Teaching FTW! I get to retire at 54. Full pension :D

On the penny front, expect more take-a-penny-leave-a-penny dishes. It's been too long that making a penny cost more than a penny.

On the employment front, I’d just like to submit the antidote that I’m in the construction industry and there is a large portion of semi-retired individuals, who finished one public-sector job, collecting their pension, and working 3-4 days a week.

Also, we are seeing increased requirements for experienced project leaders (20+ years), so the skew above 50 isn’t going to reverse soon. Education and health are also areas where increased experience is more important than cost-reducing measures.

@H4: I would love to discuss this with you more this evening, but unfortunately the fire alarm has been beeping for the past 15 minutes, and I"ve been trying to convince someone that the duration for a floating rate bond is simply the number of days until the next coupon date. Going round and round in circles. I have a web reference and two text books in front of me that agree and sadly we need this consultant to agree with me.
So and all I can say right now is:

http://thestockyards.ca

And I'm taking my gf to ST Marys for the weekend :P

@hawkeyee: my parents were both teachers, they went to 65 after calculating that it wasn't worth it to retire at 54 full pension in their case. Enjoy your DB pension you fluffhead (note this has nothing to do with what me and h4 are discussing really).

Martian, are you aware of a thing called the 'baby boom'? There are not enough skilled younger people to cheaply replace the older people in the US. In fact, its becoming an increasingly common phenomena for for a person in their 60's to retire and begin to draw their retirement. Then they get hired back in the same position as a contractor, effectively drawing two salaries. There are several sectors where there is a huge gap in talent between generations The 'hard' engineering fields (civil, chem, mechanical, etc.) will be in especially huge demand in coming years.

it's not a skill thing. the older people simply have to pay too much money for healthcare to let the younger people take over and do the job.

that isn't an issue here, as their healthcare is covered by the government.

PS: St. Mary's?! Even people in Woodstock make fun of that place!

@archaic: A solution to that has already been found, it's called immigration and outsourcing to increase the labor pool. Many predicted labor shortages have not materialized for that reason. What you say is true. But it tends to be a temporary thing rather than a trend.

Pretty much any job can either be outsourced or labor can be mass imported in. There are a few exceptions, but that is because of lobbying and relative influence as opposed to practicality.

In any case, even if that wasn't true, it has little to do with our benefit debate. In Canada you cannot get OAS and have a decent paying job anyway (which makes perfect sense to me).

The penny is perhaps the most debatable coin in circulation, as it costs more than one cent to make one and no person likes the things. A sports store is so federal reserve up with them that the store owner has declared [url=http://personalmoneynetwork.com/...012/09/18/pennies-banned/]penny banned[/url] from the property.

I think we should get rid of our pennies too. No one wants to carry around pennies anymore, I have a huge container full of em, and it costs more money to make a penny then they are worth!

No more pennies. Yeah!

indeed.

Also on reflection foog was more right than I was :P

I do get things right from time-to-time. I'm sure it has more to do with probability than any innate intelligence I may have.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkcHeUbvM6M

Canada did no such thing.

What you are referring to is that Canada raised the age of eligibility of collecting "Old Age Security" benefits and the "Guaranteed Income Supplement" allowance from 65 to 67 years of age.

You are still eligible to collect "Canada Pension Plan" benefits as early as 60 years old

Canada has no mandatory retirement age.

My country pulled the pennies quite a few years ago. The only thing that ISNT round off is your credit card balance and utility bills.

we already went over that exhaustively earlier in the thread, so we won't be going over it again thank you.

apparently it is in another thread where this subject is discussed so I will have to post it here:

No ware did I say "mandatory retirement age", that is a fallacy in your interpretive assumption, not in my statement.

A vast majority of people retire within 12 months of OAS/CPP eligibility age. Thus increasing the OAS eligibility age will increase the average retirement age e.g. "retirement age".

As a result, my statement is defensible.

About the penny thing... price rounding only occurs when a consumer uses cash. If it's an electronic transaction, no rounding occurs. So... if you get into a situation where they round down (0.01, 0.02) then pay with cash! And you will screw the govt of their tax pennies. If it's a rounding up situation (0.03, 0.04) then pay electronically and you wont lose your 2 pennies. So, there's that.

As for not accepting pennies as legal tender, this will never happen. Businesses still accept 1 dollar and 2 dollar bills in Canada even though they have been replaced for a long long time.

No it's not.....

StatsCan reports that the "AVERAGE" Canadian retirement age is 62, not as you put it "a VAST MAJORITY" retiring at 64

I've read your previous comments.
Your views are based on your family and friend's financial inability to retire at the "average" retirement age of 62.
Your family may not be able to financially afford retirement unless they receive that OAS pension but please don't speak on behalf of the "average" Canadian

the average Canadian isn't dependant upon the maximum $546.07 monthly OAS pension.

the Canadian gov't just found another way to screw the average Canadian out of $546.07 a month for a 2 year period.....not delay their retirement

uhhh, do you understand what a negative skew does to a mean average?

also, you deny that raising the OAS age will statistically increase the average retirement age? heh

the penny.. what a waste of material resources!