I live in one of the highest cost of living areas of the country but I just looked up my SS records for work spanning 50 years including busboy job in my teens to white collar job now.
SS income is $3,876,716, Medicare income is $7,558,568 over those 50 years.
During my white collar post-college years I was always maxed out on SS due to the high cost of living here.
We are doing some asset allocation adjustments from equities to our new home (real estate) and the tax burden here on capital gains is about 38% (from CPA) so it is quite expensive for us to convert some of our equities to real estate. We are finished saving so that is OK. We will have a mid 6-figure tax bill in 2025 and a barely 7-figure tax bill in 2026 in order to pull off this asset reallocation but it is the greatest feeling in the world to be able to pull it off without any feeling of pain, remorse or regret. Our investable assets grew the way they did because of tax deferral, plain and simple.
I've been saying my entire adult life when rich people complain about paying so much tax that nobody feels sorry for you so stop complaining as they would gladly trade places with you. Now I'm getting a taste of my own medicine and I have to admit that it tastes pretty good. I know nobody (excepting rich people) is going to feel sorry for us. We saved intelligently with a great amount of discipline like many or most here and it is time to celebrate and cherish paying taxes at a level where only the few privileged folks in the country are able to achieve that privilege. My CPA told me, "Stop worrying about those things, realize that you did well in life, you'll leave a nice legacy and be able to live financially comfortably in retirement." He is a good friend from college and told me he is very proud of me, something that sunk in slowly but I realized only after existing savings mode and entering into asset management mode. We have a circle of friends and in regards to those who are self-made he puts me in the top tier as he is a CPA and he knows that people are worth.