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  • Re: Pearls Before Swine: Birthdays

    From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 21 17:34:23 2025
    On Sat, 7 Jun 2025 10:35:39 +1200, Your Name <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Oh wait, 65 is Medicare.

    67 is Social Security Full Retirement age for the tail end of the baby boomers.

    In New Zealand you currently get the government pension, 'oldies'
    discount card, etc. at age 65, but there is talk of raising the age
    (like most countries it is costing too much with more and more older
    people and living longer).

    65 was "the age" with the first Old Age pensions in Bismarck's
    Germany. At that time the German male life expectancy (for those who
    had survived to adulthood) was 69 years old. Certainly at that time
    living to 91 (as my grandmother did) was rare.

    Successive governments have talked about raising the 'retirement age'
    but voters have tended to take age 65 as THE #1 'benefit' in western
    societies.

    Certainly Bismarck never expected 20-30 year retirements in his day.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 21 17:46:53 2025
    On Sat, 7 Jun 2025 15:08:23 -0400, William Hyde <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    I would have liked to spend the last decade teaching, at least part
    time, but I didn't need the job, and many younger people did.

    I could have retired later but in retrospect my wife died unexpectedly
    3 years ago (the retirement deal took 6 months to manage and she died
    about 2 months before the deal was complete) and having a partnership
    with my brother it was pretty much either exit at 65 or 70 with little
    between. Had she died when I was still working I probably would have
    come apart even more than I actually did.

    Mostly I work hard appearing stoic in front of my daughter (37 years
    old, lives with me rent-free but I'm glad to have her help given how
    things have worked out)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)