wtfwjtd

Comments:

• The better your choice looks...compared to what? Spending nothing? Some comparison. So, if I claim SS early, the longer I live, the better that choice will look. Got it.

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

  Link to comment from September 22, 2024

• It's the miracle of compounding! :) You can both spend it, and invest it at the same time.

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

  Link to comment from September 22, 2024

• Good catch! By doing file and suspend, the spousal benefit could have been unlocked at his FRA, and he then would still have had the option to delay filing until 70. Could that be what this is about? Maybe Richard has been second-guessing his own claiming decision, and now realizes that the older one gets, the less prudent earlier filing looks. And at some point, what you were convinced was the "right decision" becomes...well, the less-than-optimal choice. Hmm...

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

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• But...that's not an apples to apples comparison. The income you would derive from claiming at 70 starts immediately, it's not delayed by 15 years. Where did that come from?

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

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• My wife and I, both healthy and in our early '60's, are just now recovering from the latest Covid flavor making the rounds. We've both had multiple vaccines, but trust me--those vaccine side effects are small potatoes compared to the real thing. Covid is nasty, it's not to be trifled with, and yes, it can kill you. Get that shot, and get it pronto! You'll be glad you did.

  Post: Jabs Anyone?

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• If neither of you can draw a benefit until the primary wage earner does--i.e. the only benefit your spouse is eligible for is a spousal benefit--then waiting past FRA becomes much more problematic, since it's a lot more expensive. It's more difficult to construct a scenario where waiting in this case is more optimal, unless both spouses live a long time, and all SS money is needed to be spent immediately. But you wouldn't know all that until you're dead, so... If both spouses are eligible for a benefit, as each has their own work record, then having the lower earner claim at (whenever needed, up to FRA) and the higher earner wait to claim 'til 70 seems a lot more optimal, in many cases.

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

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• Sometimes in situations like these, I let the "mistake" (or was it an intentional overcharge--these days you never know, apparently), stand, and it serves as a "flag" in my memory to be more vigilant about price checking stuff in the future. And heck, in this case, you got to write a whole article with comments about your experience. You (and your readers!) definitely got your $2.80's worth, I'd say.

  Post: Getting Rolled by Jonathan Clements

  Link to comment from September 18, 2024

• Yep, I totally agree on all points. I also must confess to having access to the Federal Employee Thrift Savings Plan "G" fund, which is a very unusual instrument in that it has the liquidity of cash but the (approximate) return of 5-year CD's. It has demonstrated its worth on many occasions, and I don't think we'd have been as successful without it. I'm intrigued by your discussion--and the reader comments-- about JEPI, and its potential to be a partial bond stand-in.

  Post: JEPI as a Bond Substitute? Don Quixote Confronts the Windmills by Steve Abramowitz

  Link to comment from August 30, 2024

• Trade vs shift--it can be a fine line sometimes. I have several different "vehicles" that I move around among, including CD's, bond funds, Treasury Bills, bonds and notes; I-bonds, TIPS, and here recently just plain old money market funds. It seems that I haven't gotten the "set it and forget it" memo for this stuff, and it seems like the ideal instrument changes every few years. So yeah, not sticking with buy-and-hold strategy for bonds has worked out pretty good-- although, when we picked up some I-bonds many years ago with a 3%+ inflation rate, I had the good sense to hold onto those. So if I do find something good enough to hold, I'll do it. Otherwise, I'm usually forced to move around if I want to maximize yield, and/or minimize loss.

  Post: JEPI as a Bond Substitute? Don Quixote Confronts the Windmills by Steve Abramowitz

  Link to comment from August 29, 2024

• Thanks for the interesting discussion Steve. When it comes to stocks, I'm very much a buy-and-hold kind of person. But when it comes to bonds...sometimes I'm in, and sometimes I'm out. It was pretty easy to see this last cycle, what was going to happen to bonds of any duration, once interest rates started rising--they were going to get clobbered, and clobbered big-time. And the Fed clearly communicated what it was going to do, and even when. I'm sorry about cluttering your post with this kind of market-timing heresy, but on the bond side, what was going to happen this time around was clear as day. It was quite easy for me to swap out my medium term bond holdings for short-term positions, and worked out quite well. And I might further add, with the Fed getting ready to cut rates, I have no quams about moving some assets back to medium bond funds again. I know it's not exactly set it and forget it, but we live in an ever-changing world, and sometimes we need to adjust our thinking a little. Thanks again for the discussion.

  Post: JEPI as a Bond Substitute? Don Quixote Confronts the Windmills by Steve Abramowitz

  Link to comment from August 29, 2024