Retirement Age

The judicial certificates are gone. So are most of the books.And in two weeks, their owner, Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Lawrence H. Rushworth, will also be leaving -- retirement-bound after about 15 years on the District Court and Circuit Court benches.At 65, Rushworth is five years shy of the mandatory retirement age. But he said recent knee surgery, a desire to travel, changes in the practice of law, and financial considerations led him to conclude that the timing was right."It's traumatic," Rushworth said.

ABOUT two years from now, the first trickle of baby boomers hits early-retirement age. In the years after that, the trickle will become a flood. When they leave their jobs, who will be left to mind the store?Younger boomers will move up. But behind the boomers lies a small generation, the baby bust. The number of workers ages 25 to 34 will shrink by nearly 9 percent in the decade ending in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Even now, there aren't enough hands and brains to fill all the positions available.

HOW MUCH do you have to save each month to have enough money to retire? To answer this question, a growing number of people are turning to retirement calculators. You might use a calculator that you find on the Web. Or you might pay a broker or planner to run the numbers for you.I have bad news. You could miss your target by a mile, even if you invest exactly as you're told. I also have good news. A new Web calculator offers better estimates than you've probably had before.There are no guarantees.

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.

AMERICA'S retirement system is a vast web. Touch it in one spot and the pressure is felt in the farthest corners. When Social Security benefits are changed (note that I said "when," not "if"), the private pension system will be profoundly affected, too.About 40 million workers are covered by traditional pensions, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) in Washington.When they retire, they'll get a fixed monthly benefit, depending on how much they earned and how long they worked for the company.

MEMO TO baby boomers and twenty-somethings: It's time to grow up and accept the truth about Social Security. The system won't fail. It will be around when you retire.It has to be changed, however, to accommodate the boomer bulge. Somewhere around the millennium, a deal will probably be worked out.So you have to look carefully at the reform proposal from the bipartisan National Commission on Retirement Policy (NCRP). It will set a base from which the debate proceeds.Unlike many other proposals, this one makes some creative compromises among the many different views on how Social Security should be changed.

WASHINGTON -- The dirty little secret about the Social Security problem is that everyone already knows how to solve it.After consulting the actuarial tables, you have several options that can assure the solvency of the system after 2029, the year it will go into deficit under the current rules.You can increase the payroll taxes. Or you can limit cost-of-living increases. Or you can make the wealthy retirees pay more taxes on their benefits. Or you can change the retirement age over a period of years so workers become eligible for full benefits at 68 or 70, not 65. Or you can combine two or three of these approaches.

ARE YOU looking for a good investment? "Stocks with strong dividend growth outperform other stocks," says adviser Charles Babin. He explains, "Companies raise dividends when the future looks bright, but cut payouts when they expect rough times. Best strategy is to focus on dividend growth, not yield."Companies that boosted at least 10 percent a year over 10 years include Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Travelers Group.PLAY BALL! Where do you think the Dow Jones industrial average stood when the Orioles last won the World Series on Oct. 14, 1983?

Clair Phillips has loved his 31 1/2 years in the Baltimore County schools.At age 55, though, the Overlea High School world history teacher faces the dilemma of thousands of experienced educators: He's eligible for full retirement benefits but considers himself too young to stop working.So Phillips plans to retire at the end of this semester and expand his fledgling second career at a Dundalk funeral home. "I just figured it's time to move on and try something else. It's a hard decision, but I think it's time."

When Joe Vittek got married, his father-in-law offered this advice: Get a job as a bus driver and, if you keep your nose clean, you'll never need another job again.So Vittek slid behind the wheel one snowy day in February 1947, and he's been driving Baltimore area streets in a bus ever since, hauling generations of residents to school, work and play.Vittek proudly wears Badge No. 1 -- out of about 2,300 -- in honor of his position as the longest-serving full-time driver at the state Mass Transit Administration.

It seemed like a good idea. Baby boomers who never got around to saving as much as they hoped promised to keep working past retirement age. The joke in the generation has been: "I'll just work forever." And the intent has shown up repeatedly in research. But now along comes an economic downturn, and people are losing jobs. It looks as though Plan B, a lifetime of working, might not be an option to rescue undersavers after all. "It's a perfect storm," said Jack VanDerhei, a Temple University professor and fellow at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Keswick Multi-Care Center in Baltimore plans to build a $195 million continuing-care retirement community on Roland Park land now owned by the Baltimore Country Club, its CEO said yesterday. Keswick has agreed to buy 17 acres of club property where members once played tennis. The sale requires approval by two-thirds of the club's 2,000 voting members, with a vote set for July 15. A letter sent by the Baltimore Country Club to members said the price was $12.5 million, which Keswick confirmed.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Bud Speace of Lenexa, Kan., has a pilot job waiting for him in Kazakhstan, if he wants to accept a six-weeks-on, two-weeks-off schedule for Air Astana. Jim Hathcoat of Olathe, Kan., prefers to stay closer to home, so he's scouting pilot options for small, executive aircraft charters. Both men were among the United States' most experienced pilots until they were pushed out of their jobs last year - Speace from America West and Hathcoat from Frontier Airlines. They had to retire because a Federal Aviation Administration regulation required retirement at age 60 for pilots of U.S. commercial air carriers.

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.

I retired a few years ago from the military after 20 years. Does the windfall elimination provision reduce my future Social Security benefits? A number of factors could throw you under the provision, including how long and how much you paid into Social Security from your non-military employment over the years. Up to 9 percent of future retirees could see their Social Security benefits trimmed by this provision, which dates to 1983, according to research published in the Journal of Financial Planning.

Elmer Klavens, a pharmacist in Baltimore from 1931 until his retirement in May at the age of 95, died of heart failure Friday at his home in the Ranchleigh neighborhood of Baltimore County. He was able to keep working three decades beyond the normal retirement age because he loved what he did and enjoyed helping people, said a son, Stuart Klavens Clay of Pikesville. Mr. Klavens died about five months after he filled his last prescription at the Chestnut Pharmacy in Hampden. "I encouraged him to keep working because it kept his energy level up," Mr. Clay said.

We are 57 and 58 and have two children in college, one at a state school, one in a private school. They will be there for the next four years. My husband has just started putting money in his 401(k)-type plan because of (previous) concerns over cash flow. I have put in the max and catch-up for many years. My thought is to get a "line of credit" loan to pay college bills so that the maximum can be put in retirement plans. I would rather pay interest on a home loan to decrease our taxable income now. Is this a rational line of thinking?

WASHINGTON -- Airline pilots could keep flying until age 65, five years beyond the current limit, under a Federal Aviation Administration proposal announced yesterday. "It's time for a change," FAA chief Marion C. Blakey said in a speech at the National Press Club. "We're all living longer and healthier, and that includes in the cockpit." The plan could alter the retirement plans of thousands of pilots approaching their 60s, and may help the industry cope with a growing pilot shortage and mounting pension costs.

Departing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld may be leaving behind a legacy of discord and failure at the Pentagon and in Iraq. But that doesn't mean he won't be highly sought after as a board member or corporate executive, say headhunters who have tracked his career. "He has a great business background and a great government background. As long as Nancy Pelosi isn't the lead director, I think he would be a real prize for any board," said Greg Crecos, who heads Gregory Michaels & Associates, a Chicago search firm.

When workers hear they will have to stay on the job longer than today's retirees, many imagine populating a cubicle into their 80s or 90s. But some retirement specialists say workers may really only need to put in an extra couple of years, not an extra couple of decades. Today, the typical retirement age is 63 for men and 62 for women. Continuing to work until 65 can make a big difference in the standard of living of future retirees, said Alicia H. Munnell, director for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.