Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
nothing dodgy. everything transparent.
I would be guessing that your wealth level and your qualified accounts are high enough to where it is virtually impossible to reduce your effective tax rate-ie your wealth is reasonably static regardless of relative small market changes and your decummulations.
What I am suggesting is the year you retire and subsequent years, take big qualified account distributions to run down qualified accounts to where later RMDs will be more manageable. Take personal loans if necessary to maintain living standards-loan cost is less than taxes on income.
Thank you for the suggestion. We will definitely look into this.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
13,101 posts, read 7,565,597 times
Reputation: 9835
Quote:
Originally Posted by kavm
Thank you for the suggestion. We will definitely look into this.
this is real simple spreadsheet work. You'll know pretty quickly if you can deplete your qualified IRA-SEP-et al, fast and hard enough to make a difference later when you reach mandatory RMD age.
The value of the QLAC is that it extends the time too deplete the tIRA accounts. In your case, any QLAC is time extension and removal from immediate concern; could be minor and just herring in srirachi depending on your scenarios.
I knew real poverty too. But I have to make a disclosure: my mother's family (up until about 20-15 years prior to my birth) were large landowners and industrialists somewhere in South-easternish Europe, who lost a huge fortune first to looting by a short-lived wartime pro-Nazi government, then to nationalization of what was left by the communists. My folks never gave a thought to huge material losses, but were glad they (mostly) survived the WW2.
Dad's family were dirt-poor. The baby that was supposed to be my father's sister and my aunt literally died from hunger in the early 1930s. My grandparents were fortunate that they had only one more child (my dad) because they could not feed even themselves. Dad went to school, and got himself out of that.
I grew up in poverty, but genteel poverty (though I guess that concept may be unknown in the US :-); we were all well educated, and had complex interests of non-material kind - which is why we didn't think (and I still don't think) poverty was/is all that hard. In the US, the only bad implication of poverty is that, if you are poor, you generally have to live around crime. Otherwise, it is very easy to be poor in the US (I have many years of experience with that :-). The only way you can suffer from poverty in the US is if you are poor, but you think you must have a Lexus :-).
I guess this is a bit off topic, but is on topic to the extent that in order to get annuities, a person needs to know what he/she is very likely going to need and want vs. what he/she is not going to need and want. I said already many times that I could live normally solely on soc security if I took it at 70 (which is in about 6 years, ie, in a fairly foreseeable future).
Our life experiences certainly affect who we are as adults and our various needs for security, etc. Your parents obviously made the right decision by fleeing while they could. I can’t even imagine what that had to be like. It’s so hard to leave everything behind and I think many people didn’t know what was actually happening due to how difficult communication was back then. Thanks for sharing your story.
I knew real poverty too. But I have to make a disclosure: my mother's family (up until about 20-15 years prior to my birth) were large landowners and industrialists somewhere in South-easternish Europe, who lost a huge fortune first to looting by a short-lived wartime pro-Nazi government, then to nationalization of what was left by the communists. My folks never gave a thought to huge material losses, but were glad they (mostly) survived the WW2.
Dad's family were dirt-poor. The baby that was supposed to be my father's sister and my aunt literally died from hunger in the early 1930s. My grandparents were fortunate that they had only one more child (my dad) because they could not feed even themselves. Dad went to school, and got himself out of that.
I grew up in poverty, but genteel poverty (though I guess that concept may be unknown in the US :-); we were all well educated, and had complex interests of non-material kind - which is why we didn't think (and I still don't think) poverty was/is all that hard. In the US, the only bad implication of poverty is that, if you are poor, you generally have to live around crime. Otherwise, it is very easy to be poor in the US (I have many years of experience with that :-). The only way you can suffer from poverty in the US is if you are poor, but you think you must have a Lexus :-).
