Social Security Questions

[meleana]

Nobody said life has to be easy.

If you can afford to retire and collect early, then you don't have to submit to "slavery" I guess. Not everyone has that choice. And not everyone wants to cut thing that close.

I thought you were looking for suggestions, but it seems like you have already decided and just wanted support for your decision. You haven't posted enough details regarding your income, savings, and expenses for a real answer anyway.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

What I said was we can live on my husband's salary ($82,000), but just won't be able to put a lot of money away like we did before- might be able to do his IRA- have to work on our budget more. I know an option is to try to get another job, but this is the early retirement forum after all.



So my question is- should I take SS early or wait and just live on the one income without it?



We have about 1,760,000 dollars altogether in everything and our expenses are about $4000 per month. Some will go away- gas and car maintenance will decrease, life and disability insurance premiums will end, etc.

 

[joeea]

What I said was we can live on my husband's salary ($82,000), but just won't be able to put a lot of money away like we did before

Hmm. Seems like you can put quite a bit of money away if your expenses are only $48,000 but your husband's salary is $82,000.

So my question is- should I take SS early or wait and just live on the one income without it?

We have about 1,760,000 dollars altogether in everything and our expenses are about $4000 per month. Some will go away- gas and car maintenance will decrease, life and disability insurance premiums will end, etc.

Sounds like you have sufficient dollars and low enough expenses to do whatever you like.

Even without SS benefits and with no growth in your assets your dollars can fund over 36 years of expenses.

Good luck.

 

[meleana]

Hmm. Seems like you can put quite a bit of money away if your expenses are only $48,000 but your husband's salary is $82,000.

Sounds like you have sufficient dollars and low enough expenses to do whatever you like.

Even without SS benefits and with no growth in your assets your dollars can fund over 36 years of expenses.

Good luck.

Thanks. Well- we live in NY- so high taxes here. (plan to move to NH at some point) But- yes- hubby will put the max in HSA just like he has always done, but when he turns 65 next spring and is on Medicare (plus his employer health insurance) than the law says he can no longer contribute to the HSA. But we can take after tax dollars from what he used to contribute each month and continue to save some money from that. And I do think he probably will still be able to save money in his Roth IRA. I have to work this all out- which I intend to do in another week once I am not working. That is my goal- to get it all sorted out.


We essentially saved my entire salary these past few years when I was working- but some of that savings went to buying cars we needed and doing home repairs and upgrades, and a few vacations. So used to having all that extra income, so a bit scary. But we are pretty frugal. Mortgage was paid off way long ago.



I just didn't know if I should grab the SS now or wait and if so wait until when? Our plan was always to have hubby take SS at age 70 and me at 66 or even 70 if we could live on our savings until then after retiring. The calculator says for me to take it now and him at 70, but of course, it doesn't take into consideration all the variables.



Of course, it all depends on how long he keeps HIS job.

 

[Huston55]

I just didn't know if I should grab the SS now or wait and if so wait until when? Our plan was always to have hubby take SS at age 70 and me at 66 or even 70 if we could live on our savings until then after retiring. The calculator says for me to take it now and him at 70, but of course, it doesn't take into consideration all the variables.

Of course, it all depends on how long he keeps HIS job.

If you used Mike Piper’s SS calculator, you’ll get the optimum (most $$$) recommendation. But, in case you didn’t know, you can evaluate multiple scenarios, and there’s often a very small $$$ difference with different claiming ages. So, I’d suggest you try multiple SS claiming scenarios that might work better for you/DH for other reasons.

After that, input the SS scenario(s) that work best for you/DH into FIRECalc along with your other info & see what seems optimum.

I think this will give you some good guidance on what to do. If you still want advice after that, I suggest you start a new thread with the SS & FIRECalc results. The responses you get from that will probably be more specific and, therefore, more useful. Good Luck

 

[meleana]

I also might add included in part of that $1,760,000 is a $200,000 (more or less) lump sum from my husband's sliced in half pension (thanks to the company changing over to a cash balance plan- SMH) which he is not eligible for until age 65 or whenever after that he retires. So we do not have that in our hands as of yet. (Don't want to take the annuity.)

 

[sengsational]

... the law says he can no longer contribute to the HSA.

But if you get a high deductible policy from healthcare.gov, YOU can open an HSA! And you'll read that most people realize that spending after-tax dollars on healthcare is wise, even though you have a balance in your HSA because the big long-term compounding bucks don't get taxed. In other words, an HSA is like a super-Roth because it's essentially not taxed on the way in or the way out (presuming of course you spend it on healthcare later, which "everyone" agrees should be easy to do).

Again, the SS timing "tail" shouldn't wag the dog. If the total SS income taken at 62 doesn't put you outside the PPACA subsidy range, then go ahead and take it. If it does put you outside the subsidy range, you'd be nuts to take it.