Poll: Poll Thread: Did You Or Are You Going To Start Collecting Social Security Retirement Income At 62, Full Retirement Age or 70.

[wired]

At first, I got inquiries from recruiters, because I had put my resume out there after being laid off and I was actually looking for work. I did have 2-3 interviews per month (many of them thought I was female due to the spelling of my first name, and were looking for one to fill their EO quota.

But once the UI benes ran out (~18 months), I stopped looking and retired. I still got inquiries up until about a year ago but I ignored them. They tapered off and now I get maybe one a month, if that.

At first I looked at them, but now I don't - I just mark them as spam and delete them.

I get the franchise spam too - often disguised as job offers until you read the email and they want me to invest in a franchise of some sort.

I get 2-10 calls a day from Indian recruiters. Blocked most of them but those sneaky bastards try to weasel their way in using spoof numbers . If Im working with a recruiter, I have to trust them and I dont ever trust liars in any way ever. Goes for everything I do. Its why I couldn't deal with bald face liars as politicians. .

Someones got to be using those fuggers or they wouldn't keep doing it. The second I hear a Indian accent they get the standard " I dont work with overseas recruiters " line. and I hang up.

 

[Ducati_Meister]

Lot of you folks here have given me great insight on this SSA subject matter and experiences. I just turned 35, so I'm still socking money away into my county deferred comp, Roth IRA and county retirement (WA PERS).

 

[Flopsweat]

I get 2-10 calls a day from Indian recruiters. Blocked most of them but those sneaky bastards try to weasel their way in using spoof numbers . If Im working with a recruiter, I have to trust them and I dont ever trust liars in any way ever. Goes for everything I do. Its why I couldn't deal with bald face liars as politicians. .

Someones got to be using those fuggers or they wouldn't keep doing it. The second I hear a Indian accent they get the standard " I dont work with overseas recruiters " line. and I hang up.

As soon as I heard that accent, I had a few pointed questions for them. If they failed those questions, they were told to never call again, which of course they promptly ignored. There are local companies run by Indians that are perfectly decent, but there are a ton of offshore Indian companies that are absolutely cutthroat about everything that they do. They seem to be mainly looking for H1B's who are desperate for another contract so they don't have to go back home, but they will take anyone they can screw.

 

[The Heretic]

Someones got to be using those fuggers or they wouldn't keep doing it. The second I hear a Indian accent they get the standard " I dont work with overseas recruiters " line. and I hang up.

The Indians I know either live here in the USA or did and then moved back to India - but they were not recruiters, they are IT workers I worked with.

 

[gmerkt]

He could only take about 3 weeks of that sh!t show before he hung it up for good.

Rational people will recognize a monkey house for what it is. 3 weeks or 30 years. Most people have to go the distance, in one job or a series of jobs, to arrive at retirement. So to some extent, they have to endure. But after that, options rule.

There was this strange thing that cropped up during the Covid era. People got the idea that "going the distance" no longer applied, they could "retire" early. I wonder how that worked out.

I look back on my mindset of ploughing along in my working life as having been fortunate. That is, I never thought about retirement much for a long, long time. Seeing as how it was so far off in the future most of that time. It was only my last few years of working that it started to figure into my thinking. I am glad that I didn't torture myself with it. In my particular employment situation, I was retirement eligible at age 55. Still, I dithered and worked a couple of years beyond that. So I didn't bail quite as soon as I might've.

 

[The Heretic]

Rational people will recognize a monkey house for what it is. 3 weeks or 30 years. Most people have to go the distance, in one job or a series of jobs, to arrive at retirement. So to some extent, they have to endure. But after that, options rule.

For me - it is the product (software code) that makes up most of the circus. Since I spent 90% of my time working with the code and did not really need to deal much with people, then that was the big thing.

At DTNA the code was an absolute mess and after 9 years I could only take another year of it.

Then when I did that short gig after getting laid off, their code was a mess too, at least the part I worked with.

I have worked with other code that was more pleasant and easier to deal with - so it isn't just a conceit on my part.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

Before I reach Full Retirement Age they will move FRA to 70 or higher.

 

[Benchrest]

Doubt I'll live that long

 

[Certaindeaf]

Buck up. Pretty soon you'll be able to neural-link to the grid so your "reality" will be heaven on earth for the low low price of one retirement perpetuity.

 

[salmon creek gary]

Retiring in 2006 - just nine days after hitting age 62 - saved me from another few years of 150 mile daily RT commutes to a job in SoCal that had become increasingly unsatisfying. It also gave me the freedom to spend weeks at a time caring for my dad in Wisconsin during the last couple years of his life.

The decision to actually "go for it" was not a financial no-brainer. We'd be depending on my social security as well as air force retirement pay, plus eligibility for a reduced pension based on "more than 15 but less than 20" years as a DAF civilian. Once we learned exactly how "reduced' that would be, it was obvious that we'd also have to reduce our needs. Surprisingly, just getting rid of the commute vehicle and all attendant costs put us nearly into the black. Adding few other little cutbacks, the outlook comfortably favored immediate retirement.

 

[The Heretic]

 

[gmerkt]

reduced pension based on "more than 15 but less than 20" years as a DAF civilian. Once we learned exactly how "reduced' that would be, it was obvious that we'd also have to reduce our needs.

