 60 - but I'll let my fiduciary help decide if that's practical.
All my years of "saving for retirement" and dumping funds into the future - man, I'm not so sure anymore.
May just YOLO one day and decide being debt free and having a little nest isn't as rewarding as spending and enjoying whatever I can get while I'm still alive.
Short_Advance_7843@reddit
So many people just won't be physically capable of working 69. I'm all for cutting government spending, but this retirement thing just is no longer doable. I've been saving my whole adult life, and I'm nowhere near safe to retire
Writing_is_Bleeding@reddit
Or put another way, elections have consequences.
Whatisthisnonsense22@reddit
Gotta pay for our parents enjoying the 70s and 80s.
jcariello@reddit
My mortgage is paid off the month before I turn 70. I was planning on finishing three years early so I could retire in peace at 67, now I only need to do it one year. By the time 2046 rolls around I'll probably have 12 more years to work anyway.....
Gks34@reddit
In the Netherlands I've got to work until my 68th birthday.
paperkitten75@reddit
My 73 year-old mother retired in 2019. My step-dad is the same age and has no plans to retire just yet. He's a fnancial advisor/stock and bonds broker who works for a big ass bank. He'll probably keep working until he dies.
NHRADeuce@reddit
I was never counting on getting a social security check anyway, so really nothing changes for me. It's appropriate that GenX retirement age is 69.
LurdMcTurdIII@reddit
I will die before I get to retire
Camille_Toh@reddit
Jesus that is a terribly “written” article. WTF is “The US Sun”?
ohmbrew@reddit
aknightwhosaysnope@reddit
I’ve been planning on not getting any SS at all so this won’t affect me much, luckily. Feel bad for those of us relying on it though.
Askew_2016@reddit
It’s not the SS. It’s Medicare that would be the issue.
aknightwhosaysnope@reddit
Yeah, this one has me more worried than SS to be honest.
ImCaffeinated_Chris@reddit
Same. I never planned on living off SS. I knew that was rigged. I saw how much my MIL got from SS. Comical.
Sintered_Monkey@reddit
I've been told for 30 years that SS wouldn't exist by now, so I just assumed it wouldn't. That doesn't mean I'm fond of the idea of all of the money I put in just going away.
tempfoot@reddit
Same. Still fucking sucks. I maxed my involuntary “contributions” to this dumb program for thirty damned years. Luckily I assumed it was all bullshit and saved and invested HARD. Be shocked to ever see a penny.
aknightwhosaysnope@reddit
I won’t be shocked, I mean we’re gonna get something out of it, just not as much nor as early as hoped.
tempfoot@reddit
A bit of exaggeration and I will definitely be fine, but this is some nonsense. What’s next? Bump the age for 401k withdrawal to 62 1/2? People shouldn’t need an 8 figure net worth to feel good about retirement.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Atomic_Gumbo@reddit
Same. I’m a glorified farm hand, meaning I work for my family farm but not one of the principal owners. There will be no retirement for me. I work until I I die, basically.
AtomicLounge@reddit
Many of us in Canada are in the same situation. Most jobs don’t have pensions/benefits and the cost of living is astronomical. Scary times
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
You are not alone. I know soo many people that have nothing. No plan. No savings. Statistics for GenX is like \~40%.
aknightwhosaysnope@reddit
Well… fuck dude! What the hell? That’s not fair.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
From another comment of mine:
Man, I was a late settler, and I have kids that will be college age right at retirement age, so it's just... like another layer of fukd.
I love my kids & wife, but I was FIRE til... Love Came to Town... and I caught that train. To po'ville.
I didn't think it would really matter to me either. Enter the new millennium.
aknightwhosaysnope@reddit
I did the future ex wife and kids early and got it out of the way, I think I’m still on track.
Iwentforalongwalk@reddit
Welp. Gen X as a generation voted in highest percentages for the current administration so we have only ourselves to blame.
Wyndeward@reddit
Part of the problem is that the initial actuarial assumptions for Social Security were laid down in 1935 and were based on a rather narrow slice of the population. Without going too far into the weeds, the program initially only covered white, urban wage workers not already covered by a qualifying pension plan.
Since then, the pool of payors has expanded to include almost the whole of the population, life expectancy has increased dramatically, the program screwed up the COLA formula such that the program increased at twice the rate of inflation and, yet, the eligibility age has only been increased relatively recently and probably not to the same level as the program started at. Oh, the ratio of workers paying in versus the number of people drawing out has decreased dramatically, too.
Eventually, even the government had to acknowledge the mathematical realities.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
THAT has always been a part of my question -- I'd venture \~80% of society pay in... something, at some point. But, I can't imagine even 15% ride out SS to 100, right? And, most fall out within 20 years of retiring, after paying in for \~40 years, right?
That math seem off, yeah.
Wyndeward@reddit
The percentage paying is probably higher, but the ratio of workers to recipients is under 3 workers for every recipient. In 1935, IIRC, it was 12 to one, if not higher.
Anyone not already in the "qualifying plan" safe harbor is paying into SS, or working under the table.
However, with increased life expectancy and the COLA screw-up, combined with the broadening of the payor population, the actuarial assumptions should have been recalculated for every change.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
People receiving pensions of any kind should receive reduced benefits
For the needy not the greedy
Wyndeward@reddit
Meh.
First, the private pension is a dying institution outside of unionized employees. Even then, I suspect they're dying out, just slower. The problem arises that these people, generally, support Democrats. Politicians know which side of the bread their butter is on, so they won't do what you suggest, since they like keeping their jobs more than making hard decisions.
