Back in mid-January, approximately 2 million workers went on strike in France. The headline of an article I read said the French workers were protesting a new government proposal to increase the retirement age. If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that you cannot mess around with someone’s retirement date. If a person plans to retire at, say, the end of the calendar year, and then they suddenly find out they have to work a couple of more years, it’s not pleasant. That person becomes a very unhappy camper. (Not to mention a very unhappy and unproductive worker. They become “quiet quitters,” except without the quiet part.)
I know this to be true because I know a few guys who planned to retire last year, and then their 401k retirement plans shrunk in value drastically. Combined with serious inflation issues we haven’t seen in four decades, these people made the unhappy calculation that they still needed to work a little more to insure financial stability well into their retirement years.
So, messing with someone’s planned retirement date can be quite a volatile situation. I kind of empathized with the French workers. Then I read the rest of the article and discovered the government proposed to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Whoa, wait a minute. As someone who's already celebrated those birthdays, with no retirement date in sight, I could only roll my eyes and offer a hearty laugh. (In a bad French accent, of course. Kind of a nasally, "Hohn, hohn, hohn!" like Lumiere in "Beauty and the Beast" or someone impersonating Maurice Chevalier.)
So, messing with someone’s planned retirement date can be quite a volatile situation. I kind of empathized with the French workers. Then I read the rest of the article and discovered the government proposed to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Whoa, wait a minute. As someone who's already celebrated those birthdays, with no retirement date in sight, I could only roll my eyes and offer a hearty laugh. (In a bad French accent, of course. Kind of a nasally, "Hohn, hohn, hohn!" like Lumiere in "Beauty and the Beast" or someone impersonating Maurice Chevalier.)
You mean they’re going on strike and protesting a plan that would let them retire with a full state pension at age 64? Like that’s a bad thing? Who created that pension system, anyway, the State of Connecticut? (Sorry, I know I vowed to stop squawking about state employees and their gold-plated lifetime pension plans — the ones where many workers can start collecting a full pension in their 50s, and keep receiving those hefty payments no matter how long they live. I’ll try to be less jealous and bitter in the future.)
The French government, not surprisingly, claims the country’s pension system is going broke. I suppose any program where workers receive a paycheck for 25 years and then collect an opulent pension for 30 or more years thereafter is not going to add up. (Anyone in Hartford paying attention? Oops, there I go again. Sorry.) According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, France spends nearly 14% of GDP on state pensions. That’s not 14% of the government’s budget; that’s 14% of the nation's entire economic output! Even if France successfully changes the retirement age to 64, they still will be more generous than most other developed countries, where the retirement age is between 65 and 67. Also, even if the proposed reforms are implemented, fully 40% of French workers will be able to retire before age 64 because of exceptions for people who have physically taxing jobs. I’d love to see a list of those “taxing” jobs. Croissant baker? Snotty waiter? Customs official who sneers at you while stamping your passport?
Personally, I wasn’t one of the guys planning to retire this year. But my 401k took a pretty severe hit recently, too, and inflation is a concern, so my vague idea of “maybe in a few years” is now way on the back burner. My current view of retirement is: “75 is the new 65.”
The French government, not surprisingly, claims the country’s pension system is going broke. I suppose any program where workers receive a paycheck for 25 years and then collect an opulent pension for 30 or more years thereafter is not going to add up. (Anyone in Hartford paying attention? Oops, there I go again. Sorry.) According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, France spends nearly 14% of GDP on state pensions. That’s not 14% of the government’s budget; that’s 14% of the nation's entire economic output! Even if France successfully changes the retirement age to 64, they still will be more generous than most other developed countries, where the retirement age is between 65 and 67. Also, even if the proposed reforms are implemented, fully 40% of French workers will be able to retire before age 64 because of exceptions for people who have physically taxing jobs. I’d love to see a list of those “taxing” jobs. Croissant baker? Snotty waiter? Customs official who sneers at you while stamping your passport?
Personally, I wasn’t one of the guys planning to retire this year. But my 401k took a pretty severe hit recently, too, and inflation is a concern, so my vague idea of “maybe in a few years” is now way on the back burner. My current view of retirement is: “75 is the new 65.”
Well, there’s no reason to fret about it. All I can do is roll my eyes and offer a hearty laugh: “Hohn, hohn, hohn!"
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