50 Is the New 65: Older Americans Are Getting Booted from Their Jobs -- and Denied New Opportunities

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. Here is the triple whammy aspect

Traditionally in America our peak earning years were our 50's and early 60's. That's when we rose to the top of our professions, that's when we experienced the relatively high compensation that accumulated pay raises over the years provided us. Thus, that was when we were able to save most for retirement. For breadwinners with families, there's a good chance the kids were finally on their own and (mostly at least) supporting themselves by the time you turned 55, or 60 at the latest.

Now that has all been turned on its head as experienced workers are forced out of jobs to lower payroll costs. Instead of saving money for retirement in your 50's and 60's increasingly people are forced to spend their retirement savings early.

By the time many make it to age 62 they have no choice but to start collecting Social Security early - they need those checks just to survive. But anyone who starts collecting S.S. at 62 is locking in significantly lower monthly earnings for the rest of their lives.

And then there is that matter of how social security earnings are calculated in the first place. It is based on a formula that averages out your peak earning years. For future retirees, whether retirement comes at age 62 or 66 or higher, those previously high incomes they were racking up between 50 and 85 will be swapped out for far lower incomes, with long periods of unemployment cutting into earning figures and high paying jobs being replaced by any job they can still find for older workers in the current market. The result? People will not only have to face retirement without a nest egg to ease the transition, they will receive smaller Social Security checks when they do finally qualify for Social Security benefits.