Mark Ukleja

Comments:

• It's all part of the planning process. No different than knowing an expected pension benefit, anticipated portfolio value, monthly expenses, etc. All lead to well informed retirement and other financial decisions. Information is good. More information is gooder!

  Post: How might early retirement at say age 55 affect your FRA SS benefits?

  Link to comment from September 23, 2024

• No fluke. I ran my FRA projections when preparing to retire at 58 and then had a mild panic attack months later when I noted that the calculator assumes continuing to earn my last salary until FRA which would have been 9 more years. I changed the assumptions to $0 future earnings, held my breath, and hit "enter" only to find my monthly benefit was only going to change by roughly two cocktails/month. If you've made good money for 35 years, you've pretty much pegged the meter and future earnings mean little to your benefit. Also, the benefit calculation is heavily weighted towards lower salaries and has a max cap. The net result is that, for many HD readers, their benefit is not that much different from Bill Gates' or Warren Buffett's.

  Post: How might early retirement at say age 55 affect your FRA SS benefits?

  Link to comment from September 23, 2024

• There's a large difference between my wife's benefit (much smaller) and mine so, after considering Mike Piper's advice and our own finances, we took hers early at 63 and are deferring mine till probably 70. Seems like the best of both worlds. We immediately start collecting the "first to die" annuity and defer the much larger survivor annuity. Provides us with extra income in our 60's and minimal, if any, draw from our portfolio allowing it to continue to grow while still preserving the much larger SS benefit for later and the surviving spouse. It's somewhat of a mortality hedge against one of us dying early and losing the lower benefit If we had both deferred, I think the breakeven was both of us living well into our mid 80's. We also have pensions which, admittedly, makes these decisions much easier.

  Post: Quinn asks himself, Is delaying Social Security to age 70 the right decision?

  Link to comment from September 22, 2024

• Dr. Lefty is spot on! The Shingrix two shot vaccine is pretty miserable but I was only unhappy for about 24 hours post shot. I had Shingles in my twenties and was miserable for 6 - 8 weeks! Get the shots!

  Post: Jabs Anyone?

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• At 64 and both retired, we are: Tax Deferred - 64% Roth - 32% Taxable - 4% Would have liked to have had more taxable, but after fully funding the other two as well as Roth conversions, the extra income wasn't there. Will probably continue with Roth conversions over the next decade to eliminate/minimize IRMAA which will be an issue once I take SS at 70 and RMDs roll in at 75, but not something I'm going to lose sleep over. There are worse problems to have.

  Post: What’s your asset breakdown by tax treatment?

  Link to comment from September 12, 2024

• We are 64. I retired at 58 and my wife at 62. . My wife has a small pension and social security benefit that we are now drawing along with my larger pension. We are deferring my larger social security benefit probably till 70. My wife will collect 50% of my pension upon my death. To address the shortfall my wife would experience should I unexpectedly die in the decade prior to collecting social security, I took out a small 10 year fixed term/fixed premium life insurance policy that would cover the 50% reduction in my pension upon my death. That will allow her to continue to defer my social security till the maximum survivor benefit. At that point, my social security plus her pension, 1/2 of my pension, and modest portfolio withdrawals should allow her to easily maintain her lifestyle. That's the plan anyway.

  Post: How have you financially protected a surviving spouse or dependent?

  Link to comment from August 9, 2024