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capran

I guess we got lucky in Washington state with PEMCO. Son came home and found the bottom of the toilet tank separated, and water ran for 12 hours. He turned the water off and some friends came over to help him mitigate some things. Water everywhere, coming from vents, lights, ceilings, walls on 2 flo...

capran

Our combined pretax income while working ended up at 150,000. By taking advantage of a variety of available strategies (state Deferred Compensation Program, 403b plan and state retirement plan, as well as a program that allowed us to shelter our health care plan costs) we never had a taxable income...

capran

Not really, so I thought I will wait until we're back in March from traveling to call SS. I had thought my question was simpler than it apparently was. I started taking SS @63 1/2. My benefit is currently $23,142. I am now 67 1/2. Spouse is just 65. If we take her SS at 66.2 it would be $26,202. If ...

capran

Our combined pretax income while working ended up at 150,000. By taking advantage of a variety of available strategies (state Deferred Compensation Program, 403b plan and state retirement plan, as well as a program that allowed us to shelter our health care plan costs) we never had a taxable income ...

capran

Joe, In response to "I don't think I understand. How does this maximize survivorship? And what does this have to do with seeing a friend die in his 60's?" I thought my query was apparent, but must be missing something. First, as to what does a friend dying have to do with anything, I was s...

capran

we were pretty close in our overall lifetime earnings as well as earnings in our prime. I was about 10k a year more the last 10 years of work because I coached in addition to work. And I started a few years earlier. certainly di it wrong by starting to claim it early for myself, but had a friend die...

capran

Sheesh. seems more complicated than it should be. I started taking my benefit at about 63 1/2. (am traveling right now, but have the exact date at home) Spouse has not started. In March after doing taxes I'll call SS and see what they say, and post it late March. If indeed because I started mine ear...

capran

Thanks, Chip. Tried it. Not sure it will answer my question, even using the advanced feature. It is telling me I should suspend "today" and "unsuspend in March (that is in 2 months)? then it gives me some total expected life time benefits, but doesn't clearly answer my question. Seems...

capran

Thank you for the replies. If I understand what you are saying, that even though I have been collecting my social security, it would fall to a "survivorship" benefit if the younger spouse passing had a higher full SS benefit. Chances are that I would pass first, as don't have as much famil...

capran

We were very happy with or working the school system, especially since we had summers to travel via a small sailboat. But the friends were raving about travel in Mexico, so in 09 took a cruise to Cabo, PV and Mazatlán. Cruises not our thing. So over the next three years went to 6 different all inclu...

capran

Male started SS at 64 so only gets about 1959 a month. Spouse 3 years younger, not taking SS. Since we are trying to spend down our IRA's we're thinking of not taking hers till 70. (benefit at 70 would be about 3800 month) If she passed away, would the male be able to take the higher of the two bene...

capran

Interesting thread and informative replies. I am intrigued by the concept of having a nest egg of tax deferred as a hedge against long term care costs.(especially interesting because the media reports that there was an effort this year that failed but attempted to eliminate the medical expense deduc...

capran

We don't really monitor our spending, but focus on our liquid cash assets. But have lived extraordinarily frugally. But this year we decided to splurge with one of the two months in Mexico renting a luxury condo, with the second month at the condo we've been renting at a third the price of the new p...

capran

Yes, it would have been nice had they told us that from the get go, and it's a disappointing omission. We have a revocable trust, but when we set it up and did the paperwork, we only had a joint account and not a brokerage. They said switching over to a brokerage account would be very easy and it wo...

capran

Spoke with a Vanguard Flagship rep today and got a huge surprise. When we opened our Vanguard account in 2007 we did the beneficiary forms for our retirement accounts and our joint account, and thought it was all fine and done. Today when I called to check on setting up a possible TOD on the joint b...

capran

Flann, I'm sure glad you cleared that up. I might worry a little less that the government would make a calculation error. I have been calculating my MAGI carefully: Full Social Security (not just the taxable amount) Pension 1 Pension 2 All dividends, whether "qualified" or not All interest...

capran

I use Excel and update between quarterly and monthly depending on our travels. I "save as" with a new date for each update so it's just updating values. It lists totals for Roth, IRA, brokerage account, checking and savings, as well as total cash assets. There's a space to record unusual b...

