Quote:
Originally Posted by ryoungs
This is ever so slightly off the subject, but here is my report anyway: My wife and I, both of us life-long teachers, get a pension under the Illinois Teachers Retirement System. It is not too shabby, the amount we get, and we have no complaints about it.
Besides teaching, I normally also worked a variety of other jobs. I earned enough by "moonlighting" that by the time I retired I had enough quarters under the SS system that I could draw the maximum Social Security. My wife gets no SS, but we both became eligible for Medicare. Of course, I can't double dip, so my Social Security is greatly reduced (I get $450 each month from SS), but I'm not complaining because that is the way the laws governing SS are set up. But here is another thing---> When we bought a house in The Villages, we took $200 K for it from an IRA account. That, of course, triggered taxes, which we expected and paid. What we didn't expect was that Social Security decided the $200 K we took from savings was income. Suddenly, our family income was quite high, at least for that year, and it caused my tiny SS check to be cut even lower. But, more importantly, our high income that year changed our family Medicare premiums. Now, our Medicare premiums are MUCH higher than before. My wife's Medicare premium, for example, went from $240 a month to $640 per month. Now, we are not complaining about any of this, but I thought it might be something worth throwing into the discussion.
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IRMAA got you. (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount)
IRMAA shows up two years after your income crosses the threshold. The first threshold for 2022, I think is $182,000 AGI, married filing jointly and $91,000 filing single. There are further thresholds. That means 2022 will drive what happens to your Medicare in 2024.
IRMAA can come as a big, ugly surprise. A lot of people don’t know about it until it’s too late.
Big IRA withdrawals can trigger IRMAA. When RMD age comes, it can be wise to project income to see how close you are to crossing that income threshold, and if it looks like you are going to — and if you are feeling charitable — you can use a QCD. (Qualified Charitable Distribution) The amount of the QCD does not get added to the AGI, so giving some money away can help to avoid IRMAA. (But you have to follow the QCD rules perfectly and keep good records.)
One of the maddening things about IRMAA is that — as I understand it — once you enter IRMAA’s territory, it’s all or nothing — even if you cross over that threshold by just a few bucks — so if you think you might come close some year, it can be worth doing some projecting. (
Disclaimer: I am not an accountant, so check with yours if anything I am saying interests you in knowing more. )
If you are not to RMD age yet, you might want to think about doing some conversion to Roth along the way. It’s pay now or pay later, but paying now can pay off. I did that. BUT, my only regret is not doing more conversions. Later on, if you are into a big spending year, you can dip into that Roth and not be taxed…….
Doing these conversions is another thing that requires learning how to do it right — and that is not from some other retired teacher on TOTV.
……
Pay an accountant — although I have found it really helps to do a little reading on the subject first, pick up some of the tax vocabulary, and then your time with your accountant will be so much better used. In other words— do your homework first.
Boomer