Been reading up on retirement systems lately and there's actually some interesting differences between how things work in the US versus Mexico that most people don't really think about.

So here in the States, the average retirement age in USA is around 62 according to recent surveys, though obviously everyone's situation is different depending on their savings, health, and all that. The thing is, if you claim Social Security at 62, you're not getting the full amount. The real full retirement age in USA depends on when you were born - if you hit 67 or later, that's when you unlock maximum benefits. People born in 1960 or after don't reach that full retirement age until 67. College-educated Americans tend to wait longer anyway, probably because they're healthier or have less physically demanding work.

Mexico's system is actually pretty different and they've been making major changes. Up until 2019, it was based on what you contributed during your working years, kind of like our Social Security. But here's the catch - a ton of Mexican workers are in the informal economy and don't contribute to the pension system at all, so they were basically left hanging.

Then in 2019 they overhauled everything. Now everyone 65+ gets a minimum payment, which was around 2550 pesos back then. By 2023 it jumped to 4800 pesos. This year they passed new rules that let retirees get benefits matching their final salaries, up to about 16,778 pesos. Before these reforms, men in Mexico were retiring around 67 and women at 64 on average. But after 2019, both started leaving the workforce a year earlier.

It's wild how policy changes actually shift when people decide to stop working. Makes you wonder what the retirement age in USA will look like if they keep tweaking Social Security. The whole thing definitely deserves more attention than it usually gets.