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A widow can get SS at age 60. 62 is the earliest in all other cases, I believe. And, yes, SS is greater each year that you work. Sometimes the difference from one year to the next is not that great, which is why someone may choose to collect it a year earlier.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Giesela
So... most of you guys are taking Soc Security early?
That paying off the house thing doesn't happen for everyone. ...
I plan to take it early, then when I'm of full age; pay it back and reapply for full amount. (that is if I'm in GREAT health), as it will take about 5.5 yrs to recapture the amount paid back.
re: house payoff
If moving around, I feel it is reasonable to 'self fund' your house from your 'cash generating' assets and using HELOCs for occasional needs. Financing on houses is pretty cheap, and currently our low base rates are offering helocs below 5%, with no closing costs. I am pretty leary of bank fees, and have been 'self funded' on projects from my own Heloc and equity Margin accts for about 20 yrs. I just lend to myself from different classes of assets, depending on rates. I also lend to myself through lines of credit on my income props. Most retired folks have some pot of asset working for them, just make it work to your benefit.
So... most of you guys are taking Soc Security early?
That paying off the house thing doesn't happen for everyone. If you move around, especially the midwest where the market doesnt appreciate more than 2-3% in normal years, the numbers don't add up for buying (realtor fees, prop tax, maintenance, higher utilities).
We paid off ours in just under 10 years, but then again our jobs being what they are, we never had to move and both worked 2 jobs for several years, curtailed vacations to once every 4 years or so, and are now paying for our only daughter's college in cash. Of course, all that means is it will take nearly 10 more years for us to retire and move to our dream town.
We will have his retirement from the Military and I plan on working as a high school teacher. He plans on doing his current job when he retires (at age 39-40) on the civilian side for the military.
We see a bright retirement. We will have healthcare and a paycheck(s) every month thats going to be nice. I plan on teaching until I am no longer able or willing. He will still be young and able to do his job.. just without the deployments and the moving!
We paid off ours in just under 10 years, but then again our jobs being what they are, we never had to move and both worked 2 jobs for several years, curtailed vacations to once every 4 years or so, and are now paying for our only daughter's college in cash. Of course, all that means is it will take nearly 10 more years for us to retire and move to our dream town.
Nobody can stop the passage of time, in a year from now, one year will have gone by. It will go by whether you live in Dakota or in California, that year will have still gone by us.
Lets picture an imaginary person [not you, not anyone in particular]. This person has a car filled with clothes and possessions, lives in a tent under a bridge down by the river, and has a minimum wage job flipping burgers. This person is in Minot, but 'wants' to one day go to Yosemite.
I would say: that each day we might struggle to feed ourselves and to get 'ahead'. To work and save and build our way 'up'. but each day has it's struggles [someone gets sick, the car needs brakes, You don't have enough for the electric bill so your going to workout a payment plan with them].
This is life.
It might take years to go from flipping burgers to owning a restaurant. During those years, the pages of the calendar will still be turning, time will still go by, and the years will continue to count up.
All of this time we could be sitting here in Minot, thinking about Yosemite. Dreaming of it's waterfalls and meadows, wishing to taste the glacier run-off, or to stand on one of the footbridges below a fall, in 100 degree weather and to feel the ice cold mist as it drenches you. In effect holding yourself in bondage to that dream.
If you traveled to Yosemite even being near destitute, and began flipping burgers there, then the following saga of how you climbed your way 'up'. Would be a saga of how you did it in Yosemite [without the added bondage from not being where you wish to be].
If you stay in Minot during your climb, then your saga will be a story of how you climbed in Minot.
To climb from utter destitute-ness 'up' to financial mobility, might never truly happen. Or it might happen in a couple years.
But where you are when your doing the climbing is entirely up to you.
One of the things that I liked about being career military, was that every few years, I had to move. Pack everything and go somewhere I had never been. I would get used to the roads, finding my way around without asking for directions anymore. I would know where to shop, and where to do things. Just as I got comfortable, it was time to move. So I never did really get 'entrenched' or heavily invested into any one town. Once you do become entrenched into a town, then it is much harder to move away.
If your heart is set on going to your 'promise land', then go. Staying in Egypt and feeling depressed about how much you want to go to your 'promise land', is not getting you there. Every year that you spend in that bondage, is another year in bondage. You get older, more tired and more sore.
P.S. I mentioned Yosemite California and Minot Dakota, just as samples of places, I could have listed any two places and the parable would be the same.
P.P.S I have given this speech multiple times. It has been modified a bit each time. As I have gained experience.
