quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmepiphany:
...I know guys who worked for other agencies that did not contributed to SS, who had enough qualifying quarters prior to entering LE who applied for SS recently who got checks of only a couple of hundred dollars

More on the dreaded WEP:

https://www.police1.com/police...it-1U2WbSR25MaL3Uf3/

There's a repeal bill now in Congress but who can predict what will happen.

https://www.police1.com/legal/...rs-EZAlmWrDwXPCdMFI/

Some great info here, thanks. I'm in the camp who worked enough quarters BEFORE entering LE to qualify. I also worked off duty details during my career which paid into SS. When I was getting ready to retire I called SS to get an idea of my SS benefits. I was told they would be about $300.00 a month before taxes. They've been sitting on my money for 35 years and give me practically nothing!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmepiphany:
...I know guys who worked for other agencies that did not contributed to SS, who had enough qualifying quarters prior to entering LE who applied for SS recently who got checks of only a couple of hundred dollars

My brother retired from the Alaska Railroad, where you don't pay into SS and now gets something like $300.00/mo from SS less the Medicare payment so he ends up with less than $200.00/mo

This is going to sound elitist AF....
My wife and I both turned 65 this year. We plan to take our SS at 66.5 years of age, mostly due to the fact that we don't plan to use any of it on ourselves, we are easily set for life (elitist AF), rather we plan to make donations with the net amount left after our Medicare premiums and/or donate to our grand-child's college fund, which I am funding at $10k per year regardless (she is 8). Years ago I thought I might just refuse SS, and then decided hell, I paid into it, my employers paid into it, I'll take it out until I would consider it Welfare (I'll calculate how much has been paid in on my behalf, assign a small annual interest rate increase) and then stop. I remember telling my mom, who was fairly well off, that she was actually on welfare. She said no, her spouse had paid in and she was using what he paid in. I showed her a down and dirty calculation of what he paid in, that she had run thru in just a few years (he died young) and added in her medicare. She didn't appreciate my input.

Did you run a calculation on what the money would have grown to if it was invested in an Index fund for all that time?

I doubt she'd never spend all of it had that been the case.

Just because the idiots in Congress are too greedy to invest the money doesn't mean it would not have happened.

I ran the numbers that way on my Social security and found that if the money had been invested as it came in, I'd be collecting twice as much as I am now without diminishing the principal all that badly.

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Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Did you run a calculation on what the money would have grown to if it was invested in an Index fund for all that time?

I doubt she'd never spend all of it had that been the case.

Just because the idiots in Congress are too greedy to invest the money doesn't mean it would not have happened.

I ran the numbers that way on my Social security and found that if the money had been invested as it came in, I'd be collecting twice as much as I am now without diminishing the principal all that badly.

You are 100% correct, but do you really think people are disciplined enough to invest??? Yes it would be entirely their fault but, I'd rather not see grandma scraping the sides of a garbage can trying to survive. When I see the TV commercial where the Gen X'er overdraws his checking account buying a (5.00 cup of coffee), I think we're in some deep sh**.

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You are 100% correct, but do you really think people are disciplined enough to invest??

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Of course not. Discipline is only one part. Knowledge is another. The average American has neither.

Retired at 55 with an early corporate buy out and lived off that and savings until 62. Started collecting SS as soon as it was available. No regrets at all. But...and a big but...I planned for it and had zero debt going in. You don't need millions to retire but being and living debt free is crucial. I'm 12 years in now and still live comfortably on SS and a small pension only.

My wife & I both retired & started collecting SS at 65. (Holy crap, was it really 9 years ago!) We didn't have any debt for at least 10 years before retirement & we tried to build up some savings before hand.

When she retired my wife rolled over her 401k into a conservative risk investment account. I chose to roll over part of my state retirement into a similar account, then receive a reduced monthly benefit payment.

My only regret is that I wish we could've started planning years earlier than we did, so we could've retired at 62. Life gets in the way though.

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Originally posted by robbiedog:
Years ago I thought I might just refuse SS, and then decided hell, I paid into it, my employers paid into it, I'll take it out until I would consider it Welfare (I'll calculate how much has been paid in on my behalf, assign a small annual interest rate increase) and then stop. I remember telling my mom, who was fairly well off, that she was actually on welfare. She said no, her spouse had paid in and she was using what he paid in. I showed her a down and dirty calculation of what he paid in, that she had run thru in just a few years (he died young) and added in her medicare. She didn't appreciate my input.

