Who Can Afford Retirement These Days?

Who can afford retirement these days?  What is retirement actually? Is it the opportunity to quit working before your heart does? Is it complete happiness and spending all of your kids inheritance money before you die? The money is not better but the hours are.  Retirement is wonderful. It’s your chance to finally do nothing and not get caught at it.  There is a life after retirement and it is better! However, with todays senate and constant changes, many of Americans may not get to enjoy the benefits of retirement but in these days who wouldn’t want to enjoy the benefits of being gainfully unemployed.

Any day now the Senate will decide whether to raise the full retirement age to 69.  Pros argue that raising the retirement age is necessary to save Social Security. Opposed argue that raising the retirement age will disproportionately hurt low-income and minority workers.  Take women, for example.  Given the Senate’s failure to pass the Equal Paycheck Act, it’s unlikely that the stubborn wage gap will decline, leaving women earning only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.  Assuming that the typical person works about 40 years until reaching the current retirement age of 65, women will need to 52 years to earn what the typical man earns in 40 years. In short, women will need to work until age 77, far above the proposed retirement age of 69, just to earn the same amount as a man who reaches age 65.

Next, there are people of color. Men and women of color who earn less, making it more difficult for them to save for retirement and lowering their average retirement benefits. But even more problematic, people of color have far less wealth to fund their retirement. According to Retired Charted, single white men under age 65 have a median wealth of $43,800, single black men have $7,900 and Hispanic men $9,730. Single black and Hispanic women fare much worse, with a median wealth of $100 and $120, respectively. Given these statistics, many people of color lack retirement security.

In a nutshell,  for women, people of color, the unemployed, those facing foreclosure, and those whose retirement saving has been limited by economic woes, extending the retirement age to 69 is a dumb point.  They’ve already raised my retirement rate to age 67.  Most middle to low-income women can’t retire. During the course of their working careers, most women will live from pay check to pay check, and don’t have the extra money to save for their retirement.  Most will be lucky if they can afford to retire in their 70s.