I guess this is a bit off topic, but is on topic to the extent that in order to get annuities, a person needs to know what he/she is very likely going to need and want vs. what he/she is not going to need and want. I said already many times that I could live normally solely on soc security if I took it at 70 (which is in about 6 years, ie, in a fairly foreseeable future).
I think your story is fascinating. Have you ever thought about writing a book?
While taxes were not the driving factor in the decision - when we made the offer for a waterfront property and when we rescinded it - tax implication have to viewed at a whole, not just on the retirement part of the portfolio. And yes - the WA LTCG tax is relevant to us. I was appalled at the shoddy reasoning the WA supreme court came up with to justify it. We might not trigger it all the time but even our past CG and DIV have exceeded the threshold.
Of course we take interest in minimizing our tax liability. But, we aren't interested in anything dodgy and our line of work, unlike real estate for example, does not offer legal options that meaningfully mitigate it. So, we will just pay what we owe on both tax and irmaa fronts.
kavm, regarding Washington... I am sorry to hear about that new punishing tax. It is so gorgeous there. Perhaps there's a way to structure a large percentage of LTCG's ahead of moving (but, with a long life ahead there is no way to avoid additional significant LTCG's). They have so many gazillionaires in that state.
Our life experiences certainly affect who we are as adults and our various needs for security, etc. Your parents obviously made the right decision by fleeing while they could. I can’t even imagine what that had to be like. It’s so hard to leave everything behind and I think many people didn’t know what was actually happening due to how difficult communication was back then. Thanks for sharing your story.
Actually, I was the first one that fled while I could - without parents and all alone in the big unfamiliar world at the age of 23, several years before the war started (I mean the civil war of the 1990s in my native country). Mom fled next (after the death threats to the family began in 1989), then brother (who finished college under really bad circumstances), dad hanging for many years between mom's new home country, and our old one of which he retained citizenship (for reasons of his health problems at that time and health insurance, though he was already sacked from his job for being married to a person of "enemy" nationality and religion, ie, mom). It was bad - and the limited finances were a non-issue. Amid all the other problems, I hardly even noticed how little money I had after arrival in the US when I was in my 20s and into the 30s, and poverty to me was not any real issue at all - I cared only about my immigration problems (which took almost 30 years to fully resolve), and being able to work in my profession amid those problems. Yes, to me money is indeed meaningful only as a guarantee of physical safety.
Actually, I was the first one that fled while I could - without parents and all alone in the big unfamiliar world at the age of 23, several years before the war started (I mean the civil war of the 1990s in my native country). Mom fled next (after the death threats to the family began in 1989), then brother (who finished college under really bad circumstances), dad hanging for many years between mom's new home country, and our old one of which he retained citizenship (for reasons of his health problems at that time and health insurance, though he was already sacked from his job for being married to a person of "enemy" nationality and religion, ie, mom). It was bad - and the limited finances were a non-issue. Amid all the other problems, I hardly even noticed how little money I had after arrival in the US when I was in my 20s and into the 30s, and poverty to me was not any real issue at all - I cared only about my immigration problems (which took almost 30 years to fully resolve), and being able to work in my profession amid those problems. Yes, to me money is indeed meaningful only as a guarantee of physical safety.
Your story is truly impressive. While one would not wish such challenges for anyone, those who suffer the challenges and adversity strive harder for success, as you have achieved. While not facing threats of the kind you and your family faced, I too have faced long odds to rise up from very humble beginnings, a penurious start as a graduate student in the US. So, I sincerely appreciate what you have achieved.
Your story is truly impressive. While one would not wish such challenges for anyone, those who suffer the challenges and adversity strive harder for success, as you have achieved. While not facing threats of the kind you and your family faced, I too have faced long odds to rise up from very humble beginnings, a penurious start as a graduate student in the US. So, I sincerely appreciate what you have achieved.
Thank you. I also don't wish it to anyone (large part of the reason why I decided not to procreate). Churchill's advice to his WW2 British troups was "When you are going through h*ll, keep going" - I followed that method myself :-).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
