[ale] Retirement musings - was Anyone out there?
Charles Shapiro
hooterpincher at gmail.com
Wed May 3 16:48:13 EDT 2023
I myself am grateful I've spent my career in a field where I don't have to
worry about being shot, cut, burned, run over, or falling off a high place.
-- CHS
On Wed, May 3, 2023 at 1:33 PM JEFFREY LIGHTNER via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
> The "temporary" is what got my laptop the ability to attach to them
> remotely (the only time I ever went on site was for the fingerprinting and
> the badge I never got to use). I could get into non-critical user
> applications (e.g. web pages, internal training, video conferencing,
> messaging). However, I was not allowed to login to any of the Linux
> systems directly - I could only see screens shared by others. The crazy
> thing was 2 of my team members got their clearance soon after I started and
> much of my time was spent directing their actions as they were both more
> UNIX knowledgeable than Linux and I had expertise in both.
>
> Part of the confusion may have been the political situation - I gather at
> one point they stopped working on clearances because they thought all the
> contractors had been discharged when in fact those from my agency were not
> (yet). The SysAdmin team lead told us more than once that it had taken up
> to 18 months for clearance for at least one person and he'd been strongly
> told NOT to request status of pending clearances in that case. There
> seemed to be no rhyme or reason to how long it took. So far as I could
> tell only one person I'd listed on my submission was ever contacted for
> confirmation.
>
> Of course there has been a strong demand for IT workers so I could have
> gone back to work but having 2 jobs go away in short order made me feel
> like a message from the universe to stop working. I certainly had not
> planned on even thinking about it for a few years before the layoff and
> even in December of that year wasn't thinking that way yet. If not for all
> the free time I'd likely not have so closely examined my finances.
>
>
>
> On 05/03/2023 12:45 PM Chuck Payne via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>
> So, you didn't get a temporary clearance? Six months is a long time. It
> took me longer to get my federal position ( 1 1/2 year ), but when I was a
> contractor, I get a temporary clearance and I was able to work while they
> did full background checks. I know because of Covid-19 there were backed
> up, a lot of contractors I am working with are just getting their
> invertviews to finish out their background checks.
>
> Now, what I find crazy. If I live where I am working and go to another
> government job, I have to redo my security clearance, why can't we have a
> central office that all of the Government uses for clearances? To me if you
> have for example a Public Trust which is what most need to work for the
> government unless you are dealing with items that need higher. You can't
> take clearance from the CDC to DOE. You have to start over. Speaking of
> retirement, the only reason I became of Ageist in IT, when I got laid off
> six years ago, at the nice age of 49, I got replaced by three 20 something,
> all of whom quit because they say that the work I did by myself was too
> much. I wasn't making six figures, but they were able to take my salary and
> divide it by three for those kids.
>
> Jeffery good luck. I regret taking the fed position but it pays the bills,
> I need to stay here for 15 more years, I got 12 year who will be in college
> with most folks retire, I will have to work to make sure she has what she
> needs.
>
> On Wed, May 3, 2023 at 12:13 PM JEFFREY LIGHTNER via Ale <ale at ale.org>
> wrote:
>
> Having been part of what is laughingly called "The Great Resignation" I'll
> share my thoughts.
>
> In Apr 2020 I got laid off after ~16 years due to the pandemic.
>
> I dutifully found another job around Aug 2020 but due to political reasons
> Trump got involved and it was clearly going away. In fact in Jan 2021 they
> replaced my team members and I in SysAdmin moving us to an application
> support role. However, it was clear that was not going to last long.
>
> Due to waiting for government security clearance I'd been hanging on
> thinking having the clearance in hand would be valuable for future job
> searches. However, after 6 months my clearance had neither been granted or
> denied and it was not possible even for management to request status. My
> own feeling was after 6 months they should have been able to grant it to me
> or arrest me for some unknown wrong that would make them deny it. :-)
>
> Since my lack of clearance limited me to an advisory role (i.e. no hands
> on - just video sessions telling others what to do or learning how they did
> things there) I had a lot of free time. I used that mainly to take
> online training but also began tracking my retirement savings then doing
> research. I found out that I could retire early using my savings (not
> social security - see below). As it appeared the universe was telling me
> I shouldn't work any longer I resigned in Feb 2021 even though the agency
> indicated it could place me elsewhere. I later learned that the agency
> finally had to end all the positions at that employer in April so my timing
> wasn't bad..
>
> Some of what I read/decided:
> 1) Although one can begin taking social security at 62 it is at a reduced
> monthly amount from what it would be at full retirement age (FRA) and is
> reduced throughout the rest of your life not just until your FRA.
> 2) FRA is based on you birth month and year. For me it is 66 & 8 months.
> From what I can see it is different by 6 months for each year (e.g. if I
> was born a year earlier it would be 66 & 2 months but a year later would be
> 67 and 4 months.
> 3) If you can wait until 70 (i.e. beyond your FRA) it bumps up the amount
> you get paid each month even further.
> 4) Social security earnings can be reduced before FRA by any other income
> you have (the average mentioned is losing $1 for every $2 in other
> earnings).
> 5) If you have homestead property in Georgia certain counties give you an
> exemption from school taxes in the first year after you turn 62. For me in
> Cobb county that was a significant reduction.