" Elitist AF " . You nailed it . Why did you feel it necessary to try and convince your Mother that she was accepting " welfare " ?

I delayed until age 70. I'm now 75 and still working every day. I hope I never retire. No regrets.

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Elitist AF " . You nailed it . Why did you feel it necessary to try and convince your Mother that she was accepting " welfare " ?

Well, we didn't have the best of relationships, she wasn't much of a mom, which isn't that important. She was even more elitist AF than I am, and was constantly mentioning her maladies and how much Medicare paid for her care, when she easily could have afforded it. Rubbed me the wrong way, I guess. Not a great son, perhaps, she was even a worse mother. Difference between me and her, I have a LOT of gratitude for people and circumstances in my life. She had none.

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

You are 100% correct, but do you really think people are disciplined enough to invest??

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Of course not. Discipline is only one part. Knowledge is another. The average American has neither.

And so everybody who is competent suffers. A seriously fucked up system.

I remember my parents saying "See that guy? Don't be him" on numerous occasions. We learn from good and bad examples. We should be educating our kids about the realities of finance. Just the basics would make a huge difference. We should be educating them about our founding documents in detail so that they understand what is (or should be) different about this country compared to the rest of the world, and how that lifted us up from poor immigrants to the greatest standard of living in the history of humans.

If we accept the lowest common denominator we are dooming society to the lowest standard without hope of improvement.

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Originally posted by MMSIG229:

You are 100% correct, but do you really think people are disciplined enough to invest???

No, I'm positive they're not disciplined enough to invest. What I'm saying is that the government should have put it in an Index fund or something similar.

^^^ I remember when W was a proponent of that and he got shot down.

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Originally posted by parabellum:
Yeah, I'm getting within striking distance of these decisions.

While I completely understand the rationale of "I need to get my money before I die," I can't help but laugh a bit at this.

That provokes an interesting thought: If one has adult children heirs one would like to leave something for and one has a choice between drawing on Social Security or drawing on an IRA, one might consider drawing on the SS first, as when one passes the SS turns into a pumpkin while the IRA can go to the heirs.

Resurrecting this thread as I finally applied for my social security back on Feb 17. I expect to see a deposit in my checking account in a week or so as they say most plans start within 2-4 weeks of application.

For me, I'll be starting at about 64 and 5 months.

Good call!

I took mine at 62 but I had a good pension to fall back on. Also, the SS is a pittance but it pays for Medicare plus a little so that is good.

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I'm now 75 and still working every day

Hooray for you! This doesn't work for many folks due to health issues.

I'm 72 and still working full-time. I'm in armed security and the job isn't very hard, until you have to go hands-on. I enjoy working this job.

I started collecting SS at 66, my full retirement age. The reason I selected the full age was because I knew I'd be working afterwards and didn't want to pay the ridiculous penalty for earning over "X" amount. At the time, that limit was around $15K.

So, I get a pension from my previous employer, SS, and my wages from my previous employer. Planning is the key!

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Originally posted by 6guns:
^^^ I remember when W was a proponent of that and he got shot down.

Because congress wouldn't have been able to put their sticky fingers into the pie....

Best way to calculate is the number of years you delay times the amount of funds you are not taking for the total time you decided to wait.

For example if your annual SSI would be $20,000, just to keep it simple, and you delay to age 70, then you have 7 years (+ or -) depending if you enroll in Jan of the year you turn 70 or December, or on average $140,000 that you didn't receive.

Then calculate the amount your payment will be at 70, subtract the amount you would have been paid per year, divide it into $140,000 and that's how long you'll have to live, and get paid SSI at the higher rate to break even.

So if the payment at 70 is $27000 a year, then you'd take 20 years to get back the $140K you did not take by not starting at 62.

Lots of other factors, health, expenses, can you pay the bills with the age 62 payment, will you keep working and lose some of that payment because you have other income.

It's government so it's made to be difficult and complicated...

IF you are retired, have a nest egg at 62 to live off, low expenses, then banking the funds and investing that $140K might yield even more value since its not offset with "income".

This sounds mean but all the options are actuarial the same. So the game is solely if you are going to beat your actuarial odds. That's a very long term game. Life is fragile. I didn't do this (I waited till full retirement age) but given what I know now I'd take it the very first day I qualified.