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Saved a few hundred bucks and kept installing a ceiling fan off your to do list, well played amigo, well played 👍
I would love to learn more about keeping things off the "purchase and install" list. Kenny, you must teach me. Teach me your sorcerer's ways.
Born and raised in So.Cal, from 1961 to present. Grew up in La Mirada and kept moving east. Besides riding and racing everywhere there was, I to off roaded everywhere. Gorman, Azusa canyon, 91-71 when it was open, San Berdo mountains, and more. No problem with hippies, when I had hair it was down my back. Practically bald today from raising my 2 sons on my own.🤣 We use to camp with the wife’s family for TG. Off 395 out in the middle of nowhere and no one around. Quartzite was just different and crowded.
I am not on Social Security yet but will turn 66 soon but then saw that by waiting till Jan 1 gets me $50 more a month but then when I spoke to my tax accountant I was told to not do it until I turn 67 at full retirement in another year because it ups my yearly allowable income amount (Retirement stock dividends) bumps up to $65,000 from $22,000 it also bumps my monthly up another $100 too.
How are you doing it?
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I don’t think dividends and capital gains count toward your yearly allowable income. And doesn’t taking $19,704 from Nov 26 to Nov 27 mean that at the $150 extra by waiting until Nov 27 mean it will take nearly 11 years to catch back up.
My full SS retirement age is 67. I decided to go ahead and retire at 66. I looked at everything, and to me another year working full time wasn’t really worth it to get a few extra dollars a month on SS. I also have a 401k and a full pension that I was drawing when I reached full retirement age in the electrical trade at 65. I also have some money invested as well in a few things that give me another bump. Everyone’s situation is a little different as well as their expectations and plans once they are retired. Good luck to everyone going through the process and on making decisions that are right for them, whatever that might be.
I treated Retirement and best time to take SS separately. I retired in May 2014 at 56. My SS full retirement was 66 2/3rds. We look at both income and expense sides for monthly expenses & budget. We have a set number each contributes to a Joint House account monthly, and everything is pretty much on autopilot from there. I was fortunate enough to be able to use different sources of $ to make my monthly account deposit without SS and decided on a specific $ amount I wanted out of SS monthly and used their on-line calculator frequently as my target and ignored "full" retirement BS. My SS claiming age ended up being 64 and change. SS pays for our lifestyle basics easily and IRA withdrawals are mostly about paying enough Fed taxes every year. Wife MUST take RMDs due to her age even if she doesn't want or need to take withdrawals. I match hers annually also for Fed tax reasons.
Couple important factors to consider here: latest estimate on SS "trust fund" expiring is 2032- 6 YEARS from now! If Congress doesn't shore it up before then we all get an automatic 23-28% haircut on our monthly payments! Figure that into your claiming decisions! Also, don't let them fool you into thinking you need to wait until age 70 to "maximize" your payments. You may not live that long, so you're banking on good health until then. The IRS actuary tables show expected lifespans, and frankly they HOPE you die before 70 so they never have to pay you any of the $ contributions you made all your working life! You also still get an automatic monthly deduction from your SS to pay Medicare part B deductible that goes up every year once you are on Medicare @ 65.
Last note here is look at the expected break-even timing as to when taking smaller monthly payments claiming before 70 (and MORE of them) vs. getting maximum payment @ 70 and (LESS of them) while also adding in possibility of reduced payments if Trust Fund if never restored equalize. It would be unfortunate if an advisor talked you into waiting until 70 and the Trust Fund expired and the haircut was baked in, but your life expectancy screwed up all the rosy scenarios of waiting until 70 and living a long life but it didn't match your personal reality.
* past results are no guarantee of future performance *
Good info….. My wife is older than I am by almost 6 years, so she’s been drawing her SS about 10 years. Every year you get a little bump but at the same time your insurance goes up almost exactly the same amount……..🤦♂️
my wife is 7 yrs older than me. though we both retired in 2014, she was on a medical disability leave for ~2 yrs before that and was getting CA disability while Drs argued whether she ever recovered enough to return to work. After she hit 62 CA & Feds split her disability payments, then when she hit 65 it converted automatically to SS "full retirement age" benefit. She made out pretty good on that 1 while I had to be more creative and put more effort into navigate the system for my best results. More than 1 way to skin a cat 🙀
That is pretty much what I am doing.
My wife is 1 year younger than me and she took an early retirement almost 2 years ago so she just went on Medicare. I start receiving IRA $ this month and upped it a little and have enough cash in the bank to comfortably wait till I hit 67 next year then dropping it down after SS begins.
We have a good plan and are currently selling off everything plus the house in the next couple months and are starting traveling full time RV debt free after Thanksgiving so that drops the monthly bills massively.
Well..... The "semi" part of my semi-retirement bas taken a back seat lately. The commercial pool accounts I kept have been damn near 24/7 with "El Nino" temps waay above average. Between that and repairs for my son's residential accts I've been a lot busier than I really want to be. Oh well such is life. I can still sneak in mtb rides pretty much anytime I want during the week so I have no real reason to complain. I do dream of one day having "Sail off into the sunset and never worry about money again" type of dough, but that's going to be a tough row here in So Cal. I'm never bored there's that, although I do wonder what "Bored" feels like sometimes 😛
^ Dood, you should do what I plan to: sell the CA house and retire somewhere cheaper! (Then again I know you're a surfer, and living in San Onofre must be pretty sweet.)
