Just do the math…

In 1881 Germany's Emperor, William the First envisioned workers' retirement. In 1889, Bismarck began its implementation for those reaching the age of 70, which was later reduced to 65. At that time, the average life expectancy was only 47 years. With negative financial exposure, that move made perfect sense! In the USA, the Social Security Administration premiered its program in 1935, with a retirement age set a 65, while the average life expectancy had grown to about 67 years. Today, in the USA, our retirement age has advanced from 65 to 67 for the spoiled baby boomer generation, but their average life expectancy has leaped to 82.5 years.

Something is wrong with that picture. The number of folks over 60 years keeps on increasing. The United Nations says that by 2050 it is projected to reach two billion, about 22% of the world’s population. If the trend continues, most retirement systems in the U.S. and everywhere will go bust unless our politicians have the courage to make some tough decisions. Those are simple, but highly unpopular: We can keep on advancing the retirement age into a worker’s seventies, reduce the amount of benefits received, or significantly raise the contributions paid by the working population.
Just do the math…