Canada Pension raises retirement age for those under 54!

Unfreakinbelivable!!!! So... Now I will have to be 67 to retire, unless I have a pension at work!? After paying taxes my whole life!? Maybe they should look at serious cuts to Social Services (half of the abuses retire at 20!) before punishing those who work their whole life!!!

Don't get me wrong, I know our program here is good, but we PAY into it!

With good jobs that offer pension packages scarce these days many rely on CPP!

If we are so broke lets trim the abusive social services system and lucrative deals for immigrants that DON'T go towork (I have absolutely NO issue with immigrants that come here to work!)

Yeah that's rough.

My dad is 65. He can't retire right now. Although it's not because of Canada pension. He has his own retirement fund (as I would encourage EVERYONE to do... don't rely on another entity to fund your retirement) but he pretty much blew most of his savings paying for my brothers ridiculous divorce (my grandmother is LIVID about this as well she should be)

I think he has started collecting CPP but he still has to work.

But I totally agree, there are so many ridiculous social services that are abused and basicaly reward those who can't be bothered to work.

but this is an excellent example of they people need to take control of their retirement into their own hands.

My mom is in the same boat. She can't retire. She's 62. My step dad can't work. he has Lupus and a particularly aggressive form of it. he WANTS to work. he busted his hump his entire life, paying into these programs. Now he is physically NOT ABLE to work... there are some days where he can barely get out of the bed because he is so sick but do you think he could get approved for disability? NOPE!!!! he wasn't "sick enough" they said. then you see other people who have made a career out of disability who are much more able than he is. no wonder he can't get it... everyone else has sucked it dry.

It sure is forcing us to examine how we have things set up, at nearly 40 not too many years left to pay in...

We are going to talk with an advisor, once we get the new house built and the other rented it will free up most of my income, time to figure out how to invest it!!!

They raised it here a while back too, they're talking about raising it again... I don't see how I'll ever be able to retire. I'm already going to be pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. There's really nothing left to invest, especially since the safest investments require a large minimum to get started...
I'm basically counting on an early death to help me out. =P

That's a good idea

My dad needs to do the same thing. Now that he's blown most of his retirement money on my brother.

it's rough. I wish they taught more of this stuff in schools. I know I didn't know anything about investing and retirement funds before and I still don't know as much as I should now. Thankfully Brian has a good handle on the ins and outs of that stuff and his dad is EXCELLENT with that stuff so he's a big help.

Where's Puckstop when ya need him? I don't have the energy to go into the politics of it. And it IS ALL about politics. Be careful what you wish for. People want the things and people they vote for and then wonder why this happened. Yeah, it's disgusting. They want us to work like slaves and then drop dead while we're breaking our backs. How else are all these things everyone wants going to be paid for?

Thing is.... I don't want anything extra... I want the pension I contribute to, at the same age my parents received it...

There are some mathmatecians out there proving that sure the burdens a bit higher for the years the baby boomers retire, but will end up being leveled out when that generation is, ummm, gone... Then there will be far more paying in than collecting...

I just find it horribly offensive the amount of abusive of services while hard working people pay into their pension, as well as the taxes that support the abusers... And get shafted!!!

Doug and I were discussing this a while back and are not surprised. We had a feeling there would be an increase. More and more people over 65 are having to work even with a pension there just is not enough for basic needs. Having a seperate retirement fund is no longer an option but should be a priority. It does suck that the age has been increased but as we discussed people are living longer now as well so it was expected in our minds.

I think people living longer is the excuse they use.... Those super smart math people are disproving that it would not work...

There are tons of ways to save money, TONS

Next to healthcare, retirement is one of our most valuable assets...

In some cases people work longer because they lived beyond their means and cannot afford to retire ( NOT all, but that's the case with several I know, had to have the big house two new cars and two trips a year even though it was not something they could afford ) now because of a need to keep up, and an unwillingness to downsize they are having to stay working...

John's pension was "small" because he starting paying in late, and paid minimal amounts and it was still decent enough to retire on if you had little debt load, and were not in need of a new expensive car every two years...

I am not saying that's always the case ( and expecting to get flamed for that opinion ) but it happens a lot....

"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

Benjamin Franklin

He wasn't being prophetic there either, he just read a history book or two. It happened to Rome and it is going to happen to modern Western society. It does not have to, but it will. Stopping it will require politicians with the guts to say NO.

I do not believe VERY strongly in absolute minimal government intrusion (some call it "help") into ours lives because I am mean and want people to suffer. Quite the opposite is true.

