Deciding When to Delay Retirement

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A public pension is deferred income, money earned but not received. Private industry and self-employed may make big incomes up front, but they have to plan for their retirement too. Be it the private sector 401K or the public employees 403b, we all have a responsibility to ourselves to prepare for the later years. Public employees work for less so to speak with the promise of the pension in their later years being there for them after 25-30 years because public employers can not pay equal to the private sector. So whether you earn up front in private industry, self-employment as big money or you earn it as a public employee with little money and a promised pension ( of which most public employees pay into throughout their career) it is an issue of personal responsibility. The fact is we need to have our country's retirees living a safe, healthy, affordable retirement and not be a burden on society. No longer is eating dog food, pushing a grocery cart of rags and sleeping under a bridge at night acceptable for our American Senior Citizens. Would you want that for yourself no matter how hard you worked for 30+ years?
I have been teaching for 36 years, I am vibrant, a teacher mentor, love my job and HS students. If I did not have to worry about money for taxes and cost of living expenses, then I would do my job for free, althogh that is not reality. I have jumped through the hoops of academia, met the requirements of the State, and I take my verbal beatings working in the public sector by keeping and compromising my personal beliefs and opinions to myself; that is what being a good employee is, public or private sector.
Please stop the whinning, we all need to retire with dignity. We all had/have opportunity and talents to succeed, made our choices. It is what you do and choose to do that makes your life what it is.
As is said "We do not die from any one particular disease, we die from the way we led our life." Make positive personal choices for a better day for yourself, because only you can make yourself happy. Choose happiness in your daily deeds and thoughts, life will be much easier. Those who were on the front line earning a pension deserve to receive it, after all they are still paying Federal taxes on a pension. No one gets out of paying Federal income tax.

Focus + Stay the Course of NY 10:35AM January 10, 2010

Hey, Teach,
I'm sure glad you didn't teach me. The first word of every sentence, as well as the single letter word "I" and proper names like America are always capitalized.
Soles are the bottoms of your feet; I believe "souls" is the word you were groping for. It's baby boomers, not "bommers."
Proper punctuation would also be in order. Your last two sentences made no sense at all.
But to address your comments related to the story, the recent stock market crash destroyed the nest eggs of many retirees and of those approaching retirement age. They are not fake old soft-bellied sad sacks but honest Americans who worked hard all their lives and took all the right steps in their efforts to secure a comfortable retirement. The Bush administration crash pulled the rug right out from under them.
I do, however, agree with Mike: unlike the ants who worked hard and planned for their future, the grasshoppers who demanded instant gratification and impulsively squandered their incomes on useless consumer trinkets deserve little sympathy.

Deferred gratification advocate of FL 10:07AM December 07, 2009

Stop blaming George Bush and everybody else but yourself for the mess you are in. If you were a saver and not a consumer of "things", you would be able to ride out this recession, as our parents did during the Depression.

Mike of TX 1:47PM December 01, 2009

"How did we get here?"
Thank you, George Bush.
Fortunately, I've saved a bunch and, even with the "financial crisis", have more money than I could ever spend.
One right-wing commentator has lambasted the baby-boomers for spending their money, rather than giving it their (grand)children. I earned it, and I'm going to spend it. Woohoo!

expatinasia of FL 4:22AM November 25, 2009

kumbaya kumbaya i am teacher and don`t feel sorry for
myself,like these sad soles. what gives ? please teach
baby bommers how to invest like our fathers and mothers
did. this is some sad sack recession blues. we are americans
who stand up for justice, truth, honesty. we are made
of american steel, not a pillar of salt, as is being
portrayed here in. as bill moffitt and jame todd would say
these are some fake old soft bellied pie in the sky americans.
so if we are in our later years. we helped to make mike kelly,
joe lund, pete,and little jeffy, obama americans too.rev. gilenas
is our spiritial leader.

charles taylor jr. of CO 10:08PM November 20, 2009

We are seeing evaporation of middle income earners to a loss of at least 40% in this recession.
Working since I was 15 and now 64. Wanting a nice house I upgraded the house in 2008 with an equity line of credit. Then, just as the market a few months later was to drop like a stone. My job tied to commissions took a hit by 50 %. and now a scramble to make payments on mortgage and equity line while the income gets my attention constantly like so many. How did we get here?

Rupert of FL 12:08PM November 11, 2009

Thank God I will have a teacher's pension for retirement!
I am age 63 and retiring in June having taught for 34 years. Even though I just paid off loans for my Batchelor's and Master's degrees and 40+ credits beyond to keep updated in my profession, and I make less than one-third of the salary my 30 yr. old daughter is making working in law....I can retire with a decent pension income to live on.
We teachers don't make much money in public school teaching, far less than our peers in private business, but we DO get a decent pension in retirement and we DO get the reward of feeling that our careers helped to make our world a better place!

Lois of MA 8:07AM November 11, 2009

Too bad people enjoy the blame game so much. Ted Kennedy and others really have worked to make life better for everyone, but circumstances change not just here but all over the world. We are greatful for having enough food to eat and a home to live in and a retirement system in place. In other countries such as Haiti people barely subsist. We too worry about having enough money to live out our lives, but are thankful for what we do have.

Alan and Hazel Hetzel of NC 4:45PM November 10, 2009

I am now 62 years of age. I have worked hard all my life, beginning when I was 19. Since 2000 I have only been able to work half time due to the need to care for an elderly parent. After 13 years of caregiving and working, I am worn out, and desperately want to retire. Yet now the statisticians are informing us that the early SS retirements (62 year olds), will banckrupt the system if they system if they start drawing at 62. The whole system sucks, folks! I totally blame the long-term politicians like Edward Kennedy, who served in Congress for over 30 years, and must have known that the Federal Government was balancing the books by sucking the Social Security Fund dry. We need to throw out every incumbent until our elected representatives start working to do what's right for generational Americans, not pandering to the growing millions of illegals!

11th Generation American of WA 12:46AM November 02, 2009

While I feel distressed with losses I am thinking of working no later than 65. We chose to work for less money long ago for a government position with pension that also pays into social security; I also have a 403b as does my wife. We have a paid off mortgage and the only loose canon is health care. My work is trying to take away medical in retirement, so it will be 62 or 65 with medicare for me.

Loren of CA 11:49AM September 30, 2009