<p><a href=“Tap an IRA Early, Delay Social Security | Kiplinger”>Tap an IRA Early, Delay Social Security | Kiplinger;
<p>^ The comments on that article are certainly interesting…</p>
<p>Speaking of Medicare…how much is the monthly cost? Is it going to be based on my income alone, or does my husband’s income get considered as well? He isn’t retired yet, and is younger. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.fa-mag.com/news/medicare-s-income-based-premiums-can-affect-your-clients--retirement-savings-14129.html”>http://www.fa-mag.com/news/medicare-s-income-based-premiums-can-affect-your-clients--retirement-savings-14129.html</a></p>
<p>Wow…I’ve been silently following all this…you mean after I get all the ACA stuff figured out, figure out how to game/play/rig THAT system …I get to do it all again with medicare. I though Medicare was simple, straightforward and one size fits all…Dang!</p>
<p>Tessie, Where do you see the comments? I read the Kiplinger article but don’t see any comments. H turned 70.5, so he has to take required minimum distributions, RMDs. He also receives his pension. He does not qualify for SS. I’m too young to get SS but will likely defer as long as possible so the benefit will be as high as possible. Our family is very long-lived and we are find with RMDs and H’s pension.</p>
<p>So far, we haven’t formally gifted our kids with any money other than holiday and birthday gifts. We figure we will likely help them buy a place to live when the figure out where that will be, so they can live in safe and nice areas. We HOPE they will want to and be able to move back to Honolulu and are willing to help them buy a place when they do. 
Will probably help them if they settle elsewhere also. Housing is crazy expensive in many cities.</p>
<p>notrichenough, I think I would take the IRA first and wait at least 66 to take out SS.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is better to gift them annually now than to gift them a large lump sum (down payment) in the future which will probably exceed $28K, the max you and your H can gift each year without incurring taxes.</p>
<p>In addition, when your kids apply for mortgage in the future, it is much better to be able to show that they have had the money in their accounts for a while instead of a large sum suddenly appeared in their accounts which will require an explanation to the lender.</p>
<p>Yes, as long as they save it in a housing account. We could see if they’d like us to open housing accounts to them, to start saving for them. We will see how we feel. We did NOT expect to be in a position to gift at this time. </p>
<p>HImom – I can’t see the comments now. Not sure why I could see them the first time I read the article. Anyway, most people who commented advocated taking SS as soon as possible, because when you die your SS stops (so if you die “young”, you’ve left a lot of “your” money with the gov’t), but your heirs can always inherit any money left in your IRA. Some also felt that you should start SS as soon as possible because you never know when the gov’t might change the rules for the worse.</p>
<p>Ooops – checked the wrong link. The comments are there on the Kiplinger article – just scroll down below the ads.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What is a housing account?</p>
<p>I am guessing that means “save for a house purchase”. and not “save for a mazerati”.</p>
<p>SS can be tricky and somewhat complicated. My financial advisor has a column in a local paper, and he answered some SS questions.</p>
<p>One question was on spouses’ benefit - H wanted to know if W could start receiving a spousal benefit at age 62, and then at her full retirement age receive a benefit based on her own career earnings - in short, no she cannot do this. If W applies at age 62, she will begin drawing off of her own benefit and it will therefore be permanently reduced.</p>
<p>Another was a survivor benefit question. W wanted to know if her H waited until age 70 to collect and died at age 71, would W be eligible for a survivor benefit immediately and also what portion of the benefit she would receive. Survival benefit consists of two elements, the original benefit and when the surviving spouse claims the survivor benefit. Say W was 60 when H was 70. W’s permanent benefit will vary depending on what age W elects to receive the benefit.</p>
<p>My dad’s health was poor, so he elected to take SS at age 62. He died two days before turning 64. Mom started receiving SS also at age 62, based on her earnings, and she bumped up to more money on her SS checks based on dad’s earnings when he passed. Mom lived to 78. Dad really wanted to see some return on his money; he left a good estate for mom.</p>
<p>My in-laws both started taking SS at age 65, both based on their earnings. They are both 85 now, so that was a good decision on their part.</p>
<p>I feel H and I will have longevity, esp. if I continue cancer-free; our regular SS retirement has been bumped up to 67. I believe we will wait until 70 to take SS.</p>
<p>Learned something new yesterday. I thought that RMDs from our IRA/401K accounts had to begin at 70.5. From the Dow Jones column in the paper, it turns out that they must start by April 1 of the year FOLLOWING the calendar year in which you reach age 70.5. Given where our birthdays fall, that would mean no required RMD until the year we turn 72. However, in that year, we’d need to take two years worth of distributions. I don’t know what we’ll do, but it is good to know that there are options. </p>
<p>On the social security front, I recently read that at full retirement age, even if you’re single, you can file and suspend, and then claim all back payments back to full retirement age in a lump sum if you do so before age 70. That might be a good strategy – if you developed a health situation that meant it was likely that you were going to die in a few years, you could claim the lump sum. If you didn’t, you don’t claim and start the higher permanent benefit at age 70.</p>
<p>FIguring out how to draw upon what resources is going to be an interesting optimization problem, especially for those of us with partners. </p>
<p>The “file and suspend” approach can be used in some cases to receive a spousal benefit and then collect later. This was discussed upthread <a href=“Can Couples Still File and Suspend Social Security?”>http://www.aarp.org/work/social-security/info-2014/file-and-suspend-retirement-strategy.html</a></p>
<p>Here’s a link to a decent social security calculator/simulator. You need to understand something about your current projected benefits, and and you need to have a little bit of financial common sense to use it, but it seems to me to do for free what some others charge for.</p>
<p><a href=“Social Security | T. Rowe Price”>http://individual.troweprice.com/public/Retail/Retirement/Social-Security-Tool</a></p>
<p>Well in our case H can’t get any SS nor any SS spouse’s benefit (his pension is much larger than any spousal benefit). We’re just going to defer my SS until I turn 70, as we expect me to live until I am about 100, given my extended family history. Fortunately, we are comfortable living on the pension and H’s RMDs and haven’t been drawing anything else.</p>
<p>Anyway, SS is pretty complicated, expecially where both spouses are entitled to it. You are correct that you technically don’t have to withdraw RMDs until your CPA advised, but as you say, then you will need 2 RMDs that year, so you have to figure out what makes the most sense. Personally, it seems better for us to have more even income than huge disbursements and years with less, but we’re all different.</p>
<p>I thought I would share a situation that may have spouses thinking twice about things -</p>
<p>A military retiree got cancer, and because he was exposed to agent orange was eligible for disability benefits (for him, an additional $900/mo). We all belong to a cancer support group, and others were talking about their benefits. He was working a contractor job and didn’t want to apply for the disability; he died some months later. His surviving W would have been eligible to continue receiving the $900/mo, but now that he is deceased…She feels like she has plenty in retirement, but PLEASE, how many of us would turn down that extra money???</p>
<p>SOS, thanks for sharing that. It is important to think about whatever fiscal implications we can to leave what we can to our loved ones. </p>
<p>One of the strategies for SS file and suspend is to give yourself a safety net in case you DO develop a condition that results in you having a suddenly greatly shortened life expectancy (allows you to get a lump sum as if you had started collecting benefits when you 1st filed), and then pays ongoing benefits.</p>
<p>It can get pretty confusing but we can all only do our best with the info we have and the most likely scenarios we figure out.</p>