GOP senators look to increase retirement age to SIXTY NINE

Uh-oh. The 800-lb gorilla is out of it's cage.

I was born in 1942. In the regular reports the SS sends me I am told I can retire at 65 and ten months, but, to get full benefits I have to wait til I'm 70. I don't see the change.

If you were born in 1942 then you can retire with full benefits at age 65 and 10 months. You'd get a higher amount if you delay your retirement up to age 70 (that's supposed to be an incentive.).

http://www.ssa.gov/retirechartred.htm

Right now there is a sliding scale for anyone born between 1937 and 1960. Those born after 1960 can retire will full benefits at age 67.

It looks like this proposal extends the scale farther along so that those born in say.. 2000 may not be able to retire with full benefits at age 70. (I've yet to see anything showing what the extended scale might actually look like though)

In a coupla decades the average retirement age will be "deceased"

Born in '44. My 'full retirement' age is 67.

Not quite. lol Average life expectancy for a newborn increased by 6 years between 1970 and 2003. Their full retirement age hasn't gone up at all so far.

At 62 I was eligible to receive benefits, but if I work they take a bunch away. I can retire at 65 and ten months for a bit more, but can earn as much as I want without penalty. Then, at age 70 I can get almost twice the prior amount.

And yet people continue to elect the type of congress that takes everything away.

that's the whole point of increasing the age.

The way the current system is setup you get 100% of benefits at age 65 and 10 months (because of your year of birth). (I typo'd on my earler post and wrote 62 and 10 months - I'll edit that.)

Anyone can retire at age 62. If you did that you'd take a cut of 24.17% for the 1st 46 months so your checks would only be 75.83% of the full benefit amount until the 46 months was up.

If you delay your retirement past age 65 and 10 months they'll add an additional 7.5% to your monthly check for each added year. If you waited until age 70 and 10 months that would give you 145% of full benefits.

Unless I am mistaken, if you take early retirement, your monthly payments are permenantly reduced. They do not jump to the regular rate when you reach the "normal" retirement age. Of course the COLAs are still applied to your payments as applicable. I know that's how it has been for me, who has been collecting since 1990. I remember reading at the time that the amounts were computed so that based on actuarial tables and assuming you died at the appropriate time, you would receive the same total amount (compounding included) at the time of death regardless of which option you took.