Retirement/pensions were supposed to be for the last 5, maybe 10 years of your life. Now people are trying to retire with 20+ years left on this earth. It's a nice theory, but that's not really sustainable long term.

My parents (both with graduate degrees and investments) are expecting to retire around 70.

Indeed. When Social Security was started, 65 years was older than the average life expectancy. If you made it long enough to get it, it would not be for long.

I don't want to get preachy.... So just insert my usual rant about Federal social welfare programs and the utter lie that they are. LOL

I firmly believe it has more to do with bad management of other services, than a sudden increase in age.... In fact because of poor lifestyle choices there are predictions the average age is going to slide down fast soon...

I would have no issue if it were proven to be in fact about the CPP, but when I pay from my taxes, above and beyond my pension contributions, to support MILLIONS abusing our social services ( Have no problem with the small percentage who actually need it ) Then, YES I have a problem with it...

Call me a horrible, cruel, mean person but I firmly feel you should cut those services, and HARD before you mess with pensions we have paid into, a good chunk of our checks, our whole working life!!!

Maybe they are ( in fact I know they are ) two separate issues, but when I talk to someone who makes as much as people in good jobs here while on welfare, and are in their 20's and able bodied but tell me they won't go to work because they'll make less then... It becomes impossible for me to separate it...

This was the point I was trying to make you just said it better. Which is why having a seperate pension plan to go with the CPP is something that should be a priority.

LauraLeigh - It sounds like you are really angry about the social services programs then about Cpp. I think Social Services needs to be set up differently. BUT I do disagree that only a small percentage of the people on it actually need it. I would think it would be closer to 50% or more that are honestly on it. But it is also set up that when honest people have to use it then it is almost impossible to get off of it for many reasons. Do people abuse it? Yup. But the people I know that have had to use it all say the same thing. They make it almost imposible to get a job and get off it.

CPP question.

Is it really a "pension", or is it like SS in the States? Here SS is, well, a Ponzi scheme. The people drawing on it are funded by the people currently working. The people currently working (and funding) SS, HOPE, that the next generation will be there to support them.

See the fatal flaw? Take the modern entitlement mentality and combine it with a very, VERY liberal idea as to what a "need" is... You get the current, unsustainable mess.

Laura, you are very right to be upset. We all should be.

When did SS start there?

CPP is not terribly old, John never paid in until he was older because it did not exsist when he was younger...

Just looked and yes, statistically women live 7 years longer and men 8 years verses in 1966 when the CPP plan was instituted, however our contribution rate has increased a lot since 1966 as well....

I don't know, I get that part of it (Longer life means more expensive)

It's the fact that so many other services are so seriously abused, it makes me want to just scream, clean that up before you mess with pensions!!!

Maybe I just can't be objective LOL

I think it's similar I guess... I admit to not understanding it fully

SS was established in 1935.

Well looky there! Its NOT a true Pozi scheme like our SS is. They actually invest the money in the market. These days, I would not put it in the market, but into some kind of physical investment, but still... Thats a LOT better than we have it. Our morons already spent the money sent to the SS fund, the SS "fund" is full of IOU's. Certain politicians and their minions think that is OK because, "it's money we owe ourselves". Give me a physical break. LOL

A few years back, there was an effort to give US Citizens the OPTION to invest a portion of their SS witholdings in the market. One side of the aisle screamed foul!!! How dare the "people" decide what to do with their OWN money.

It all goes back to my orginal quote in this thread.

Had this as an edit, decided to make a new post do it would not get lost...

Nicole,

And we'll have to agree to disagree that 50% on the system truly need it...

Hub and I were married at 17/18 and had two babies by 18/19...

We struggled, we searched under cushions for milk money, we did menial jobs for little pay to supplement our income, we lived in a 600 square foot home with two kids that we owned, because it was what we could afford to own and heat...

We dug, scratched and clawed our way to a better life... Never once doing what so many others in our position did, turn to the government for help....

We are not special, anyone able bodied, willing to work **** hard and be poor as hell for a while could do the same...

Was it easy? While watching others get more money, more benefits, and far better housing on the government dime? Not at all...

Was it worth it? Hell yes!!!

Just because you don't like it does not mean its a scam. A Ponzi scheme is a scam. Everything here is spelled out in excruciating detail.

Its funded for quite some time, though it will have issues if the population starts dropping. We can counter that with immigration if so many people would stop crying about that.

"The amount of the monthly benefit to which the worker is entitled depends upon that earnings record and upon the age at which the retiree chooses to begin receiving benefits. "

You get back, what you pay in, I can't see how some mythical entitlement mentality is going to change that.