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Thanks - some good thoughts. My wife and I are both in ridiculously good health (and work very hard at it), but I also don't want my wife (who knows nothing about the U.S. financial system) to be caught off guard if I should suddenly be gone.

I am pretty much a non-money person, meaning I really don't care about it. I'm 70 years old; completely debt-free for many years; live on a state pension, my SS and my wife's SS, which adds up to about $90K annually; and have plenty of discretionary income. I have about $380K in...

Voila, I have answered my own question. Yes, I do download all previous years' data. But no, TT does not automatically pull forward your prior years' nondeductible contributions to traditional IRAs, or at least it didn't for me. Instead, when you are completing this year's IRA deduction, it...

All of my taxes in years 2010-2017 have been through TT. Thus, all of my IRA contributions have been reported on Forms 8606 prepared by TT. Each year, TT does not ask me any questions at all regarding the preparation of Form 8606 - it simply tells me a portion of my contribution is...

I've been using TurboTax since 2010. For 2013-2017, I made the maximum traditional IRA contributions for myself and my wife ($6500 + $6500 = $13K). The IRAs are simply bank CDs that I fund at the end of each year. Each year, due to our income, some or all of my $6500 contribution has been...

I have played for 55 years, am the son of a professional and a former Ping employee myself, and know a little bit about golf. I have done so many real-world ball comparisons on courses I know well that it's ridiculous. My driver swing speed is a modest 95-98, and I always come back to the Pro...

Currently 67, I've always been extremely fit and have been doing a 90-minute workout with dumbbells 2-3 per week for several years. I own all the dumbbells in 5-pound increments from 10-40 pounds, several 50-pound disks for leg exercises, an IronMaster bench with leg and curl attachments, and...

I started a thread on this topic early in the year and was reminded then that it surfaces every few months and always generates a lively discussion. If circumstances force you to take SS at the earliest possible date, take it and don't look back. I decided, after all the discussion on my...

What retirement has done for me, strangely enough, is greatly increase my distance - which, at age 66, is freaking out my longtime playing partners. I bought a quality radar unit and discovered that my smooth swing (which everyone, including instructors, had always praised) was generating a...

I've had 50+ years of back problems, including a couple of hospitalizations. The main problems are moderate cervical and lumbar stenosis and typical episodes of intense spasms. I'm convinced that, for those of us 60+ (I'm 66) the most overlooked, beneficial exercise is weightlifting. I do...

After weighing all the pros and cons, I opted to apply for SS now (FRA). Many thanks to all who weighed in.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually start out with anything like a reasonable retirement income and then "run out of money" in the sense of being evicted from their homes, unable to buy food, or unable to obtain medical care. I see plenty of people obsessing about this possibility as...

The surviving spouse can take the survivor's benefit at 60, but there is a reduction if she takes it before her own FRA. The SS site shows the reduction for a survivor whose FRA is 66 as being .396% per month. ("Monthly reduction percentages are approximate due to rounding. The maximum benefit...

That's true if I were talking about the benefit my wife could receive as my non-working spouse. The confusion is between "spousal benefit" (capped at 50% of other spouse's benefit at FRA - so, for example, non-working spouse gets 50% of working spouse's benefit if both wait until FRA) and...

Of course, the true spreadsheet aficionado plugs in a genealogical tree dating back at least five generations, a full-body scan and multi-phase personality profile of himself of herself, traffic and crime statistics for his or her current location and anticipated location at retirement, and...

The problem being, how many 85 or 90 year olds have anything resembling "quality of life" versus "wish they were dead and probably would be better off dead"? We can all point to exceptions, but I have considerable actual experience with the very elderly and it is not a state that I look forward...

Thanks, I did know that. But nothing is ever simple: Because Belarus is on the State Department's human rights hit list, SS checks cannot be deposited directly into Belarus bank accounts. You either have to have a bank account someplace like Poland or (so I was told by the officials a couple...

Of course, since this is a financial advice call-in program where the callers are mostly people of modest means to whom SS is vitally important, one would hope that bad advice will eventually catch up with the host. As one who has all of his eggs in extremely conservative baskets (Series I...

Right - She can't file for her own benefit until I do, and she will reach FRA just about the time I'm 70. If I took SS at 66 and she took it at 62, her benefit (which is a maximum of 50% of my benefit as long as I'm alive) would be reduced just as if I had taken SS at 62. I was astounded to...

Right, that is exactly what my quick calculation yielded - the break-even point was 82, which is Pretty Old even under the best of circumstances. I make a hobby of reading the local obituaries. Yes, some people do live to be 85 in some semblance of health. But I am always struck by how...

The answer to both is no - the pension can be adjusted upward if there is a surplus in the system. But this question does highlight the importance of personal circumstances. My wife is a citizen of Belarus (as well as the U.S.), owns a home (in a high-rise) in Belarus, and has all her...

Yes, even in my situation there is a third alternative that was really my original plan and has not yet been entirely discarded. Assuming one has reached FRA, is in reasonable health and has no immediate need for the SS: You congratulate yourself on having prudently delayed SS until FRA...

Thanks, that is one fine point I hadn't actually researched yet since we aren't close to worrying about it - whether my wife's participation in SS would increase after her FRA.

Yes, the fact that I could apply for SS anytime during the next 4 years if it were needed, and that the benefit would increase with each passing month, is a very legitimate consideration. And as I mentioned in my OP, the fact that my wife's increased survivor's benefit would continue as long...

Yes, I agree that is a reasonable way to look at it. On the other hand, in Year 1 of the "annuity," I would have $0 in hand and a promise of $790 per month for as long as I live after age 70, versus $117K in hand at age 70 by going the other route (ignoring the taxes). If I die in Year 1 and...