Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am not worried about not having enough when I'm dead.
I'm more concerned about having enough while I'm alive. :-)
This is where everyone is different.
I agree with you and I could care less about "breaking even" because when I am dead I am dead and I doubt I'll really give a damn.
Let's say I draw benefits at 70 and I get $3,150 plus my wife gets another $1,250. To me that is a lot of money especially when you consider in my case it will all be exempt from all federal and state taxes.
But now let's say I die six months later; I really don't care and still feel I was a winner because every morning I woke up and didn't need to run a spread sheet to see if I could afford to eat breakfast at Waffle House with some old buddies of mine.
Knowing that I won, I came out ahead just by knowing there wasn't much in life I couldn't afford to do if I really wanted to do it.
In my budget my wife and I have $100 for food every week plus $400 weekly for solely eating out, entertainment and purchasing gifts for the grandchildren. Week after week I don't see us ever spending that much but I know we have the ability do just that and that means more to me than anything else.
And then there is a bigger reason and that is my lifetime partner who has dedicated her life to mine. If something happens to me she will lose her benefit but end up with mine and live a comfortable, secure life for the rest of her time whether it be one week or 30 years. She will be set.
For married guys 70 should mean something totally different than just money for yourself.
I agree with you and I could care less about "breaking even" because when I am dead I am dead and I doubt I'll really give a damn.
Let's say I draw benefits at 70 and I get $3,150 plus my wife gets another $1,250. To me that is a lot of money especially when you consider in my case it will all be exempt from all federal and state taxes.
But now let's say I die six months later; I really don't care and still feel I was a winner because every morning I woke up and didn't need to run a spread sheet to see if I could afford to eat breakfast at Waffle House with some old buddies of mine.
Knowing that I won, I came out ahead just by knowing there wasn't much in life I couldn't afford to do if I really wanted to do it.
In my budget my wife and I have $100 for food every week plus $400 weekly for solely eating out, entertainment and purchasing gifts for the grandchildren. Week after week I don't see us ever spending that much but I know we have the ability do just that and that means more to me than anything else.
And then there is a bigger reason and that is my lifetime partner who has dedicated her life to mine. If something happens to me she will lose her benefit but end up with mine and live a comfortable, secure life for the rest of her time whether it be one week or 30 years. She will be set.
For married guys 70 should mean something totally different than just money for yourself.
It's 70 or bust!
In fact it is my entire being to ensure that my wife is set for life. She has given me so much from her love, our daughter, and her being. She has kept me from making huge mistakes, and kept my eyes on the prize. She worked extremely hard and played just as hard.
However, if you keep your INCOME to under the $25K, depending on where you live and the COL, you qualify for income restricted senior housing at age 62 in most places, and YES, you can find cheaper very nice apartments for senior housing. Sometimes as low as 30% of your monthly income including utilities.
I would be trying to figure out how to get a decent Long Term Care policy NOW, which you could rely on later in life for Assisted Living or Memory Care if that's the catastrophe you're thinking about.
You have enough in Savings for a CCRC equity down payment for continuing lifetime care - but not enough monthly income to cover the "rent" which is essentially a LTC insurance.
I suggest you peruse this thread - Not so much the beginning which is sort of old but the more current contributions:
I know that waiting as long as possible to take SS is the prevailing wisdom among retirees but the math never seems to work when I analyze the waiting scenario. Assuming your numbers are accurate, this is what I came up with.
Age 66 - Waiting will cost the recipient about $45,000 (approx. 4 years @ 891 a month), the increased monthly payment later will be $294 so the breakeven payback point is about 74.5 years old. For each year the recipient lives past that point they will receive about $3,500 annually over the early retirement payment.
Age 70 - Waiting will cost the recipient about $90,000 (approx. 8 years @ 891 a month), the increased monthly payment later will be $673 so the breakeven payback point is about 81 years old. For each year the recipient lives past that point they will receive about $8,000 annually over the early retirement payment.
So waiting past early retirement age really only works out if you live a long time and even then the additional income is fairly minimal over the full term.
I don't see how her break-even point is even relevant since her SS $$$ is so low.
It's not like she worked long enough or earned enough to be drawing, say, $2000 per month SS where she could live reasonably - worst case scenario - not including needed Assisted Living or Memory Care in which case she has enough to cover a few years but then would have to use Medicaid under today's models. Also depending on what state she winds up in.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 09-13-2017 at 08:28 PM..
And then there is a bigger reason and that is my lifetime partner who has dedicated her life to mine. If something happens to me she will lose her benefit but end up with mine and live a comfortable, secure life for the rest of her time whether it be one week or 30 years. She will be set.
I can certainly appreciate your devotion to your wife as I too had a husband who was equally devoted to me, and sometimes I think if it's possible that he had some type of premonition that he would die young and this is the reason he was so adamant that we pay our mortgage off early so that I would be not left with that expense when he passed. Having now been a widow for 16 years, even without the financial burden of a mortgage, I can tell you from first hand experience over the course of this time all my other living expenses have more than doubled. Fortunately I have been working all this time along with steady salary increases which allowed me to keep pace with these rising costs. And if that is any prediction of how going forward 16 years and 10 of those years I will be retired, if my expenses continue to rise at the same rate, if I want to remain in my home living my same lifestyle I will need to have significant assets beyond my $40,000 annual age 70 social security benefit.
And add to that if I require nursing home care sometime in my future, with the average current cost being $100,000 annually for a nice facility and I want the go there which will require I be in private status, without LTC insurance I need to come up with $60,000 annually to supplement my $40,000 social security benefit and your wife would be in about the same situation. Since you mentioned in a another thread that you and your wife don't have LTCI, so without that you would need to have assets that would produce $60,000 annually to supplement your wife's SS income for what could possibly be for 10+ years to keep her in nursing home private pay status. Hopefully your wife will never need nursing home care, but if she does you may want to rethink what the actual income that will be needed to enable your wife to "live a comfortable, secure life for the rest of her time be it one week or 30 years. She will be set."
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
