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1. Regular taxable investments. Not a horrible thing - a mix of taxable, tax free, and tax deferred makes you future tax change neutral (or at least flexible).
Right. On her side is psychological, mine has math/logic. Which sums up our personalities well.
How's about I keep that cash and pay some taxes. The other option is standard in these stupid articles. It always says that you need to earn less that 32k or so. So go live in poverty and you will not pay taxes on 
your SS. 
I think the idea is to supplement that 32k with post tax investment sources like a roth.I love these 'how to pay less in taxes on your SS.' articles. This new one is a gem. Give away up to $100,000.
Yeah, the 5% of the population that can actually do that. Most people will be working thru retirement and paying taxes on their income and SS. I know over 90% won't be giving any $ away...cause they won't have any to give away.
If you cross the standard deduction threshold the interest deduction doesn't save you anything. You need to itemize to take advantage.
The key there is that the SSA bumps payments 8% a year for every year you defer. If you incur taxes on top of that with your SS payouts the payoff gets way over 10% guaranteed return to put off starting SS. Unless absolutely necessary it is incredibly foolhardy to start SS when you're still pulling in a decent salary.
That's a pretty good readershiplod001 said:
Just to clarify, FRA for us will be 67. Delaying til 70 will result in the maximum amount of payout. Also, delaying beyond 70 has no additional benefit
Some of this will depend on your investments and how you intend to fund your retirement expenses.
So if I'm set to get around $30,000 a year in SS I'm going to end up paying taxes on SS no matter what. Otherwise I won't be able to use any of my pre-tax savings. Am I understanding that right? What if I cash out all pre-tax before
Depending on your age and what investment vehicle you are in the government does not look favorably upon this and can levy penalties.
I understand I'm going to get taxed on any pre-tax investment (including any early withdrawal penalties). I guess what I'm looking for, if any exist, are strategies to avoid or minimize the SS getting taxed. TIA.
Well, capital gains (along with other sources of "income") are indeed considered when the taxable amount of SS is calculated.
I do this now that it is available at my work. My contributions are into the Roth, by law the matching that I get is traditional, so I get some built in tax diversification there and am able to grow the amount of funds in a Roth account faster that I can with just a Roth IRA.
nothing wrong with that, good limits there.
The calculation to determine taxable SS is one half of your SS benefits plus other income. If you are married you could collect $30,000 of SS and still generate $17,000 of other income and not have the SS included in income. Also the taxable portion of SS phases in from 0% to 85% of benefits collected so you will never pay tax on all your SS. Don't forget that you also get a standard deduction and personal exemption so even if it is included in income you may not actually pay tax.
Read up before diving into this. Many don't like this vehicle. I don't have it available, so haven't researched it heavily.
I have no logical explanation but I like this one significantly better.
and let's keep it that way.
It's more or less what your time horizon is, and how much tax savings you want now. I think for people in their 20s the Roth 401k is the way to go, but as you increase your earnings and take on the expenses your 30s and 40s bring, it is usually a better idea to use the traditional 401k IMO.
Oh, I wasn't saying I'd do it. I prefer the non-roth 401k as i'll be in a much lower bracket in retirement. Was just responding to dentist saying that a roth has such a low contribution limit but for him it apparently does b/c he doesn't have the 401k option.
Age/Time until retirement should have nothing to do with choosing between traditional/roth. Tax bracket and expected tax bracket at retirement are the only things to care about. Some financial talking heads (Dave Ramsey being one) do not understand the tax treatment of traditional/roth and often give very bad advice.
we're just slightly over 50% Roth vs. Traditional in our retirement accounts. but, we'll be over $32k in income just for the pension, SS will add another $28k-$35k. FWIW, this total amount, without including withdrawals, is about 3/4 of our current taxable income. With that in mind, would it be smarter to put everything in the Roth?
Even when you qualify for Medicare, you're still going to need secondary coverage and for two people that will easily be a grand a month by the time we're ready for it. Perhaps more. This will likely be your single largest expense outlay when you retire.
HSA is right near the top. It has better tax privileges than any other tax sheltered account and should be at the top of your list. Only reason it's #2 is due to matching monies.
Thank you for the info.
Health Ins. is $700 a month for me, had a baby in that last twelve months, I wear contacts so there's another $400-500 a year, Wife has a gym membership.
Yeah, meant to be a joke.
