Today DH and I went to a class offered by the public employee's retirement system he belongs to. It was very informative. One good thing we learned was that he can increase his pension by buying service time for the two years he served in the military during the Vietnam War. We are looking into how much it would cost and then we'll determine if it is financially sound to buy this extra service credit. We also found out that his employer will pay for our health benefits after he retires. This is a great benefit considering the high cost of health care today. DH is thinking about retiring at the end of the academic year in 2009 or 2010.
Planning for DH's Retirement
August 12th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
August 12th, 2008 at 10:29 pm 1218576587
August 13th, 2008 at 12:12 am 1218582775
Have you done a tax bracket analysis? One issue with pensions is that if they are combined with SS benefits and withdraws from an IRA, a person can often be in a much higher tax bracket that they expected.
August 13th, 2008 at 01:00 am 1218585614
August 13th, 2008 at 02:21 am 1218590463
How much income is from pension? How much from 401k? Do you have a Roth? Do you have any money in taxable accounts? Will you be retiring before age 70.5? How much before?
Your goal should be to stay in 15% tax bracket with ordinary income (under $65100 married filing jointly) and your taxes should be kept to a minimum.
August 13th, 2008 at 03:30 am 1218594645
August 13th, 2008 at 03:47 pm 1218638876