Search found 19 matches

by Woops
Sat Aug 21, 2021 2:17 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: <60k small-midsize SUV?
Replies: 46
Views: 4483

Re: <60k small-midsize SUV?

I bought a 2022 Hyundai Tucson limited 4 months ago and have been very impressed with it. They only thing I would have done differently is purchase the hybrid version which is now available.

The best part is you would have around 20-25K left from your budget to splurge on something else.
by Woops
Thu Jul 01, 2021 11:30 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Which 7 seater SUV?
Replies: 89
Views: 14004

Re: Which 7 seater SUV?

We just bought the Hyundai Palisade AWD Calligraphy trim (sister to the Kia Telluride) about 2 months ago and just took our first rode trip from OK to MI. We put about 3000 miles on it during the trip. Our longest single driving stretch was 12 hours with some pretty torrential rain around the Chicago area and elevation changes through Missouri. The ride throughout the trip was quiet with very little wind or road noise. Road quality is not the best in the MI area and the palisade handles rough roads well. Seats are very comfortable for long stretches. We averaged 26.2 mpg on flat highway stretches. We averaged about 23.8 mpg when we had elevation changes and higher speeds (78-80). In mostly city driving in the suburbs of Detroit we were righ...
by Woops
Fri Jan 08, 2021 8:35 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: AAFMAA Value Added Whole Life Policy: Cash in or Keep?
Replies: 1
Views: 181

AAFMAA Value Added Whole Life Policy: Cash in or Keep?

Hi All, Back when I was a young 1st Lieutenant in the Army, I signed up in September 1992 with AAFMAA (Army & Airforce Mutual Aid Association) for important document storage. The monthly premium of $4.25 ($51.00 annual) for document storage included a value-added whole life policy of $5000. This is one of those things that I have completely overlooked all these years and have been paying the $4.25(auto draft) every month for the last 22 plus years :oops: . The latest annual statement is through 2019 (2020 statement should be out in February). As of the end of 2019, here are the particulars: Based on Original Start Date September 15,1992 to December 31, 2019 Beginning Value-Added Policy Balance: $5000 Growth: $690.85 Net Balance: $5690.8...
by Woops
Fri Nov 06, 2020 9:04 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: HSA Family deduction for over 55- do I have this right?
Replies: 2
Views: 332

Re: HSA Family deduction for over 55- do I have this right?

Spirit Rider,

Thanks for response.

Good to know on employer sponsored HSA. I definitely prefer to just open one for each of us with fidelity as no fees vs BOA where I am responsible as a retiree for maintenance fees. I will definitely confirm with employer that not required to open one with BOA.

FICA should not be a consideration since I will be retired.

We will not have any salary income, so responsible for any contributions on our own.

Again, really appreciate the response.
by Woops
Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:00 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: HSA Family deduction for over 55- do I have this right?
Replies: 2
Views: 332

HSA Family deduction for over 55- do I have this right?

I think I understand this correctly but seeking confirmation. Starting January 1 will be on my Megacorp HDHP with HSA for the first time (spouse covered under my plan). Spouse and I both over 55 and retire on Dec 31, 2020. All contributions to HSA are post tax with no company contributions. Required to initially set up Bank of America HSA and keep 1000 balance in main account before can start investing. MFJ for taxes. As I understand it: 1. If we only have one HSA account (mine) we can contribute up to the 7200 family limit and add an additional 1000 for me being over 55. In this scenario we cannot also contribute an additional 1000 for spouse being over 55 because she has to have her own HSA account. Total 8200 2. We can open an additional...
by Woops
Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:19 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiree Medical Plan choice: Which to choose, HRA or HSA Plan
Replies: 2
Views: 369

Re: Retiree Medical Plan choice: Which to choose, HRA or HSA Plan

Still struggling with making a decision on which way to go given spouse has a lot of prescriptions and a few are very high cost. I feel like I am in analysis paralysis. All costs for retiree are post tax as is employer HRA contribution of 750 toward deductible. Tax savings for contributing 8100 to HSA in 12% Fed bracket / 5% state bracket would be 1377.00. All coverages after deductible are the same. Prescription costs are not subject to the deductible for HRA but deductible must be met for HDHP before insurance kicks in. So far in 2020 (through September), my HRA insurance detail shows our out of pocket costs have been 1250 on primary care/specialist office visits, 400 on outpatient care, 3000 on prescription drugs (2000 retail vs generic)...
by Woops
Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:50 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiree Medical Plan choice: Which to choose, HRA or HSA Plan
Replies: 2
Views: 369

