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From personal experience, I can tell you that your plans will change (back and forth and sideways) at least 150 times before you finally retire
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beach Sportsfan
LOL. Completely agree. I am 56 planning on retiring at 62 and think I have passed the 150 times already.
You two probably represent the majority and I am probably the odd ball, but my basic retirement plans never did change. About six or seven years before I retired at age 61 and a half, I started calculating the value of my pension and it looked like age 61 and a half would be the good retirement point. Each year I recalculated it to make sure nothing had changed. Nothing did so I pulled the plug at age 61 and a half.
At age 57 (while still working full time) I bought my present town house with the belief that it would be a great retirement residence and that I would never move again. (I knew I wanted to stay right here in Los Angeles). Now, 13 years later at age 70, I have had no reason to change my mind, either about staying in Los Angles or about staying in this town house.
And no, I do not claim to have any great foresight or astuteness; I was just fortunate that I already liked it here where I've lived for the past 50 years and that I found the "right" residence. Even more significantly, I am fortunate that I had good enough health to retire at a moment of my own choosing.
Well at 62 now my benefit from SS would be $1,700.00 per month and at 70 it would be $2,950.00 with 67 being around $2,400.00 I think.
I can easily work PT (as an RN) so I wonder... wonder... wonder. I plan to file and suspend so that my wife can collect 1/2 of my SS and it continues to accrue.
Anything else I should know or tips on my scenario? To me at least, (men lived into their late 80's early 90s' it makes sense to wait.
Good plan. If you can I would go in person to the SS office to sign up. My experience is that they are prone to mistakes.
IMPORTANT, sign up for medicare part A 3 months before you are 65. Yes 65. On line works for this.
You may also have to sign up for part B if you do not have creditable health insurance. COBRA is not creditable. Part A is free B has a monthly premium and penalties for the rest of your life if you do not sign up properly.
As noted by others, pensions with COLA's provide a great stability to retirement planning minimizing the need to change as much as you have a clearer path. Having a spouse with pension makes it even easier. If you are also investing and counting on the investments that can cause some fluctuation. If you are eligible to receive SS with your pension and that also provides age dates. So the statements from your pension system and SS provides tremendous trigger age data.
File and suspend for singles is a little known and even lesser utilized option.
I filed for SS at 63 in the depths of the economic crisis - it would have been terribly unwise to liquidate 401k money to fund my necessaries at that time - what Mathjak refers to as "market sequence risk".
So I didn't.
But I needed extra $$ to fund significant renovations of $55k on my SoFla home and SS aided me immeasurably during this time.
Then conditions changed, I came out of the crisis smiling, reduced my monthly fixed expenses GREATLY by selling my northern home, so I suspended the SS and started a retirement drawdown/conversion regimen that is working like a charm.
I feel blessed, in control, secure, and looking forward to many good years ahead. And I wish this for all of us who face the challenges of aging well in a very complex society.
Now if only I could live forever everything would be perfect!
File and suspend for singles is a little known and even lesser utilized option.
I filed for SS at 63 in the depths of the economic crisis - it would have been terribly unwise to liquidate 401k money to fund my necessaries at that time - what Mathjak refers to as "market sequence risk".
So I didn't.
But I needed extra $$ to fund significant renovations of $55k on my SoFla home and SS aided me immeasurably during this time.
Then conditions changed, I came out of the crisis smiling, reduced my monthly fixed expenses GREATLY by selling my northern home, so I suspended the SS and started a retirement drawdown/conversion regimen that is working like a charm.
I feel blessed, in control, secure, and looking forward to many good years ahead. And I wish this for all of us who face the challenges of aging well in a very complex society.
Now if only I could live forever everything would be perfect!
Congrats, that's what informed decision making does for you. We had a plan that ended up working for us as we retired January 1, 2008. We had set aside in our portfolio to tide us over til the wife turned 62 (two plus years) as we had planned and were doing 62/70 SS. That included rolling my vacation days into a 2008 Tax Shelter contribution. It minimized our 2008/2009 taxes when drawn down which were at a lower rate any way over 2007.
Below is an example of exactly what I'm talking about when I say -- I have a loose plan -- but who knows WHAT the rules and programs will be even as soon as 8 years from now. By the time those of us who are tail-end baby boomers retire, who knows how much money the gov’t will say we don’t need to live on.
