Bogleheads.org

I don't come close to maxing out my 401K plus an IRA for me and my wife, Make sure you first invest enough each year into the 401(k) to get your employer's maximum match, if they give any. Never pass up free money! If the 401(k) has a Roth option, I'd chose that given your current 15% tax bracket. ...

grapeape , reading over your OP, I noticed that you didn't state explicitely if you had a traditional IRA in existence in 2012 (i.e. prior to the actions you described taking in January of this year). Duckie's response (nice job- Quack, Quack ) implicitly assumed you had no 2012 traditional IRAs. I...

SUMMARY OF THE POSTING : I've taken a first stab at creating a general purpose Monte Carlo modeler for comparing Fixed Index Annuities (FIAs) to combinations of stock and bond mutual funds. The underlying monthly stock index returns can be derived either from (1) the observed historical returns seq...

IRS Publication 554, Tax Guide for Seniors is a handy reference. You should also become very familiar with IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs).

Since bobcat2 mentioned the Shoven & Slavov paper, I thought you might like to see their plot for optimum claiming strategies for Singles. As others have mentioned, if you have known health issues that will significantly shorten your life span, ignore these sorts of "healthy people" cl...

I am surprised that no academic papers have been cited so far. It seems like fertile ground that should have been well plowed. Good suggestion :oops: One of the most widely cited recent papaers on the topic is John Shoven and Sita Slavov, The Decision to Delay Social Security Benefits: Theory and E...

OK, here's the way I think about this problem. You need to spend at least $23,000 (real) each year in retirement, and can either draw that money from your own savings until age 70, or start Social Security at age 62 and invest your 8 x ($23,000) = $184,000. FIRST - Low risk projection: your $184,000...

gerrym51 , If the hypothetical annual SS benefit is $23,000 starting at age 62, then the age 70 annual SS benefit will be either $40,480 (FRA = 66) or $40,743 (FRA = 67). I'm not sure why you used $39,000 annual SS benefit at age 70, but it's not exact. I can see that you might have just been makin...

The benefit of lifetime SS earnings by claiming later never exceeds the benefit to the nest egg by claiming at age 62. In fact, in my case if I claim at age 62 I come out ahead by about $400K between the two if I live until 90. Granted, this assumes my 5% return on the nest egg is valid but I can p...

Naikansha , one approach to getting a handle on the long term tax benefits (if ANY!) of partial Roth conversions is to make use of a computer program designed to make optimizing recommendations. The best FREE program for doing so (that I'm aware of, anyway) is Optimal Retirement Planner . I've used...

I assume my new monthly benefit would be (1000*.8) + (1000*.16) this would be 800 + 160 = total of 960. I beleive that the final benefit you are suggesting is incorrect. Social Security POMS RS 00615.692 Amount of Credit , subsection A.POLICY states that Delayed Retirement Credits (DRCs) are added ...

My biggest problem is my SIMPLE IRA through my employer which is at Edward Jones. Please check your paperwork to see if the SIMPLE IRA is a Form 5304 or a Form 5305 SIMPLE IRA. If your employer set up a Form 5304 SIMPLE, this makes a world of difference relative to your options. As stated in the WI...

Thanks for the tip. I'm looking forward to watching the following "Variable Annuities and Why They Are Good For You." "Whole Life Insurance and Why It is a Good Investment." "The Truth about 12B-1 Fees and High Expense Ratios and How They Benefit You." Never claimed th...

Your experience is more typical than many people realize. Having seen your personal inflation rate, perhaps others will now better undertsand what is stated in the Wiki article Surveys of retirement spending Researchers with the energy to analyze the original Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expe...

Attention Bogleheads . Its Saturday night - movie time! Rather than checking out Iron Man 3 , Netflix or Charter On Demand , why not watch some of the long-playing, free videos at the American College's New York Life Center for Retirement Income ? In the Seminar Series you can watch hour long discu...

Since your posting title is aimed at Spousal Benefits, I give answers relative to that question. 1. Can the husband collect, if the wife is less than 62? 2. Can the husband collect, if the wife is still working? 3. What should this couple do? 4. What does file and suspend mean? 5. Where else to go f...

