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No we are at that income per year trying to keep it under $170,000. So our Medicare part B doesn’t go sky high. It includes our Social Security, 401k and other investment income. We started as young people with nothing but good educations.
I don't think we will ever be at that point, unless RMD's are far worse than I expect, but I can easily see how some friends and co-workers will be at a similar point. Two solid middle class professional jobs, each generating a $40K annual pension. Each job also generating $30K or so in SS. Voila - $140K in retirement income BEFORE any RMD's
I don't think we will ever be at that point, unless RMD's are far worse than I expect, but I can easily see how some friends and co-workers will be at a similar point. Two solid middle class professional jobs, each generating a $40K annual pension. Each job also generating $30K or so in SS. Voila - $140K in retirement income BEFORE any RMD's
Bada Bing! Add on COLA creep. A 2% COLA is $2,800 the first year. Compounded each year. Try 3% it adds up quickly. Something I didn’t fully appreciate
It is possible that you and your spouse never saw this retirement windfall coming. You simply took a good education, converted it into a good job, then with decades of diligent work effort converted the job into a good career.
The only thing you may have "done wrong" was to work longer than you needed because you didn't anticipate the high post-retirement income.
I am certain our generation has lots of couples in the identical position.
I don't think we will ever be at that point, unless RMD's are far worse than I expect, but I can easily see how some friends and co-workers will be at a similar point. Two solid middle class professional jobs, each generating a $40K annual pension. Each job also generating $30K or so in SS. Voila - $140K in retirement income BEFORE any RMD's
A $40,000 annual pension each plus $30,000 each annually from Social Security?
It is possible that you and your spouse never saw this retirement windfall coming. You simply took a good education, converted it into a good job, then with decades of diligent work effort converted the job into a good career.
The only thing you may have "done wrong" was to work longer than you needed because you didn't anticipate the high post-retirement income.
I am certain our generation has lots of couples in the identical position.
We knew what our retirement income would be before retirement at this stage. Just turned 70 and started SS last year. Ten years of retirement and negligible COLA percentages. A little better this year and taking out the calculator and doing it with the compounding was interesting. Our cola is capped at 3% so I only calculated at that rate or lower. As you note add on RMD’s and it is a different perspective. It is like the tax cuts at different income points.
Bada Bing! Add on COLA creep. A 2% COLA is $2,800 the first year. Compounded each year. Try 3% it adds up quickly. Something I didn’t fully appreciate
The COLA on my Ohio PERS pension is not compounded. Although I will get a 3% increase this year, future increases will be lower. Now that the baby boomers are retiring, there are fewer workers to support the large number of retirees. It's still a much better pension than most people receive, providing your spouse worked long enough to qualify for Medicare.
A $40,000 annual pension each plus $30,000 each annually from Social Security?
Yes, very possible for those individuals who maxed out FICA each year of their career, and worked for an employer who provided pension benefits. Recently FICA increases have out paced my annual wage increases, but I probably maxed out for over 20 years of the nearly 40 years I have been in the workforce
MI-Roger, I would append that statement to say that PRIVATE SECTOR pensions are nearly non-existent. Public sector pensions are still very much available. Pretty much my entire family and most of my friends are retired now, or will retire soon, with one or another sort of public sector pension. Just in our little circle we have those who worked in municipal government, municipal utilities, teachers, school bus drivers, state government workers, postal workers, state troopers, county fire department employees, state university employees, the list goes on and on. These pensions aren't going away, although the formulas and vesting are becoming less generous. Our public sector employers also emphasized the importance of 401K's (although they didn't provide any match), and other investment vehicles, and offered retirement planning classes.
As states are finally waking up to the amount of unfunded liabilities that are accruing with public pensions, expect them to move from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. The State of Alaska has already done this.
So many of these "sky is falling" articles are sketchy and vague on details and facts. Quite often the breathless headline hyperbole inferring that millions of retiree age people are about to be living under bridges and eating cat food, has no basis in fact.
For example, some of these editorials are based on the reported amount of "retirement" money people have in savings accounts. Of course, given the absurdly low savings account interest, that's a ridiculous place to keep one's retirement savings anyway. Similar articles randomly poll millennial's or other "future"(?) retirees about whether they are saving or expect to have "enough" for retirement. Others are simply internet opinion-based editorials needed to meet a deadline with X-number of column-inches and little/no accountability for facts.
Keep in mind this was not an article focusing on people at or near retirement age. It seemed to be of a general interest and there was little info on the methodology.
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