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Retiring Boomers Will Cost Billions

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 1/7/08

Abstract:

Daniel Barnes of Wilkingsburg began delivering newspapers in Homewood and Penn Hills at age 8. He later worked at U.S. Steel's Homestead Works, automobile garages and a demolition company.

Barnes, who turns 62 in February, is in the first wave of the nation's 77 million baby boomers — Americans born between 1946 and 1964 — who become eligible this year to receive Social Security benefits. Barnes opted to retire at 62 rather than keep working with a bad back...

...Experts say this generation could strain government services at a time when many have not prepared for retirement. According to U.S. News & World Report, 41 percent of workers between the ages of 45 and 54 have saved less than $25,000 for retirement...

...Seventy percent of baby boomers will need some kind of long-term care whether in a nursing home or elsewhere, but Social Security and Medicare do not cover those costs, and state Medicaid programs are stretched beyond their limits.

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