Second, changing the terms of Social Security would require sufficient numbers of both parties to grab a political "third rail." I won't be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
Lastly, it would be awkward for those individuals who have arranged their impending retirements with the assumption of receiving Social Security to pull the proverbial rug out from under them. This would go over, politically speaking, like a wet fart in an elevator. Given the first two points, you're unlikely to get your wish.
MasterAlchemi@reddit
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but when Social Security was established, wasn’t the retirement age past life expectancy, so that the funding would remain solvent? Then people started living longer, so the powers that be had the age increased. Not saying right or wrong to raise the age, just that there was a reason and it wasn’t malicious.
My aunts and uncles started dying off at the age I’m just about at so I really am looking at either death or retirement in five years.
Old_Woman_Gardner@reddit
The Sun is not reliable.
Raz0r-@reddit
How about this? Republicans have been studying raising retirement age for a few years now. The link above cites the study and the Congressional Budget Office’s findings.
Old_Woman_Gardner@reddit
Thank you. Now, I can be pissed about this. I feel like our generation is always ‘a day late and a dollar short’ when it comes to the privileges our parents’ generation have/had. Mine are from the ‘silent generation’, and other than the health problems they are beginning to encounter in their 80’s, they are doing okay financially. Just ok though. I don’t stand to gain any generational wealth from them. What’s to become of us?
ONROSREPUS@reddit
Please, please. don't rely on SS and or just your 401K retirement plans only. This retirement number will move again before the expected 10-15 years before most can retire.
CoatSure5943@reddit
Great. 10 more years of working. Hurray.
Fit_Beautiful6625@reddit
Nope. That’s just not realistic for people who work physical jobs/ skilled trades. For most of us, the body just won’t hold up that long. I’m 54. 2 back surgeries, 2 knee surgeries, 2 shoulder surgeries, and recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Physical work takes a physical toll and expecting a person to perform that type of work 40+ hours per week at that age just isn’t plausible. Not that they care.
Astroworm2020@reddit
Joke is on them I don't plan on retiring.
javyn1@reddit
A majority of our generation voted for this.
cocktwitchy@reddit
69 sounds about right for gen x
NoValuable1383@reddit
Nice!
beermaker@reddit
We're already set to retire fully at 51 and 59 later this year, I've been out of the workforce for six years, doing light mechanic work and welding projects to keep me busy. My wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness last year & she finally got long-term disability insurance through her employer finalized, they're putting together her severance package and she'll be finished later this summer. She's bittersweet that it's a debilitating illness that allowed her to retire early, but happy she still has years left to make plenty of memories.
If you need us, we'll be in the Garden.
Mama_Zen@reddit
Like I’m ever going to be able to retire
vagabond65@reddit
How do they get the average retirement length of 30 years?
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
It's not, at least it is not in the USA.
Financial planners like to plan for 30 years so people don't run out of money.
The average retirement length in USA is estimated to be between 18 and 23 years, depending on area of country and gender.
vagabond65@reddit
Makes sense. I just knew there was no way that it was 30 years.
otherelbow@reddit
All this while the life expectancy in the US is declining
MossIsking@reddit
Still doesn’t stop me from taking it at 62.
jadiana@reddit
This is why I'm going to retire early. My husband and I did the math, for me to 'break' even on waiting, it would take me until I was like 78. Now, I hope to live to a ripe old age, but I'd rather have the money earlier, even at a cut rate. My husband and I's finances are such that this works for us too.
Tahlkewl1@reddit
TLDR: Have you thought about saving more?..
Conscious-Bar-1655@reddit
This is so incredible because I'm in Brazil and it keeps changing (upwards of course) for us here too 😅
Wooden-Glove-2384@reddit
Did you really think we were gonna be able to retire after they changed it the first time?
Astrostuffman@reddit
France burnt down their country over this.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
No they didn't. They protested for a few days and guess what, retirement age was still raised.
They challenged it in court and the result?? Retirement age was still raised.
They got to raise taxes significantly to keep the promised benefits.
Moving retirement age out a year or two, just doesn't buy much these days.
Astrostuffman@reddit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_French_pension_reform_strikes?wprov=sfti1
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
And? LOL!! Retirement age was still moved up two years.
All that protesting and disruption and the retirement age was still raised from 62 to 64.
The protests achieved what??
Plus the French have job protections. In the USA, if you don't shop up to job to go protest, you'll quickly be out of a job.
Astrostuffman@reddit
It means you say shit that is wrong, so you have no credibility.
Baymavision@reddit
Noice! ....wait
HHSquad@reddit
I may have made the cut this time since I'm 63 now and will make it to 67 by 2028.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
A different president and Dems in charge of both houses and the courts
But unfortunately at least half of Gen x is super racist and super dumb
HHSquad@reddit
Yes, it is those Republicans in the House especially that seem to be stirring this up. I hope people remember things like this in the 2026 midterm election. In fairness to the current president, I''m not sure whether or not he said he would sign this into law, but the fact that he's president has energized House Republicans to do this.
Ok, no more politics from me, this is a politically free zone just like the Generation Jones subreddit.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
The president is a liar and will sign whatever his masters tell him to
Also he literally hates everyone.
HHSquad@reddit
Most likely, but as a classic narcissist he may want things HIS way and credit given to HIMSELF. So he might change things so that his base doesn't turn on him and instead gives him credit as a good king.
