Tired...Anyone retired this year, how has it been, any issues. Looking at 3 more yrs.

[dmccarty]

Awww man you guys are killin' me. Now, Ima mouthwatering over some beans and ham. You know if you just have only beans or only rice...butter makes it really good...

Man, I do love white rice. :licking::licking::licking: I try not to make it anymore because I always make too much and thus eat too much. The best rice I have ever had was when I was in elementary school in LA. Some of the crap that school fed us kids went, literally, to the pigs, because we would not eat the stuff. Rice was a big exception. I have eaten a bunch of good rice since then but I don't think I have ever eaten rice like the school fixed. They cooked the rice in a big tray that was covered so I think they did it in an oven. They added plenty of butter too. When we were lucky, the would serve the rice as a side dish, but usually we could only get the rice if we cleaned our plates... Not many kids are going to eat boiled okra. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I use olive oil now instead of butter though every few years I will make rice with butter but I never can get it like what was served at that school... One of the mysteries in life I suppose.

Back to retirement. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

I expanded my retirement spreadsheet this weekend and added some what if scenarios. I need to go back an through in some different what ifs and see if that makes a difference. When moving to NC I had a plan that might have allowed me to retire at 55. That is certainly not going to happen now unless I win the lottery. My assumption has been I would retire at 67 but looking at the numbers I see that 62 is possible except I would loose 35% of my SS payment. This thread got me thinking about retirement in a different way.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Several people thought she was a troll. [but not the mods] There was a few days of real intense back and forth, then four months of silence. When she posted again, she was a changed woman, and had learned to LBYM. It did smell fishy.

I had to look it up. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

LBYM = Living Below Your Means.

Later,
Dan

 

[riptides]

....
Back to retirement. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

I expanded my retirement spreadsheet this weekend and added some what if scenarios. I need to go back an through in some different what ifs and see if that makes a difference. When moving to NC I had a plan that might have allowed me to retire at 55. That is certainly not going to happen now unless I win the lottery. My assumption has been I would retire at 67 but looking at the numbers I see that 62 is possible except I would loose 35% of my SS payment. This thread got me thinking about retirement in a different way.

Later,
Dan

I recall a while back, FOR ME, that I got some notification from SS that my retirement age had been moved forward on benefits collection.

When I saw that, I ended up rethinking my "benefit" from SS altogether and made other arrangements.

A previous employer did the same "raise the bar" trick to a pension plan I was in. Lesson learned. If you know what I mean.

 

[MacLawn]

Health. Man, that's a big one when it comes to retirement. It can change a bunch of things, timing, location, etc. Not just health, but how you feel from day to day. Example, my health is pretty good it seems, but, I deal with constant pain, fibromyalgia, depression many days, etc., so these issues can make a big difference. My self employment is such that I can go at my pace. Due to these issues, hey, I wouldn't hire myself! Yep, looking forward to turning it all in though.

 

[Larro Darro]

I expanded my retirement spreadsheet this weekend and added some what if scenarios. I need to go back an through in some different what ifs and see if that makes a difference. When moving to NC I had a plan that might have allowed me to retire at 55. That is certainly not going to happen now unless I win the lottery. My assumption has been I would retire at 67 but looking at the numbers I see that 62 is possible except I would loose 35% of my SS payment. This thread got me thinking about retirement in a different way.

Later,
Dan

Remember that for every month after 62 you wait on SS, it changes your rate. If you could get by with a part time job for two or three years before you started drawing, it would help. Since I was born in 1961, I would have to wait until 67 for full SS. That seems like an awful long time. But at the rate these years are flying by, it will be here all too soon.

 

[Redbug]

Here's a good chart showing the break even point after starting SS from the ages of 62, 66 and 70. The age at which the dollar amounts you receive will be equal is around the age of 79. That is...if you start your SS at 62 or 66, the dollar amount you get out will be equal at around age 79. The question is: Would you rather receive less money early on, or more money later on? What if your family history shows an earlier death rate? Or your health is not very good early on. Is it worth putting off SS until just before death, or enjoying the money earlier...while you can?

http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2006/606/images/ex1p43.pdf

Opinions?

 

[Travelover]

Here's a good chart showing the break even point after starting SS from the ages of 62, 66 and 70. The age at which the dollar amounts you receive will be equal is around the age of 79. That is...if you start your SS at 62 or 66, the dollar amount you get out will be equal at around age 79. The question is: Would you rather receive less money early on, or more money later on? What if your family history shows an earlier death rate? Or your health is not very good early on. Is it worth putting off SS until just before death, or enjoying the money earlier...while you can?

http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2006/606/images/ex1p43.pdf

Opinions?

There are lots of threads on this topic on the early retirement forum mentioned previously. If you want to make sure that a spouse is taken care of, waiting until 70 provides (her or him) the maximum assured income after your death.

