There are many people for whom it would make sense to delay retirement past age 65.
The main reason individuals should do this is to ensure that they will have enough additional income available to support their lifestyle in retirement.
Anybody who is retiring with just Social Security and a pension should seriously consider continuing to work.
Why You Should Consider Staying on the Job Pension plans are no longer reliable many corporations have gone out of business or ended their plans and turned them over to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
The PBGC normally only pays a percentage of the original benefits and it may not provide Cost of Living Adjustments.
The buying power of defined benefit pension plans can also be quickly undermined by inflation.
This means you should have an annuity or some other source of retirement income available.
Since you can now work and receive Social Security benefits it will be easier to use a portion of your income to purchase a deferred or split annuity after 65.
This strategy can reduce your taxable income because annuities are tax-deferred and it can give you another source of reliable retirement income.
Market Based Investments and Retirement at 65 Persons who plan to rely on market based investments such as stocks and real estate should consider this strategy too.
Such investments can quickly loose their value and person entirely dependent on Social Security.
Anybody who is heavily reliant on market based products should definitely look into alternatives such as SPIA annuities.
In some cases it would make sense to sell such investments and use the cash to purchase insured investments.
For many people continuing to work and using the cash to buy other investments would make sense.
Persons with a limited retirement income should definitely continue to work even if they end up putting up most of the income into some sort of plan.
Another alternative would be to roll the funds in an existing retirement vehicle such as an IRA or a 401K over into something like an immediate annuity.
If this is done properly a person should face no tax penalties for doing this.
Persons who are heavily invested in real estate should definitely set up a guaranteed retirement investment of some sort.
Real estate is not as stable or as reliable as it once was values fell drastically between 2007 and 2011 in some areas.
That means it could be harder to sell property in case of an emergency.
Some Alternatives to Working Full Time It could be possible to keep working and still enjoy retirement after 65 through careful planning.
Since you will be receiving Medicare and Social Security you may not need as much income.
That means you could consider working part time, doing temporary work or some of freelance or consulting work.
Persons in many sales or professional jobs could easily do this.
A professional receiving a pension could go back to work part time and use the proceeds to purchase a deferred annuity to augment future retirement income.
Another alternative to look into would be moving to state with a lower cost of living or moving to a lower cost of living location near your present location.
Somebody could relocate to an area with lower income taxes, or home in a city where they could rely on public transit instead of a car to reduce expenses.
That way you could reinvest the savings in insured investments to guarantee future retirement income.