Gardening Grandma
Senior Associate
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 13:39:46 GMT -5
Posts: 17,962
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Nov 20, 2019 22:36:58 GMT -5
Is your question for me or Phil? If your question is for me, I probably should have used the term “guaranteed” instead of secured. I have funds in a CD earning a guaranteed 3%. The funds are guaranteed by the gov’t. I also have funds in several VG accounts. They’ve earned 13% this year, but that return is not guaranteed, nor are those funds secured. There is no safe, secure 10% investment. But you already know that. It was for you. There's no guaranteed 10% investment. I think "secure" is a pretty wide scale, so I was just curious if you don't consider an index fund to be "secure"...whether you consider anything secure (or to your clarification, were you using it more like guaranteed where you consider the federal government secure but anything less to not be). Along with scale, I tend to think "secure" changes with the audience. I'd probably tell people on this board that it's secure, but maybe not someone with 0 experience investing in real life. As a retiree, I am careful to distinguish between “safe”, “guaranteed” and “10%”. Phil frequently throws out the 10% without the qualification that it is not guaranteed. And, anything one invests in the market is not secure. You CAN lose it all. Not likely in index funds, of course. But nevertheless, you CAN lose a lot. But I think it’s important to make a distinction between safe investments (like CDs that are guaranteed by the FDIC) and higher returning investments that are not guaranteed. A retiree is in a different place than a younger person who has years to recover from setbacks. In fact, a younger person can benefit from “corrections” since they have a longer time frame.
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Anne_in_VA
Junior Associate
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 14:09:35 GMT -5
Posts: 5,502
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Post by Anne_in_VA on Nov 22, 2019 20:13:31 GMT -5
I took it at 70 as I was earning more than 100k. DH is almost 10 years younger than me so he’ll get survivor benefits in addition to his military pension. He now works full time and pays into SS but I’m not sure how much he’ll get from that when he retires. I assume I’ll predecease him, but we’ll see.
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jerseygirl
Senior Member
Joined: May 13, 2018 7:43:08 GMT -5
Posts: 4,749
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Post by jerseygirl on Nov 24, 2019 13:14:42 GMT -5
I started SS at 67, and Medicare also However I didn’t know that you should sign up for Medicare at 65. If you sign up Medicare after 65 there is a penalty - every year for life
So if you wait for SS, still sign up for Medicare at 65
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Deleted
Joined: Apr 20, 2024 1:37:49 GMT -5
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2019 13:32:30 GMT -5
There’s no penalty if you have “creditable coverage” between age 65 and filing. DH was on my employer policy and started Medicare at age 76 when I retired. No penalty.
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Deleted
Joined: Apr 20, 2024 1:37:49 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2019 23:04:26 GMT -5
I was startled to see I am getting 2 deposits tomorrow from SS. My husband died a month ago.
Even though I took SS six months early from my full retirement age, it looks like I am getting his full benefit as a survivor (or really my benefit + the $600 difference).
It startled me that it was approved so quickly. One deposit is the $255 death benefit. What a joke. The other is a check for the $600 difference minus the 12% withholding
What startled me was that these are being deposited before MY check on Wednesday.
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tallguy
Senior Associate
Joined: Apr 2, 2011 19:21:59 GMT -5
Posts: 14,134
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Post by tallguy on Nov 26, 2019 0:04:47 GMT -5
I was startled to see I am getting 2 deposits tomorrow from SS. My husband died a month ago. Even though I took SS six months early from my full retirement age, it looks like I am getting his full benefit as a survivor (or really my benefit + the $600 difference). It startled me that it was approved so quickly. One deposit is the $255 death benefit. What a joke. The other is a check for the $600 difference minus the 12% withholding What startled me was that these are being deposited before MY check on Wednesday.Regular monthly checks go out on Wednesdays, either the first, second, third, or fourth Wednesday of the month depending on one's situation. The $255 goes out immediately upon approval. The $600 is almost certainly the "correction" to the check you received last month, so gets sent out when approved regardless of any schedule. Your regular check on Wednesday should be the full increased amount reflecting the survivor benefit for which you are currently eligible. And no, it really doesn't take very long to be approved.
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Deleted
Joined: Apr 20, 2024 1:37:49 GMT -5
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2019 11:01:09 GMT -5
It startled me that it was approved so quickly. One deposit is the $255 death benefit. What a joke. The other is a check for the $600 difference minus the 12% withholding Yeah, the $255 really is a joke- I suspect that amount was fixed a few decades ago and rarely adjusted for inflation. Even DH's simple cremation in a LCOL area was $1,000. When I filed, my first deposit also included the next month's payment in advance. That was totally unexpected and there was no documentation explaining it. That was my guess and, sure enough, I didn't get a deposit on the date I should have gotten it in the following month.
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