Nov 24, 2019

How Much Of A Penalty For Early Retirement And How Much Of A Reward For Late Retirement?

     From Are Social Security’s Actuarial Adjustments Still Correct? by Alicia Munnell and Anqi Chen of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:
  • People can claim Social Security from 62 to 70, with adjustments to keep lifetime benefits the same, on average, regardless of claiming age.
  • The question is whether the adjustments, set decades ago, are still correct, given the decline in interest rates and increase in life expectancy.
  • For the average worker, the analysis shows that the reduction for claiming early is currently too large while the increase for claiming late is about right.
  • Higher earners – who live longer and claim later – get a really good deal under the current system.
     This is asking questions that have not been asked in quite some time. The study suggests lowering the early retirement penalty which might increase the already high rate of early retirement as well as decrease the viability of the retirement trust fund if not accompanied by an increase in revenues. I doubt that's happening.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

45% of recipients opt for pre-full retirement age benefits. Disability is paid as of full age retirement, unless one has opted for eerier retirement prior to receiving disability. There is room for improvement here.

Anonymous said...

Funny how all the articles or tv commercials plus all the fluff tells us 70 is the new 60 the reality of the numbers seems to go against all that preaching. It seems after around 50 years of work, people want some time off.

59.88 years old
The average retirement age in the United States among currently living retirees was 59.88 years old. The median living retiree left work at 62 years old, and the most common age to retire was 62 years old. 18.7% of retirees retired at age 62, and a whopping 63.1% retired between the ages of 57 and 66.Nov 14, 2019
Average Retirement Age in the United States - DQYDJ.com

Anonymous said...

How many of those who "retired" did so because of health problems? It saves face to refer to oneself as "retired" rather than "disabled". Not to mention all the layoffs/corporate bankruptcies/etc showing US jobs have disappeared.

Anonymous said...

5:16 you do kinda understand that we are at the lowest unemployment in decades dont you? That the economy has been steadily adding jobs for more than a decade? That 10,000 people a day are turning 65, every day, and are retiring? Sure there are some that leave early due to health conditions, some may even reach listing level, but a lot of people, the huge VAST majority are just retiring, its okay, not everyone is disabled.