BlackRock CEO recommends that we retire later

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June Zaccone

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Apr 2, 2024, 11:32:06 AM4/2/24

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A solution to the retirement crisis? Americans should work for more years, BlackRock CEO says

By Aimee Picchi March 27, 2024 /

With Americans living longer and spending more years in retirement, the nation's changing demographics are "putting the U.S. retirement system under immense strain," according to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in his annual shareholder letter.

One way to fix it, he suggests, is for Americans to work longer before they head into retirement.

"No one should have to work longer than they want to. But I do think it's a bit crazy that our anchor idea for the right retirement age — 65 years old — originates from the time of the Ottoman Empire," Fink wrote in his 2024 letter, which largely focuses on the retirement crisis facing the U.S. and other nations as their populations age. [Apparently he doesn't know that the Social Security age for full retirement has already been increased.jz]

Fink, who is worth an estimated $1.2 billion, notes that many 65-year-olds in the early 1950s didn't get a chance to retire because many had already passed away. In other words, he writes, more than half of workers who had paid into Social Security never got a penny because they died before they could claim the benefit.

"Today, these demographics have completely unraveled, and this unraveling is obviously a wonderful thing," Fink added. "We should want more people to live more years. But we can't overlook the massive impact on the country's retirement system."

[He'll be glad to know that life expectancy has been falling. Does he know that highly unequal incomes, like his, deprive SS of revenues? The payroll tax stops at incomes above $168,600 [2024]. jz] ....

Fink heads Black Rock, "the world's largest asset manager, with $10 trillion in assets under management."