I took a significant bust in my Social Security annuity by reason of having a federal pension. I think I got one third of my SS after the reduction. Offset or something like that. The politicians decided that it wasn't necessarily what you'd earned, but what they thought you deserved. I also took a 10% bust in my federal pension by opting for the survivor benefit for Mrs. Merkt. Which would give her only 55% of my pension, but that would be better than zip. In reflection, way back I should've hired on as a state employee; they receive more generous pensions. However, I liked the 55 and out under the old system I was in.

 

[The Heretic]

I took a significant bust in my Social Security annuity by reason of having a federal pension. I think I got one third of my SS after the reduction. Offset or something like that. The politicians decided that it wasn't necessarily what you'd earned, but what they thought you deserved. I also took a 10% bust in my federal pension by opting for the survivor benefit for Mrs. Merkt. Which would give her only 55% of my pension, but that would be better than zip. In reflection, way back I should've hired on as a state employee; they receive more generous pensions. However, I liked the 55 and out under the old system I was in.

All of that is one reason why I maxed out my 401K/etc.; to not depend entirely on gov programs for retirement funding. OTOH, a lot of those pensions/etc., went bust at one time or another, and for most of my career, I never lasted at any one employer for very long, and employers are even worse about changing their retirement funding efforts/programs/etc.

The gov has to answer to hundreds of millions of voting age people, 70+ million on Social Security, and half of the population has retirement accounts - if they want to continue to be in power.

 

[wired]

The gov has to answer to hundreds of millions of voting age people, 70+ million on Social Security, and half of the population has retirement accounts - if they want to continue to be in power.

Which is exactly why it will never actually go broke. They might raise the age a smidge or raise payroll deductions or some other tweaks but it'll never go into default.

 

[The Heretic]

Which is exactly why it will never actually go broke. They might raise the age a smidge or raise payroll deductions or some other tweaks but it'll never go into default.

Yeah - they are already raising the FRA. Congress will probably raise the upper limit of taxable income, possibly without raising the max benefit amount, and not raise the MAGI limit where SS benes are taxable.

They have already tweaked the RMDs/etc.

 

[gmerkt]

All of that is one reason why I maxed out my 401K/etc

I worked under the old CSRS pension system, no 401k equivalent. When they changed the federal employee retirement system, they ended CSRS and came up with a hybrid plan that was Social Security coupled with the government equivalent of 401k. And bumped the retirement age up from 55 to 62 IIRC. Old system employees were not allowed to participate in the new, federal Thrift Saving Plan, which was set up for the new system employees. Who received up to 5% matching from the gov't. After a number of years, it was decided that CSRS employees could contribute to the TSP, but with no matching funds. They only came out with that several years before I retired but I did put some money into it. Where it stayed untouched for 15 years until I reached the mandatory distribution age. So I've taken a little out the past couple of years, but here is the irony - most of that I've used to prepay the IRS for income tax. So I don't get in trouble for insufficient withholding. Kind of a twist on quarterly tax payments.

 

[Old Dog]

I've had misguided bursts of enthusiasm for taking on employment since I retired. About five or six. It hasn't happened lately. I'd get inspired for one reason or another by an opportunity that came along. I'd get invested in the application process, several times I even got hired. Then I'd change my mind, call the HR peep and back out. I've wondered if maybe in at least some of those cases, maybe I did it just to see how far I could get in the process. I haven't regretted my decisions in all cases.

It's amazing how relaxed you can be during an interview when you don't need the job. I did apply for one job I might've actually taken but was told the only reason I wasn't selected was lack of a graduate degree (think they took someone with an online Master's).

I took on a couple part-time gigs as a firearms instructor, and really, wouldn't mind doing it maybe four days a week, as it's one of the few things I really enjoy doing (it's not really work) but no one is willing to pay me what I'm worth (or what I earned doing that at my last job, which could actually run up to $56/hour.

I dunno. Maybe I'd take something really cool but I'm not quite that bored in my retirement yet.

 

[The Heretic]

It's amazing how relaxed you can be during an interview when you don't need the job. I did apply for one job I might've actually taken but was told the only reason I wasn't selected was lack of a graduate degree (think they took someone with an online Master's).

I've gotten so relaxed, I just don't accept, much less show up for interviews.

no one is willing to pay me what I'm worth (or what I earned doing that at my last job, which could actually run up to $56/hour.

I have not had anyone ask me to "program" something for them for years - but I used to get people ask that a lot when I would tell them what I did for a living, but I would quickly shut them up by telling them I charge $100/hr with a 10 hour to one week minimum before I even wrote one line of code, and I would sometimes also tell them that it would take months to complete what they wanted (usually some poorly thought out idea of something that was already on the market or to fix a bug in some product for which code was not available because it is proprietary or no longer supported).

 

[BlindedByScience]

Retired about two weeks ago, after 24 years as an electrical engineer doing hardware designs of server grade network interfaces (cards). It was a great job, but it was time. I hit my full SS age (66 1/2) this month, and when I asked the nice guy at the 401K folks if I'm on track to retire....he said "how about today..??".....

So, full SS age and with a 401K that's done well....I can do it. Didn't hit 401K max but I've always 'given until it hurts'. Really paying off now.

Since telling my friends, I've had a couple guys approach me about doing some contract work. Maybe......

 

[arakboss]

The good thing about social security is you'll get a once a year bump to help cover the hyperinflation. Your COLA might be in the thousands of percent range.