Retirement Age

CHICAGO -- A controversial rule mandating that U.S. airline pilots retire by their 60th birthday has been repealed, ending a half-century of infighting among pilots. The U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation Wednesday night raising the retirement age for pilots to 65, a standard observed by the rest of the world. The House of Representative unanimously approved the measure Tuesday night. The new legislation was signed yesterday by President Bush. The retirement age rule has long been a point of contention among pilots, especially this decade as a downturn stalled promotions for younger pilots and upended retirement plans for those at the end of their careers.

In regard of your editorial about fixing Social Security ("Social Security can be fixed," April 26), why do you always blame the Republicans? For two years, President Barack Obama had control of the two chambers, so why did he not fix the problem? He passed the health care program. Since he had the majority, why not? Here is a solution: Raise the retirement age to 70, stop paying out to the children who have lost a parent, and stop paying benefits to people who don't pay into the Social Security program.

The County Council wants to raise the retirement age for appointed and elected county officials from 50 to 60 years.However, county attorneys question whether an employee's right to retire at a certain age can be rescinded.A bill raising the age at which officials may collect their pensions was introduced unexpectedly by the council in the final minutes of its Tuesday night meeting. The measure was sponsored by all seven council members, ensuring its passage."When it's introduced by allseven, you don't give a damn what anybody thinks," said Councilman George Bachman, D-Linthicum, when asked if he expected opposition fromemployees affected by the bill.

My column on Social Security got a big response from readers. One of the points made is the big reward retirees can get by postponing benefits until 70, if possible. Waiting an extra four years from full retirement age, now 66 for many, to 70 would generated an 8 percent annual benefit: or 32 percent higher than taking it at 66. Some disagreed saying people die early and should take it early: But according to life expectancy tables, thank you About.com, there's a good chance of living beyond 79 and a half.

The County Council tonight will discuss legislation to raise the retirement age for appointed and elected officials from 50 to 60 years.Though the bill is sponsored by all seven council members and therefore assured of approval, it will not be voted on tonight. County attorneys have noted legal problems with the bill as written, Council Chairwoman Virginia P. Clagett, D-West River, said.The bill applies to all employees who retire on or before July 1.The lawyers found it is illegal to rescind an employee's vested right to retire at a certain age, Clagett said.

BOSTON - As if it weren't bad enough to see the image of "senior citizens" transformed into "greedy geezers," now they're morphing into "lazy geezers." It seems that Social Security recipients are gradually being redefined as members of the leisure class. The plan to reform Social Security by partially privatizing accounts is going nowhere, but another idea is creeping into the public consciousness: Raise the age of retirement. This notion recently came up in the Senate, where the average age is 60 and heavy lifting consists of dialing for dollars.

WASHINGTON -- The retirement age, already scheduled to rise from 65 to 67, may have to be increased further because so many Baby Boomers could live into old age that it would overwhelm the Social Security system, the new Social Security commissioner said yesterday."

A commission including members of Congress from both parties will propose a sweeping plan today to shore up Social Security, calling for the establishment of personal investment accounts and a gradual increase in the retirement age to 70.The report is the most comprehensive package of recommendations for remaking Social Security in preparation for the baby boom generation's retirement. It says the changes would keep Social Security solvent for at least 75 years without raising taxes, even as it trades some reductions in guaranteed benefits for the higher, if less certain, returns of the financial markets.

Hundreds of experienced teachers and administrators in Baltimore County, many of them products of a hiring boom in the 1950s and '60s, are coming of retirement age and leaving the system, but few seem to fear a "brain drain" in county schools.At least 164 Baltimore County teachers and administrators will retire this year, about 25 more than the average over the past decade, said Helen E. Eder, a specialist in the office of retirement.The jump this year may also be due to the fact that with teachers at the end of a three-year contract, with no pay raise next year and with retirement benefits based on one's highest salary, many eligible educators are deciding that now is as good a time as any to get out.Baltimore County educators see pluses and minuses in the fact that retiring administrators and teachers, many with more than 30 years of experience, are being replaced by people who may have fewer than 20."

When Bill Donahue opened his boat business in Annapolis three years ago, he joined a growing trend among retiring baby boomers. He turned a part-time hobby into a full-time job. Protirement, a term coined during the early 1990s, in part describes the secondary careers taken on by many workers who find their savings and Social Security won't be enough to sustain their lifestyles after they reach the traditional retirement age of 65. Those without financial...

