Monday, January 25, 2021

It's a tough decision, right? Also in the equation, if you postpone, how many years before the break even? For example, if my DH takes social security at 62 instead of his full retirement age of 67, I think he would break even at 82. (He'll probably keep working part-time until I retire.) Well, since both his parents and 3 of his 4 uncles died before 65, we both think he should take the money up front. My calculation of working 2 more years and thereafter getting 12,000 more a year seems worth it. But a person could keep postponing retirement year after year, chasing that last dollar. I want to retire, so that won't be me :)

My SS will be paltry since I stopped contributing long ago, but I do have a full 40+ quarters in, so I will get something. As teachers we do get dinged heavily (which I don't understand since police and fire fighters have pensions, but don't get dinged....), so I'm sure my SS won't be more than grocery money for a week or two. We shall see.

My break even age for my teacher pension would be 82 to make up the difference between retiring at 61 or 62. That does sort of put it in clearer perspective. Given my dad's longevity, along with is 3 brothers (passing at 79, 88 and 95) and my mom's two sisters who are 83 and 92, chances are I will live well into my 80s or 90s, but you never know. (My mom was the outlier dying in her late 60s.) Yet, even with family history considered, I don't think it's enough to warrant an extra year of work, if it will take me 21 years to break even. Plus, with early retirement, I will have medical coverage until I qualify for medicare.

Either way, I won't take SS until I have to take it at 70.

HBOMax. I just signed up for a month, watched a bunch of stuff, then cancelled as I don't see a lot of other stuff to keep it around for.

This retirement discussion reminds me of how many seasons of life I've already passed through. With my same age friends, we talked about our college plans, then our resumes and job searches, then about weddings and our first houses, raising our kids, and suddenly every get together included talking about our health, the knee replacements, the indignity of bifocals, the gallbladder surgery and now the eager talk of retirement plans, and our hopes for this next stage of life. Now when I visit my parent's home in Florida, people at the pool introduce themselves and ask me if I've just moved in or am I visiting. So close, but not there yet!

PS - good thing I'm not paying for the hour with these stucco guys! I think they've done about 45 minutes of work since 9am. The rest sitting in their truck... annoying.

The stucco color isn't matching at all (it must have yellowed over time). Sigh. House painting will now be required.

They sound like Florida contractors. My first experience was having my flooring replaced. They started it 4 weeks after they said they would, so had 2 weeks until I went home (it was supposed to take 5 days). At the end of the first 5 days they were less than halfway done because they came late every morning, took a LONG lunch break, then came back for a little while (maybe). They sure had to light a fire when I told them I was leaving a week after with no option to stay. All of a sudden they had to show up on time in the morning and work all day...

I've never seen anything like it. They just came back from 45 minutes gone goodness knows where since they also were gone for an hour and a half at lunch. One guy works and the other sits and plays with his phone. No wonder they are just starting when they were supposed to be done mid-December if every job moves this glacially!

Super irritating.