60 Fun Facts About Retirement Party

Which country was the first to introduce state retirement benefits, in 1889?

Otto von Bismarck's scheme originally set the pension age at 70, when few workers lived that long.

What was the original retirement age under Bismarck's 1889 German pension law?

It was cut to 65 in 1916, the figure many countries then copied.

Which Roman emperor is credited with the first recorded state pension, for army veterans, in 13 BC?

Legionaries had to serve 16 years plus four in the reserves to qualify, later raised to 20 and five.

Which US president signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935?

The 37-page act also created unemployment insurance and aid to dependent children.

Ida May Fuller of Vermont was the first person to receive what, in 1940?

She had paid just $24.75 in Social Security taxes over three years and lived to be 100, collecting for 35 years.

How much had Ida May Fuller paid in Social Security taxes before claiming her first benefit?

She stopped by the Rutland office 'to ask about benefits' and ended up receiving cheques for the next 35 years.

The 401(k) retirement plan takes its name from what?

Congress enacted the section in the late 1970s, and Hughes Aircraft was advised how to use it within three weeks.

Section 401(k) was added to the US tax code in which year?

An outside lawyer's letter to Hughes Aircraft three weeks later became the first known 401(k) plan.

The 1974 law known as ERISA created which tax-advantaged savings account?

Savers could put in 15 percent of income or $1,500 a year, whichever was less.

Which carmaker's 1963 plant closure, stranding workers' pensions, spurred US pension reform?

The South Bend, Indiana shutdown helped drive the passage of ERISA in 1974.

The Roth IRA, created in 1997, is named after what?

Delaware's William Roth sponsored it as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act.

AARP was founded in 1958 by which retired California educator?

Its magazine and bulletin are the two largest-circulation publications in the United States.

At what age can Americans join AARP?

It claimed more than 38 million members as of 2018.

Medicare, health insurance for Americans 65 and older, began in which year?

It started under the Social Security Administration and now covers around 65 million people.

Which lettered section of Medicare covers self-administered prescription drugs?

Part A covers hospital and hospice care, Part B outpatient services and Part C the private Medicare Advantage plans.

On what date did Sun City, Arizona, Del Webb's first purpose-built retirement community, open?

Some 100,000 people came the opening weekend, ten times the forecast, and Time put it on the cover.

Before building Sun City, Del Webb was co-owner of which New York sports franchise?

He and Dan Topping owned the club from 1945 to 1964, a stretch that included 15 World Series appearances and 10 titles.

Sun City was built on the site of a former ghost town called what?

It was briefly the Marinette Retirement Community until a naming contest, whose winner got a house, produced Sun City.

The Villages, the vast Florida retirement community, grew out of a mobile-home park with what name?

Harold Schwartz had started out selling the land by mail order until a 1968 federal law banned the practice.

The Villages sits in central Florida roughly 45 miles northwest of which city?

Its census-designated place alone had 79,077 residents in 2020, and golf carts have their own overpasses.

Ryderwood, Washington, the oldest continuously running US retirement community, began life as what?

Long-Bell set it up in 1923 and Senior Estates converted it into a retirement town in 1953.

Retirees who head south each winter to escape the cold are commonly known as what?

A 'sunbird' is the reverse: someone who flees a hot summer for cooler, higher ground.

Britain's Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 paid single claimants over 70 how much a week?

Couples with a husband over 70 got seven shillings and sixpence; the act came in H. H. Asquith's budget.

In Australia and New Zealand, a workplace retirement plan is commonly called what?

The same thing is a 'pension scheme' in Britain and Ireland and a 'retirement plan' in the US.

Japan's national holiday honouring the elderly, Respect for the Aged Day, falls in which month?

It became a national holiday in 1966 and moved from the 15th to the third Monday of the month in 2003.

A retired professor who keeps the use of their title is styled what?

The feminine form is emerita.

What is a 'golden handshake'?

The term was coined in Britain in the mid-1960s by Daily Express city editor Frederick Ellis.

The four retired women of The Golden Girls shared a house in which city?

All four leads won Emmys, one of only four sitcoms where every principal cast member has done so.

In the 1985 film Cocoon, a group of Florida retirees are rejuvenated by what?

Ron Howard directed, and Don Ameche won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for it at 77.

Which two actors play the terminally ill men on a road trip in The Bucket List (2007)?

Rob Reiner directed; the title has since become everyday shorthand for a to-do-before-you-die list.

Jack Nicholson plays a newly retired Omaha insurance man in which 2002 Alexander Payne film?

It was loosely based on Louis Begley's 1996 novel and earned $105.8 million on a $30 million budget.

