2545 Another medicare shock

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Little girls grow up to be women.
Little boys grow up to be ... big boys.

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I received a letter from the Social Security Administration yesterday, in reference to Medicare. They say that the amount I pay each month for medicare is based on my income level, and that they get those figures from the IRS. The total that they use includes income from all sources, including tax-free income.

When I read the number they had for my total 2008 income, I about fell over. It's at least 60% higher than I was aware of. I'll be paying a small fortune for Medicare.

I stopped by Piper's office today to ask him to please check it against his records and explain it to me. He has a lot of my investments in tax-free bonds, and he rolls over the interest from those bonds into new bonds, so I never really see it, never get to touch or use it, unless I specifically ask him to cut me a check. It's probably reported on those back addenda of the return, the pages I don't look at very carefully, because they don't matter to the IRS bottom line. I'm also aware that late last year he moved a lot of my stock out of "dangerous waters" into safer areas, so I suspect there were capital gains I never actually had that I could use, but that the SSA is counting.

He wasn't in. Perhaps I'll catch him tomorrow. I guess I'm going to have to pay more attention to what's going on.

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Tonight I'm going to a lawn concert in Sugar Loaf, about an hour and a half southeast of here. The weather is iffy, but I'm going anyway. I'll take an umbrella. If it does rain, I suspect the group will relocate to a restaurant or bar down the road, so it won't be a complete waste of a drive. (Although, on my current diet, a restaurant or bar is a complete waste on ME.)
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