(06-24-2018 09:51 PM)JMUDunk Wrote:  

(06-24-2018 08:50 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  

(06-24-2018 08:46 PM)thespiritof1976 Wrote:  

(06-24-2018 08:44 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  

(06-24-2018 08:35 PM)Kronke Wrote:  Need to raise the retirement age. Painless fix, and makes sense as people are living much longer now than when it was implemented.

I'm 55, I worry about making it to 65 (much less the 67.5 full benefit age). Most companies don't want people over 60 for a variety of reasons. Raise the age to 70 and you'll have a bunch of geriatrics trying to find work at Walmart and McDonalds. The problem isn't the retirement age, it's relying on current revenues to pay current benefits, that's a ponzi scheme.

Don't you also get pennies back on the dollar, when factoring in how much you paid into the system ?

If so, what a load.

Exactly it's not just the 6.5% you put in but the 6.5% employers have to match. If that were invested, even conservatively, in the free market your payout would be much better an fully funded. Think of all the people that die before retirement and never collect a penny.

That'd be my Dad. 20 days after our wedding. Still going in at 67YO's cause he loved his job and had several research projects in the air and wanted to see them through, figured he'd bank it for a bit longer and retire at 72 after 40+ years paying in plus his time in both the Navy and the Army...

Never saw a penny of it.

Likely went to some slob that claimed disability at 38 and "retired".

It only gets worse. That fully funded plan is now under assault with a new trick. The entity's board of directors that hold your 401k or 403b can vote to annuitize it. If they do you will get 100% of the interest it earns paid out to you over the rest of your life, but the damned company keeps the principal. It does not go to your heirs at your death either. Your spouse can have 75% or whatever figure they set of your payout at your death should he/she survive you. It's a legal trick allowed by your courts to preserve the "solvency" of the entity when facing fund depletion (aka Boomer Retirement Panic). How do I know this? Because after 20 plus years of service to my second career the non profit I worked for voted to do this at the same time they gave their leadership continued raises. Thankfully a protest by the rank & file workers has led to a 35% payout of the principal if it is put into a home or existing mortgage which is what you must do to qualify to get even that. But if you do it of course reduces your interest payment. So in other words it is a legal way of stealing 65% of your retirement principal and when the bank or entity handling your 401k or 403b whines about payouts and your leadership buys into it by a vote of its board of directors it can happen. And my, and your, Congress allowed it to become law under George W. Bush.