POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Social Security and Retirement Age roundup

• One of the most hilarious political debates on the future of Social Security. A quote: `Timothy Smeeding, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who studies Social Security, was blunt in his assessment of Lee's proposal: "That is total horseshit."' Okay, it doesn't get much rowdier than that, but it's still pretty funny to read.

  Fine. I'll admit: it doesn't take much to amuse an actuary

• Debate on how high retirement ages could or should go
• French lefties have a whimper of a protest at proposal to change retirement age all the way from 60....to 62
• Argument to make SocSec normal retirement age 78...keep in mind, he's talking about the Normal Retirement Age [currently 66, will be 67 for me and other Xers], not age of eligibility [which is still 62].

  The vast majority of people take SocSec benefits within the first year of eligibility. Somewhat sad, because SocSec benefits are not that large even at NRA, many of these people are still working and thus get hit with tax penalties, and there are huge reductions in benefits by taking SocSec early. Advice from an actuary: delay taking benefits as long as makes sense for you [i.e., if you're working, don't file]

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.