The first time I was managing a boarding house, filled mostly with sailors. We had one fellow who was an adult son of the house' owners. He seemed to be eternally destitute. We had each asked for favors from among friends and tried to line him up with jobs, he failed at one job after another. We had each loaned him money. One friend had loaned him a car, which he wrecked. He had an idea that life would be better for him, if he lived in Kentucky. But he could not go to Kentucky for he grew up here, and he knew everyone here, and he felt comfortable here. But oh how he anguished over Kentucky.
I convinced him that he needed to get out of his entrenchment and go to Kentucky. I helped him pack a seabag, I bought him a bus ticket. I drove him to the greyhound station. I waited and watched him get on the bus.
For years after that I felt guilty, that I had scammed him, just to get rid of him. Then I met him again a decade later at a seminary convention. He could not thank me enough. He insisted that I had done him the greatest service that anyone had ever done. He had a saga of his climb from despair to victory, out of his personal bondage.
In my travels, I have often met people who wished that they were somewhere else. I would like to think that I may have encouraged some of them.
Nobody can stop the passage of time, in a year from now, one year will have gone by. It will go by whether you live in Dakota or in California, that year will have still gone by us.
Lets picture an imaginary person [not you, not anyone in particular]. This person has a car filled with clothes and possessions, lives in a tent under a bridge down by the river, and has a minimum wage job flipping burgers. This person is in Minot, but 'wants' to one day go to Yosemite.
I would say: that each day we might struggle to feed ourselves and to get 'ahead'. To work and save and build our way 'up'. but each day has it's struggles [someone gets sick, the car needs brakes, You don't have enough for the electric bill so your going to workout a payment plan with them].
This is life.
It might take years to go from flipping burgers to owning a restaurant. During those years, the pages of the calendar will still be turning, time will still go by, and the years will continue to count up.
All of this time we could be sitting here in Minot, thinking about Yosemite. Dreaming of it's waterfalls and meadows, wishing to taste the glacier run-off, or to stand on one of the footbridges below a fall, in 100 degree weather and to feel the ice cold mist as it drenches you. In effect holding yourself in bondage to that dream.
If you traveled to Yosemite even being near destitute, and began flipping burgers there, then the following saga of how you climbed your way 'up'. Would be a saga of how you did it in Yosemite [without the added bondage from not being where you wish to be].
If you stay in Minot during your climb, then your saga will be a story of how you climbed in Minot.
To climb from utter destitute-ness 'up' to financial mobility, might never truly happen. Or it might happen in a couple years.
But where you are when your doing the climbing is entirely up to you.
One of the things that I liked about being career military, was that every few years, I had to move. Pack everything and go somewhere I had never been. I would get used to the roads, finding my way around without asking for directions anymore. I would know where to shop, and where to do things. Just as I got comfortable, it was time to move. So I never did really get 'entrenched' or heavily invested into any one town. Once you do become entrenched into a town, then it is much harder to move away.
If your heart is set on going to your 'promise land', then go. Staying in Egypt and feeling depressed about how much you want to go to your 'promise land', is not getting you there. Every year that you spend in that bondage, is another year in bondage. You get older, more tired and more sore.
P.S. I mentioned Yosemite California and Minot Dakota, just as samples of places, I could have listed any two places and the parable would be the same.
P.P.S I have given this speech multiple times. It has been modified a bit each time. As I have gained experience.
The first time I was managing a boarding house, filled mostly with sailors. We had one fellow who was an adult son of the house' owners. He seemed to be eternally destitute. We had each asked for favors from among friends and tried to line him up with jobs, he failed at one job after another. We had each loaned him money. One friend had loaned him a car, which he wrecked. He had an idea that life would be better for him, if he lived in Kentucky. But he could not go to Kentucky for he grew up here, and he knew everyone here, and he felt comfortable here. But oh how he anguished over Kentucky.
I convinced him that he needed to get out of his entrenchment and go to Kentucky. I helped him pack a seabag, I bought him a bus ticket. I drove him to the greyhound station. I waited and watched him get on the bus.
For years after that I felt guilty, that I had scammed him, just to get rid of him. Then I met him again a decade later at a seminary convention. He could not thank me enough. He insisted that I had done him the greatest service that anyone had ever done. He had a saga of his climb from despair to victory, out of his personal bondage.
In my travels, I have often met people who wished that they were somewhere else. I would like to think that I may have encouraged some of them.
Reminds me of William Wordsworth: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers...".
Forest, those are wise words, but as much as it is our dream, it is not our daughter's .. while she is commuting to college from home and until she is settled after, we thought it best not to leave her on the street to pursue our dream.. it will come soon and we're just trying to enjoy the journey for now.
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