As I have mentioned earlier in the thread, a number of our friends have in effect become volunteer babysitters for grandkids, at least a day or a few days a week. Others have moved to be nearby. (One I’m thrilled at. Friends of ours had two sons. One died from recreational drugs that were laced with fentanyl. They were devastated – it is only a slight exaggeration to say that didn’t get out of bed for a year. Their marriage was fraying. The remaining son had a kid essentially a year later and they bought a place nearby the son and DIL and they are returning to life).
Anyway those families who help do have to negotiate vacations.
We intend to keep working but our house could easily accommodate one additional family and we could pick up some slack.
If you are filing Marrried-Joint, it’s the family income that matters. Everyone’s Part B fee is the same. What your wife is also being charged is IRMAA which is essentially a tax (err, surcharge) for Medicare for higher income folks. (In other words, Medicare Parts B & D are means-tested.)
Small company? Plan not “creditable coverage”? If that is the case, Medicare is considered primary coverage, and the plan will not pay until Medicare pays. Medicare will not pay if the person is not on Medicare. Some folks have been burned by finding that out after having an emergency procedure.
@gpo613, I have no desire to retire. I love what I do. I am always learning and I love the problem-solving. It does help that I co-founded the firm, so I have a lot of autonomy.
What I am doing as retirement is shifting from more of the mix of my work from commercial to pro bono. The advent of Zoom makes it easier as there is less travel than before the pandemic, though at the moment I’m waiting in Toronto to connect to a delayed flight to Dubai for some of my pro bono work.
Yes. You are right. Her IRMAA is getting hit by my income. I guess it might get worse when the RMDs kick in. I hope they keep pushing it back.
But, at some point, taxes have to go back up. I have always thought the lifetime gift tax exemption will drop and so estate planning needs to contemplate much lower numbers. I don’t think there would be political support for letting the Trump tax cuts revert, but something probably has to happen.
My mom retired about a month before my first was born. For the first month she would get up early like she had for work and drive 40 minutes to help me. She also was willing to watch while we went on trips without kids. I had the first grandchildren and she loved being a grandmother. I would never had expected her to watch on a daily full time job. My in-laws were the opposite, they were busy traveling the world and had a full social life. They loved the grandchildren and on occasion would take them it wasn’t where they so those years.
I’ve spent the last year or so watching one grandchild one day a week. Once a week is enough. It’s bonding for me and saves them a bit on childcare. They are grateful and have no expectations.
I re-read the article and still find it annoying. Most baby boomers are not (in my experience) always traveling and love spending time with the grands. I don’t know any millennials who are expecting their parents to give up their lives to take care of their kids. A few anecdotes do not convince me. In addition, it does not mention that there have always been grandparent who didn’t help with the kids. Sometimes it was because of physical distance, health reasons, grands still working or taking care of other family, etc. and some parents of baby boomers (the so called “greatest generation” and “silent” generation) were not interested. I know people like that.
I find the whole negative stereotyping of generations to be inaccurate, divisive and annoying.
Agreed. My parents lived 1500 miles away but would come and help in an emergency. One of my good memories is my mom coming when my husband was recovering from back surgery and the girls all had lice! I was working full-time. I needed her! On the other hand, she didn’t see our firstborn until she was 6 weeks old because of her own work commitments.
My mother-in-law lived in the same town as we did for the first 5 years of our parenting and while she would occasionally watch the kids if it was convenient for her my husband had to be the one to ask her. And never when it conflicted with her weekly hair appointment!
I live near my grandchildren now, and I am happy to babysit when asked. I even have offered to do one day a week if needed (many preschools here are only open M-Th. I have no idea why.) I want to be helpful, but I don’t want a regular job doing childcare!
I also think it’s super funny that the boomers are getting slammed for not taking care of their grandchildren enough. On Tik-tok they get slammed for being too intrusive with their grandchildren. Can’t win. Every family is different and needs to do what works for them.
My mother (who had moved her elderly parents in with her) watched our first baby a few weeks when we were trying to determine if the child care provider’s dog was causing her endless running noses… it was not. When time to revert to the regular plan, we all decided it would be nice to make Friday a Grandma day (well morning, I was working half time). It did not save much money, but it was a lovely way to give some extra time with the grands. Plus they lived close, so logistics were easier. Ha, looking back I don’t recall if we continued that once I went back to work full time. Just recall it was lovely.
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said in your posts. Stereotyping a whole generation is divisive and annoying.
However when I read the article I didn’t take offense that I have certain beliefs/feelings, due to my “boomer-ness”. It’s complicated. Reconciling expectations and circumstances isn’t easy. Realizing our actions have consequences in our familial relationships seems obvious, yet I’ve witnessed too many misunderstandings that maybe could be avoided/lessened with communication.
What I liked about the article was not the generalizations concerning generational differences, but the possibility of using it as a conversation starter.
I agree with this sentiment. Being the stay at home parent was difficult…something I believe, is underestimated. I hope for more for both my daughter and son.
Personally, I’m hoping the Trump tax “cuts”go back to what they were, it will lower our taxes significantly. There were definitely some losers in that tax plan.
What should it have been? I agree it didn’t have to go down to 20%. We could have achieved the same result with 23-25% imo.
I also think estate tax exemption was way too high, about $10M or $20M for a couple. I’d like to see it come down to $3-5M. On the other hand, I’d like the deduction part remains the same; limited state tax, real estates tax, and other deductions in exchange for a higher standard deduction. Deduction helps rich people greater. You get a bigger discount if your tax bracket if higher. Standard deduction helps lower income people. $10,000 means more if your income is $50,000 rather than $500,000.
The 2017 tax change removed some corporate tax deductions and credits. However, if the tax rate were lowered so that the overall effect was revenue neutral, it probably would be around 27-28%, not 20%. So in effect, a 7-8% tax cut overall (though not equally across all corporate tax payers).
It couldn’t be tax neutral to bring companies back to the US from countries with lower corporate taxes. They wouldn’t bother to move. If 27-28% would be tax neutral, the rate had to lower than 27-28%. initially, 23% was floated around if I remember correctly. I think 23% would have been a good place. It is low enough to incentivize.
