jimsjournal
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jimsjournal |
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I have celebrated a few birthdays since I started pasting up words online back in '96. My 53rd birthday was already five months in the past when I began. I didn't make note of my birthday in '97, but the next time April 29th rolled around I did post a birthday entry -- "Double Nickel" -- to mark turning 55 (and I mostly just talked about the surprise birthday parties Nancy had thrown for me to mark my 35th and 50th birthdays). Other birthdays noted here include my 57th in 2000, my 58th in 2001, and my 59th in 2002. It was amusing for me to read my 60th in 2003 because little did I realize as I posted that entry that Nancy had planned a surprise party for me after work. (May 1st 2003 had a couple of party pictures.) Call me self-indulgent or self-absorbed, but I also had birthday entries in 2004, and 2005, and 2006, and 2007 (I called that one "My Beatle birthday). Hmmm, this theme is getting kind of old... ah well, so am I... I got some comments with yesterday's entry about retirement. Well, 65 isn't the retirement age any more. Social security payments are reduced if you retire before "Full Retirement Age" -- which used to be 65, but which has been increased bit by bit for those born after 1937. For those of us born from 1943 through 1954, full retirement age is 66. (For those born from 1960 onward, it is 67.) However, I have no plans on retiring at 66 either. Nor at 67. For a long time I had said I would retire in 2011 (i.e., at 68) but now that 2011 is getting fairly close, I'm thinking more like 2012 or 2013. There are tax consequences in continuing to work after that point. I would have to start taking money out of 401k retirement plans by the fall of 2013 (age 70 1/2) or get hit by tax penalties... but if I were forced to withdraw retirement money while still working full time, the taxes would also be at punitive levels, to the point where it would be foolish to keep working full time just to pay the blood suckers in government. So I'll probably retire from full time work somewhere around 69 or 70 and then look for something part time (adjunct faculty or consultant or... hell, I could bag groceries even... just to be able to pay for vacations without having to drain retirement funds).
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