Recent content by swabby01

My wife and my 401K’s were over half of our “retirement” funds and allowed both of us to pick the date we chose to retire. Maybe should have channeled additional funds into Roth but that would have been for kids after we passed away anyway. The were “Priceless” to us

One of the most prevalent scam emails right now are the "IRS and State" "Need more information" emails. I filed my returns on a Tuesday and both Fed and State were refunded in 2 days. A week later I got relatively identical emails form IRS and State that "additional information is require before...

Medigap/Supplemental Plan My plan, and I'm a 68 year old white male and wife is 65 The company I retired from covers both myself and my wife with the Aetna policy. Was BCBS last year and cost around $340 per month for the supplement. The company switched retiree insurance to Aetna Medicare...

Pulled the plug 5 years ago. Didn’t take SS until FRA+2. Have touched 401s or IRAs of for that matter investments. Wife worked until last year and that plus my pension covered all expenses plus some. Wife retired last June at 63 and she and I both took SS. The two SS together was more than her...

SS notice Got mine last week but what I actually got was an email that said to log in to my online account and I found it there

Have an 11Pro and it’s finally time to get a phone that supports 5G. Trade in is decent And the veteran's discount helps so while not in a hurry will probably upgrade to the 15Pro Max once others have had them for a month or two to insure the new design is stable

While you are looking at Medicare costs don't forget to calculate in the IRMAA - it can be a BIG adder if you managed to save for a revenue stream at retirement. Seems like BS to me in that I paid in the max for over 30 years and now pay more for the same coverage as others get

Answered 2 BUT -- Started at Rockwell International, moved to Hughes Aircraft at year 3 and then back to Rockwell in year 5. That said my Hughes time was linked back up to Rockwell when it bought Hughes Satellite Systems. Then Rockwell was bought by Boeing. So while I did moves they all ended up...

Confession Time - Not a RAV4 but a Lexus Hybrid. First week I owned it I was doing international travel and did not want to leave it at the airport. Parked it in my garage and did NOT shut the motor down correctly - first hybrid, no noise of the engine - shut the door and left. Returned to a...

Been retired five years, paid house off ten years ago. Know I could have leveraged the equity if I hadn't paid it off but grew up where my parents and grandparents all paid off as early as possible and then "relaxed"' when they finally retired. Not sure how much I could have grown the equity...

Each of our jobs is different which means yours has to be what meats the circumstance best In my case I was running a large portfolio of programs with MANY people that had contributed to the success and depended on my support and at many times providing them coverage to from above to allow them...

Started SS finally this month. My SS and Pension (not including wife's) comes in significantly above your top bracket. Our lifestyle is comfortable but took MANY years to get here

Like other above I have two "Smart" TVs and one older one. Smart's hook directly into WiFi OR Cat 6 cable and the older set is hooked up to AppleTv box. Apple box DOES a great job of managing the streaming relative to having the ability to find what streaming service is playing a specific show...

Think bottom line is that I am screwed (whining but issue is really a blessing). My "lifetime" pension drives me to the max IRMAA so no matter when I take IRAs/401Ks out no IRMAA impact. looking at just paying the taxes and incrementally moving out of retirement accounts and into my Roth...

Traveled much across my career years. My experience FWIW was: In Hungary we tipped 10% and the servers appeared thrilled at that amount. In Rome area of Italy we were around 15% and again the servers appeared comfortable with that. In Germany while we tipped based upon service we were chastised...