Is $12k/year for family? In the old days, it would have sounded like a lot. But these days a pretty good deal.
Iām a little confused by this: SS at 80%, but Medicare not for 10 years.
Medicare starts at age 65, what age will you start SS?
@colorado_mom $12k is my portion for the family plan which is 35% of the premium. I went from zero per year to 12k. Went from free lifetime benefits to paying 35% which goes up every year, with no cost of living increase on pension.
So total premium if it were not subsidized by your pension plan would be about $34k?
@ucbalumnus Thats correct, just shy of $35k covers medical, prescription, dental and eyes for family plan. Welcome to NJ
@TdoesCollege I am a public employee and donāt pay into SS. However, I have worked fulltime part-time jobs for past 35 years paying into SS. Under the windfall eliminayion provision I will only collect a % of social security. Basically being penalized for having a pension. Iāll collect at age 67
Suggest you run Open Social Security (additional info tab at top) for the NPV of SS claiming strategy.
@BmacNJ - thanks for the clarification. All the other info in that sentence seemed to me to be benefit start dates; this makes sense! Congrats on having a plan. Hereās to it working successfully for you! (And each of us, our plans as well!)
We were planning to change from 60/40 to 50/50 in our late 60ās as we begin to live on savings instead of income. Planner disagrees. Meeting next week to discuss why. Iām always skeptical even of fiduciary planners. Iām never sure if they want us to keep more money with them (so their income is higher), or if truly for our benefit.
Thereās two school of thoughts: 1) if youāve already won the game, why continue playing; 2) barbell theory of investments.
1 means if you have enuf for 30+ years into retirement, why not go more conservative, i.e., higher bond allocation like you suggest.
2 suggests that one is high in equities while working and accumulating the nest egg, go conservative in the 60's, but then go back higher in equities in the 70's+ (primarily to protect against inflation but also to build the estate) while then maxing out SS.
I typed a long convoluted question, but decided it wasnāt quite right, so Iām just going to post happy news -
I am now less than 6 months from projected/expected retirement date.
Every day I become more convinced itās the right decision for me.
@Happytimes2001, we lightened up on equities and are selling some rental real estate. For some reason, it is hard to rent properties but the market for condos is going up.
Congrats @1214mom.
Well I learned something new today: We finished playing with calculators and decided I would go ahead and apply for my SS. Waited 'til a few mos after my birthday this year and thought the 2/3% increase from the amount calculated for that date would apply right away. It doesnāt work that way.
The extra ācreditsā for delaying retirement get applied on Jan 1. So the few checks I will get this year are for the same dollar amount it estimated on my annual SS benefits document, and it will readjust for the delayed ācreditsā (that havenāt been applied yet) in January, plus the just announced today there will be a 1.3% COL increase in January.
I donāt know if I have talked about this before, but I plan to retire in mid-January. Due to company policy, my boss can not even put in a request to backfill my job until I actually resign. I would love to be able to tell him now and help hire and train a replacement, but thatās not possible. This policy stinks! Especially for my co-worker who will end up covering my position for what could likely be months after I leave. But our policy gives me no optionsā¦
I do have a quarterly review coming up and I have decided to give my boss a āheads upā and tell him I am thinking about retiring early next year. At least that gives him some notice and time to plan.
@FallGirl - I think the informal āheads upā to manager makes sense. I did similar.
@FallGirl, I did give a longer than typical notice (not 3 months, though) when I retired in 2018. I did not have to train my replacement; they just needed to know the position was being vacated so they could post the job opening.
If you no longer have a mortgage on your home, is anyone considering refinancing as part of their retirement plan? Rates are so so low, it is tempting. Our original thought was to simply hold the money in low rate but super safe options (staggered CD/s T-Bills, etc.) and just watch what happens over the next 3 years or so. If rates increase, we keep the new mortgage. If not, we pay it off.
I THOUGHT we could also deduct the interest since it was a home mortgage, but was advised you can no longer do that unless you are using the cash out for home improvements. That removes a lot of the appeal. Our home needs improvement, but not as much as we would want to refinance.
We took out a large mortgage on this house as a bridge loan before we sold the old house and studio. We will use the proceeds to reduce the mortgage to conforming but will not pay it all down. Weāll use the remaining proceeds to pay for the renovation. But, we could pay it all off and choose not to because of the interest rate (2.625% 30 year fixed).
āIf you no longer have a mortgage on your home, is anyone considering refinancing as part of their retirement plan?ā - Not us.
We are recently retired, very much enjoying the feeling of being debt free. I understand where it could be a reasonable option for others in different situations, but mortgage refi does not appeal to us, (LOL - I almost said ādoes not interest usā, but that would have made an unintended pun)
I too am going into retirement debt free. We paid off our mortgage last year, and have no intention of taking another on our primary home.
It is possible that after we establish our ānormalā spending, including travel, for retirement, we may buy some type of vacation place, and would likely take a mortgage on that.