Retiree Medical Plan choice: Which to choose, HRA or HSA Plan

Hi All, Looking for expert advice on which plan makes the most sense given our situation. I have not previously taken advantage of the HSA option during previous annual enrolment years and want to make sure I do not miss out in retirement if the HSA is the way to go. As part of my MegaCorp early retirement (age 55) at year end, I have to choose either a traditional HRA plan like we have always used, or move for the first time to a high deductible plan with HSA. Vision and dental costs are the same either way, so this just pertains to the medical insurance. The tax benefits of an HSA as a investment vehicle for longer term medical needs as we age seems like a no brainer, but given lots of doctor visits and prescription drugs for spouse, I am...
by Woops
Mon Oct 05, 2020 5:02 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay
Replies: 29
Views: 4380

Re: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay

Hi All. Just to clarify for some of the last few comments, I have already made the decision to retire at 55 (end of the year ) no matter what. The original question was about how to best compare taking pension at 55, or delaying the pension to age 56, 57, 58, etc - given our assets and wanting to maximize portfolio long term as well as minimize taxes throughout retirement ( at least based on available information today with no long term crystal ball). I received a lot of great feedback based on considering both the numbers as well as the emotional (sleep at night) aspects for my spouse, and at least considering the impact/possibility of something happening to me if I delay taking pension for several years. Good stuff and much appreciated.
by Woops
Sat Oct 03, 2020 8:16 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay
Replies: 29
Views: 4380

Re: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay

Thanks for the detailed calculation and comparison. Very illuminating and much appreciated.
by Woops
Fri Oct 02, 2020 12:30 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay
Replies: 29
Views: 4380

Re: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay

One way to compare the options is to calculate, for each of them, the present value for each of various ages that either you or your spouse might live to. For example let's discount the cash flows at 2% [1] and assume the pensions would continue until age 90 [2]. In this case the best option would be to delay starting the pension until age 58. The present value of doing so would be $22,000 more than if started at age 55. [3] However, if you want to cover yourselves for the possibility that one of you might live to age 100, the best option would be to delay starting the pension until age 61. Cruncher, thanks for taking the time to do the calculation and show how you did this. This is definitely a learning opportunity for me. Question: Based...
by Woops
Fri Oct 02, 2020 7:33 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay
Replies: 29
Views: 4380

Re: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay

tealeaves wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 9:11 pm Some company pension plans (including mine) revert to 50% J&S for the spouse if the employee dies before commencing the pension (despite the original intention to go 100%). Suggest verifying that this is not the case for yours before you decide to defer.
Great point and a few weeks go I received a mailing stating the exact same thing about after 55 preretirement/pension pre commencement default being 50% J&S if I die before starting pension. I do have the option to select 100% J&S during this period but have to send in the signed paperwork otherwise it stays at 50%.

I actually put this aside and completely forgot about it, so I really appreciate the reminder.
by Woops
Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:28 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay
Replies: 29
Views: 4380

Re: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay

Thanks for all the responses. We appreciate all of them. A few specific responses: 1. Escapevolocity: Thanks for pointing out that hard to make a bad choice. We are in a fortunate situation. 2. Galawdawg: Appreciate the insight on calculating break even point and will use FIRECALC for each of the pension amounts. We used FIRECALC and other calculators to plug in a lot of our scenarios to get to the decision to pull the trigger on retirement. Hope your early retirement has been great. Pension and retiree medical are what makes it possible. 3. Watty: No lump sum option with MegaCorp. Pension is guaranteed under PBGC per plan documents. I did use opensocialsecurity. com and waiting till 70 for me and 69, 11 months for spouse maximizes benefits...
by Woops
Thu Oct 01, 2020 9:02 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay
Replies: 29
Views: 4380

Re: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay

[/quote]

Can you clarify this? If you take your pension at a younger age (say $50,984 at age 55), is that pension amount fixed for life or does it increase each year to age 62 or 'reset' when you turn age 62 (to the $68,424 noted above)?
[/quote]


Great questions. The amounts shown are fixed for life. If I take at 55 it will be $50984 every year with no change. If I start at 56 it will be $53,575 every year, etc. There is no reset. Whatever year I start the amount for that year is fixed.
by Woops
Thu Oct 01, 2020 8:38 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay
Replies: 29
Views: 4380

