back in the day men retired at 65 and women 62 and were entitled to a liveable pension but politicians saw into the future and knew people not only lived longer but they wouldn't be able to pay large pensions so they devised at plan in the 1990s a way to forcibly take 9% ( it used to be 6%) of your weekly pay and put it into a superannuation fund. Your employer pays it. Then when you retire you either live on a part pension and your superannuation... it can go something like this for arguments sake... $300 from your part pension and $300 from your superannuation per week.... or whatever...it depends how much you squirreled away in your super fund. Your superannuation fund gives you 9% interest.... BUT as the stock market goes up and down so does your super and that freaks me out.
My point is only that you can retire whenever you like.
I am retired at 56 (I have been semi-retired for about a decade before). My wife is retired at 50.
We have company pensions (defined contribution, not defined benefit) that we can not access until we are into our 60's (65 I think). We have government pensions that we cannot access until we are into our 60's (and probably will not access them until we are 70). We have a government benefit (Old Age Security) that everyone gets, but not before they are 65.
That just means we had save money in other investment vehicles.
You said that people are not "allowed" to retire until they are 67. That is not true. The
are allowed. They just will not receive certain income until they reach that age.
But none of the people who worked for you or any other minimum paid worker, (which are the majority of workers worldwide) can, can they? They can't retire. They have to keep looking for a job and the older you are looking, the harder that is. The older you are, you are looked at as a compensation risk. Who is going to employ a 66 year old roofing carpentering?
And most people at the moment receive government handout in the form of unemployment benefits between jobs that doesn't even cover their $400 a week rent. The government give themselves yearly 2% pay rises but kept unemployment benefits the same rate, and has done for 30 years.
Why do tax payers have to give them that much money for doing nothing until they die?
Now if you are a politician in our scummy run country of crooks, you can retire at any age and receive a 6 figure sum yearly for the rest of your sorry life.
I was referring to the average worker not the average business man or like my teacher neighbour who retired at 72 and is now what we refer to in Australia as a self funded retiree.
You are in a unique situation and are referred to as a dinkie.... double income, no kids. You are not the majority or typical workers.
Congratulations on retirement... let's hope Rio Tinto keep digging up that iron ore in my state eh?....lol.