If you are concerned that the government will make SS benefits "means tested" in the future, you might want to get as much as you can, as early as possible, especially if you have a lot of savings. Also, you can leave this money to your kids, but once you die your future benefits are lost.

 

[sfloggie]

This first part is more of a Preamble as I am going to go off course of the last few pages. This thread has helped me especially when links are provided which take me elsewhere for research. The last two and some earlier made me note about my family history of early death. Yet I work full time so SS would not work now. One earlier post noted he found his retirement take home was close to his working years net. That has me really thinking if I am working a lot of free time for the government due to my taxes paid. I will set down with my wife and figure my retirement net and my true net from work.

My off course moment is now and it happens because of a wedding last evening in which I set with three couples. One drew most of my attention as he was Army as was I. He was in Vietnam in the same area I was first in (4 CORP near the Cambodian border -Chi Lang at Nui Ta Bec). His time was as a helicopter pilot in which he had one crash where he was pulled out seconds before it blew up. He was in the Can To 3rd Surg for 29 days and then sent home to remain on morphine for many months. Assuming he has a bad back from the crash and other things, plus I noticed he had a hard time hearing me, I asked what percentage of disability he had. He had not stayed in to retire and no medical retirement. He said "zero". He had been trying for years to get help from the VA and nothing.
Since I could see he had given up, I told him of my brother-in-law who was in the AF 4 years with one year in Viet Nam (1968). Twenty years later I noticed he was having issues so I asked him to apply to the VA especially since he had little money. He refused for eight years. Finally I pushed my sister-in-law to the point she forced him to apply with the forms I gave him. He was called for a review and got 30% for hearing and a few other things. He also got several years back disability pay to the point he first applied.
Later he joined the DAV and applied for the other things and then went to 60% and now 100%. So back to last night. Everything my in law refused to go for, this guy noted. All the things my in law receives 100% for and I receive 80%, this guy gets zero and he was in a crash!
Bottom line is he is now going forward to apply. I am providing him copys of my VA award decisions and my appeal letters of others. His wife looked like she would cry.
So you do not need to retirement from the military to apply. You do not get refused because it is more than 1 year from your ETS. Please do give your DAV, VFW or other Service Organization located at the VA Regional Hospital power of attorney for you with the VA. Fill out the paperwork and provide whatever support documents you have (if none just the facts so they can locate your records) to the VA via the service organization.
Best to you all, Jim

Oh..here is a short piece about a friend of mine who did not make it back. He was my good friend and "hutch" mate. One day we were both not assigned to work with a Cambodian BN so we flipped a coin to see who would go to the field with a BN. Jerry "won" the coin toss and departed the next morning. About 5:30PM I was teaching a Cambodian Mortar crew (81MM) and heard a lot of noise on my PRC25. I listened and heard Jerry had seen a NVA PLT and was moving down to intercept. Short time later he was ambushed.
POW-MIA Case Synopsis

 

[Turbys_1700]

Here's a good chart showing the break even point after starting SS from the ages of 62, 66 and 70. The age at which the dollar amounts you receive will be equal is around the age of 79. That is...if you start your SS at 62 or 66, the dollar amount you get out will be equal at around age 79. The question is: Would you rather receive less money early on, or more money later on? What if your family history shows an earlier death rate? Or your health is not very good early on. Is it worth putting off SS until just before death, or enjoying the money earlier...while you can?

http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2006/606/images/ex1p43.pdf

Opinions?

I can draw full SS @ 66 years and 10 months age...
That is what I plan on doing since I have a job that I like and still have time to take care of the farm on the side...
At that age I will have almost 33 years with the NC state retirement system...
No debt, 2 SS checks, and a 33 year state retirement check and my wife and I should be in decent shape...
I have been fortunate and blessed...
Just hope that good health continues...
Both my mom and dad are still in the game living by themselves at 82 and 83...
If I live that long I'm gonna need a good retirement...

 

[sodamo]

Getting ready to retire in 10 months. In prep I have been keeping an XCEL spreadsheet of EVERYTHING I spend monthly (now up to 8 months of data), really helps in identifying those difficult to identify incidental costs. And helps identify which months are the expensive ones (like April for instance when property and income taxes are due). Already it is showing me where to cut back. Mf

Spreadsheets are good we spend very very little in cash, practically all expenses track via electronic transfer or via credit card, so very easy to track. Pain in the butt in that my categories etc don't mesh with the credit card companies so can't just do a simple download.

My spreadsheets are all in a single file and interconnected: incomes, expenses, savings, investments, budget, mortgage payoff, projects, all bank accounts, credit cards, etc. it provides a nice snapshot of just about anything financial, be it a specific account balance or approximate net worth.

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet