When a person is considering retirement, there are many decisions that must be made. What is the right age? Can I afford to pay my expenses and still maintain my current standard of living? Am I old enough to be eligible for Medicare? Will I, like many others before me, have to return to work to make ends meet? This is the time to carefully examine your finances and determine if you can afford retirement.

One of the main sources of most retiree’s income is their social security checks. This amount will fluctuate depending on your age at retirement and your earnings up to that time. Social Security has been mailing annual estimates to everyone for a number of years. They are, however, estimates and cover just early retirement, full retirement age, and retirement at age 70. Should you want to retire at some point in between these years, you would have to guess at what your social security income would be.

In an effort to help retiree’s make a sound financial decision, the Social Security Administration recently went online with a Retirement Estimator. This allows workers to see what their expected levels of payments will be for all possible retirement ages. This estimator is available at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator. After you provide specific personal information, the system can calculate your benefit based on your retirement date and current earnings. It will also provide information as to how these payments will change if your earnings increase or decrease. Before making the decision to retire, it is important that you have a realistic view of your finances versus expenses.

I just read an article in the newspaper about a lady factory worker who has been employed at the same place for 57 years.  The lady is 93 years old and as a birthday gift her coworkers gave her a cushioned chair on which to sit while performing her job.  She states in the article that she loves to work and has no intention of quitting.  This, however, is not the case with the majority of the workers being forced to stay at their jobs or find new careers to supplement their income.

The majority of seniors who are still employed are not doing it because they’d rather not be retired.  They are staying at their jobs because they cannot afford to live on their current income.  Many retire and then discover that they are unable to survive financially,  so they must go out and find new sources of income.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics has furnished the following statistics showing the reversal of the trend towards earlier retirement.

Employment statistics for Americans 65 and older have increased each year.

Americans 65 years of age and older comprised 15.5% of the labor force last year, the highest rate recorded since 1971.

Of workers 65 and over, 56.3% were working full time jobs.  Until the last few years, part time workers always outnumbered those with full time employment.

In the past 30 years, workers 65 and older have increased by 101%, compared with a 59% increase in total workers.  Those 75 and older increased 172%.

Unfortunately, this situation is continuing to amplify, but jobs are not always available for those who need them.  This will lead to additional financial problems in the future for all.  If seniors are unable to supplement their incomes through employment, how will they be able to survive in the future?  They will require government assistance from a social security system that has been raided for years by our government.  Pay back time may just be around the corner.  The helping hand of the United States had best start providing that help locally, instead of globally.  Our citizens must come first.