On the path 10

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dreamer I am not eligible for spousal social security, because I have a government pension and there is a government pension offset which eliminates any spousal pension amount. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Dreamer,

DW is a retired teacher. She did do some work under SS part time as a student years ago and also did some adjunt faculty work at a local college more recently. I was shocked at how much the windfall elimination provision impacted her SS based on those earnings! You used the word "negligible" and I agree. I downloaded a calculator from the SS web site to do the calculations and it was fairly easy. Basically, if she does any work under SS now, she gets near zero return for her SS contribution........kind of takes the fun out of paying SS taxes!

Like you, she also will get zero based on spousal (my) SS due to the spousal offset provision. Bummer.

[Retire Soon]

It looks like my intended meaning did not come across clearly. I'm actually very happy with my decision to RE. Yes, I did dwell on my resignation last March, but I could not be more pleased with the outcome. Things could not have worked out better. We sold our house in San Diego in July and since then many people in our former neighborhood have been forced to take their home off the market because of rapidly declining sales. We bought our current home 2 years ago before home prices nearly doubled in this part of Oregon. I have absolutely no regrets about my decision. If I sounded like a complainer, that was not my intention.

[Dreamer]

It depends on how much your earnings were for the years that you paid into social security. A retired co-worker of mine will start receiving her social security in Dec 06 (she will be 62 in Nov 06) and she is going to receive a whopping $92.00 per month! She said that she is going to save it all year and go on a cruise each year. She said that will work until she is age 65 and Medicare starts! Who knows, I may get a job flipping hamburgers or greeting people at Wal-Mart! I currently have too many trips planned to actually apply for a job. I would also hate being on a schedule again, so maybe I won't get around to applying for a job. I am still doing a wait and see!