[Later edit - I was so proud of getting the year right! I got the month wrong. Again.]
I have to make a decision in the next day or two. As Jay's widow, I am entitled to half of Jay's Company retirement. He had worked for The Company only about 16 years, and The Company is notoriously parsimonious toward retirees, so the total amount is pitifully small. My half of it will barely pay for groceries.
Because Jay was so much younger than I, he wouldn't be eligible for full retirement until March 5, 2017, however, he'd have been eligible to begin collecting a reduced amount as of this March. So I have to decide when to start collecting. A reduced amount now, or wait a year or two or five for a smaller reduction, or wait for the full amount in 2017?
If I start collecting now, I'd get $200 a month less than if I wait until 2017. I'll be 72 in 2017. If I even live that long. (Considering the pitiful amount to begin with, that $200 is significant.)
I'll have to call the company tomorrow to check numbers. If I wait five more years, will the reduction be only $100? (I doubt it - I suspect the penalty is greater in the early part and lesser later.) Would that make a difference anyway, since I'd be trading today dollars for 2012 or 2017 dollars? And I can invest what pittance they do send me. I bet I can make up the loss by 2017. Heck, I KNOW I can. I can more than double it in ten years!
I can just about guarantee there won't be much of a COLA raise by 2017, if any. They're almost unheard of from The Company. I've had two raises from Social Security and none on my own retirement from The Company in the past five years. Instead, they keep raising the medical plan contribution (for the medical insurance that, at the time I retired, they verbally promised would be free for life. Verbally. The small print said that anything could be changed at any time, so there! "Buck you Fuddy, you powerless retirees! We've got to finance these multi-million dollar golden parachutes somehow...".) It almost looks like their plan is to eventually nibble it all back.
I guess maybe I should get the financial exposure from Piper first, he might advise me to wait another year, because we've still balancing and there will be another capital gains hit this year, but if the penalty is still about $200 in another year, I can't see why I should wait.
Ahah! An argument for Piper! I can just put it all in an indexed mutual fund IRA to remove the tax hit, and earn on it faster than The Company would pretend to earn on it for me. Yeah!
Ok. Piper's out of it.
Sounds like I've decided.
.
2 comments:
Piper should tell you, you can't invest in IRA's once you stop working.
Phooey. Forgot about that. Thanks. I contributed after I retired because Jay had a salary, and then I contributed after he died because I had a sole proprietorship - which is presently moribund. Forgot why I stopped....
I could torque up the nascent silk business, which I've got to do sometime anyway, before the moths eat all my stock, but that would defeat the financial purpose.
I may have to just look Piper in the eye and say "I'm doing this. Deal with it."
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