Miami. You should read the article. It is full of interesting ideas on how to keep people working longer. Not sure I agree with them all or any of them but it is interesting to see the ideas being discussed.
I envy those of you who enjoy your work. I never have and canât think of any paying work I would enjoy doing, so I have been counting the days until retirement since the first day of my first job out of college. Thankfully, the light at the end of the work tunnel is very near.
I feel very fortunate that Iâve mostly enjoyed my jobs, as has H and our S. It is wonderful to be paid for something you enjoy doing and feel you are contributing to society and your workplace. This is not to say it was ALL rainbows and fluff, there were some unpleasant parts, but mostly it was enjoyable.
@ChoatieMom, in the early days of my employment as a software developer, I wouldnât participate in office lottery pools, or buy tickets myself, because I didnât want to have to explain why, in the unlikely event of my winning, I was still at work. I actually woke up every morning looking forward to the challenges ahead. As time went on, my enjoyment of work declined (or, more accurately, the nature of corporate software development changed), and I jumped at the chance of becoming a SAHD.
I think most of the ideas in that article are goofy.
But you are making at least 16x what you are paying into SS. And 3-4x or more what you would be collecting from SS. How is becomes a disincentive is beyond me.
And by waiting several extra years to start collecting, you benefit goes up by way more than the piddly amount they talk about, and that is made possible by the paycheck you are collecting, which seems like a huge incentive to keep working.
No employer is going to suddenly stop age discrimination because they can pocket an extra 6.2% in tax savings. Getting a younger worker who makes half as much and lowers your health insurance bill saves the employer a heck of a lot more.
A puny 6% raise isnât going to keep me working if I want to retire.
And if you are not paying SS taxes, will that yearâs earnings be counted in calculating your benefit?
Fear of having to keep someone on the payroll indefinitely is not a thing in this country. This is not why there is age discrimination.
The whole thrust of this article seems pointless. I think most people are well aware of what they will have in retirement, and if it is not adequate they know it, they donât need extra incentives to keep working. That is, assuming they have/can get/are healthy enough for a job at all. The proposed changes are not going to lead to companies increasing how many people they hire from this age group IMO.
ChoatieMom: "I envy those of you who enjoy your work. " - Do not envy us. You have some kind of idea how to keep yourself occupied outside of work and I do NOT. I have several hobbies to fill my after work time, but they will not fill the 8 hours that I am working and they are not as much fun as my job anyway.
" they donât need extra incentives to keep working. " - exactly, I do not need any extra incentives for anything. I do what I am pleased to do, this has been my goal. If I do not like doing something, I hire somebody to do it for me. We live only once, might as well enjoy every day of it.
Investments for she who knows very little
So how is everybody feeling about their investments. I am not feeling great.
Bonds I see losing money.
Stocks I see stagnant for the decade.
I am afraid that if Trump becomes president the stocks will take a major hit.
If we get back into a ground war with ISIS my first thought is that stocks would go up if it is out of the USA and down if if we get attacks within the USA.
Donât have anything to back that up just my too little educated gut feeling.
How about you/
Iâm feeling great about my investments so far this year and am doing quite well. Hopefully things will continue this way. If you look at the history of disasters such as 9/11 etc., youâll see that if you hold on during the volatility associated with these type of events, youâll do fine. 
Thank heavens our investments are bouncing back too. Volatile market these past 6 or so months!
@DocT You make money by trading often. Correct?
Often is a relative term. Somethings I hold for 1 - 2 weeks, others 3 - 12 months and things such as dividend stocks forever. In those accounts that I trade more often, I do better. This is because my avg loss and avg gain are roughly the same but my probability of a gain is ~ 60% leading to making more money the more I trade.
