Greetings from the US MidWest

[Harpy Eagle]

Hi all,

I just found this site and it looks perfect. I am 60 my wife is 57. We plan to retire in the summer of 2029. At that time I will be 65 and my wife 62.

We have a financial planner but I do most of the retirement stuff myself. I am a statistician by trade so I have spreadsheets for everything.

We plan to move aboard when we retire with Panama leading the pack of places we have looked into moving to.

We are blessed than when we retire we will have 3 government pensions. I am a retired Marine who works for the USDA and my wife works for the VA. I am getting my MC pension now and my wife will be eligible for hers from the VA in 2029, thus that being our chosen date to pull the plug.

A decade ago we had zero money saved for retirement but have been working hard to fix that.

Again, it is good to be hear and I look forward to reading the forums and interacting with you all.

 

[Koolau]

Welcome to the Forum. We look forward to hearing your story and sharing with you what we have learned as well.

Please check back often with your progress.

 

[MBAustin]

Welcome, Harpy! Glad you are finding our cozy little corner of the big bad internet a helpful place.

A couple who were acquaintances of mine a number of years back retired to Panama in their 60s. They did keep a small condo in the US for visiting family. As the years progressed, they found that they needed specialist medical care that they preferred to get in the US so they came back more often. I think they moved back permanently in their late 70s to be closer to family. YMMV.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Welcome aboard!

 

[MarieIG]

Welcome to the ER Forum Harpy Eagle.

Thank you for your service.

Two links that many have found helpful with their retirement planning process are Frequently Asked Questions and FireCalc. You two seem to be in good financial shape with your pensions - although one area I would consider would be whether the income / assets of the surviving spouse would be sufficient to maintain his/ her standard of living upon the passing of the first.

MarieIG

 

[street]

Yes, welcome to this great site. Hope you stay active with the site you won't find a better Family.

Thank YOU for your service!!

 

[VanWinkle]

Great to hear of your retirement plans and we look forward to hearing about your move abroad.

 

[Gumby]

Welcome Harpy Eagle. I look forward to reading more about your plans as they develop.

 

[pacergal]

Welcome to the forum, great place to learn and share.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Welcome to the ER Forum Harpy Eagle.

Thank you for your service.

Two links that many have found helpful with their retirement planning process are Frequently Asked Questions and FireCalc. You two seem to be in good financial shape with your pensions - although one area I would consider would be whether the income / assets of the surviving spouse would be sufficient to maintain his/ her standard of living upon the passing of the first.

MarieIG

Thanks.

Between our 3 pensions and SS we should have more than enough for our day to day living, our 401ks/IRA will be for the "extra" things in life, like travelling or such. My Marine Corps pension does not come with any survivor benefits as I have already been retired from the Marines since 2009 and we would have been getting less that whole time. I plan to wait till 67 to take my SS but my wife will start taking hers at 62. My wife will get 50% of my USDA pension and my full SS if I die before her. Barring any true catastrophes there should be ample money left in our investments for whichever one of us outlives the other.

 

[Koolau]

It sounds like you have an excellent base. Have you looked into whether Roth conversions make sense for your 401(k)/IRA money?

 

[Harpy Eagle]

It sounds like you have an excellent base. Have you looked into whether Roth conversions make sense for your 401(k)/IRA money?

We were splitting our contributions mine were going traditional and my wife's ROTH for our TSP. But now we make too much so it is all traditional.

We have looked into it, but might not till we retire. We do not have a much of any deductions and thus our tax bill is rather high.

Also, if our plan to live in Panama pans out, the first $110k of income will be US income tax free, so that is another thing to factor in.

 

[Lorenzo]

I plan to wait till 67 to take my SS but my wife will start taking hers at 62.

Why 67 and not 70? Is that the recommendation from a calculator result, such as opensocialsecurity.com? Maybe your pension affects the result, but opensocialsecurity.com recommends I (the higher earner, and no pension) defer taking mine to 70 and my wife ("DW" as they refer to such on this forum) take hers at 62.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Why 67 and not 70? Is that the recommendation from a calculator result, such as opensocialsecurity.com? Maybe your pension affects the result, but opensocialsecurity.com recommends I (the higher earner, and no pension) defer taking mine to 70 and my wife ("DW" as they refer to such on this forum) take hers at 62.

I might do 70 depending upon how things are going. 67 is my age to get full benefits, which is why I will wait till at least then.

 

[Lorenzo]

I might do 70 depending upon how things are going. 67 is my age to get full benefits, which is why I will wait till at least then.

And I might do 67 if I feel I need it then, rather than deferring until the calculated "optimal" age of 70, which is the present plan. Anyway, I was just curious, since there are endless discussions of SS claiming strategy on this forum. It seems deferring until 70 is optimal for the higher earner in a couple--but that assumes they can get by without the extra money until then.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

And I might do 67 if I feel I need it then, rather than deferring until the calculated "optimal" age of 70, which is the present plan. Anyway, I was just curious, since there are endless discussions of SS claiming strategy on this forum. It seems deferring until 70 is optimal for the higher earner in a couple--but that assumes they can get by without the extra money until then.

According to SSA.gov the difference for me if I wait till 70 vice 67 is an extra 823 a month. So that is just shy of 10k a year. not an insignificant amount. But that is also 3 years of getting nothing, which means I am leaving more than 100k on the table to get an extra 823 a month.

And also, the SSA figure assumes you are still working till you start to take your SS, so really it would be even less than the 823 a month.

It is a choice we will have to make when the time comes.

 

[Lorenzo]

According to SSA.gov the difference for me if I wait till 70 vice 67 is an extra 823 a month. So that is just shy of 10k a year. not an insignificant amount. But that is also 3 years of getting nothing, which means I am leaving more than 100k on the table to get an extra 823 a month.

And also, the SSA figure assumes you are still working till you start to take your SS, so really it would be even less than the 823 a month.

It is a choice we will have to make when the time comes.

Well, check out the threads on the topic. As I said, endless discussion and debate.