Recent content by Gumby

Then I would follow Cathy63's advice and contact the local Social Security office.

That quote is wrong. What I think they mean to say is that your Roth contributions are taxed at your marginal rate when you are working and making contributions, while tIRA distributions are taxed at your marginal rate when you are retired and taking distributions. For a lot of people, the...

Your counterpoint is a good one, and that's why it's so difficult. We see that tension in a lot of public health measures, such as mental health commitments. Exactly when and where do the needs and desires of the many outweigh the needs and desires of the few or the one? I struggle to find a...

I'm quite content just saying "I don't know". And if we somehow discovered a recognizable alien civilization on a planet 124 light years away, would it change my life? Probably not.

One thing you could do is go ahead and assume that 50% drop in equities and then run your model with what remains, which would be all of your fixed income and still 50% of your equities, totaling 3/4 of your assets . Assume you rebalance back to 50/50. Is it still enough? That's why you might...

Is your MIL affected by the WEP or the GPO?

You could do that, or you could just do the math at home. For a person who gets a pension from a government job as to which they did not contribute to social security, the Government Pension Offset (GPO) will reduce any spousal (and eventually survivor) social security benefit by 2/3 of the...

What to do about self destructive drug addicts is one of the thorniest moral issues of our time. On the one hand, we recognize that they are people just like us who have a disease, and we believe we should attempt to cure them, or at least alleviate their symptoms. On the other hand, there is...

Nope. I'm pretty sure he means Suboxone. Suboxone Uses, Dosage, Side Effects & Warnings - Drugs.com Suboxone

I mowed the church lawn this morning. Then I mowed the neighbor's lawn this afternoon (he's away on vacation). I didn't have the oomph remaining to do my own, so that's a chore for the next dry day.

Maybe some did. I didn't. Not even pot. That was my one and only chance to get a college degree, and my school would kick you out in a heartbeat for drugs. They regularly searched the dorm on Saturdays with the drug dogs and NCIS occasionally would run stings.

If you stick to getting pharmaceuticals only at a pharmacy, with a legal prescription, you won't ever have this confusion about what you are getting.

I don't think it is fair to say most small businesses that deal in cash evade taxes, but they seem to do it at higher rates than other businesses because it is easier to accomplish. The IRS has in the past conducted studies on tax compliance and found that individuals/proprietors under-report...

I wanted to share this article from the NYT about the difficulties of maintaining our relationships with our spouses after we retire. I don't know if the young wife and I have the answer, but we seem to have settled into a pattern of his activities , her activities and joint activities. It...

One thing I am confident about virtually all retirements - the facts on the ground won't end up matching the planning assumptions. That said, all that time you spend planning is by no means wasted. In fact, it is imperative that you plan. If you have really thought through the nuts and bolts...