Robviously-duh@reddit
Die at work?.. I almost did... in my 40's.. actually got chemo on my 50th birthday... have known since high school in the 80's that SS was a ponzi scheme and anything that would come from it could only be considered a bonus... been packing money away since before I got married... and have kept doing so... became involuntarily retired at 53.. the Friday before 2 weeks to stop the spread... so I didn't qualify for any covid benefits at all.. and being a 3 time cancer survivor I wasn't looking for a job... we survived on my wife's income and insurance until it was "over"... we have always been frugal.. no fancy dinners out, no golfing, latest cell phones, cars, campers, boats, vacations etc... we had paid off the cars & house already too... everything was there to see clear back in the 1980's, it just took effort to make sure that you were prepared for this... some can't, and that is what SS is supposed to be doing... some just won't, too selfish and self absorbed to plan.. no sympathy, it's on you.
DracoSolon@reddit
Well the majority of GenX voted republican. Why would they be surprised? This is what they voted for.
rangerm2@reddit
Yep. Thank goodness I started saving for retirement in the 90s. I'll be fine.
losthalo7@reddit
They are on rollers now for a reason.
jonomm@reddit
69? Noice.
overmonk@reddit
I don't think I'll have enough money to retire by 65, 67, or 69. Current plan is to die in my office chair.
zwiazekrowerzystow@reddit
i don't plan to work until 69. i'm investing as much as possible and putting money away all the time.
Uxoandy@reddit
I’ve given up on it. My plan is to die working. My wife keeps saying “when you retire” . I’m not retiring . Hoping I can get to a point I don’t have to work so much but I’ll never be able to quit. I don’t think
Icr711@reddit
Here’s the deal. Boomers outweigh us and millennials outweigh us (as a voting block). They both want what we got—the highest level of income in our lives (in our 50’s). Boomers want to keep what they got. Millenials want the tax revenue
SelectionNo3078@reddit
I got the highest income of my life for exactly 3 years and in the 3 years since I’ve had the lowest.
And now at 55 facing age discrimination as I try to reset (A company made an offer last year and said I had to apply online-the algorithm denied me immediately but the individual still made the offer. Must have been my age for a job I’m overqualified for )
candleflame3@reddit
Remember when they said GenX just had to wait for all the Boomers to retire and the ensuing labour shortage meant there would be loads of good jobs for us? 💀
deekamus@reddit
So I'm expected to work until I'm about in my deathbed? What good is society then?
candleflame3@reddit
Seriously, what IS the point of society and "The Economy" if it doesn't provide people with a decent quality of life, security, and so on? How exactly is this system than the supposedly uncivilized hunter-gatherer way of life we abandoned for it?
(Before anyone says it, no hunter-gatherers do/did not die at 30. They commonly live/d until their 70s.)
Dogrel@reddit
That would imply some sort of collective concern. When was the last time you heard about others caring for US?
DarkIllusionsMasks@reddit
As a self-employed artist, I'm going to die in my studio, anyway. Sucks for all the people with normal jobs, though.
sickboy6_5@reddit
no one came to save us when we were kids, and no one is going to come save us when we are too old.
Damien__@reddit
I have said this before...
The republican conservatives have never gotten over losing the sweatshops and they have been trying to get them back ever since. Now it looks like they will succeed.
BethN@reddit
Fix Social Security. Tax the rich. Earnings exceeding $176,100 are not subject to Social Security tax. WTF
fastcatdog@reddit
Just die of a stress induced heart attack on the job like a real man.
Agreeable_Initial667@reddit
At this point I'm thinking about taking the SSA early as it probably won't be around by the time I hit 67 and will have been pushed back to around 90 by the time I get there anyways.
Means testing. But that would mean already rich people can't get even more money that they do no need.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
My dad receives my late step mom’s SS and is riding her public healthcare despite the fact that she was a school teacher and he still owns his company and made pretty good bank.
This kind of crap has to stop
killerwithasharpie@reddit
These things are true but you need to take a look around: our Republican overlords have an expressed preference for working us until we drop. It doesn’t have to be that way, and we are the last generation to have a shot at pushing back. Full disclosure: retired last year at 63 with most of my Social Security.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
Our last shot at pushing Back was November 24.
jmkul@reddit
I'm Australian, and 67 is already what GenX call retirement age here (the age any of us will be able to apply for Aged Care supports, including the pension. Thank God for superannuation - I hopefully will be a self-funded retiree, and not need the Age Pension)
cowbutt6@reddit
This is my fear: that in spite of our taxes paying for the state pension incomes of Boomers (and older generations), millennials, and gen Z will be so disillusioned with such schemes and abolish them just in time for us to be ineligible for them - a double penalty.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
Some of us don’t have overly generous public pensions and benefits
Those should be counted as earned income for folks trying to collect SS before FRA
Or the earnings cap for prior without public pensions should be eliminated
leftyjamie@reddit
We do this to ourselves. I have so many coworkers who are gen x that voted against workers rights continuously since the 00s. But I guess the tax cuts for the wealthy is worth it for these bootlickers?
SelectionNo3078@reddit
They’re too dumb and lazy to be informed and think that has anything to do with the small amount of taxes they themselves pay
They also think they’re going to hit it big despite nothing in their life being a reason to believe this
guitar-hoarder@reddit
And yet the odds of people hiring you when you're in your 50s drops significantly.
No_Material_7516@reddit
If they increase SS full retirement age for us from 67 to 69, then they should allow us to access our 401K without penalty at 57.5 instead of 59.5.
SelectionNo3078@reddit
They should allow us to earn more than $23k while receiving early SS benefits (means tested)
They should also count pensions as earned income for this formula
Chemical_Butterfly40@reddit
Look up the Rue of 55
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
And SEPP or 72t.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
I’m afraid to even look after I looked up the Rule of 55! 🤣
Skwarepeg22@reddit
Okay, I JUST did this… and fuck! This would have been SO helpful for me last year it for the exception of not rolling it into an IRA before withdrawing!