capran

I'm not understanding that. On the morning of the 1st I was on my Vang Brokerage site and I had to click a YTD rather than the month or quarter, and it gave me the total transactions in the brokerage account. Listed all dividends, and interest, as well as all stock trades with basis (cost) and proce...

capran

After having read most of the replies, it sure made it interesting to reflect back. We both were Certificated in Education positions. Started in the mid 80's making 18,000 each with Masters degrees. The first 16 years we got step increases in salary so that the base salary topped out at about 70k ea...

capran

Thanks. That's what I was thinking.

capran

I should know this, I but I don't. Let's say I sell 2 stocks and have a Long Term Capital gain of 1655.16. For purposes of determining MAGI and IRMAA, is that 1655.16 added to income on a 1:1 basis? In other words, my income this year is 165,075.16 without selling those two stocks. Would my new MAGI...

capran

Thank you. That makes sense. I was off on the year of actually taking the RMD so will have to re-read that to see where I went wrong. Even at an extra 83k a year I can get rid of my IRA before 72, but need to bump it up to 132k if we wanted to make a serious dent in hers. Since they changed the rule...

capran

My "joy" was short lived after reading all the comments as well as a few other searches. As is par for the course, I have a few clarifying questions, as I get lost in the legalese. I found this link on the proposed life expectancy tables: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/11/0...

capran

It's interesting that a IRA to Roth conversion is not part of MAGI when it comes to determining Roth Contribution limits, but if I understand correctly, the amount of actual conversion from an IRA to a Roth IS figured into MAGI when it comes to the Medicare premium penalty.

capran

I hadn't seen the news on the "Secure act", so will go do a google search. But if I am understanding the thread comments,that's good news for those of us not yet 70, giving us 2 more years to convert IRA's into Roths, and ditto with the spouse, but very bad news for the kids if they inheri...

capran

Bought first house in our 20's, back in late 70's. Interest rate was 9.5%. loan 32k, salary 1300 month. took us 10 years to pay it off. 2nd home 72k, interest rate 5%. paid off in 4 yrs after putting prior proceeds down. salary 36k. 1993 bought current house 182k. interest rate 5%, and paid off in 4...

capran

I wish I would have deferred less, as we, too, were in education, and as such we were able to defer 15% into our self managed Teachers Retirement Fund, as well as participating in a State Deferred Compensation fund. Since the Roth is an after tax contribution, it really isn't part of the equation. (...

capran

We live in eastern Washington. Housing is much cheaper than the Seattle I5 corridor, but it does have winter, which in some years can be harsh. But no income tax. We're not big consumers, so the state and local sales tax of about 8.6% is not too bad. At MAGI 165k, paying a state income tax is scary,...

capran

I just re-read your post to my wife, as I am even worse that you. We saved to a fault. I went out once in 26 years with my coworkers for a coffee, and felt stressed to buy a basic coffee. So making the transition from saver to spender has been rough. We bought a nice sailboat in 2001 and still live ...

capran

Seems like the first page had a lot of good considerations re: transparency. I totally agree if someone is disabled merits additional consideration, but I sure like the idea of including both in the discussion. You may want to consider setting up a trust for the bipolar child. It is a serious mental...

capran

I am curious, if you arrived at 5 mil investable assets with the help of an advisor, or on your own? And are you not happy with where you are now, and doing what you have been doing? If you joined this site in 2018, seems like you have read quite a bit. What does Vanguard say? We're less that half t...

capran

Guess I better look at those costs again. We lost my wife's Mom last year and she spent the last 14 months of her life in a high quality assisted living situation and it was "only" 77k a year. But that was a relatively low level of care needed- meals, meds, housekeeping. More to think about.

capran

re: " I don't think it is wise to convert the entire IRA to Roth. If you leave some in IRA, that money can be deducted from taxes (never taxed) later in life when/if there are large medical or long term care bills. Why not leave a buffer (again...never to be taxed!) for possible nursing home or...

capran

Prime is just the Prime money market, currently at @ 1.8%. Health Care/insurance was our biggest expense, and had we been able to keep our income low to get an ACA lower cost plan would have made sense. But with our PEBB retiree health coverage, you either sign up for and keep it, or it goes away, n...

