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How many of you retired folks use
bpost
Member Posts: 32,664 ✭✭✭✭
Social Security payments as your primary income source and do you find it adequate for your life style?
Comments
between my SS and my pension we can pay the bills with a little left over to go out to eat on, if prices don't get much higher.......
wifes paycheck takes care of my new truck and since we now have the grandkids goes towards grandkid things we didn't plan on.
I will be working the rest of my life.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Well at least you have the high paying job on this forum!
My SS is just gravy. It's about one third of my pension, and only a bit more than a monthly annuity check. My bills amount to just about half of my monthly income.
I worked a total of 51 years in engineering for 3 fortune 500 companies. I don't know how anyone can live on SS alone.
With my Social Insecurity check and Judy's USPS pension we have been coming out ahead every month. Seems like lately, that cushion has gotten smaller but no worries yet. Not having any debt and not paying any interest helps. Haven't touched my 401K or any of the rest of our nest egg but the way geriatric Joe and the dims are performing, I hope there will still be a nest egg when we need it. Bob
We planned our retirement early on with the belief that SS would not still be viable by the time we qualified. Retired 9 years ago and took our SS a couple years ago when we hit 62. So it worked out fine for us.
I have friends living off of SS. They worked until they were 70 and started drawing then.
Living on only SS? Scary. Our guvmint likes the idea of needy/dependent citizens...makes them compliant.
There is no way we could live on our SS. A successful retirement requires excellent planning and years and years of saving and a few smart/safe investments and then followed by frugal spending habits.
I gots me a plan
I made sure to have all major things paid off before hand and have a nest egg for any emergencies... it will vary depending upon each persons life style and the costs of living where they reside. My small retirement from career pays about 70 % of recurring bills like electric, trash, phone and My Social Security Retirement payment covers the rest along with food and beer. and leaves a little to keep the nest egg alive to pay yearly things like taxes, vehicle insurance and registration. I don't consider myself poor, but I don't live extravagantly either. Eat most meals at home, only drive less than 50 miles a week have older paid for trucks. I do buy guns. tools clothes when I want or need them, but often wait for good deals on most purchases. Groceries have very noticeably gone up along with electric and gasoline so I'm starting to be a lot more picky about what brands I buy based upon price these days. Used to buy a lot of name brands, now not so much.
It can been done if you plan ahead and that's the big variable, do you want to survive or live your life to its fullest? whatever that is, is the question we all have to answer for ourselves, only been about 11 months since I officially retired but started collecting my retirement a little over 5 years ago as work slowed down (was contracting back to where I spent career) to get by. Then at 62.3 starting living on SS also with some part time contracting. Now here I am 64 two days ago and no work for almost a year and thinking about Medicare supplements for when I get that next year.
SS is based on your work history so you may get more or less than other people currently combined retirement and SS I take in about $2900.00 a month.
Since I taught school and paid into teacher retirement fund Dear Mitch decided that I only need part of my SS because it was a "windfall", never matter that I had to retire early and am only getting part of my teaching salary as retirement. Wouldn't be able to make it without my Army Reserve retired pay.
I am in the same boat. The Adam Henrys spent Social Security money and they decided I did not need what I had paid into the fund.
So they cut my payments by 2/3 and now I get a whopping $146 each and every month.
I just don't know where to spend it all! I really want to thank the WEP program!
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Made investments early in life, So I can retire comfortably. Real Estate paid off. Started investing when we were in our early 20's
S.S. goes into wife's account. Pension and bus driver check into mine.
401k for big ticket items (property tax, major car repairs, etc.) It has taken a big hit lately.
@montanajoe has been very kind in that regard.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
You guys are worth every penny...😁
LOL well that ain't saying much... @austin20
" I am from the government and i am here to help you". Really!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I informed SS and OMB that my sweetheart had passed away within a couple of days. SS took money back that was not theirs to take and my wife's reduced annuity was stopped. My income has been reduced by 50%.
Plan was if anything happened to my wife I would collect on a small insurance policy and a greatly reduced annuity that they are telling me could take up to three months to process. Yes, I have a little stashed but it has to last me the rest of my life. I have funeral expenses and bills to pay with 50% of my previous income.
If anything happened to me my wife marches in with drivers license and death certificate and collects all my POD money. Nobody messes with POD.