> 6) In the year one turns 62 there is a $35,000 exemption and in the year
> one turns 65 there is a $65,000 exemption from Georgia income tax on
> retirement earnings. In my case it surprised me because I wasn't actually
> retired yet but the state treats certain other income as if it were
> retirement so it saved me money.
> 7) Obamacare (Healthcare.gov) can give you insurance even in Georgia.
> They have varying plans but there is an offset credit you can get based on
> your income. I chose a "gold" plan which was more expensive monthly but
> has a lower annual out of pocket cost (in network of course) and the credit
> was fairly good (i.e. I pay less than $1k per month mentioned in an earlier
> post).
> 8) At 65 you MUST sign up for Medicare even if you are not drawing social
> security. The period to do this is the 3 months before your 65th birthday
> through the month of your birthday and 3 months after it. Otherwise there
> is a penalty. I gather that if you're still working (or are on a spouse's
> plan) you may not have to pay for Medicare but you do have to enroll. Of
> course you can't do Obamacare once you're eligible for Medicare. I have
> done my enrollment but will still be on Obamacare until my birth month. I
> haven't gone through all the options at Medicare yet to finalize what plan
> I'll do. Do NOT buy a book about this. Every insurance company on earth
> will send you information without you having asked for it. From what I
> read you have to sign up for Medicare part A (and part B) before doing any
> other options such as Medicare part D (drug coverage), Part C (medicare
> advantage) or Medigap. Medicare Advantage is when an insurance company
> takes it all on and it appears any payment you make is to them and they in
> turn pay your part A & B premium. Medigap is where you pay Part A & B then
> pay for another policy to an insurance company to cover the costs A & B
> don't pay.
>
> Most recommendations I read about social security suggested strongly to
> wait until at least FRA or even better 70 if possible. The reason for
> reduced monthly payment below FRA and increased at 70 is they expect one to
> live a certain amount of years so the total payments should be about the
> same for your lifespan. The few contrary opinions I read essentially
> boiled down to take it as soon as you can because there's no guarantee
> Congress or budget constraints would reduce or eliminate social security.
> Having watched all the debate on that subject over the years I felt it was
> less of a risk for someone already 62 as they almost always talk about
> grandfathering in older folks (in fact usually 55) as they'd have no time
> to get alternate savings if they didn't have them. I chose to defer until
> FRA (and if possible 70) so have been living off my 401k since Feb 2021.
>
> I've been encouraging people for years to max out 401k deferrals (which
> can be even more for "catch up" deferrals once one hits 50). The tax
> savings alone make it worthwhile during your working years and if there is
> an employer match it is free money. The downside is you have to pay tax
> when you begin withdrawing but only on what you withdraw each year. Be
> careful about this - I spoke to some folks who were advised to move their
> money into annuity and didn't realize they had to pay tax on the entire
> distribution the year they moved it into the annuity. (Annuities are a
> whole discussion in themselves). You can move money from your 401k into
> rollover IRA (non-Roth) with no tax penalty once you leave the employer.
>
> The biggest hit to my 401k of course was stock market reverses in the last
> year. Luckily among the many recommendations I'd read was to move 3 years
> worth of expected living expenses into something non-volatile like cash.
> I did that (into a rollover IRA of course so I didn't have to pay taxes on
> it all at once) before the bottom fell out of the markets and have since
> told folks I felt my decisions in 2021 made me feel a bit like
> Nostradamus.
>
> I've seen the reverses of the IT tech bubble burst of early 2000s, the
> great recession of 2008-2009 and the wild up and down of the pandemic for
> the past year or so. I joked that I lost more money in 2022 than I ever
> thought I'd have. Despite all that my 401k (and now IRA) have definitely
> increased since I began (belatedly) in the mid 90s so I still recommend
> 401k deferrals.
>
> All the foregoing is based on my reading and decisions and experience. I
> am NOT a CFP, a lawyer, CPA or any other kind of tax or financial
> professional so be sure to do do your own reading and/or professional
> consultations before deciding for yourself.
>
> On 04/24/2023 11:57 AM Jim Kinney via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>
> No one ever said on their deathbed, "I wish I had spent more time at
> work."
>
> A major point for officially retiring for me is it makes a clear process
> where I'm training the next generation and then acting as oversight to
> verify the training worked, then acting as a guide while they implement the
> next version/replacement of what they inherited. I realized I don't want to
> keep doing this until I drop dead over my keyboard. There are other things
> in life to enjoy.
>
> I'm still looking for a big Belgium quad beer taste with less than 10
> calories and under 1% alcohol so I can drink more of them and stop becoming
> rounder and sloppier.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 24, 2023, 7:35 AM Solomon Peachy via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Apr 23, 2023 at 04:12:11PM -0500, Leam Hall via Ale wrote:
> > Really, though, why would you retire? Why not build a life you don't
> > want to retire from? How many of us do for free at home what we get
> > paid to do?
>
> A man's still gotta eat. And pay for tools/supplies.
>
> I never have been terribly happy with my profession in of itself, but I
> will be the first to agree that its relatively high compensation has
> enabled a lot of [mis-]adventures over the years.
>
> Work to live, not live to work, eh?
>
> - Solomon
> --
> Solomon Peachy pizza at shaftnet dot org
> (email&xmpp)
> @pizza:shaftnet dot org (matrix)
> Dowling Park, FL speachy (libra.chat)
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>
> --
> Terror PUP a.k.a
> Chuck "PUP" Payne
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