How many years did you work

How many years did you work

  • Less than 10

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • 11 - 20

    Votes: 11 3.2%
  • 21 - 30

    Votes: 66 19.0%
  • 31 - 40

    Votes: 189 54.5%
  • 41+

    Votes: 80 23.1%

  • Total voters
    347
I had over 30 years in SS so I collect my full (meager) public pension.

My wife had 17 years in SS and then 15 years in a public pension. Her SS was cut by 50% and the local SS office said her spousal benefits on my employment would be less than hers so she got hers.

T'will be interesting to see how SS figures all of this out. She'll either get another $330 of hers or another $800 if the spousal benefit is used.

Or something else. Or nothing. Or years of writing letters and complaining.

I'm going with "C". :)
 
With the (presumed) repeal of WEP and GPO and the prospect of my DW getting half my PIA in spousal benefits I've been thinking about the fact that my PIA is somewhat below maximum because of the limited number of years I worked. I retired after 27.5 years of 'real' work (and another half dozen or so years of low wage jobs I had while a student). As a result my PIA is reduced about 10% from the maximum it could be for someone my age.

This being a site dedicated to early retirement it made wonder how many others here have relatively short careers and whether this has impacted your PIA. In this poll I'm only asking about 'real' full time work - not short low paid gigs, but how you define real work is up to you.
Yes, the bill to repeal WEP and GPO was signed last Sunday. But it will take a while for the SSA to be able to implement this - probably a software coding change that needs ro be contracted out, all those who had a reduction have their benefit recalculated plus all the back pay, etc.
 
I have paid into 28 years of Social Security earnings (I immigrated to the USA in 1997). I was a very high earner throughout that period, so though I still have a few zeros, my projected monthly on the SS site when I start drawing seems pretty high. (Even at 65 $3,200/month plus)
 
I don't have 35 years but I have had a decent salary (above the yearly max) for most of my career. I made a chart showing how much extra I would get in benefits for working extra years. $80 a month or so in today's money at age 70+, then more like $30+ once I reach 35 years.
Not negligible since it's "forever money" but not enough to cause me to delay my retirement beyond my planned date.
 
38 years full time. Minus about 5 months out on strike/unemployed plus 4 months in school.

Another 4 years of summers and Christmas breaks.
 
Graduated from university in May1987 and started working a few weeks later. Retired in 2020.

During my working years had an opportunity to “buy” 5 years of service time for my pension … which I did. Ended my career with 34 years of actual work time plus the additional 5 years I bought.
 
I voted 30 years. But, I took a good 2-3 years off during that time between jobs. Getting layed-off in the tech industry can be a blessing and a great excuse to take 3-9 months off to recharge and reassess the direction of the industry.
 
Probably an apocryphal story: Supposedly someone asked Megacorp's CEO how many empl*yees he had w*rking for him. "About half of them." He replied.

Don't know how to adjust my years for the times I just "showed up" and balancing that against the sometimes insane overtime I put in. I'll just stick with my 36 years AT Megacorp and let the Cosmos judge me for the rest.
 
30 years of full time work for employers, longer if you count the crappy, early jobs. Even longer if you count the best job of all - I now make art and write full time. I left employer-paid employment at 55.
 
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