My wife is younger by almost 10 years and she still has 20+ years to go before she gets her full pension. I think I'll keep working all the way to 70 and then take the largest SS payout I can while she keeps working for a few years. I expect I'll live to at least 80 based on my family's longevity so far, so I figure it will all balance out. In any case, I need every dollar I can get because I'm behind on all my contributions to other investments. I might even just do a "soft" retirement and go work at a motorcycle shop while I wait for her to pull the trigger.
Yeah I don't know what we're going to do. As nice as it is here I'm getting burnt out on trying to retire here. It just not looking possible the way prices keep going up. The finish line keeps getting moved and it's pissing me off. I know we're not supposed to bring up politics but wtf how much money does Ca think I have ? Every fucking month costs more than the last, I can't keep up with this shit. I've got so many responsibilities to juggle everyday I can never get "Done" to the point that I can relax, like truly relax. No matter how much I do in a day it's not enough, there's always someone disappointed in me somewhere because I couldn't get to them. And I let it hang over me like an anvil. I just want to be fucking done, I'm tired, tired of trying. I swear I have zero energy, sometimes I look at the list of shit I'm supposed to be doing and just sit down and stare into space like a fucking zombie. Like why the fuck even try, it never ends. Sorry for the depressing post. It's fucking 90 degrees again, the beaches are gone, and the juice of living here is starting to not be worth the squeeze. I don't know how many if any desert trips we'll be doing at $8.26 for diesel. I may be Califailing lol. It's all good there's guys who have it way worse than me but fuck I'm tired of always having to be "ON" just to survive. Alright give me some down votes for whining like a bitch, I deserve it 😐😄
Writing that out made me feel better, I'm gonna pound a glass of water and get back to my "List" my
never
ending
list..... Winter could come anytime. I could use a day holed up inside watching it rain while I drink beer in front of the fire with the dog and cat. Until then I guess there's no way to do it but to just get to it. Break times over lol I will not be a Califailure ! Not yet anyway....
You not being a Wine’r Sum. It’s actually rough being so close. I experienced the goal post moving. Finally just pulled the plug. Still in the very early stages and it’s nice , but it’s a strange feeling not having to do anything if I don’t want to. I have plenty to get caught up on around the house and I’m getting things done and that’s a good feeling. Hope get there soon.👍🏻
Houses in northern Texas are like 200k and property taxes Pennie’s on the dollar.
Build a back yard oasis and all of a sudden the money you had saved plus selling your CA house etc goes A lot further there. Not a bad thought.
That sounds very tempting, I don't think I can get sumwife to move away from our 2 kids and 4 grandkids though. Sorry to vent I just feel like I've been WFO for almost 50 years, I'll be 68 in January, and instead of slowing down to smell the roses I just keep getting more on my plate.
how often does she see kids and grandkids now? Is there room for ADU on the property of either kid? What if you could move somewhere more affordable within a 1-day drive back to see kids & grands frequently? The key might be to just not LIVE full time in CA but visit there anytime you want for as long as you wanted 🤔
We see the grandkids at least once a week, they’re ages go from 8 months to 6. We’re very involved in their lives. Thanks for the ideas !. We’re not doing anything in the immediate future but down the road a couple or more years I don’t know. It really does depend on what the kids do. Our son has a 2 bedroom house and is (was) looking to sell and find a 3 bedroom. They were pre qualified to be competitive on a 3 bedroom, made a bid over asking on one place but still got outbid. Then the interest rates skyrocketed so their pre qualified number plummeted enough to put them from nice places to run down need lots of work places. So they’re discouraged. A shitbox 1,400 sq ft house is almost 800k, at over 7% interest rates, yeah right… the other one has a local trucking business, the amount of bullshit they deal with to stay in business is mind boggling. They’re looking at other places in the country to buy a turn key business and bail. Sorry to vent I usually try to stay positive but the last few weeks have been unusually hectic.
Pit Row
venting is good. so is brainstorming ideas even if they're way out there initially. Weather is not ideal year-round where we are, so idea of Snow birding in Winter is appealing. We've actually looked into Senior Living 55+ parks. Then there's plopping down a smaller manufactured home somewhere. I'm assuming you've got enough equity in your current place that would be seed $ on any new accommodations. I was fairly interested in a condo or smaller house in Laughlin for a while. Wifey has a couple generations of family staying put in Santa Clarita and I've got friends in SoCal & NorCal so something within 8 hrs. East of CA is appealing to us if/when we do it. Taxes and other cost of living expenses all figure into the equation at some point. Once you're really retired and collecting SS and any other sources it's easier to rough out a budget from there along with any other $ you might gain puts things in perspective - at least did for us.
