J Cp

Comments:

• Perhaps it would be helpful to reframe your choice as making the “best possible decision” versus the “best decision”. For all the reasons you mention and probably more, the best decision is unknowable. But making a decision based on what is possible to know, what you can and do know, is the definition of making the “best possible” decision. I think based on your excellent post that you are making the best possible decision.

  Post: Covering the Basics

  Link to comment from March 25, 2023

• I had a similar experience with an elbow rehab. I tried to discover how much the hospital network physical therapy sessions would cost me if: I was charged my insurance company’s contractual rate and if I paid cash. Because I had insurance the hospital said: 1. They could not discuss a discounted cash rate but could tell me the standard rate was $600 per session. 2. They could not tell me what my “insurance price” would be because I had not yet been billed. So I tried BC. They said they would be glad to tell me my “insurance price” they just needed “the code” from the hospital. I gave up and went to Athletico where I was given the cash price upfront, $100, and then had to sign a waiver saying I would not try to seek reimbursement from any insurance. Now I dodge questions about having medical insurance in order to negotiate steeply discounted cash prices. Prescription drug coverage seems like a protection racket. Most of the time my “insurance price” is multiples of the Good Rx price.

  Post: Who’s on First?

  Link to comment from March 29, 2022

• I am in the same circumstances as you except my full retirement age is 67. I added a break even analysis. It was around 88 years of age with retirement at 70. If I live longer than that I am in the money. Less, and money is left on the table.

  Post: My Time to Claim

  Link to comment from March 14, 2022

• Social Security is not insurance or a pension as defined by any common understanding and it’s constitutionality is based the “general welfare” clause found in the constitution. It is risible to say but Social Security is a welfare program. Payments do not give rise to any property rights in future benefits. Future benefits may be curtailed or even eliminated by Congress. Not that is desirable or politically feasible but it is possible. Current Social Security recipients receive their benefits via taxation on current workers’s wages. The trust fund is simply an accounting entry sleight of hand. All of the trust fund is held in government IOUs which must be paid via current taxation. Today’s workers are under no moral, or ethical obligation to fund social security. However they are under a legal obligation enforced via taxation to fund it. But this compulsory tax can be altered or eliminated the political process. Even with the taxation in place the money can be used for t other spending. Wikipedia has two excellent summaries of Surpreme Court cases re. Social Security Helvering vs Davis “The proceeds of both the employee and employer taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like any other internal revenue generally, and are not earmarked in any way. The Social Security Act of 1935 does not contravene the Tenth Amendment, as Congress is permitted to spend for the general welfare.” Fleming vs Nestor “The Court ruled that there is no contractual right to receive Social Security payments. Payments due under Social Security are not “property” rights and are not protected by the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.”

  Post: Not an Investment

  Link to comment from November 16, 2021

• The article at link says the book is out of print. Maybe. But, I just borrowed the ebook at a library.

  Post: Betting the House

  Link to comment from October 7, 2021

• Yes indeed many spend money on things that have non-financial returns. Do as you wish but remember your choices when later in life some of us are “lucky” enough to experience a greater level of prosperity due to our choosing to save and invest. It is the age old dilemma of immediate versus delayed gratification. There is always a reason, some more nobler than others, to live for today grasshopper.

  Post: Black Beauty

  Link to comment from August 4, 2021

• How much does it cost to raise children? How much do you have? Within a broad range of income and family size, raising children takes everything. A lot or a little rarely is it enough. Are there any among us raised in poor families? If so, are you happy that your parents had children despite their lack of resources? How poor would a child need to be before for the later adult child to wish she had never been born?

  Post: Ignoring the Rules

  Link to comment from May 27, 2021