10 Reasons to Delay Retirement

[Geoffrey]

10 reasons to delay retirement - 1 - retire later - MSN Money Anyone convinced?

 

[MichaelB]

10 reasons to delay retirement - 1 - retire later - MSN Money Anyone convinced?

It is common courtesy (and in the forum CR's) to avoid posting 'naked links' by providing at least a brief description of what your linked material contains. A convenient way to do that is to paste a short quote from the linked material

Please do not post “naked” links, defined as links posted without explanation, interpretation or context.

 

[W2R]

OK - - Geoffrey, here is something you could have posted with the link:

The 10 reasons are,

More time to save.
Fewer retirement years to finance.
Continue to delay taxes.
Higher Social Security checks.
Health benefits.
Improve your social life.
Protect your marriage.
Stay involved.
Give something back.
Flexible scheduling.

As for me, I had enough money (with or without SS) for my remaining years, as well as health coverage, or I wouldn't have retired. I am not married and my social life, while not extensive, is much more to my liking as a retiree. I don't need work to stay involved, and will be able to leave money to my daughter. Even if I had needed to work part time, that would not have been possible for my job - - so much for flexible scheduling.

So, I guess that about covers it. Retired and loving it.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I like my work. Most of the time.

 

[Dawg52]

Thanks for the link Geoffry.

I didn't like my work and I felt I had all my bases covered, so there was no good reason to delay retirement in my mind. And 4 years into it, I have no regrets.

 

[Nords]

Anyone convinced?

I guess most of my decision would depend on my employer's willingness/ability to turn the average office environment into the Fantasyland depicted in the article.

Oh, wait, I'm already running my own life in my own Fantasyland. Maybe I don't need to depend on the workplace for my own entertainment after all.

 

[Ronstar]

I like my job more now that it's 3 days a week or less. Number 10 is imperative to me. I have to have flexible scheduling to work when I want. I would retire if I didn't have this flexibility.

 

[audreyh1]

Is that picture a senior working in some massive call center? Is he one of the poor guys handling customer complaints for some giant mega-corp? Was that all he could find after the "first time" he retired? Is it better than working at Walmart?

I always find the reason "Fewer retirement years to finance" to be so sad!

Doesn't it creep the author out to add that to the list?

Should be renamed 10 common excuses (other working) people use to scare you out of retiring.

Audrey

 

[REWahoo]

I always find the reason "Fewer retirement years to finance" to be so sad!

Doesn't it creep the author out to add that to the list?

Yep. The politically correct version of "closer to dead."

 

[chinaco]

Well. Many of them were good reasons. Depending on the specific situation, I would agree with all of them.


But most of them could be rendered down to 1 reason: Not Prepared to Retire! Most of them were financial preparation concerns.

 

[Nords]

Is that picture a senior working in some massive call center? Is he one of the poor guys handling customer complaints for some giant mega-corp? Was that all he could find after the "first time" he retired? Is it better than working at Walmart?

For a frightening few seconds I thought it was Tony Bennett...

 

[plex]

I don't think you can have a much more flexible schedule than when in retirement. I think #4-#10 are applicable to both situations, or are downright wrong, like work tending to improve your health.

 

[Moscyn]

The list just convinced me I made the right decision not to delay retirement.

 

[Berkshire_Bull]

I know a lot of people who died earlier than expected that spent extra years piling up money for their kids to piss down the drain after their death. The average inheritance is gone in 18mo. I don't know anyone who has outlived their money, save for nursing home / terminal illness cases, etc. and at that point Medicade picks up the tab so who cares.

 

[scrabbler1]

Nothing on that list made much sense to me.

More time to save - I already saved plenty in my 23 years of working.

Fewer retirement years to finance - I already have more than enough money to finance my retirement yearss, even if I have 45 of them.

Continue to delay taxes - Huh? I can do that now, and I pay far less in taxes since I ERed in 2008, paying little in income taxes and zero in FICA taxes.

Higher Social Security checks - My SS benefit will be lower because I ERed but not by much because the average monthly income in the benefit formula I am forgoing is in the 15% income replacement bracket (i.e. highest Bend Point). Similarly, my company froze my pension years earlier so working longer would not increase it.

Health benefits - Because I had reduced my weekly hours from 20 to 12 in my last 17 months of working, I had become ineligible for my company's group health plan. This meant I would have the worst of both worlds: I have to work and still buy my own individual health insurance policy (after COBRA expired).

Improve your social life - I expanded my hobbies and volunteer work after I ERed, so my social life improved after I ERed.

Protect your marriage - I ain't married. No kids, either.

Stay involved - With what?

Give something back - I do that with my volunteer work.

Flexible scheduling - I did that in my final years of working, but as I wrote above I needed to work more than I wanted to in order to keep my group health benefits and I could not tolerate the commute even 2 or 3 days a week.

To put it simply, not delaying retirement was the best thing I ever did. Once the pieces fell into place in 2008, I went and did it, even during a crashing economy (which actually helped me!).