Quote:
Originally Posted by lifexponential
Hi folks. I had been on disability but recently got a job. I'm 62 and change almost 63 and when I told Social Security about my new job, well now I'm not going to get the disability I had been getting for awhile and that's fine, I was geared for that. But once I stop getting those benefits, I can have the option of filing for retirement, but it's not going to be the full retirement age.
They sure ding you for that.
I for one feel it's not fair because why wait until you're so old you cant even enjoy the benefits you get!
So with that said, anyone here file for retirement early?
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You've known for 44 years that you would retire.
You've also known for 44 years that early retirement is 62 years and your full retirement age is whatever it is.
And you've also known for 44 years that if you retire earlier than full retirement age, your benefit will be reduced proportionally.
Your Social Security Disability benefit is always exactly equal to your benefit at full retirement age.
Your benefit is based on a 35-year work history, whether you actually worked 35 years or not. For each year you did not work, you get a big fat zero.
If you return to work, even at a minimum wage job, those big fat zeroes will be replaced with wages and your benefit will increase.
If you have worked 35 years, it is still advantageous, because your wages now will probably kick out those years in the early part of your work history where your wages were low.
If you expect Social Security to reduce the retirement age, that's just not going to happen, because you don't have the money to pay for that.
In case you hadn't noticed, even the Euro-States with their generous retirement benefits are increasing the retirement age
and slashing pension benefits.
The Euro-States have massive unfunded liabilities coming due between now and 2040, and not even one single country has the money to pay for those benefits that are supposed to be paid.
Britain is in the best situation, owing 75% of their GDP to future benefits. There's no way Britain can pay that, even if they raise taxes, they'll have to slash retirement benefits and make cuts in their healthcare system.
Italy is the worst at 300% of GDP. You should expect to see riots in Italy about 10 years from now, because after maxing out taxes and cutting retirement and healthcare, they still won't have enough money.
France just made major cuts to their retirement system.
Initially, the raised the retirement age to 70, but that would cause perennial unemployment of 10%-12%, so they knocked it back to 65 years. Instead of getting 50% of your wages as your pension, they slashed that to 37.5%, and then increased the number of years you have to work. In the US, you need to work only 10 years, but to maximize your benefits you need to work 35 years. Now, everyone in France born before 1975 has to work 41 years, and those born after have to work 42 years.
And that leaves them at 85% of GDP for the cost of their unfunded liabilities, so there'll be more tax increases and reduced benefits in healthcare and other areas, probably cutting the pension down to 32% to pay for it.
You should consider yourself lucky.