Real Estate Market beginning a big Price Correction? Especially in the suburban over a $million bracket? (Boston: 2013, power lines)

[mwbms28]

Originally Posted by WoodyWW

In reality, infrastructure is a problem in much of the US, compared to say, Germany or Japan, that not only have great roads, high-speed rail, better airports, but also excellent "safety nets".....

Germany and Japan combined have about 1/13 the land area that the USA does. This is not a fair or useful comparison.

[gf2020]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

I'm 59. All my retirement planning revolves around deferring to age 70 where I'll collect the maximum possible Social Security benefit.

Are you saying you have not put anything in to a 401K or other retirement savings vehicle over your many years of working in high tech?

Planning to work until you are 70 may seem like a nice idea but it may be impractical for a variety of reasons.

I'm 51 and my retirement planning does not include Social Security at all. If it's still around in 11-13 years when I plan to retire, it will be a nice windfall.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by gf2020

Are you saying you have not put anything in to a 401K or other retirement savings vehicle over your many years of working in high tech?

Planning to work until you are 70 may seem like a nice idea but it may be impractical for a variety of reasons.

I'm 51 and my retirement planning does not include Social Security at all. If it's still around in 11-13 years when I plan to retire, it will be a nice windfall.

I think he meant his other investments and retirement vehicles will hopefully allow him to not need SS at all and able to defer to age 70 to get the maximum benefit.


My retirement planning also doesn't include SS at all, which means I can hopefully defer to age 70 to finally claim the max benefit. While my wife and I's planning is on track, sadly I know a few people my age (mid 30's) with less than $20K total in retirement savings at this point.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

I think he meant his other investments and retirement vehicles will hopefully allow him to not need SS at all and able to defer to age 70 to get the maximum benefit.


My retirement planning also doesn't include SS at all, which means I can hopefully defer to age 70 to finally claim the max benefit. While my wife and I's planning is on track, sadly I know a few people my age (mid 30's) with less than $20K total in retirement savings at this point.

What I'm saying is that the ROI on deferring Social Security until age 70 is so good that I'd only collect earlier if a financial disaster happened and I had no choice. It's not like anything in my portfolio is COLA-protected and tax-free the way Social Security is. When I take a 401(k)/IRA distribution, I'm paying income taxes on it and I earn far too much to use a Roth.

I'm using Social Security as my insurance policy against out-living my portfolio.

[Cabound1]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

What I'm saying is that the ROI on deferring Social Security until age 70 is so good that I'd only collect earlier if a financial disaster happened and I had no choice. It's not like anything in my portfolio is COLA-protected and tax-free the way Social Security is. When I take a 401(k)/IRA distribution, I'm paying income taxes on it and I earn far too much to use a Roth.

I'm using Social Security as my insurance policy against out-living my portfolio.

What age do you think you have to live to to make waiting till 70 a good decision, factoring in present value considerations?

Here's what I'm wondering...(and I admit I've done no research on this)....is it always just assumed that whatever money you might get from, say, 62 to 70 is just spent away, and thus there's no earnings potential on it? IOW, if someone like you (and me) has a pile of cash to live on to 70, aren't we missing a huge investment opportunity by Not taking it at 62? Let's say I take 20K a year in SS from 62 to 70, invest it (because I can) and get 8 % yearly. How big a pile of cash would this be at age 70? Or in other words, how much ground do you have to make up and do you have enough time to do it. Remember, your payments may be twice as much now at 70, but the gal who took it at 62 now has a pile of cash, that if left invested, can get in investment return greater than the difference between the 2 payouts... i.e., you really can't make up the ground that easily.

I guess what I'm trying to say is for people that don't need the money, contrary to popular advice, I think it makes more sense to take it asap. Like I said, haven't fully researched tax implications, etc, but I never see earnings potential considered when discussing this.

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

I earn far too much to use a Roth.

In that case you should be able to easily save enough for retirement and not be at risk or need to worry about social security.

[gf2020]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

What I'm saying is that the ROI on deferring Social Security until age 70 is so good that I'd only collect earlier if a financial disaster happened and I had no choice.

Gotcha, I misunderstood. You're getting 5% more each year you defer from 62 to 64, 6.67% from 65 to 67 and then 8% up to 70. Those are pretty good guaranteed rates of return!

[johngolf]

At one time in my high tech career I was part of a small team that would come in and try to resurrect once good, high tech, small companies. One place we looked to cut expenses were people we thought overpaid for the job they were doing. This generally meant older people that had been with the company for a long time. We called them "dinosaurs".

Early on I had asked about keeping the experienced people (dinosaurs) but lowering their salary. I thought better something then nothing. I was told bad idea as they would resent us and they would create problems. I was shown this is true so out with the expensive old and in with the cheap new.

I dropped out of high tech (cashed in my stock options and bought a small business) in my late 40's as I was becoming one of those "dinosaurs".

If you have some gray hair ,the next time you are in a company meeting count how many others do. If no one has and you do not own the company, look to the wall for the handwriting.

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by johngolf

I dropped out of high tech (cashed in my stock options and bought a small business)

What kind of small business?

[RichCapeCod]

Originally Posted by gf2020

Gotcha, I misunderstood. You're getting 5% more each year you defer from 62 to 64, 6.67% from 65 to 67 and then 8% up to 70. Those are pretty good guaranteed rates of return!

I started taking my SS at age 66. Sort of the middle ground. I fully understand the higher rates of return as one ages to 70, the problem is, you are deferring SS which is a significant amount of money. I understand that at some point (around 12 years or so??) the amount coming in becomes a net gain. However, by the time the 12 year(?) period comes around, you are receiving dollars of reduced buying power due to inflation.

Rich