The Wiki lists Firecalc, T Rowe Price Retirement Income Calculator, and Motley Fool Withdrawal Calculator. In the Firecalc thread referenced above, there was a recommendation for Fidelity Retirement Income Planner. I'm not sure that the Wiki article you are referring to is Retirement calculators an...

I wrote a book that was released in April called Control Your Retirement Destiny . It has a 40 page chapter on Social Security with detailed examples as well as an entire chapter on taxes that goes into detail on SS taxation and the interaction with your other income. I'd love some feedback from th...

I actually knew someone who delayed taking until 70. My deceased brother in law - he died at 79; his wife predeacesed him but after he had turned 70. who knows what's best That's a very good point! Everyone needs to remember that delaying Social Security is in many ways like buying insurance agains...

Article where Larry Kotlikoff discusses the implicit assumptions built into different SS planning software products. Much of the article is concerned with what should be the appropriate planning horizon for calculating lifetime SS benefits. Here are some other points Larry makes in the article. Lin...

since there are all these ss calculators when to take-they are done in a vacuum. the taxes on SS are not inflation indexed.heres a simple ss tax calculator: http://moneyover55.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=moneyover55&cdn=money&tm=30&f=11&su=p284.13.342.ip_&tt=2&a...

C) Should a tithe be on gross or net income? What do bogleheads do? My wife and I tithe on our gross income. We also give to charities beyond our local house of worship. But in the retirement class we teach, we suggest tithing on just the net income as a target, since for many people that is truly ...

Quote for 30 yr ROP from ING (A rated co) is $132 Let’s say I go for ROP with ING and pay $63/month ($759/year) extra At the end of 30 year, I get $132*12*30 = $47,520 back. It is guaranteed 4.39% return by investing $759/year I am sure that I am doing something wrong with these calculations. What ...

The bond sale was just completed, and within 24 hours brokerage houses are out selling shares to retail investors! I got an e-mail this morning from RBC Capital Markets wanting to sell the 5 year and 30 year Apple bonds at one day markups of 2% - 3%. Somebody thinks the Apple name will sell anything!

Readers of this posting stream might also be interested in the following posting made in response to a question about inflation:
RE:Is this an adequate model for inflation

Jim, we are VERY INTERESTED in the references you gave in the post above. For ease of access, here are those references again in a direct link format: Determinants of Growth in Distribution Portfolios: A Non-Gaussian Analysis How the 'Sequence of Inflation' Can Devastate Retirement Portfolios I high...

Rolyatroba , I have several concerns about your approach to dealing with inflation risk. I'll start with my concern that you haven't properly taken into account inflation volatility . You have indeed factored in an average compounded inflation of 3.5%. (Was this a fortuitous selection, or did you k...

Just a few more details that I just uncovered about two popular fee-based Social Security optimizing calculators. According to the article The Decision to Delay Social Security Benefits: Theory and Evidence by John Shoven and Sita Slavov, the optimal Social Security claiming strategy depends on the ...

I have no dispute with Mr. Milevsky's feelings toward SPIAs. Wade Pfau also favored using them to add solid safety flooring to a portfolio. However, I wonder if anyone else was struck by the degree of optimism regarding the expected real performance of 60/40 and 70/30 equity/income portfolios. If m...

This was a great posting stream to read. No changes / corrections to make. But I thought for the sake of "completeness" it might be useful to add in another P.O.M.S. reference than the one Penguin cited which also leads to the same conclusion. RS 00615.694 DRCs in Dual-Entitlement Cases A....

For those of you who are fans of Prof. Moshe Milveksy's writings on retirement planning, you'll doubtlessly enjoy an 18 minute video he has posted at the QWeMA Group home page titled, " How Should I Structure my Retirement Income Portolio ." In this video Prof. Milevsky discusses the trade...

If he OP decides to go with a ROTH IRA instead of a Traditional, wouldn't it be ok to use the emergency fund in a money market fund within the ROTH? Since he/she could take out the initial investment or is that too complicated? I've never tried that (I don't own a Roth for personal reasons). I woul...

