Gozo Rabat

Comments:

• Thanks for sharing this info. We keep our eye on the ever-present threat of IRMAA. Even at the number you cited above, boy! My wife and I were paying something like $24,000 per year, with high-deductible, pre-ACA plans, for a long time. You mention "former employer," which makes me mildly curious about how you'd calculate any employer-provided coverage. (I say "mildly curious" because we never had that employer-subsidized benefit, and so can't compare.) We went 40-plus years knowing how much more even high-deductible coverage costs. Most job-holding Americans have no real idea of how out of whack, economically, our healthcare system is. Again: thanks. (($; -)}™

  Post: Not That Person

  Link to comment from June 26, 2024

• Would you please provide a breakdown or other explanation for why your post-retirement, Medicare-eligible costs are so high? My wife's and my costs come to about $5,820 or less (not counting deductibles). This is for Medicare A, plus a high-deductible Medigap F or G policy. (Our Medicare D now runs something like 50¢ per month each, for some reason.) Regards, (($; -)}™ Gozo

  Post: Not That Person

  Link to comment from June 26, 2024

• I assume that the full scope of my tax-preparation experience will go beyond what is required or used. Better to know too-much than too-little. Or so I hope! Regards, (($; -)}™ Gozo

  Post: Many Unhappy Returns

  Link to comment from June 22, 2024

• I've submitted an application. Thanks for helping this lazy-ish, old guy out. Regards, (($; -)}™ Gozo

  Post: Many Unhappy Returns

  Link to comment from June 22, 2024

• Our family has always used this method (as long as you don't cover expenses by carrying credit card balances!). if you "Pay Yourself First," such as by 10%, you can be frugal or self-indulgent with the rest of your spending and you're near-certain to come out all right. In my starving-college-student days, as I watched the 10% grow, I often daydreamed during hard times (while waiting for my next payday) about how I could spend money. I remember thinking I could totally empty my savings account and take the money to a steak house and overeat. This was in the 1960s, with limited savings options, and also a slow turn-around time to get my passbook to and from the S&L. So "daydreaming" was all I had time for—and that next paycheck would always have arrived before the account-emptying savings. Our kids were encouraged/coerced, from earliest ages, to put away 50% of gifts, etc., and each of them reached adulthood with middle-six-digit portfolios. "Found money" such as this, plus various rebates, means that wife and I still have a "sweep"brokerage account, just for stashing the kinds of monies that are too-small to mean anything individually, but add up. After making a six-digit house-remodel addition just before 2020, we have a sun-room plus master bedroom and master bath, that feels wonderful in rain or shine—and still leaves a six-figure account of remaining "found money," ready for us to play with— All without budgeting. Regards, (($; -)}™

  Post: What popular financial advice do you ignore?

  Link to comment from June 22, 2024

• I'm curious about the significance of the FRA designation. Is this a tax issue, where before FRA, SSI is taxed differently? Otherwise, I see a continuity from 62 to 70, in which case "FRA" is an effectively meaningless term. [I Could research this, but asking R Quinn has other benefits.] (($; -)}™

  Post: Lumpsum Vs Monthly Payment – Which pension option is better?

  Link to comment from June 22, 2024

• Can I, as a lazy person, ask for help reaching a link to sign up to do this? I've been curious to try it, as I've done our own, somewhat-complex taxes for decades, but I never get around to searching out how to do it. Regards, (($; -)}™ Gozo

  Post: Many Unhappy Returns

  Link to comment from June 19, 2024

• Our best wishes are with you and your family as you move forward through this latest trial. No one knows for sure why our lives are each guaranteed to end with some hardship, but they are. May your path forward give you as much as possible, of those good aspects of life: the love of family and friends, and the increased understanding that comes with every Stage of our journeys along Life's Way. I wish you only the best. (($; -)}™

  Post: The C Word

  Link to comment from June 15, 2024

• The ideal* is to find whatever it is that you truly want to do, and then find a way to do it. "Idol" is an excellent word for Warren Buffett, who excels at giving Capitalism a good name. May we each find whatever it is that we most want to do with our lives. The earlier we find it, the better. (($; -)}™ Gozo

  Post: Sailing Away

  Link to comment from June 8, 2024

• Wow! What a great-sounding program. It fits my bill for much of what the best of life is about. Here's hoping you guys get to follow this course of life for many happy years to come. Wow! Regards, (($; -)}™ Gozo

  Post: Our Nomadic Life

  Link to comment from June 5, 2024