A Penny for Your Thoughts?? Well, not any more!

Yes, in the USA, we've already had full retirement raised. I'm 54 and I could retire at 68 2/3. My husband is 55 and he can retire at 68 1/3. There is some weird formula that is supposed to stop at 70 because the average person lives to alledgedly, 77. So this has been going on for quite some time. They've talked about getting rid of the penny and that's not going to work because of taxes. We're at 8% tax for everything. If it was 5% or 10%, then we could do it. That 8% is 4% from my state. If they rounded tax to 10%, there would be a wicked fight. They're also talking about doing away with the paper dollar. I had a discussion about that. But they came out with new dollars that have been recently printed, so it didn't happen.

I guess it's time to wrap all my pennies and take them to the bank. Not going to be saving them anymore. Not that I ever liked them in the first place. Maybe they'll become collector items in the future if there are none left.

I'm not going to miss the penny too much. It's costing us 1 1/2 cents to make one. It doesn't make sense to use it anymore. As far as the age we get old age pension......I'll be surprised if there's any money there by the time we retire. It just means we have to work harder to plan for our retirement, becuase there won't be much money left.

They have talked about doing away with the penny here too...I can't see it but if they do it might be just like you..another government issue they can fight over! And it all costs money.

Hi cher, I think it's time for the penny to go, they have been talking about it for years now. I don't hear any big outcry about the demise of the penny. The retirement age is a big thing and will likely be changed when we get a new government, especially if it's an NDP government, which seems likely right now. Blessings.

I am not Canadian but I think both of those are bad ideas. Without the penny it will be hard to create an exact cost of anything which means they will likely round everything up by .04 which will cost the people and extra .04 for a lot of things, that could add up over a while. In America you can retire at 65 but you will get less Social Security then if you wait until you are 67. I think that is kind of good as it allows people to make their own choice. Most who are able will wait until they are 67 but it is still an option for those who are 65 if they need to retire.

Well, there have been many times here in the US they have talked about doing away with the penny which would be interesting. I would think this would mean many people would start hoarding the pennies knowing that they would become worth something then. As for Retirement age, here it is based on Social Security, etc. and it keeps on going up all the time depending on how old you are. Maybe they think that if they keep on raising the age this will be less money that they will have to pay out later for other things?

I heard about this on the news yesterday. There's been a lot of discussion about doing away with the penny down here in the US also. Apparently it costs about 2 1/2 cents to mint and circulate wach penny and the gov would like to do away with them. A lot of people are starting to hoard pennies here. I still find pennies useful but lots of folks don't. You're right about retailers rounding up. That's exactly what they'll do and we'll wind up blowing through the next lowest coin just like we now do with pennies. Down here that would be the nickel and it's five times the worth of a penny.

Do away with the penny? That sounds nuts.

the economy seems to be killing everyone in all countries. its getting to where we may all have to form a special meeting of all countries, just for that. the economy. wow see how nice it is at mylot. it lets us in on everything going on in all countries. we learn every day here.

A penny for your thoughts is not enough money to start with, but what can I really say about that except for the fact that pennies do multiply into dollars when you save enough of them. As far as my thoughts (and no you don't have to pay me a penny for them) on getting rid of the penny go, I actually think that this is something that makes a lot of sense (no pun intended). I personally think it will make the financial system a lot simplier for people to understand.

A few weeks ago, when I was getting frustrated at work, I was just counting how many years still I have to work until I retire. With this new change in retirement age, I'd need to add two more years! Maybe by that time, the two cups of pennies I have on my TV stand would be worth more than it is now!

I understand that it "costs more to make than it's worth." But will the money we as taxpayers save from not making them make up for the extra money we will be paying for everything now that retailers (as you pointed out) will be rounding up? And someone else made a great point about taxes...in Ontario, sales tax is now 13%. Are they going to put it back up to 15% where it used to be? How can I pay 13 cents on the dollar if there is no way to pay the 3 cents? The retirement age thing bugs me. One 65 year old might be healthy, energetic, sharp as a tack, and fully able to work full-time for another 5 or even ten years. Another 65 year old may be experiencing physical and mental issues, and be unable to work. Countless others may be able to take on part-time work, but not be healthy enough for full-time. Why are we treating all people of a certain age the same? (Of course there are a ton of other issues, like how some people have spent 50 years paying into "the pot" whereas others might have spent only ten or less, but that's a whole other discussion!)

I've always wondered if and when the U.S. will "phase out" the penny. But with state sales tax varying so much I don't see that it could happen. IN Maryland, where I am, sales tax is 6 percent. Something that costs 1.00 is then 1.06. Ya need that penny to make the tax! I guess if everything could be rounded out to the nearest nickle it would work. Personally, I love getting up a huge collection of pennies and then turning them in for fifty or a hundred dollars each year.

Yeah, it sucks big time, but I don't think the opposition can do much about it, as the "Harper Gov't" is a majority and they're not calling an election until they absolutely have to. And maybe not even then, if Herr Harper continues on his course to rule the world...

My opinion is that I think it's a good thing to be rid of the penny because it bugs me that something costs .99 instead of a dollar. The retirement age being raised may be good for me too since I'm having trouble finding a job , it'll give me more time to find one, I suppose.