WHEN CAN YOU RETIRE? (How's Never? Does ) Never Work for You? )

What everyone has been saying lately online, in print, on TV, and everywhere else about retirement. Are your golden years suddenly looking less golden and a lot farther off? BY chris Raymond
IN A NUTSHELL
"By 2037, all the Social Security reserves will have been drained and the income flowing into the program will be enough to pay only 75 percent of scheduled benefits. If that sounds tolerable, consider that two thirds of seniors rely on Social Security as their main source of income. The average annual benefit is $14,000."
Washington Post editorial
But is Social Security shuffling workers off to shuffleboard too early? Isn't 62 supposed to be the new 42?
"Social Security has morphed into a middle-age retirement system. It defines people as old— eligible for Old-Age Insurance—when they are 62. When this benefit was first made available some 70 years ago, people couldn't get it until they were 65, and on average they retired at age 68 (compared with about 64 today). If Americans were to retire for the same number of years today as they did then, on average they would work until about age 75 ... Instead, most d raw benefits for about a decade more than they did when the system was first established—now approaching one third of their adult lives. One or another partner in a couple retiring at age 62 today will probably draw benefits for about 26 years!"