Anyone depressed about having to delay retirement due to inflation/stock market? (respects, adult)

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by Wile E. Coyote

I feel your pain. In Oregon, freezing property taxes at age 65 is on the ballot again. The problem is most people are not near enough to 65 and like someone else said parents are certainly not voting to reducing the tax base for schools. It forces one to consider relocating (or at least downsizing). Downsizing does not make sense with the overpricing at the low end at this time.

New Jersey has a Senior Tax Freeze where your taxes are frozen at what they were when you were that age, within income limits and whatnot. They are tricky, though, in that you have to pay the full tax amount up front, and then, down the road, you will get a rebate check. This means the government gets to hold and use that money for six months until they get around to giving it back to you.

My old-lady friend is always excited when her check is coming in the fall, though.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by miu

Owning a home in New Hampshire means high and every increasing property taxes, so I will never be able to completely retire. And I am not depressed about having to work because I enjoy being active and productive, but I really do resent that the cost of public education keeps increasing, and since I chose not to have children, there should be a point where I am no longer forced to invest in other people's children.

I'm almost 64 years old, when can I start investing in myself? And I do find that parents have an annoying attitude of entitlement. Plus once their children have graduated from high school, parents tend to sell their homes to move to areas with lower property taxes and terrible schools. So they never really pay enough in taxes to offset what school services they have used for their children.

Dang, I didn't know NH was one of the high property tax states. Coming from New Jersey, everybody else looks better, but you're not that far behind (Illinois is between us.) NH was one state I had my eye on for moving to eventually.

I was attracted in part by the fact that NH would not tax my NYS pension, and I do like the state and New England in general. Not a hot-weather person.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

New Jersey has a Senior Tax Freeze where your taxes are frozen at what they were when you were that age, within income limits and whatnot. They are tricky, though, in that you have to pay the full tax amount up front, and then, down the road, you will get a rebate check. This means the government gets to hold and use that money for six months until they get around to giving it back to you.

My old-lady friend is always excited when her check is coming in the fall, though.

I'd be okay with that considering what they do now is keep it all forever. And, they forever raise those property taxes.

My property taxes were $2k 20 years ago; now approaching $5k. Will $10k be affordable in retirement?

[columbusboy8]

Originally Posted by whateverblahblahblah

I was planning on retiring in 5 years or so, but now it looks like it will be more like 10 years since inflation has shot up and the stock market has gone down the toilet. From what I've read, it looks like things will suck for at least the next couple of years, possibly longer, especially if the economy craters. About a year ago, I penciled in 2027 for my retirement year but that just isn't happening unless a miracle occurs.

I've hated working for decades. I hate waking up at an ungodly hour, fighting traffic for 3 hours a day round trip, staring at boring things that I don't care about on a monitor for 8 hours a day, and wearing a fake smile around bosses and coworkers who I don't particularly like and would rather not deal with.

I've been in a bad mood lately, but I figure it's beyond my control, so why worry about it?

I agree...no worries! A year ago, Biden said this awful inflation is only transitory, he's uniting America, the border is closed, you won't be taxed unless you make over $400,000/yr, and he's hiring 87,000 IRS agents to audit us to give us money back! Clearly, building back better will take him and Harris a while! What more could you ask for??

[Brave Stranger]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

Dang, I didn't know NH was one of the high property tax states. Coming from New Jersey, everybody else looks better, but you're not that far behind (Illinois is between us.) NH was one state I had my eye on for moving to eventually.

I was attracted in part by the fact that NH would not tax my NYS pension, and I do like the state and New England in general. Not a hot-weather person.

NH property taxes vary widely from town to town, but generally, NH property taxes are very high. If you fancy New England...southern Maine would give you lower property taxes with easy access to NH & their no sales tax environment. The best of both worlds.

[elnrgby]

Originally Posted by elnrgby

The latest is that Biden wants to impose SS tax on people earning over $400k (in addition to current taxation up to $147k), with the doughnut hole of $147-400k income not taxed for SS gradually closing over the years as the lower limit gradually increases. This measure would be certain to pass since it has bipartisan support of 88% D and 79% R - as long as Biden does not load the bill (which he will almost certainly propose before the end of his term) with some other wildly unfundable elements. But I don't think it would entirely solve the problem of insufficient SS funds, simply because there aren't enough taxpayers making over $400k to add the necessary 25% of required SS funds.

Well, the idea is to temporarily spare the middle class from the ss tax increase (and there are many more voters in that doughnut hole than voters who make >$400k, so more likely to pass the measure & easier on a politician who hopes to continue his political career). But regular ss tax ceiling for everyone gradually increases every year, and will eventually reach $400k, at which point everyone would pay ss tax on their entire income. I saw an article that says this measure would cover 61% of ss budget deficit, so SS benefits would be ultimately cut by 10% rather than by 25%. A person who gets $1,000 in ss would get $900 (rather than $750 if nothing is done). A person who gets $3,000 in ss would get $2,700 rather than $2,250.

[elnrgby]

Originally Posted by Wile E. Coyote

So, then they will pay people $399,999 and give them other perks (i.e. stock options, etc.). It would backfire. The money would be more certain if it changed the cutoff for the $147 to $175 or something. I think the over $400k thing works for regular income taxes more so; but, for SS it's mostly just a political ploy. They are perhaps basing the budget on tax money that is not easy to enforce. There are many tax professionals that spend a lot of time figuring out how to exploit the tax code (it goes without saying). Besides Revenue.... Income tax expense is one of the next best places to impact profits.

Sorry, didn't mean to reply to myself but to you :-).... see my previous post, right before this one. Btw, in many professions it is not that easy to convert salary into stock options. A neurosurgeon who makes $470k cannot be paid $71k in stock options, a realtor that earns $500k in sale comissions cannot receive them in stock options. When I was in a high tax bracket, worked in CA & paid 12.4% soc security taxes (because I was self-employed, so paid both the employer & employee ss tax), I paid almost 1/2 of my gross income in taxes - no stock options or other loopholes. Why do you think I switched to part-time work & fully retired at 60? That is what high taxes do to professionals: chase them out of full-time work. If my take-home income (after taxes) is almost the same whether I work 6 months or entire year, why would I work the entire year (and after a certain point, why would I work at all?), particularly if the job is extremely stressful?

[elnrgby]

So, I think if the choice is between applying further means testing to soc security income (which could reduce soc security to 0 for a number of recipients who have other retirement funds) vs. taxation of all income under $147k and above $400k, everybody including rich people would choose the second option. With the second option, rich taxpayers at least get back 15% of their ss-taxable income over $400k in the form of soc security, while with the first option they would likely get $0. So, I think high-ish earners affected by ss taxation above $400k will consent to paying higher ss taxes, in exchange for not losing soc security income altogether via means testing.

[FIRE42]

Despite a rough day for the markets, the first week of October was up for the major indexes and we're starting four months that are up on average. Hang in there, everyone!

[skeddy]

postponing retirement effects not only the individual wishing to retire but also people looking for work or wishing to get a promotion.