It's me, It's me, It's me, Oh Lord....

[agricola]

I made a spreadsheet to compare the various options for taking SS this year, next year, hubby taking it this year, next year, year after that etc...compared what we'd get if we waited or one of us waited or we waited PART of the years between 66 and 70 -and then looked at what we'd LOSE by not taking SS earlier...

It was a bit complicated to set up but reasonably clear once all the figures were in...sort of!

Sounds like you got reasonably good advice! (seriously, five dollars a month? wow. That's like - a newspaper.)

Good luck!

[tarheel]

Katisha

It looks like it depends on how many employees your employer has, as to whether you need to sign up for Medicare Part B to avoid a penalty (i.e. increased cost going forward). This might be true of Part D also.

Under current rules, if your employer has 20 or more employees, you don’t have to enroll in Medicare if you don’t want to. Your employer’s group plan is the primary payer, which means they pay first on any healthcare bills you have. You can delay enrollment into Medicare until you retire and stop actively working.

If you work for a smaller company with fewer than 20 employees, you must sign up for Medicare as soon as you are eligible. With small companies, Medicare is the primary payer. If you don’t sign up, but stick with your group plan, the group plan can refuse to pay your claims. Even worse, when you do finally sign up for Medicare, you’ll be faced with late enrollment penalties.

From https://boomerbenefits.com/medicare-while-working/

My company has 5000+ employees across the nation. So I am not too worried about insurance right now. Just basically signing up for Part A to get my name on the books. Hubby is really pushing for that. Which brings another question to mind. Is there anyone on here who understands the process of having benefits paid pre-tax or post-tax? Hubby want me to change to post-tax so more gets hit with SS taxes.

As a CPA who has been in public practice and in financial management in industry I have got to say that this is the first time I have heard that suggestion. Without even going through any of the calculations mentioned above, it makes no sense to do that. For almost any taxpayer that works for a company offering such a plan as flex pre-tax plan your salary is going to put you in a tax bracket that is significantly higher than the formula for calculating your benefit payment thus costing more on the front end than you are going to get on the back end.

Also going through all the calculations to try to determine when to take social security is at best a crap shoot. The determining factor is when you kick the bucket and no one knows when that is going to happen. I go with just start when you reach full retirement age unless your financial situation dictates that you take it earlier.

[katisha]

Also going through all the calculations to try to determine when to take social security is at best a crap shoot. The determining factor is when you kick the bucket and no one knows when that is going to happen. I go with just start when you reach full retirement age unless your financial situation dictates that you take it earlier.

we sat down this weekend and looked at our savings, 401K, IRA (his) and what he gets in SS. Adding everything up and looking at what I will be getting in SS (I hope), we will be fine for about 25 years. The house is paid for, as are the cars, and we really don't have any side debt. Now, of course, this is not taking into consideration any major health issues. Something like that could take us out big time. But we are keeping out fingers crossed that life in retirement will be good.

[tarheel]

Also going through all the calculations to try to determine when to take social security is at best a crap shoot. The determining factor is when you kick the bucket and no one knows when that is going to happen. I go with just start when you reach full retirement age unless your financial situation dictates that you take it earlier.

we sat down this weekend and looked at our savings, 401K, IRA (his) and what he gets in SS. Adding everything up and looking at what I will be getting in SS (I hope), we will be fine for about 25 years. The house is paid for, as are the cars, and we really don't have any side debt. Now, of course, this is not taking into consideration any major health issues. Something like that could take us out big time. But we are keeping out fingers crossed that life in retirement will be good.

I am glad that is working out for you. There are so many people who are unprepared for retirement for many reasons.

[tarheel]

Here is one other caveat to my earlier post. There are many pre-tax benefits that are subject to SS taxes. You didn't mention what yours was. Pull your W-2 from last year and look at boxes 1, 3 and 5.

Box 1 is your wages subject to income taxes. This will be your wages less your pre-tax amounts.
Box 3 is your wages subject to medicare taxes. This will be your wages up to the annual limit. Last year the limit was $127,200.
Box 5 is your wages subject to SS taxes. If your pre-tax benefits are subject to SS taxes this number will be higher than the amount in box 1. Thus going post-tax gains you nothing but higher income taxes. The wages in box 5 is what is used to calculate your benefits.

[agricola]

Here is one other caveat to my earlier post. There are many pre-tax benefits that are subject to SS taxes. You didn't mention what yours was. Pull your W-2 from last year and look at boxes 1, 3 and 5.

Box 1 is your wages subject to income taxes. This will be your wages less your pre-tax amounts.
Box 3 is your wages subject to medicare taxes. This will be your wages up to the annual limit. Last year the limit was $127,200.
Box 5 is your wages subject to SS taxes. If your pre-tax benefits are subject to SS taxes this number will be higher than the amount in box 1. Thus going post-tax gains you nothing but higher income taxes. The wages in box 5 is what is used to calculate your benefits.

That's helpful!

[ena]

Hi Katisha, glad you're back and congratulations on being eligible for Medicare . I will be turning 65 in April, and it's unreal the number of phone calls and mail that I'm getting about Medicare supplement insurance. Sheeesh!

I am 70 and still getting mail offers. I also get phishing phone calls. One from IRS which I cut off. They usually send letters first. One from Microsoft supposedly because my windows had been revoked. My copy is legal. Several claiming my computer was spewing personal information all over the web. Others claiming that I can reduce my interest rate when I owe nothing. It never ends. I send calls with numbers I don't recognize to voice mail. They even call my cell phone. I have a disabled friend who scared to death by these scammers. Took a while to get her settled down because of these liars.

[teresa]

ENA

Do you know of any natural remedies that will help with Parkinson's? I have a friend who was recently diagnosed (although I think she has had it for a couple of years).

[teresa]

I have a message on my cell phone that when I click to listen to, takes me to a live person who sounds like a scammer. I hang up. I tried to delete the message, without success. Does anyone know how to get rid of the message and how to prevent this from happening again?

[ena]

ENA

Do you know of any natural remedies that will help with Parkinson's? I have a friend who was recently diagnosed (although I think she has had it for a couple of years).

I have heard some stuff but need to renew. My mother in law had Parkinson's. There are better medications today. I remember old men with the extreme shaking in the 1950's. You don't see that bad today. My best hope is Dr John Bergman DC or Dr Joel Wallach DVM, ND. He is a Vet that treats humans. He will treat you like a dog but you will get better. He sponsors the Youngevity Line of nutrients. I am wanting to switch over. I don't know of any MD long term solutions. They do not do chronic illnesses well. I will work on it. My PM to you does not work.

Actually Hillary Clinton may have it. There are times she had seizures and falls. The Dems were hiding something. I saw one of her handler's pull out a epi-pen when she seized during a speech. She had a black Doctor who started talking to her when she seized. I thought it looked like epilepsy.