You should repost this info as its own post. I had no idea there was any disadvantage to rolling 401k $$ to IRAs!!!
Every_Selection_6419@reddit
For many of us, there is some solace. Our boomer parents are now very well off and they are in their mid 70s to mid 80s hopefully! My parents only have one grandchild which happens to be mine. We don’t especially like my brother. Sad when this becomes your retirement plan but fuck em
SelectionNo3078@reddit
They’ll liquidate most of what they have for end of life care
Kimber80@reddit
Thats why my wife started collecting SS in January, at 62. We figure they will only screw those not collecting yet
Powerful-Revenue-636@reddit
How Boomer of you.
Kimber80@reddit
Uh ... wtf?
gkcontra@reddit
I’m with you there. My wife and I are both taking it at 62 just because. Of course that’s 7 years away.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
We have a path that would lessen our need for a ton of money, but it's not paved with rainbows and sunshine.
I'm hoping I can tap in earlier. I hate that math, but you're not wrong in some circumstances.
TopspinLob@reddit
Folks this is a demographics and arithmetic problem, has very little to do with politics but for the lack of will to address a painful situation that is completely predictable
Gusto36@reddit
We should riot like in France
Mother_Bar_3810@reddit
I think the article is fear mongering a bit. FRA is set by law; it will require a united congress and presidential signature to change it (unlikely). And if it did change, they’d have to decide on an age threshold to start applying the new FRA … meaning it would likely affect Millennials more so than us.
MusicalMerlin1973@reddit
Put another 2-3% in your 401k. lol.
lol. We fall in one of two camps: either what extra money? Or it is maxed already, chucklehead.
Increase max age by two years only saves retirement fund by one year. We’re still fucked after that.
Avasarala77@reddit
Fuck!!! I hate the people running the government, they only care about billionaires.
JKnott1@reddit
They could raise it to 150 for all I care. I'll be working until I die.
phatcatrun@reddit
They are making it so that only the financially well off (IE rich folk) are able to retire. Everyone else will be expected to work until they die.
LokiJesus@reddit
AI will take all the jobs before that. Also… 69… nice.
BluestreakBTHR@reddit
Retirement for me is likely to be when the sheet gets pulled over my face.
CriticalMine7886@reddit
UK here - welcome to the party! We're already at 67 and the latest government review is looking at bringing 68 onboard in the next couple of years.
Still - I had to promise my mortgage company I'd work 'till 75 to buy my home, so state pension age isn't going to help me anyway.
newwriter365@reddit
Like every other facet of our lives, we are on our own.
lumpy4square@reddit
At this point, my retirement income will be granny porn. :/
Buf_M6GT@reddit
OnlyGrams.com
TMQ73@reddit
Frack, I work in a construction adjacent field and have to work outside, go into buildings with no heat or ac, crawls paces, and attics a lot. Younger people we hire to help don’t last very long. Injured several times over the years plus abnormal wear and tear. I cannot do this till I’m 70. Congress needs to raise the cap on when people stop having to pay in big time…but they won’t.
TMQ73@reddit
Frack, I work in a construction adjacent field and have to work outside, go into buildings with no heat or ac, crawls paces, and attics a lot. Younger people we hire to help don’t last very long. Injured several times over the years plus abnormal wear and tear. I cannot do this till I’m 70. Congress needs to raise the cap on when people stop having to pay in big time…but they won’t.
siliconsmiley@reddit
For the first time, I observed 69 without the customary response.
No_Common1418@reddit
It's our fault, we let Mom and Dad be in charge WAY too long
Due_Owl6319@reddit
The answer is OnlySeniors, baby!
acreekofsoap@reddit
69? Nice!
cleg74@reddit
Elections matter.
bavindicator@reddit
I'm 55 and I fully expect to work until my full life expectancy. My retirement plan is to run for Congress at 62 and ride out the rest of my days in that musty dungeon until I'm in my 80s and become a millionaire while doing it.
zoot_boy@reddit
Just quit. Fuck. The hell we care anyway.
slowlybecomingmoss@reddit
Honestly a general strike would get their attention, but organizing is a bitch because people rely on the internet to spread information now and who holds the keys to that?
balthisar@reddit
Typical Sun article with zero citations.
ideknem0ar@reddit
Still hoping I can swing early retirement in 5 years. No spouse, no kids, no debt, good income, and I'm sick of working.
drumbo10@reddit
There should be a 40 year maximum you have to pay into social security to receive benefits. This age bumping up thing is bullshit. To work for the government has very specific regulations for how old you can be and still work being employed as a fire fighter,prison guard, policeman, etc. You should be capped after doing 40 into the system after that no federal taxes should be removed.
Write_Brain_@reddit
Not to be harsh, but "they" are allowed to keep moving the goal posts because about a third of Americans don't bother to vote. Show up at every opportunity to vote out the people who are giving our retirement and health care away to billionaires' tax breaks, and take back our power. If we don't, we will get used to the taste of cat food and despair.
Tardislass@reddit
I'm going to have to work until at least 75, as are most Gen X folks without family wealth.
obstreperousRex@reddit
Awesome! There is no chance I will be able to work until I’m 69 years old. I’d like to but physically it’s just not going to happen. This is wonderful news.
Impressive_Bar_4653@reddit
They're dangling the 🥕🫏 in front of us, won't be surprised they up it again once people approach the age of 69.