I’ll copy over just a couple of graphs from the longer article: 'File-and-suspend': A Social Security strategy under fire - (from the Wh ite Hou se) The link to it:
' File-and-suspend': A Social Security strategy under fire | Reuters
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(Reuters) - Are high-income Americans gaming Social Security? The Obama administration wants to go after the wealthy for "aggressive" moves to "manipulate" their Social Security claiming decisions,…
…..
Although it's technically available to anyone, the White House thinks the strategy is being used to unfair advantage by high-income seniors and wants to shut it down because of the added benefit cost it imposes on the Social Security program.
Note a WH official’s comment: "These strategies are sometimes marketed by financial advisers to upper-income beneficiaries who can afford to wait until they are older to claim their benefits," the White House official said.”
-------------------END-------------
My comment: And is that a crime? So what? It can be used by ANYone, not just those the government THINKS don’t need it.
This is exactly why with 5 years or more away from retirement -- and certainly 8 years or more-- I don't see how anyone can have more than a loose plan that would have to have some room for unknowns and tweaking. All we CAN do is the best we can at the time.
^^^^^^ this went no where and the White House learned that many Liberal Democrats in high income states are a major component of the folks doing this and other strategies to boost their retirement income. You don't need an advisor to know about these things. To many young'uns in this White House not operating from first hand retirement experience.
Below is an example of exactly what I'm talking about when I say -- I have a loose plan -- but who knows WHAT the rules and programs will be even as soon as 8 years from now. By the time those of us who are tail-end baby boomers retire, who knows how much money the gov’t will say we don’t need to live on.
I’ll copy over just a couple of graphs from the longer article: 'File-and-suspend': A Social Security strategy under fire - (from the Wh ite Hou se) The link to it:
' File-and-suspend': A Social Security strategy under fire | Reuters
-------------------------
(Reuters) - Are high-income Americans gaming Social Security? The Obama administration wants to go after the wealthy for "aggressive" moves to "manipulate" their Social Security claiming decisions,…
…..
Although it's technically available to anyone, the White House thinks the strategy is being used to unfair advantage by high-income seniors and wants to shut it down because of the added benefit cost it imposes on the Social Security program.
Note a WH official’s comment: "These strategies are sometimes marketed by financial advisers to upper-income beneficiaries who can afford to wait until they are older to claim their benefits," the White House official said.”
-------------------END-------------
My comment: And is that a crime? So what? It can be used by ANYone, not just those the government THINKS don’t need it.
This is exactly why with 5 years or more away from retirement -- and certainly 8 years or more-- I don't see how anyone can have more than a loose plan that would have to have some room for unknowns and tweaking. All we CAN do is the best we can at the time.
Your point is well taken; we cannot know what the future will bring politically. However, all these ideas and proposals would have first to be enacted by Congress and signed into law by whomever the sitting President is. Therefore I wouldn't loose too much sleep worrying about the possible demise of "file and suspend" because I don't think much of the political balls of the this country's political class in following through on anything controversial.
Besides I don't think that the loss of "file and suspend" would make a significant difference in anyone's overall retirement income. There are more serious threats to Social Security in the political landscape, although I believe their implementation is equally unlikely.
True, but it's an example of how officials and lawmakers are getting more creative all the time about how to affect someone's livelihood or finances.
Maybe living in a state where they passed a RAIN TAX has me antsy. We'll now be taxed on the amount of rainwater runoff from our homes. What's next AIR?! They'll look at how much rain fell, versus how much green space and hardscape you have and tax you based on how much rain they calculate would have 'run off.' The more landscaping the less run off. The more hardscape - patio, driveway, etc.....the more run off. No joke.
All I'm saying is -- if retirement is more than 5 years out -- and especially with the coming budget stresses, healthcare cost issues, and the sheer number of retirees growing...SOMEthings WILL change.....have a plan, but just know that by the time you actually do retiree....situations could be a whole lot different. Right when you're about to retire "fit could hit the shan."
Sure you can die early but if married your spouse will be glad you did.
Glad you died early?
Not taking ss early in life is the one decision we can say you will not live to regret.
Totally agree. If you're dead, do you care that you didn't get every possible penny?
While I'm waiting until 70 to file, I did file for spousal benefits since I am divorced and full retirement age. Thanks to City Data, I found out about this, and probably is another of the dirty tricks Obama's White House was talking about up thread. But best case scenario is I'm going to take a financial hit of some magnitude, am looking at earlier than hoped for retirement, and really appreciate the chance to get my ducks in a little straighter row.
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