Retiring at 55 and help deciding on Pension now or delay

Hi All, I get to start the official retirement process on Monday to retire at year end from MegaCorp. I can start taking my pension (NON-COLA) at age 55 with reduced benefit that will increase incrementally up until age 62 when I get made whole (as if 65) due to number of years with the company. We are trying to figure out if it makes a difference to start pension immediately or delay until 56, 57, 58, etc. I am not sure exactly how to analyze and hoping for some insight based on the information below. It is much more difficult to make a drawdown strategy that maximizes assets/minimizes tax impact than it was to create and implement an accumulation strategy. Background * Total annual income need in retirement is $93K which includes Medical ...
by Woops
Sun Sep 06, 2020 8:20 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Do I really own anything if everything can require a Medallion signature which I can never get?
Replies: 71
Views: 9778

Re: Do I really own anything if everything can require a Medallion signature which I can never get?

I recently had to get a Medallion Signature Guarantee to move money from Primecap Funds to Vanguard (Primecap requirement not Vanguard). Locally it was not possible as my local bank does not offer it and larger banks will not do it for non customers (most don't seem to offer it at all). I checked out a few places like the local Schwab and Fidelity offices but they will only do it if you are moving money to them.

I ended up using eSignature Guarantee online which was really easy and cost 149.00 for the Medallion Stamp. Not cheap, but eliminates the hassle.
by Woops
Sun Aug 09, 2020 2:27 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Advice on best strategy to supplement pension in early retirement
Replies: 9
Views: 1520

Re: Advice on best strategy to supplement pension in early retirement

Thanks for all the feedback so far. To answer a few of the questions and suggestions: 1. David Jay: The company plan does allow for partial withdrawals up to four per year, so we do have this as an option to supplement our pension up to the top of the 12% bracket, taking the roughly 45-50K each year to reduce future RMDs. 2. JBTX: You mention recognizing the 50K every year through age 70 when we start SS. You say through 401k depletion or Roth conversion. Does one make financially more sense than the other (ie thinking about DW living longer than me and filing single someday; benefit of Roth conversions growing over time vs consuming 401K assets, etc). If we had more than 225K taxable from age 55-59.5 Roth conversions would be alot easier a...
by Woops
Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:44 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Advice on best strategy to supplement pension in early retirement
Replies: 9
Views: 1520

Advice on best strategy to supplement pension in early retirement

Background Wife and I (she does not work outside home) plan to retire at end of 2020 (turn 55 in December) and start taking pension Jan 1, 2021 ($51,246 annual non-cola). We will have retiree healthcare through Megacorp ($9300 annual and factored in to annual needs). We will need to withdraw $45,000 to meet all income needs (mortgage, fed and state taxes, healthcare,etc factored in). Additionally, we anticipate that we will want to do Roth conversions from our 401k in the years prior to taking SS at age 70. The question is what option listed below makes the most sense for withdrawing the $45K to supplement our pension from age 55 to 59.5? Trying to optimize tax efficiency while also doing roth conversions to minimize RMDs when the time com...
by Woops
Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:42 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Retire at 55 in 6 months- doable?
Replies: 16
Views: 3967

Re: Retire at 55 in 6 months- doable?

Watty wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 8:39 pm
What are the details of your mortgage?

If you could pay that off then your pension would closer to covering your expenses.

Unfortunately we do not have enough in taxable investments to pay off the mortgage and cover needed withdraws form 55 to 59.5.

Does that $90K figure include income taxes or just property taxes?
We have $169K left on a 30 yr fixed at 3.75%. Unfortunately we do not have the funds in taxable to both pay off the mortgage and cover withdrawals to supplement the pension until we reach 59.5.

Good question on taxes. The $90K only includes tax estimates for 55-59.5. Taxes would be higher if we start Roth conversions at 59.5.
by Woops
Sun Jun 14, 2020 5:13 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Retire at 55 in 6 months- doable?
Replies: 16
Views: 3967

Retire at 55 in 6 months- doable?

Hi All, I have enjoyed reading the boards over the last few months. I have a lot of respect for the wealth of knowledge in the BogleHead community. The wife and I are looking strongly at the possibility of retiring at the end of the year, just after I turn 55. I have plugged the numbers into FireCalc and IORP as recommended on this site, and the numbers seem doable. We are using a 40 year retirement to age 95 for planning purposes. I am hoping for some constructive feedback to ensure we are being realistic and have not overlooked a critical piece of information. I will qualify for a reduced pension (non cola) of $51K per year for my lifetime starting January 1, 2021. My wife has 100% J&S if I die. I am also fortunate to have retiree med...