LilithReeds@reddit
Noice
bluntrauma420@reddit
chrash@reddit
My only memory of the US Sun is when my grandparents would get it with headlines similar to, "Boy trapped in refrigerator, eats own foot!"
Have they become a serious source of news now?
KY4ID@reddit
Boomers got theirs so who gives a shit, right?
Powerful-Revenue-636@reddit
And we will only be getting 75% Social Security payout, starting in 2035. Better than fixing it now, and pissing off the largest voting bloc.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
2033... the surplus exhaustion has been moved up a couple years.
Only 8 years away and it won't be fixed because a real fix would mean raising taxes significantly.
Powerful-Revenue-636@reddit
Raising the income cap is the easiest solution, but it would require pissing off rich people. Cutting benefits now would piss off the Boomers, who are still the majority. Allowing the trust to become insolvent and reducing the payouts will happen without doing anything, so that will be the path.
quasifun@reddit
Removing the contribution cap while keeping the benefits cap is a guaranteed way to make sure that group votes Republican.
Boomers are not the majority of voters. No generation has a majority, but millinneals are a plurality. And baby boomers are about to be #3, we gen x are going to pass them before 2030. About 7000 baby boomers die every day in the US.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
100% agree that the across the board benefit cuts are the most likely path. Those cuts are automatic, will happen in 2033 under current law when the surplus is exhausted.
Removing the wage cap in 2025 kicks the surplus exhaustion out to 2060. It's an easy way to kick the can down the road as it impacts about 10% of workers.
But the real fix is to raise the payroll tax rate or apply some percentage to capital gains or passive income. Somehow we have to overcome the lower worker to retiree ratio, which is going to only get worse.
Relative-Coach6711@reddit
I was told my entire childhood that social security wouldn't be there when we needed it.
Lou_Hodo@reddit
I have already told myself and my family, I will probably never live to see retirement.
koopz_ay@reddit
My dude... I'll die working
rattmaul@reddit
One more way the boomers pull up the ladder. Worst generation ever.
guachi01@reddit
It's not boomers. It's Republicans. You think any Democrat would vote to raise the retirement age?
StalyCelticStu@reddit
Nice.
Grundle95@reddit
Nice? No, not really
Practical-Economy839@reddit
I'm an oddball. I like working, and I love my job, but I intend(ed) to take my SS at my FRA and save that. At some point, I'd like to transition to a low stress part-time job, but I never have pictured myself not working at all. I've been anticipating a greatly reduced benefit. If any
That being said, I'm a desk jockey. I've had back, neck, and shoulder surgeries, but I'm not taking major wear and tear on a daily basis like many people are. A lot of tradespeople, medical staff, and retail, restaurant, and sanitation workers have so much damage to their bodies just from daily use. They're more susceptible to injuries because of the physical nature of their jobs. They are less likely to have PTO compared to an office worker, so they rush back to work before they're fully healed. Raising the FRA will result in more people filing for disability because there's only so much a body can take. There should be a lower FRA for people who work physically demanding jobs.
rudolf_the_red@reddit
the french lost their shit when they moved the retirement age.
wonder what we'll do...
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
And yet, they still raised retirement age, because the math is the math, despite the complaints.
They'll have to raise the payroll taxes as well.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
AND/OR raise the income ceiling on contributions
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
Its both. Just removing the wage cap kicks the can down the road, but doesn't solve the problem entirely.
K2TY@reddit
And they increased it anyways.
Potomacker@reddit
The boomers plan on withdrawing more than their generation ever put in
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
Everyone does. That's why the program was flush when it had 4 or 5 workers paying in for each retiree.
Now that it's less than 3 workers per retiree, the program isn't collecting enough tax revenue.
2 point something workers simply don't pay in enough to support one retiree.
They'll have to raise payroll taxes significantly to keep promised benefits. Most likely, they'll cut benefits across the board, for every recipient.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
Where does that ratio come from? Based on population rates in certain age ranges?
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
Number of current workers versus number of current retirees.
Approximately 163 million people employed in USA.
Approximately 70 million retirees.
163/70 = 2.3 workers per retiree.
All money paid in social security taxes in 2025 gets paid out right away as benefits.
sweet_ned_kromosome@reddit
ha show's you
I'll be dead then
no_talent_ass_clown@reddit
The hell you say!
dainthomas@reddit
Retirement age shouldn't be greater than the age where they stop specifying a reason why you died. "Oh, he was 69? At least he lived a full life."
treyedean@reddit
My dad died at the age of 70. He almost made it to 71. If this was the age of retirement for him, he would have enjoyed just shy of two years before dying. That doesn’t sound like a great retirement to me. Of course he lived an unhealthy life. He could have lived longer but many people die in their early 70s.
PenPenGuin@reddit
That only affects Social Security retirement benefits. Hopefully no one is counting on that being their only source of income. As many of us are finding out with our parents, it's nowhere near enough. You can start pulling from 401k and other retirement type accounts around age 59.5.
Jocks_Strapped@reddit
i will retire when i die
edahs@reddit
Wish I could stop paying ssi tax if I'm never going to be able to use it... fucking theft.
Practical-Economy839@reddit
Plenty of private individuals have gotten significant prison time for running Ponzi schemes. I can't see how social security's setup is any different. The only difference is that the government's Ponzi scheme mandates our participation.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
It all gets spent this year. Every dime we pay in this year gets paid out in benefits to current recipients this year, plus $100+ Billion of the surplus.
The program over-promised, it's unsustainable without significant tax increase.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Agreed. Like teachers (in some states). Let me put that money in some retirement account. Force me to for all I care. Just not to YOU via SS.