I had no idea I could get that much funneled into our Roth accounts each year. That will really help down the line! Just remember that not all company Employee Savings Plans allow additional after-tax contributions once you've maxed out your traditional 401(k) pre-tax contributions. But more and mo...

My employment status is shaky, working part time at a restaurant, looking for a real gig, can I still start one now? Your first savings goal should be to create an Emergency Funds. Ideally this should be enough to cover 3-6 months of living expenses. Since your employment status is shaky, build thi...

You have 3 options: (1) Call them and wait for help (2) Use the Social Security Online Estimator to run your wife's scenario. Here are detailed instructions: You will first need to verify your identity by correctly answering a series of personal questions. Once verification is complete, the program ...

If I have it right, your break even point depends of lots of details related to taxes . Depends on your funding source (or opportunity costs) for replacing the delayed benefits, marginal tax rates, and whether or not you live in a state that taxes social security. I did not do a calculation for thi...

+1 to all previous comments.

I have regularly facilitated Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class at my church. I use his approach to help people get out of debt. But his retirement investing advice (at least in the pre-2012 videos) was not very good.

On the other hand the belief that we actually have information not assumed should be treated with great circumspection. How much error there might be in trying to "correct" historical results for current conditions is not well established; it could be as large as the difference we are war...

OverTheHill, Since your direct question dealt with our opinion about the overall accuracy/reliability of Vanguard's How much can I withdraw in retirement? worksheet, I'll give my opinion: It's fine for long range retirement planning when you're interested in estimating how large of a personal saving...

You're referring to the Retirement Nest Egg Calculator rather than the Retirement Income Calculator, right?

My favorite example of "misleading senior designation" involved a newspaper insert for a "free financial seminar" that came to my home in 2009. Here is the portion of the flier that is directly relevant to this disscussion: http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6528/csafliergray.jpg...

Also, I might not use 0% real for medical and long-term care cost if I was focusing on them specificially. Not sure, I don't see how they can keep rising way above 0% real forever. I tend to think you'll be right - in the long run. But to reword that famous saying about the stock market, " Med...

The problem with any inflation index such as one of the CPI ones is that they're an average which reflects no individual well . One component of the CPI which has kept the number low over the past five years is housing since house prices have fallen on average. If you bought your house five years a...

harry70n t, The primary deciding factor for the choice between a traditonal or a Roth tax-advantaged account is your expectation for future tax bracket versus current tax bracket. This deciding factor doesn't change because you are currently in a high tax bracket. If in retirement you anticipate be...

source of that 60 % figure came from an article at the time from this site http://www.prepsmart.com Thanks so much for your reference. I went there and tracked down the "60% statistic". As the Baby boomers age, the number keeps rising. Now experts say that 65% of people over 75 need long ...

Larry, As always a great article. They underestimate the need for long-term health care . It's now estimated that about 60 percent of people will eventually require 24-hour skilled nursing care in a long-term care facility . I'm really interested in the exact source for this Long Term Care estimate....

Well, it seems to me that if just eliminating the 20-30% of the Highesr ER active funds from the selection pool would change the odds of indexing outperforming to less than 50%, that would be pretty easy to do. This is why I am questioning if the 20% number or even a 50% number has been shown to be...

Mnay thanks for this link :D . I read the Forward and the Overview, and now I can't wait to work my way through the rest of the articles. While poking around the CFA Publications website I also found links for the 2 previous conferences concerning Life Cycle Saving and Investing . Each has an associ...

The payout rates from the Principal (link posted above by jasonv) don't appear to be as favorable as the 1st quarter Immediate Annuity rates assembled by Steve Vernon in his CBS MoneyWatch article Retirement Income Scorecard - Immediate Annuities 1st Qtr 2013 . Steve's payout rates were from Vanguar...

Hi folks. I just found this site today. I am seriously considering the Transamerica 1.6 Retirement Income annuity. https://www.transamericaannuities.com/VariableAnnuities/Content.aspx?ID=Retirement-Income-Choice Tonic , such deferred variable annuities have so many "moving parts" that a c...