I received at least eight letters from three different locations to collect the $255 death benefit. An appointment was set up for telephone at closest SS office. My hearing is very bad so I gave my daughter permission to speak to SS for me. I listened to conversation and I came very close to telling them to take their $255 and shove it. After my daughter was finished I took a deep breath and told the lady on the other end my story about my Government helping me. The lady said she was sorry. In 1.5 days that Death Benefit was in my checking acct. It was not the $255 that mattered but another human being cared to do something and got off her butt.
Presently I am doing the best that I can with a 50% reduction in my income. I don't know when or if I will ever get my new health insurance card, the money that SS stole from me, my wife's life insurance money and her reduced annuity. -----------------Ray
I beg to differ.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
would you prefer wooden nickles???????
After 41 years of working and 30 in maintenance I retired at 64 with living my first year on SS. I took the schools 403B and cashed it in and paid off my mortgage the first year. It was tough going as I had no savings and had to sell my silver bars to make it. My knee and ankle problems had me retire early. At 65 I got my Central States Pension and I am now getting more than my take home at the university. I make extra by hitting garage sales all summer and selling old tools on fleabay. I attend two tool shows a year and get a few sales. This month I will be seeing a doctor about getting a knee replacement as the pain is getting worse, But I don't have to go back to work.🙂
What kind of wood are we talking here?
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Still a "newbie" at this as I retired the end of last September. I am trying to hold out on SS for a couple more years if I can. Sor far, so good.............
I think the Ban Hammer is made outa wood!
I certainly hope you have done the math on holding out. Proper investing at the lower rate will more than make up for any gain you will get by waiting and the monthly draw will be gravy.
I could live off of just SS but I would have to be very frugal.
I continue to run several businesses and work part time at a MEPS center. I figure I will continue to work for two more years. We have a good amount of savings, purchased large life insurance police’s years ago for both of us and have a lot of hard assets that could be sold to creat more income.
My wife worked for Social Security for 41 years and retired with a very good pension. Between that, my SS, and our investments, we are accumulating faster than we can spend it. 😁
Joe
Bubba Jr., If you are having trouble spending it all just PM me and I'll send you my mailing address. We forum members are always here to help a brother.
No, we are not.
Curious why you would use your 403B, a tax sheltered annuity, to pay off your mortgage. Was the interest on your mortgage greater than what you were making on your tax exempt annuity? Sounds like it might have been better to refinance your house at a lower APR and keep the 403B.
As @elubsme mentioned above, you might want to do the math on holding out for a slightly higher monthly SSN check facing inflation, versus taking SSN now and investing in any number of safe investments such as Mutuals or Money Market accounts.
I retired in 2020 and will get screwed by Social Security as I my last 20 years of employment was with the government. My SS is subject to GPO (Government Pension Offset) which basically mean SS will only pay me one third of my normal SS payment.
I starting investing in the stock market very early and have retired very comfortably. I have not, will not, apply for SS until some of the pending law suits filed against SS, for GPO, have been resolved. Hopefully before I die!
That door you just kicked in was locked for your protection - not mine.
I heard a rumor that Brandon says if he gets re-elected he will give every household a laying hen so as to help with egg shortage and high prices of eggs.
My dad said that Herbert Hoover made a promise if he got elected he would provided a hog for everyone for Thanksgiving dinners.
That is why Groundhogs are also called Hoover hogs when on the Thanksgiving table. His promise did not come through.
Also the other politicians do not like George Santos because he can tell bigger lies than them and get elected easily. This makes them other politicians look bad, just telling little white lies.
Oh?
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Correct
As your members of Congress (& Social Security) will be quick to tell you, Social Security benefits were always intended to supplement all of your other sources of income.
Folks who live in low cost parts of the country tend to do better in retirement. Of course, ALL of us are going to take a 5-10% bite from our income due to inflation this year, & next year won't be any better.
Neal
I plan on having at least two homes (beach and mountains) and an offshore fishing boat.
Any SS I draw is only anecdotally factored into my retirement income.
I plan to live it up, and do everything possible to ensure generational wealth for my kids.
Ironically, I love my job.
After working a part time job for 12 years after retirement, my SS payments are currently barely covering my Medicare premiums. So I'd have to say NO.
With odds of one in 42,000,000,000,000,000 how is that working out?