Most of us know some basics about Social Security. We understand retirees can start taking retirement benefits at age 62. We realize we'll get a bigger monthly check if we wait a few years more until our normal retirement age to tap benefits. And who hasn't heard that Social Security has a long-term financial problem that Congress needs to address? "When you scratch beyond the surface, the knowledge really plummets," says Jean Setzfand, vice president of financial security for AARP, which recently polled older adults on their Social Security knowledge.

Et cetera 'Redux' 3-5 favorite in latest bid for history Rapid Redux has been established as the 3-5 morning-line favorite by Maryland Jockey Club handicapper Frank Carulli in Tuesday's sixth race, a $17,000 starter allowance. Rapid Redux, who broke the record for consecutive wins last month at Mountaineer Park with his 20th straight score, looks to tie the modern-day U.S. record for victories in a calendar year, currently shared by Citation (1948) and Roseben (1905)

This poor economy has destroyed any hopes of a level playing field for blue collar, working class people like me. Only possessing a high school diploma and a skilled trade (barber), I knew that over my lifetime that I would probably not earn the same salary as my white collar counterparts. Therefore around age 20 (I am 43 now) I acquired a personal financial planner so I could at least make it to retirement age as secure as white collar individuals who earned higher wages during than their work years.

Peter Morici's characterization of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme in his recent opinion piece ("Yes, Social Security is a Ponzi scheme," Sept. 22) is an affront to all intelligent people. In the first place, a Ponzi scheme is a deliberate attempt by a "snake oil salesman" to convince gullible investors that they will profit tremendously in a short period of time. The good majority of those who participated in Social Security in 1935 were not destined to ever collect. That's because people in those times did not live to the ripe old age of 65. Those who joined when they were in their 20s and on paid in but, in large part, never collected.

For some time, I have been reading about the problems created by the vast number of baby boomers reaching retirement age. This week, I became part of the problem. After almost 34 years writing for The Baltimore Sun, I am saying so long. I applied for a buyout - or voluntary separation plan - that the newspaper offered, and since acceptance was based on seniority and I have been around longer than the presses that print the paper, I was a shoo-in. As my last day approached, I prepared to leave the labor force by doing some research about the group I am joining: the retired.

If there was still any doubt that Social Security is the proverbial third rail of American politics — that is, potentially deadly to the touch — Gov. Rick Perry has provided the electrifying answer: You don't mess with the monthly checks, Texan. At a presidential debate in California last week, Mr. Perry decried Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there. Anybody that's for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it's not right.

The County Council raised the retirement age for elected and appointed officials from 50 to 60 Wednesday night.The seven-member council unanimously voted in favor of the pension law revision, though council members George F. Bachman, D-Linthicum, and Diane R. Evans, R-Arnold, wanted to withdraw the legislation for further study.The bill applies to workers hired after last Dec. 1.Bachman and Evans were concerned that the legislation may be open to legal challenge by employees hired between that date and the day the new law takes effect.

AMERICANS aren't saving enough for retirement. It's a deeply troubling trend, especially because 76 million baby boomers will retire over the next 15 years. That will put enormous pressure on the Social Security system, which was never envisioned as a full-fledged retirement program. Private savings and company pensions are supposed to sustain a retiree's standard of living. Congress is looking at ways to boost retirement savings. A bill approved by the House Ways and Means Committee last week seeks to encourage workers to set aside more of their paychecks in IRA and 401(k)

Interested in martial arts? How about yoga? Would a class in alternative medicine appeal to you? What if a place offered all of these, along with a well-equipped fitness center? Such places exist in Baltimore County. They're called senior centers. The leading edge of the baby boom generation crossed the age-60 threshold of senior center membership a few years ago. Now, men and women approaching retirement age are looking to incorporate the senior centers into their active lifestyles.

The people who run senior centers are finding that the baby boomers who are beginning to populate them don't want bingo, they want belly dancing (see our Page 1 story). These aging boomers are less inclined than their parents were to pull up stakes and move to Florida, or even into nearby retirement housing. They want to stay right where they are, in the homes they know, and local officials have sharpened their focus on ways to help them achieve that goal. Observing the determination of this new segment of the senior population to stay put and to keep doing physical things instead of shuffling off to some warm corner to await the inevitable quietly, the cynic might say it's a result of denial: The people who came of age in the don't-trust-anyone-over-30 culture of the 1960s are vainly clinging to their youth.