Out-to-Lunch
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
That's simply not true. Everyone should run their own numbers rather than believe this. I have a small pension and plenty of taxable income and I've projected that I might not have quite 85% of my SS taxed. Since I plan to delay SS to 70 by that time it probably will be over, but
Go to https://www.irscalculators.com/tax-calculator
For a single person, put in $40,000 unearned income and $35,000 for SS and you'll see that only $24,475 is taxed. 70% of SS. These are not my exact numbers but not that far off.
I concur.
We have what I consider healthy pensions (~$65k total). If my wife claims at 62 and I claim at 70, our SS would be ~$70k in today's dollars. If this were today, this would put us squarely in the torpedo zone (40.7% marginal).
I guess I will have to just BTD and push through the torpedo zone!