Thanks you guys, it does feel good to type that shit out now and again, you know the deal. Sometimes you get hit with a bunch of crap at the same time and it makes you do a double take on what's really important during our limited time on this ball of dirt. Without getting into politics.... when the decisions of a few demand that I spend more and more time and effort out of each day to just exist in the same place I've been for the last 67 years, and then see both my kids working harder than I ever had to to accomplish the same thing, and watch them working their asses off only to be told sorry not good enough, we want more $ now. And that amount of money is more than almost every other spot on the globe, it's puts me into "Caveman mode" It's probably not healthy for me. I swear sometimes I'll think wait a second, we gotta pay this much more now because of what you guys say ? ? Oh yeah well who the fuck are you ? how about we just shoot you like they did in the wild west instead ?, fuck you how about that ? How's them apples assholes ? See what I mean ? I over simplify the things I don't understand, which here in CA, seems to be a lot. Anyway thanks for the replies and not shaming me out of here for whining lol. I know how lucky I have been in this life and there's a whole bunch of people that would trade their problems for mine in a heartbeat. I really have no reason to get so upset, but godamn sometimes people man..... I don't know. Ok rant over, carry on and good luck to all of you. I swear people that ride dirtbikes are the only normal people on this whole stupid planet 🙂🙂 😄
Wow homes are expensive out there. I just googled some homes out here in Mesa that are a lot cheaper. If you don't mind living in a furnace for 4 months of the year it's not too bad if you work in AC. But if you had to work outside it would be a different story.
Mesa AZ Real Estate - Mesa AZ Homes For Sale | Zillow https://share.google/sojxA2abX3Hhzr8AX
Same.
I didn't know retirement meant me, out this awesome chilly morning, loading up a trailer full of office cabinets for delivery. (And getting a check)
Better yet, for someone else to unload and install thankfully. All they have to do is screw them back to each other, and then to the walls.
RD, not sure what part of the country you retired to, but VMX scene is thriving east of the Mississippi .Our AHRMA races average 200+ entries ( a couple hit 300)and we have an 11 race series in the MidAtlantic region , the NorthhEast region is almost as active as is the SouthEast and Texas . And if you still are going to cut loose some bikes ,hit me up first 😉- good luck in retirement, I just turned 67 last week ,drove 12 hours each way from Pittsburgh to Alabama 2 weekends in a row for AHRMA National events !! 3400 miles on the RV in 9 days ,lol
Ssshhhhh.
Don't let our secrets out.
I live in eastern Tennessee with a place in western N.Carolina.
Right smack dab in the middle of any, and everything you'd ever want to do outdoors. (Well, except surfing)
On foot, on the water, on the side of rock walls, two wheels, and four wheels.
And seasons, from dry to greasy wet.
And both on the same drive/ride some days.
Though with the influx of people moving here, housing prices, and property taxes, are rising. But then again, so is our home, and land, values out here in the sticks. Realtor spam clogs our mailbox every week.
my racing days died of natural causes several years ago- and I'm totally at peace with it. Never imagined having a 2nd chapter later in life but fully enjoyed it! There's tons of stuff to do here in SW CO- and never enough time to do everything we want. Got retirement covered - since 2014 already 😉 I don't think you'd want any of my xtra bikes as they don't really fit the classes you race. All old monoshocks except an MX125C limited production run that is better as a kids & wife learning bike or casual trail bike oddity. Carry on...
just looked at this again and had a thought. You have 1 son that may move states. You have grandkids you get to spend lots of quality time with now while young and living locally-cherish it. In my experience, once kids get to be teens they tend to be more independent and not really into hanging out with old folks 😅 That kinda automatically gives you a potential window that opens up for you to consider options that gets you out of the whole depressing CA situation that made people like me bail out despite being born and growing up there.
Exactly, we know we have a limited window where the grandkids will actually want to hang out with us. When the time comes we'll probably opt to rent our house vs sell it. It'll rent for 2,500+ over the payment (which is locked in @3%) Then after we croak the kids will have the option of keeping it in the family or selling it. That'll be their inheritance. We plan on spending all the money 😁😄
^Dood, a house in San Clemente is a heck of an inheritance! Just make sure you stay on top of the CA tax situation so your kids don't have to pay the state for the honor of receiving it.
CA is trying like hell to get rid of the Prop 13 restrictions that were voted on way back in the 70s. As it stands now, if they inherit Dood's house, they inherit it at the current value so that's their cost basis. BUT, a big BUT, if they are not living in it when that happens, CA bamboozled the voters a few years back and they get to revalue the property tax rate. If they are living in it as their primary residence, they get to keep the old property tax rate. In Dood's case that could be a $15K-$20K per year increase depending on how long he's been there.
TM
If they do away with prop 13 there's going to be civil unrest I predict. I've posted this before. I've been to two different crusty old war veteran's houses doing some work. 2 different guys who don't know each other told me the same thing. "If prop 13 goes away I won't be able to stay in my home" "But I'm not selling, and I'm not moving" "The day they come to remove me from my house they better be prepared for a fight" "I'll take down as many of those cocksuckers as I can" And they were dead serious. I applaud them, I wish the whole state was on the same page as those two. But we're not supposed to talk about these things so... How "bout those Chargers ? Perfect record so far this season 0-6 lol
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