Delivered on Thursday, can’t pick up till Monday, thousands of miles away from home. What to do? :co

Actually, I believe it's calculated from your "best" 35 years of working, so unless you were REALLY making boatloads of money before 1989 (in 2024 dollars, too!), working longer should only increase your monthly benefit.

 

go to SSA.gov and punch in your numbers, (birth date ss number ect)

it will give you access to how much you will make at what age you retire and any other variables.









*DO NOT make the mistake of opting out of Part B, the penalties if you later decide to reenroll are tough and last a lifetime.

 

The thing is, these last 13 years trucking have been my highest paid income. When it started to go down the amount of my benefit also started heading down - if I calculated it at the new lower income level. Not knowing what will happen in the next couple years, and this year being so bad, I decided to take it as it stood at the beginning of this year.

Waiting another 2 years would have given me about $200 more per month, if my income had stayed at the level it was a couple years ago. But that is not the case. Also, we are trying to save for a down payment on a house, that that extra income now really helps with that. A couple hundred per month and waiting another 2 years didn't seem worth it when I can be saving a couple thousand more each month right now.

 

And that is where that per diem scheme starts to hurt people nearing retirement age. Showing less on your gross annual income, just to help the company pay in less on THEIR part of the SSA payments.

 

I got the once a year letter telling me my balance of what I've been putting in the SS account each year of employment. It also started that once I was 67 and 3 months old I could draw almost the maximum and keep working and it didn't matter how much I made annually it wouldn't affect what I draw. If I had waited until like 72 I would draw a little more , but there's no guarantee I'll see 72. My income from work is a little over 100,000 gross. So this is working out really good for my wife and I, what we draw from SS easily pays for Medicare ins. Plus putting a good bit in savings. Now if we didn't have to pay taxes on that SS money it would be even better.

 

I did it for my own reasons, but per diem is a choice, most times.

How about the scheme by both presidential candidates to stop taxing tips?
It seems both of them have jumped on the bandwagon for that one.
Tipped employees like servers and bartenders see most of their income from tips, because of their unusually low hourly pay.
That is a much higher percentage of income than per diem, so they will take an even bigger hit in SS.
If one of them puts that through it will hurt a lot of people a lot more when they want to buy a house or car or get to retirement age.

Short/long term thinking is what is behind these schemes. The short term thinking of the people that think it will help them in the short term but fail to see into the future. And the long term thinking of the people that want to keep some of the people in poverty because it helps them in some way.

 

That's true, I've found it's incredibly confusing, all made to grease the wheels of the program. My benefit was calculated retiring at 62. I suppose I could have gotten more if I waited, but for me, it was good enough. The biggest thing that grinds my gears, is we , after a LIFETIME of paying into that fund, have to pay Medicare premiums. It's the ultimate slap in the face for retirees, health ins. premiums, at 70, come on. I guess seniors are where the money is. I'm fortunate, Colorado Medicaid pays my Medicare premiums, for now.

 

Yes, at least here in Virginia there are levels of Medicaid. Most people think of Medicaid as being no-cost healthcare, but many folks are on Medicaid as QMB. You don't get no-cost healthcare, but with QMB they pay these premiums. In Virginia, you qualify for QMB if your income is under $1,133 or a couple at $1,526.

 

Don't forget our COLA adjustment. Let's see, bills doubled and my COLA last year was $44 bucks. Something out of whack there. Colorado doesn't DIRECTLY collect taxes on SS, but have subtle ways of getting our money nonetheless. Did you know, you can opt out of Medicare, but if you need treatment, you have to pay back all the back premiums. Nice, hey?