Pension and annuity retirement policies were first implemented as a means to encourage older workers in employment to look for another jobs. Retirement has become a norm, the expected life of the stage, which has an institutionalized part of most modern societies. Workers expect to retire actively choose to withdraw from workforce as quickly as they are financially feasible. Once they are retired, they are expected to enjoy their life and get satisfaction with their lives. (more…)

Issues around retirement income planning are the most obvious. The traditional “three-legged stool” of retirement income planning—Social Security, pension income benefit, and income from personal savings and investments—is increasingly unsteady. Social Security faces a funding crisis in the first half of the twenty-first century because soon there may not be enough workers paying into the system to support those receiving its benefits. Social Security income lifts more than one in three older persons out of poverty—more than 60% of them women. It is by far the single most important contributor to financial security in old age in America. (more…)

Because gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people can still be legally discriminated against in employment in most of the country, and because gay couples are not treated equally under Social Security, pension income is an important policy issue affecting gay elders. Contrary to a widely held stereotype of gay affluence, gay men and lesbians earn no more than heterosexual men and women. In fact, gay men earn about 15% to 20% less than heterosexual men. Lesbians earn the same as heterosexual women, but because women on average earn less than men, lesbian couple households earn significantly less than heterosexual couple households (Klawitter and Flatt 1998). (more…)

As the nations of the world address the challenges of population aging, two key issues of concern are whether a sufficient number of appropriately skilled workers will be available to maintain economic productivity and whether the existing retirement pension programs will be able to maintain the growing number of retirees. A multidisciplinary literature addresses various dimensions of these joined issues, including studies of the trends in employment rates among persons 55 years and older, the relationship between aging and changes in physical and mental capacity, the influence of current policies on the availability and utilization of older workers, and how new workplace programs and government policies may lead to improved opportunities for jobs for older workers. The policies proposed in response to these concerns differ in their targets for change and in their tone. (more…)

Because Early Retirement Incentive Plans are not as widespread as they had been a decade or two ago, there are fewer reports detailing their dimensions. Price Waterhouse Coopers (2001) surveyed 114 firms in 2001 and reported that 12.3% had made such an offer to employees. Watson Wyatt surveyed 75 large companies in 1998–1999, finding that 61% had offered at least one ERIP in the previous ten years. In 2002, however, Watson Wyatt’s survey found that only 17% of U.S. firms had offered such plans in the prior three years. (more…)

The majority of firms offering Early Retirement Incentive Plans use a combination of years of age and service to define those eligible for a window plan offer. Or they may have a “magic number” that can be reached by different combinations of age and service. For example, if the number is 75, then a person aged 55 with 20 years of service and another aged 60 with 15 years of service would both be eligible. (more…)

In the U.S. the laws that apply in a divorce fall under the jurisdiction of each state. Some things may vary from state to state but which is usually constant when the alimony of the spouses is meant is that this can be paid by both the husband and the wife. (more…)

There are three programs designed specifically for older American volunteers that are sponsored by ACTION, an independent agency of the Federal Governments. They are the Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), the Senior Companion Program (SCP), and the Retired Senior Volunteer/Program (SVP). (more…)

About one out of every four women (42-56 years old) does some volunteer work. The women volunteers average 24 weeks per year and during their weeks of volunteerism, they average 6 hours per week in this activity.

As with the older men, these averages hide a wide range of variability in the number of weeks women volunteer. (more…)

It’s not just choosing the right retirement investment that helps 401k grow faster. It’s keeping your hands off them too. Most plans permit you borrowing from 401k against the account balance for compelling reasons. Those all-too-compelling reasons may reduce the amount you’ll be able to draw someday from your 401k. (more…)