What I've Learned, What I've Earned

Mark Johnson

February 6

It's a rainy, blustery afternoon in Scottsdale, Arizona. Windbreaker weather.

Nothing like the norm. Nothing like this photo I captured two days ago as Tom and I made our way around Chaparral Park.

But measurable rain is welcome here, and--if the weather forecasters are right--more is in the offing this week with heavy snow in Arizona's higher elevations north and east of us.

Now that I've lived here nearly seven years (that anniversary arrives in July), I've learned that we will have plenty of blistering hot days between June and September.

So, I will embrace this cool, short-term, winter-in-Arizona anomaly. Maybe it will help build our reserves in the Colorado River basin.

As the raindrops fall, Tom and I celebrate a personal milestone. Today--February 6, 2024--we reached our full retirement age (FRA)--66 years and 7 months for those born in 1957--as defined by Social Security.

Basically, that means we are eligible to receive 100 percent of our Social Security retirement benefits--benefits we each accrued by paying into the system and working all those years, commuting to and from an array of jobs on mostly cloudy, windy and often-snowy Chicago days.

If you are unfamiliar with the U.S. Social Security Administration regulations, the Social Security Act was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1935.

The idea then--and still today, fortunately, though the program is under scrutiny--is that a small portion of Person A's wages goes toward helping to support senior citizens with a financial lifeline.

Then, when Person A reaches senior status, he or she has earned the right to Social Security retirement benefits. As the rules exist today, those who log at least 40 quarters (the equivalent of 10 years) in the United States workforce are entitled to some sort of retirement benefit.

Those eligible can start taking their benefit as early as age 62 (but receive only about 70 percent of their benefit) or as late as age 70 (and receive more than 100 percent).

Of course, this is a decision laced with all sorts of permutations and "what ifs." None of us knows how long we will live. But I opted to begin drawing on my accrued benefits--what I earned during all those years--now.

Looking way back in time ... when I was in my twenties and thirties ... I hoped this day would come. But I was never sure I could rely on it.

So, I did my best along the way to save in other ways to protect myself. It was an awareness that come from my hard-working father and mother, who lived through the Great Depression. They probably cheered when the measure became law.

With time, I imagine the Social Security Administration will need to push the FRA to age 70, because of our aging population--and the sheer number of us Baby Boomers who will receive payouts and deplete the reserves.

But I hope younger Americans in the workforce one day also will realize the same sort of accrued retirement benefit.

Certainly, like me, they will have earned it and will deserve it.