At some point, that plug has to be pulled. It's just math. But, we can't because, it's a Ponzi Scheme, as someone else pointed out, kept afloat by 'new' money.
Upnatom617@reddit
I want mine back with interest.
jimohagan@reddit
Nice.
Fezzick51@reddit
I'd like to say 'whatever' but I also get to run the ship, make my own hours and have no plans to retire - so...
Skwarepeg22@reddit
A ship’s a ship!
Jacki_Me@reddit
Absurd. I don't want to sound morbid, but we'll end up going right from our desk at work and into our coffin. We don't live to work; we work to be able to retire and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
LadySiren@reddit
I’m figuring I’ll end up dropping dead right after I ask to see someone’s receipt as they’re leaving Walmart.
otiswestbooks@reddit
Nice
grunkage@reddit
Nice
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Nicer.
steelcityblue@reddit
Under the bridge downtown……
Major-Specific8422@reddit
How much for a VJ?
steelcityblue@reddit
I mean.. $20 is $20
Major-Specific8422@reddit
sweet, I was afraid if I had to ask, I couldn't afford it
LordoftheSynth@reddit
I'm already never retiring, so it's meaningless to me.
justisme333@reddit
So go full French and start rioting and burning things down.
tossaway390@reddit
My dad dies at 68. I don’t expect much more longevity. Damn.
ccfoo242@reddit
Maybe if the silent generation and baby boomers and had term limits we could prevent bs like this.
the__post__merc@reddit
I wasn't smart with financial choices when I should have been. I had a 401k from my first ever real out of college job and I cashed it out three years after I opened it because I needed money to pay some bills. Looking back, it's laughable. My share of the rent was $250/month, I owed $1000 on a credit card and my car payment was $275 per month and I was broke broke.
Now, I'm self-employed but occasionally get long-term contracted with companies that offer some 401k options, non-matching of course. I'm so far behind where I need to be that I'm going to have to keep working well beyond whatever retirement age they say anyway, so the thought of retirement is just laughable to me.
Badrear@reddit
If I just save 150% of my income for the next 20 years, I’ll be close to the recommended amount to retire!
the__post__merc@reddit
Just follow this one simple trick!
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Likewise. I made similar mistakes along the way. Cashed some things. I had all the proper advice in the world to start saving something. anything. in my 20s and I didn't.
I learned form that though. A lot. I only wish everyone that gave me that advice would have said, "here's 'x' dollars for your birthday. But you can't have it now. It's going into... some type of investment and you can use this to learn & build wealth" Or something like that.
But, I'm doing that for my kids. Started UTMAs for them. I want them to see how wealth can grow. Hell, it'll be at least 75 for SS by the time they retire.
CyndiIsOnReddit@reddit
Just bettering their odds that we'll be dead by then.
Background_Tax4626@reddit
You will be grandfathered in as GenX. Guaranteed.
Mortimer452@reddit
Retirement lasts 30 years on average!? In what dreamworld are you living where "on average" people retire at 65 and live to 95?
PieTighter@reddit
If they can afford to give tax cuts to the 1%, then they can afford to drop full retirement age back to 65 and skip the tax cuts.
Ksan_of_Tongass@reddit
Boomers need to just die already. I'm tired of still supporting their greedy decrepit souls. Fuck off!
DoubleExposure@reddit
First time seeing 69 and thinking..., not nice.
SVTContour@reddit
“It's the cowboy's code. Work hard, don't shower and die in your boots. Right Norm?”
swissmiss_76@reddit
It’s bad enough we got hit with this 401k scam stuff. We’re the first generation who probably won’t be able to retire and no one talks about it or or seems to care
Automatic-Unit-8307@reddit
69? Who is going to hire us at 69? I can barely see and my hands shakes, add anxiety and panic attacks, how do we stay employed till 69???
mazopheliac@reddit
Jokes on them . I’ll just die .
kent_eh@reddit
I keep wondering when Americans are going to reach their "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more" threshold.
seriousspoons@reddit
I mean we could get mad and get out, protest, and vote. If they won’t take us seriously we should make them. Fuck these oligarchs and tech bros.
majorflojo@reddit
Too many white folks amongst us have fallen for the propaganda that they must have a problem with pointless BS to actually advocate for their own self-interest.
seriousspoons@reddit
There’s millions of us and we only need to reach a small critical mass to be dangerous. 3-4%
majorflojo@reddit
I'm part of it.
sain197@reddit
Remember my grandparents talking about social security many years ago before they passed away. They stated that social security was originally sold to the public as a basic savings account guaranteed and managed by the federal government in response to people who lost their life savings in the great depression because so many banks had gone bankrupt or their stocks were worthless. They said almost everyone supported it with the understanding that giving your money to the government involved risk, but figured it was much less risky than giving it to the bank. They were told their money would be safe in an account under their name and you would get back in retirement.
IceNein@reddit
They don’t even have the decency to change it so that it doesn’t affect people who are already paying in. You shouldn’t be able to change the terms of a retirement plan you have already agreed upon.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
Second time they will have changed the terms on me WHILE I was paying in. I was already paying in back in 1983.
obxhead@reddit
Retirement. Ha.
I’ve known I’ll die in my work boots for 20 years. Hopefully still have 20 to go.
sometimeswhy@reddit
Life expectancy is around 80 so working 40 years (25 to 65) means half your life out of the workforce. I can’t see that as sustainable as the population ages. Retirement contributions would need to go way up
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
Yes, too keep the promised benefits, payroll taxes need to be raised significantly because the worker to retiree ratio is less than 3 to 1 now.
