Note: life expectancies based on ages relatives that have died – him 85, me 95. We are 61 and 59 now.
We are debt free and plan to stay in this house, hopefully until we die.
Our plan is that TheHusbandHalf will stop working Jan 4, 2019. I have not worked since 1984, do not have enough SS credits to qualify on my own.
He is not going to apply for SS until his FRA, 2022. We will live on some money I got from a car accident, and we will also convert some of his trad IRA money to his Roth, so will pay the tax with it too.
He will get 36,000 when he applies for SS and 2 years later I will get 18,000 – 54,000 total (His is 500/mo additional to SS because for a little over 10 years he worked for the railroad and paid into Railroad Retirement Tier 2, and it will be in his SS check. I get half of that too.)
When he stops work he will get a lump sum pension from his current employer, put it into his tIRA, making the trad IRA substantial (at least to me).
What I’m thinking-
The odds say I will outlive him, but even if I die first, higher tax brackets then as a single. We should try to convert as much trad IRA to Roth as possible, up to what is now the 22% bracket.
Now
married, jointly 12% 19,051 – 77,400
22% 77,401 – 165,000
Future
Individual 12% - 38,700
22% 38,701 - 82,500
24% 82,501 - 157,000
Also, it seems it’s better for the kids to inherit a Roth, than a trad IRA. It is highly possible that the Roth, even with additions, will mostly all be there when we die.
When he retires, his employer pays for ˝ the cost of the health insurance and because of his years there, he has to pay the rest of the other half (he may have to pay less, we are not sure exactly). We do not know yet what all this means for us and Medicare.
If any of the above affects SS, honestly, that’s ok.
In the past we get just under the upper limit of the 15% bracket, looks like 12% now.
Any opinions here on that way of thinking? Stupid? Other things I should be considering?