In Pixar's Up, Carl floats his house by balloon to which South American destination?

He is keeping a promise to his late wife Ellie; Ed Asner voiced him.

Grumpy Old Men (1993) reunited which two long-time screen partners as feuding Minnesota neighbours?

Ann-Margret plays the newcomer they compete over; Grumpier Old Men followed in 1995.

In The Intern (2015), Robert De Niro's 70-year-old widower becomes an intern at what kind of company?

Anne Hathaway plays the workaholic CEO he befriends.

In which country is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel's retirement hotel?

Dev Patel plays the eager young manager Sonny; Judi Dench and Maggie Smith lead the ensemble.

In Going in Style (2017), the three retirees plan a bank robbery after what happens?

Zach Braff directed the remake of the 1979 original.

In Space Cowboys (2000), four ageing former test pilots are sent into orbit to do what?

Clint Eastwood directed and starred with Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner.

Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls before the 1993-94 season to try which sport?

He played minor-league ball in the White Sox system, then returned to win three more titles.

Which team did Michael Jordan play for when he came out of retirement a second time, from 2001 to 2003?

His first return in 1995 produced a then-record 72-win season and three more championships.

Which boxer remains the only world heavyweight champion to retire undefeated?

He held the title from 1952 to 1956 and defended it six times, twice against Ezzard Charles.

Golf great Bobby Jones retired from competition at what age, months after his 1930 Grand Slam?

He compared championship golf to a cage and made his living as a lawyer, playing only as an amateur.

Cal Ripken Jr. retired in 2001 holding the record for consecutive games played. How many?

He passed Lou Gehrig's 2,130, a mark that had stood for 56 years and was thought unbreakable.

Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show in which year?

He was 66; rival late-night shows went dark for the hour of his final broadcast in tribute.

Barbara Walters retired from broadcast journalism in which year, after a career that began in 1951?

She had hosted Today, 20/20 and The View, and joined the Television Hall of Fame in 1989.

Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, the first pope to do so since which year?

Gregory XII was the last to step down; Benedict moved into a renovated monastery inside the Vatican for his retirement.

During his 1997-2000 retirement from acting, Daniel Day-Lewis apprenticed in which trade in Italy?

He learned the craft with Stefano Bemer in Florence, and retired again from 2017 to 2024.

At the time of his retirement, Brett Favre held the NFL record for career what, a mark he still holds?

He also led in completions, attempts, yards, touchdowns and wins at the time, and won three straight MVPs.

Toy merchant Edwin Lowe popularised modern bingo after seeing what game at a 1929 carnival?

Players marked cards with dried beans; Catholic churches then adopted the game as a Depression-era fundraiser.

Which English king played an early form of shuffleboard, 'shovillabourde', for stakes?

The tavern version, shove-groat, was popular enough to be banned by name in the Unlawful Games Act of 1541.

Winnebago motorhomes take their name from a county in which state?

The county, and the company founded in Forest City in 1958, are named after the Native American tribe of the region.

Americans born after 1960 must reach what age to claim full Social Security retirement benefits?

Those born before 1960 can claim at 66, and waiting until 70 earns a further increase.

Which country legislated in 2025 to raise its retirement age to 70 by 2040?

Denmark's parliament approved the rise in May 2025, the highest planned retirement age in Europe; its retirement age stood at 67 at the time, for men and women alike.

Roughly what share of US private-industry workers had access to a traditional defined-benefit pension in 2023?

Public-sector workers fare far better, with about three quarters in pension plans.

In which year was Germany's original retirement age of 70 lowered to 65?

Bismarck's 1889 scheme was financed by a tax on workers and covered people regardless of occupation.

Deck shuffleboard came ashore in 1913 when Robert Ball built a court at his hotel in which Florida city?

Ship passengers had improvised the game on deck since the 1830s; it later became a staple of retirement communities.

How many discs are played per frame in floor shuffleboard?

Each side plays four, usually yellow versus black, with a cue about six feet long.

In which Florida city was the International Shuffleboard Association founded in 1979?

The first ISA Team World Championships followed in 1981 in Muskegon, Michigan, with just Canada, the US and Japan.

In a typical American bingo game, how many numbers are in play?

The B column holds only 1 to 15, and the centre square is a free space.

Which institutions adopted bingo as a fundraiser, sending its popularity soaring in the Great Depression?

Edwin Lowe's version came in a 12-card and a 24-card edition after he took the carnival game to New York.

Which Italian screen legend joined the cast of the 1995 sequel Grumpier Old Men?

She plays Maria, who becomes Max's second wife, while Ann-Margret returns as John's.