capran

Sorry I wasn't clearer. On our tracking spreadsheet I have the IRA's lumped together (Roth and untaxed IRAs) Roths: 364,740 Reg IRA: 1,181153 and this month planning on at least converting 82-85k for 2019 to Roth Brokerage holdings: 460,000 and to be explicit, Brokerage has only 109k of individual b...

capran

Sounds like the consensus is we should consider increasing our income to up the Roth conversion, and not worry about the Medicare Premium. I do know if it was only one person that with RMD's we would be over the limit, although I noticed the limit went up for 2020 to 174k (I think I saw that anyway)...

capran

Seems like every time I read an entire thread I come away with more questions than answers. I thought we were doing pretty good in terms of healthcare costs, income and over all net worth. Then I read this thread where a lot of people are retiring early, qualifying for Medicaid, keeping their income...

capran

Seems like every time I read an entire thread I come away with more questions than answered. I thought we were doing pretty good in terms of healthcare costs, income and over all net worth. Then I read this thread where a lot of people are retiring early, qualifying for Medicaid, keeping their incom...

capran

Wow! Insurance at 240 a month!!! How did you luck out there? We were paying 1,250 a month for health insurance and dental through a retiree plan offered to teacher retirees in Washington. And there were still co-pays and deductibles! We are so looking forward to both of us being on Medicare. For 202...

capran

Doubt I would be considered a Boglehead, but I am what I am. 70-74- enlisted and served in USAF worked and went to school on GI Bill, BA in 77 and MS in 79 in counseling in 86 quit mental health and sailed the Bahamas for 6 months, then came back and got certified for School system, and started my S...

capran

That was a very interesting read as I scanned the replies. First, and most important, is to be doing the things you want to do. Whether your portfolio grows or declines is moot if you have enough to enjoy your life, as there are no guarantees. Since I retired in 2013 (and spouse in 2014) we have foc...

capran

I worked in education for 30 years. I read through the comments and agree with the poster that talked about the overriding importance of parent involvement rather than the school as determining ultimate outcomes. There could be some specific schools that have some over riding issues, but not usually...

capran

I am 67 and have always done my own taxes, and never had a problem, but this year I think I'll need help. We received a K1(inheritance beneficiary) that has two items I just can't figure out. Box 6 has $225. "ordinary business income" ie "passive income". And $601 in box 9 Direct...

capran

So many people I know suggest you max out home loans, paying it off slowly with inflation adjusted dollars, and take the deductions. But it really didn't make good math sense. We viewed it as paying a bank $4. and getting $1. back from the government for our tax savings. And with the growing standar...

capran

That's what I was reading that led to my question in the first place. It really is kind of funny. I guess they keep it questionable so that tax professionals will continue to have a source of income. Just like so many forms that have you go through a complete long math equation with the end result t...

capran

I am so confused. (way over 59 1/2 so no need to add in any penalty discussion) And all money was tax deferred and therefore zero basis. So, if I am understanding Alan... I take a distribution from my IRA of 84,700. I have 12,196.80 withheld for taxes. Therefore, on my 8606 line 16 is $72,503.20 , l...

capran

Hmmm. I am printing out and re-reading, as it seems like there are two opposing opinions. Alan is saying line 16 is only the amount put into the Roth ("Line 16 shows ONLY the amount actually converted to the Roth IRA"), but Home Stretch says it's the full distribution,("Part II lines ...

capran

The only reason I was thinking of having the tax withheld from the actual IRA amount rolled over was I worried about creating a red flag, but I was planning on meeting with a CPA to ask about that. Just don't want the hassle of an audit, as we travel a lot. For now, just trying to maximize our conve...

capran

With an eye to the future, we are starting to pull some of our traditional (non-taxed) IRA and converting it to a Roth, but the Form 8606 and instructions are a bit confusing. When we do the conversion, we have Vanguard withhold the taxes due. Looks like we don't complete part 1 of the form since we...

capran

Congratulations on getting a solid early start to thinking about retirement. We started out in our early 20's as well. If you can manage to live debt free it delivers an amazing life style. After paying off each house and rolling the proceeds into our next house and paying that off ASAP we found our...

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