WHYohWhy___MEohMY@reddit
Fuck that.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
TheHexagone@reddit
Don’t worry. Soon there won’t be any boomers left anyway.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
We have different definitions of soon, Boomers will still be collecting checks in two decades.
Upnatom617@reddit
1947-65, 60-78 currently.
Schyznik@reddit
Why is the talk always about raising the eligibility age and never about raising the ceiling on income subject to SS tax?!? We should be taxing all wages and not just up to 175k. LEAD with that when you talk about reform and try that first. Then and only then should we consider raising the eligibility age.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Absolutely.
AfraidEnvironment711@reddit
America will be dystopian by then anyway. Why not?
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
January 2025 you mean?
Primary_Channel5427@reddit
I’m going to retire when I’m dead.
NVJAC@reddit
Whatever. 25 years in a low-paying career in a dying industry made it so I was already planning to work until 70.
Twinstarrider@reddit
Working in government and having a kid at 45 did that for me!
DagnyTheSpencer@reddit
Nice
(She said sarcastically)
bananajr6000@reddit
Making America Great Again! . . . NOT!
Karena1331@reddit
honestly, not sure why we even put up with this.
Individual_Ad_5655@reddit
Nah, just do the across-the-board 20% benefit cut for all retirees. I'm tired of paying for Warren Buffett's Social Secuirty and carrying all these Boomers.
Cut their benefits and save Social Security.
000700707@reddit
Well, good thing we’re Gen X and can do anything lol. No, actually this news sucks.
freeformz@reddit
Like I said the other day and got in trouble by Reddit for some dumb reason, my retirement plan is to die.
ItsmeMr_E@reddit
Retire? Far too many will never retire or at least not completely because they can't afford to retire.
Even more may never retire in the future, what with social security may no longer be there, even after we've been paying into it all these years.
mldyfox@reddit
I did life backwards. I started working, got married, had a kid, and THEN got my degrees, going to school part time. Finished with as far as I need to go for my field, schooling-wise in my 40s. Tack on my much loved kid, now nearly 30 and severely autistic, and financially I'm, as another poster so eloquently put it, fund.
My company stopped pensions in the 90s, and went to 401k matching. There's also a program where they match student loan payments, so I'll build something for later in life, and to leave my son later.
The jokes on the politicians for my family. My son gets SS now, so I think of it as he's getting mine early. I haven't planned on ever being fully retired.
101violations@reddit
I have 20-22yrs until retirement. I never thought I'd live long enough to retire so I didn't focus on saving. I finally got serious thinking about what if I do make it to retirement..
I recalculated my retirement funds and at this rate I could afford to live around 9 years after retirement, if I retired at 69. Guess that's ok if my parents are any indication of my life expectancy. My mom lived until 2wks before her 70th bday and my dad made it to 71.
Expert-Hyena6226@reddit
I don't think I'll have enough money to retire anyway.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
It's never to late to start saving, mate.
Or, honestly, start figuring out now how you can make it on what we'll get at 69.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
It’s not quite that bad for us though still at 67. ;) It will be our kids or grandkids (depending on when/if someone had their kids) who deal with 69 as retirement age.
Expert-Hyena6226@reddit
Yeah, I'm working on it.
AngryK9_@reddit
I've already resigned myself to the fact that I will never be able to retire and will have to work until I drop.
Retinoid634@reddit
Wait. What?
MaresEatOatsAndDoes@reddit
67 1/2. That's been the age since I was barely a teenager, and I learned then that there was a good chance nothing would be left by then. So I'm not planning for any Social Security payout. If I get anything, it will be a nice surprise that maybe buys a sandwich once a month.
NotAtAllExciting@reddit
My coworker is retiring at the end of the month. 70.
I’m 59 and can’t afford to retire.
zica-do-reddit@reddit
This is funny because once I had a dream that revealed my date of death, theoretically I'll die at 68.
grunkage@reddit
My dad died at 68, so I've always wondered if I'll make it past that
OnlyPhone1896@reddit
Dad died at 62, mom at 58, brother at 50. I'm not far from being retired from life following that trend.
urban_mystic_hippie@reddit
Eh, I'm going to have to work until I drop with a somewhat bemused but still shocked look on my face anyway. Fuck it.
mikedorty@reddit
All we have to do to reverse this is tax the wealthy like they did in the 50's (you know, when America was Great..../s)
Emunahd@reddit
https://i.redd.it/syngund2015f1.gif
Might as well laugh.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
Damn it man, that's the one I was looking for -- Well played, mate. Well played.
Emunahd@reddit
Heheh hehehe. You said “played.” Heheh
BeetsMe666@reddit
I have been slacking my entire career... I can slack well past retirement date.
mnsundevil@reddit
On one hand they bitch that no one is retiring so the next generation can't move up the corporate ladder. The other hand they raise the retirement age, so no one can retire! Sounds like some great planning to me! I'm ready for the big astroid to hit Earth! Fuck this place
Tinawebmom@reddit
My math teacher (retired coach for the 49ers) had an RV he and his wife were going to live in after he retired from teaching.
6 months after he retired he died from a heart attack. He never got to live in that RV.
Even back then I was cussing the system that didn't allow you to retire young enough to actually enjoy the "fruits of your labor"
RedditSkippy@reddit
I’m not even counting on Social Security.