On another topic, last night, my wife and I went to one of those dinners sponsored by some retirement guy. We had eaten at this restaurant one time for another one of these types of events. The food is great there. The guy was trying to sell index annuities. He put up 3 charts. The first chart showed the returns of the s&p from 1998 to the present ( a convenient date to choose, Iâm surprised he didnât start at 2000) and showing the two bear markets. He then showed a chart that had over the same time period a smoothed lower sloping and lower volatility plot. The third showed the results using an equity indexed annuity with no losses, only capped gains. I didnât want to be an a**hole and start asking him questions such as do the s&p returns include dividends, what would have happened in other time periods etc.
I did get into an argument with another attendee which apparently embarrassed my wife. The presenter was saying that there are no fees associated with this product or his selling it. The other attendee didnât seem to understand my view that the insurance company and this guy are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts but are getting money somehow that the buyer is paying. The presenter said he gets paid a commission which Iâm sure if I asked from where would say from the insurance company and if I asked how the insurance company gets the money would have made him uncomfortable.
Anybody in or near retirement who have looked at these products or have experience with them? Here is an interesting website: https://www.kitces.com/blog/building-your-own-equity-indexed-annuity-or-structured-note-by-pairing-bonds-with-equity-index-options/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2016/03/22/the-dicey-retirement-gamble-americans-are-making
Scroll down to see the table providing a breakdown of retirement funds saved by age group.
@DocT - Have you ever looked at the Bogleheads forum. Stuff like this is right up their alley.
@DocT, It amazes me how often people think that the meal, the presenter, the annuity product, etc. are being provided for free. The commissions sometimes run as high as 8%.
For those with marginal ability to generate income and who arenât concerned about leaving money for heirs, a Single Premium Immediate Annuity (SPIA) might be a good idea. Iâve also heard of better-off people buying a SPIA to provide a floor for their income and investing the remainder aggressively. Any other annuity, especially one that you donât understand, is a scam. The person selling it to you might be a crook, or perhaps doesnât understand it himself and âmeansâ well. The product itself is a scam.
Hybrid products are the worst; they get you coming and going.
I am against annuities and nobody have lured us into those dinners, we do not like them. Actually, we have decided to dismantle some good chunk of our retirement money as we started feeling not very secure about having money and ability of the government to take it from you which is proven by at least one current candidate for our presidency. So, we got rid of about 550k by spending it on the good causes. I feel good about these 550k that are gone but bought us something that is very useful for our family. I do not feel good about the rest of it though that is still there. And lately I started feeling more and more insecure about it and in fact the future SS payments. All of these feels very fragile now, like a house of cards, poof, and it will be goneâŠI wonder if anybody else feels this way.
I have read some commentators saying that IRAs are vulnerable to government âtake-overâ but I know of no one seriously suggesting this. At first blush, I thought that if this were even suggested there would be a revolt. But with so few people having any retirement savings at all, a redistribution of income this way might be popular. Gold coins? Real estate?
I am not understanding the gloom. S&P and Dow are about as high as in 2014, arenât they? If one felt good in 2014, it is not so bad now, is it?
" Actually, we have decided to dismantle some good chunk of our retirement money as we started feeling not very secure about having money and ability of the government to take it from you which is proven by at least one current candidate for our presidency. So, we got rid of about 550k by spending it on the good causes. I feel good about these 550k that are gone but bought us something that is very useful for our family"
I donât know that Iâve ever heard someone rationalize paying for their childâs education expenses as doing it because they werenât , âfeeling secure about having money and the ability of the government to take it from youâ. Most of us rationalize paying for our childrenâs expenses because we can afford it, we think itâs worth it, and we donât want our kids to take on debt.
@Doct, youâre funny.
Yes. You can construct similar products that insurance companies sell and save money. You understand. You know this already.
What do you think about nsurance companies are doing with our money?
Posters here are doing similar things mentioned in your link whether they know it or not.
I donât argue just to argue. Maybe it looks like that sometimes.
An investor is giving away something if the investor doesnât do the investing him or herself. This includes spia products. An investor has to decide if its worth giving away money.