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Old 03-27-2017, 06:51 PM
 
Location: La Costa, California
919 posts, read 784,741 times
Reputation: 2023

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Quote:
why bother if you are dying the next day ?
because I'm putting 100% of my checks into a balanced fund. Started at age 66. If I die at 70, I'll have 80-100 thousand in that account which will go to my wife and daughter. If I had waited, the govt gets to keep it.

Last edited by mauialoha; 03-27-2017 at 07:07 PM..
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Old 03-28-2017, 02:51 AM
 
105,972 posts, read 107,921,072 times
Reputation: 79551
and if the markets tank and take many years to recover and your wife panics and sells ? then what ?

as tyson said so elegantly " everyone has a plan , until they get punched in the face "

i can tell you my wife was once a widow . she trusted the broker at her bank to tell her what to do . her husband was an investor and dumped a pile of investments in her lap .she wanted to simplify things .

she lost 1/2 her life savings in the dot com bust as any broker worth anything was putting clients in to where the action was . she did not understand the risks ..

crap happens , so these visions we draw up in our head of what if's and outcomes are highly subject to not playing out the way we think once our spouses are in the drivers seat ..

that is why a good solid mix of guaranteed income plus your own investing is the best plan for most of us.

if that happens will she have enough income with a reduced ss check and what is possibly left in the investments to survive without a lifestyle hit ? that is the real question one needs to ask .

the reason we are delaying as long as we desire to is for reduced dependency on markets ,rates and inflation . it has nothing to do with what if i die early or returns on investments .

last thing we want in our plan is to take our already heavy dependency on our portfolio and make it heavier by reducing the guaranteed income side . if we did wait until 70 the check is 69% bigger than 62 plus cola's so dependency for her drops drastically .

to many spouses who are in to investing have spouses that are not . they have little concern for what the other spouse really wants if they are left alone and lose sight of just what a good retirement plan should entail .

i know my wife is not comfortable being so heavily dependent on markets so my goal is to reduce the level we are at for her sake .

never forget , 80% of married men die married , 80% of married women die alone , plus they live longer so there is some very different planning needed possibly in a lot of cases .

Last edited by mathjak107; 03-28-2017 at 03:06 AM..
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Old 03-28-2017, 06:18 AM
 
Location: La Costa, California
919 posts, read 784,741 times
Reputation: 2023
Quote:
if that happens will she have enough income with a reduced ss check
My wife will be collecting on her own SS record which is higher than mine.

Quote:
the reason we are delaying as long as we desire to is for reduced dependency on markets ,rates and inflation . it has nothing to do with what if i die early or returns on investments .
Sure, you have your own point of view, mine is a little different.
Dave
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Old 03-28-2017, 07:04 AM
 
Location: RVA
2,766 posts, read 2,069,338 times
Reputation: 6638
Quote:
Originally Posted by mauialoha View Post
because I'm putting 100% of my checks into a balanced fund. Started at age 66. If I die at 70, I'll have 80-100 thousand in that account which will go to my wife and daughter. If I had waited, the govt gets to keep it.
That's easy to think it will be as such, while approaching the tail end of an 8 year bull market. Everyone thinks the market only earns money and beats inflation "in the long run", and they will "get out before they lose much" in a bear market. I wish it were that easy. In your case, your spouse gains nothing in terms of guaranteed income no matter when you file, if you die at 70, and as you said, the government would keep it all, so by filing early you ABSOLUTELY would be ahead. To be absolutely safe though, since you absolutely do not plan on using that money, I would invest in 5 year CDs. No loss. Guaranteed! Buy a CD every 6 months, a d you would have a laddered income.

And for the umpteenth time, no one is advocating working longer to delay filing if you don't have to nor, if delaying is a realistically small relative number. Delaying filing is typically not an option for the majority of American's, if they want to retire at 62. The majority of people retire when they do, because they believe, with SS income at that point in time, they can make it work.

Last edited by Perryinva; 03-28-2017 at 07:13 AM..
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Old 03-28-2017, 07:24 AM
 
105,972 posts, read 107,921,072 times
Reputation: 79551
VERY IMPORTANT POINT -DELAYING TAKING SS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHETHER YOU DELAY RETIRING EARLIER.

delaying ss is no different than just buying an annuity .

in fact for the amount of money you would give up delaying from 62 to 70 , you could never buy an annuity that paid as much , is inflation adjusted and went to a spouse for even close to that amount ..
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Old 03-28-2017, 07:49 AM
 
Location: Central Ohio
10,808 posts, read 14,875,742 times
Reputation: 16471
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr5150 View Post
What really matters is your monthly income, not your lifetime payout. You live on your monthly income. What if you live to be 90?
What I have been preaching all along.

If you are married, and love your wife, what if you die at 72 and she lives to be 98? For many of us there are two people in the equation and not just one.

As for me I'll collect in another year and a half when I am 70 and by doing so my wife and I will receive $4,300/month in combined social security benefits alone not counting anything else. This money will be exempt from federal and state taxes as long as we do not have a lot of other additional income.

If social security is all we got (we get a little more from other sources) we could live rather comfortably in most areas of the country. $4,300/month is equivalent to a job that pays $1,000 weekly take home pay and there are families all across the country raising children on less than that.
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Old 03-28-2017, 10:35 AM
 
Location: Milwaukee Area of WI
1,886 posts, read 1,828,337 times
Reputation: 2025
Quote:
Originally Posted by LLN View Post
All the calculations in the world won't help you if you fall over the day you retire! You should retire and go on SS as soon as your monthly income (from all sources) will support an adequate lifestyle.
Well said and I agree 100 percent!!!
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Old 03-28-2017, 10:53 AM
 
Location: Haiku
7,132 posts, read 4,736,829 times
Reputation: 10327
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobspez View Post
If you take your SS at 62, you are ahead of the game. If you wait to 67, you have to live to 82 just to break even with the 62 amount received. I retired at 62 and downsized and never looked back. I'm 70 now. I've got 8 years of retirement under my belt, instead of 8 extra years working. I loved my job, but retirement is better. "Money for nothing and your checks for free" to quote the Dire Straits MTV song.
I don't care when I break even. For me it is a cash flow problem. By waiting to age 70 to collect SS I will get twice as much as I would if I had started at 62. So I spend my savings now and when I reach 70 I will spend mostly SS. My cash flow is higher by waiting.
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Old 03-28-2017, 11:02 AM
 
Location: Milwaukee Area of WI
1,886 posts, read 1,828,337 times
Reputation: 2025
Quote:
Originally Posted by TwoByFour View Post
So I spend my savings now and when I reach 70 I will spend mostly SS. My cash flow is higher by waiting.

Savings? What's that? LOLOLOL I am 55, had 6 children and have worked full time a long time now and still do......I still can't save money. However, I choose to have these kids and I don't regret any of them. What I should have done is married for money. BaaaaaaHaaaaaa JK. Damn heart got in the way. LOL

Everyone's situation is different.
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Old 03-28-2017, 11:33 AM
 
Location: Haiku
7,132 posts, read 4,736,829 times
Reputation: 10327
Yes, everyone's situation is different. If you gotta take, you gotta take it. But a lot of people here are talking about having a choice and I am really commenting on the economics if you have a choice.
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