Hilsam_Adent@reddit
They've been telling us since Daddy Bush's term that GenX (and everyone thereafter) would never see a dime of it and I believed 'em. I am mostly retired already (born same year as you) and only work when I wanna. I don't have enough to not work at all, but I don't have to grind every day, either. I'll drop dead at work like most of the rest of us, but it will be because I can't see myself ever not doing something outside the house. It'll be something other than handyman/remodeling, as I don't want to be crawling around under houses climbing ladders, etc. into my seventies.
I decided about four years ago that something had to give, that wasting ten to twelve hours a day, six or seven days a week was just stupid. More to life than working toward a future that doesn't exist.
Lateapexer@reddit
I’m counting on the NRA to ensure the checks come, capisce?
empty_wagon@reddit
I owe my soul to the company store
munchanything@reddit
"For years I've been bustin' my rear
To make a livin' but it ain't made
For years I've been tryin' to pay off my bills
But they ain't paid.
I owe every dime I make to every soul I know"
--Merle Haggard, "A working man can't get nowhere today"
Breakfastclub1991@reddit
The world needs us. Last hard working generation.
wezelboy@reddit
I've been planning on 70 for a while now.
longipetiolata@reddit
I’ll still be paying for college for my kids around that age so makes sense
movieator@reddit
Capitalism is so…great.
RiplyBelievesNot@reddit (OP)
I can't point to that specifically, but the system is certainly designed to keep the masses in check. There is no getting ahead. But, it's more the fatal mentality of 'keeping up with the Joneses." That's what's breaking us. Synthetic fear, fomo, chaos.
BabyInABar@reddit
I am tired NOW, and I’m not close to the current retirement age 🤦♀️ urgh
hoppyrules@reddit
Had a rough day and quickly read this for a millisecond as “retirement age could hit 257” and was not surprised somehow until I did the double take.
Captain_Scarlet27@reddit
And death is the new 40.
Wyndeward@reddit
Part of the problem is that the initial actuarial assumptions for Social Security were laid down in 1935 and were based on a rather narrow slice of the population. Without going too far into the weeds, the program initially only covered white, urban wage workers not already covered by a qualifying pension plan.
Since then, the pool of payors has expanded to include almost the whole of the population, life expectancy has increased dramatically, the program screwed up the COLA formula such that the program increased at twice the rate of inflation and, yet, the eligibility age has only been increased relatively recently and probably not to the same level as the program started at. Oh, the ratio of workers paying in versus the number of people drawing out has decreased dramatically, too.
Eventually, even the government had to acknowledge the mathematical realities.
Billy-Ruffian@reddit
Like Neil Young said, "I won't retire but I might retread."
whereugoincityboy@reddit
I don't see how I can possibly work that much longer. Hopefully I can get disability when my back completely goes out.
The_Observatory_@reddit
Ha, I’ll show them! I’ll never be able to retire anyway as it is- Stick it to the man!
H3nchman_24@reddit
lol, there is just no fucking way I am going to live that long, and God help me if I did because I ain't got shit 😂
CarefulMess7699@reddit
That's BS.
Zealousideal-Time-32@reddit
Lmao.
Evolone101@reddit
That’s in this BS bill ? What a cluster fuck.
Appropriate_Run_5251@reddit
No medical, no ss, no pensions, no help, no luck or love. We paid and never get anything in return. Time to burn it down!
Grunblau@reddit
Doesn’t help to argue that life expectancy is going down not up…
I kinda hope they gut the fuck out of Social Security and Medicare. I don’t want to pay for Boomers and their 3rd knee and $5K/ mo SS checks they started accruing at 65.
Gen X will be starving under a bridge in 2035 and finally in 2040, when the smell of the last rotting corpses of the Atari generation gets to be too much to bear, they will lower the age back to 65 where it belongs. This will be accomplished by uncapping the taxable amount and lower the cost for everyone else across the board while also improving quality of life and dignity for everyone born after 1980.
Pretend-Read8385@reddit
Thank God for CalStrs retirement. I’m saying peace out at the max age or f61 and a half or something like that, whatever gets me to 2.4% of my annual salary multiplied by the number of years I’ve taught. Of course I’ll still have to pay for some part of my medical insurance until I’m eligible for Medicare, so who knows?
Powerful_Ad_2506@reddit
I will still retire at 54. 55 if I’m not ready.
richlaw@reddit
frazzledglispa@reddit
Honestly, I can't afford to retire. I work from home, and am close friends with our CEO, so the plan is to work until I drop. If she doesn't see me log on, and I don't have PTO she is to check on me right away so I don't rot here alone with the dog and cat. I am okay with them eating me, as I don't want them to starve, but my understanding is that they usually get put down if they do that - even though it isn't their fault. She also has agreed to take them in, should I kick it. Never married, no kids, no interest in pair bonding.
Temp_Job_Deity@reddit
Generation of Sociopaths.
MalrykZenden@reddit
The cost of just living is always creeping up, it's all most people can do to just survive, let alone retire.
Head-Major9768@reddit
Denmark retirement age is 70, but they’ve all had the benefit of life long healthcare & ample vacation time. I can’t imagine how this would work in the states.
IMnotaRobot55555@reddit
Got long covid a year ago and now I can barely work half-time when I should be working full time til retirement to sock away cash for after.
I’ll be screwed no matter what age they move it to.
Simple-Purpose-899@reddit
I've never planned on retiring every since I was in my teens. Just figured it was something other people got to do.
FartomicBlast@reddit
I already know I’ll never actually have a retirement. Nothing I can do about it, though.
AZWildcatMom@reddit
Shocking.
rabbplays@reddit
Hey shocker my friends...we are left to figure it out. Again.
It's almost comical.
thenoid42@reddit
This isn't anything new, team red has been talking about it for nearly 20 years.