The important question is whether you take the standard deduction. If not then as far as marginal tax rates are concerned, the mortgage interest would still be deductible (assuming the amount falls within the $750K limit). The SALT limitation only factors in by making it harder to have sufficient itemized deductions to exceed the standard deduction, for those with a low interest rate mortgage this will now typically only occur if you make sizeable charitable contributions.
Employer coverages after retirement requires you to sign up for Medicare and they are secondary.
This is a Medicare specialistâs response to me when I asked if I could get a private insurance instead of Medicare, â Itâs only possible to get private health insurance and delay Medicare if itâs through an employer with more than 20 employees.â
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My school district definitely had more than 20 employees.
But even with that, they no longer allow retirees who have reached Medicare age to stay on the district plan.
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I donât I have used the standard deduction since I was an employee many, many moons ago. Definitely didnât file the standard deduction in 2022. I donât do my taxes anymore, but Iâm sure the accountants compare the two choices.
Not all employer coverages. The 2 million+ retired federal government employees are not required to sign up for Medicare. If they meet the stipulations that allow them to keep their employer coverage, they can just continue to use that in retirement without having to purchase anything additional.
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It does appear that federal retired employees do not need to enroll in Medicare plan B. My mother has both FEHB and Medicare plan A&B. The FEHB pays everything that Medicare doesnât cover.
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Federal retirees DO NOT need to take part B.
However, if a person does not sign up when they are initially eligible, and later decide they want to, there is a penalty (I believe it is currently 10% per year for each year you didnât sign up. So if you wait until 68 for example, you would pay the going rate plus 30%, âforeverâ).
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You do not pay late enrollment penalty if you have credible coverage (typically through employer or spouse employer) in lieu of Medicare.
Example: you are working beyond 65 and covered by employer. At retirement you lose employer coverage and now (say at 69), enroll in Medicare. No penalty.
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That is correct. When I said federal retiree, I was assuming not working any longer.
I feel like this conversation has been had very recently, either on this or another thread.
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In the article about the helicopter ambulance, I think if the woman had better understood what insurance she was getting and what the options were (part a, part b, etc.), she might have made a better decision. For me, the article showed how easy it is to misunderstand your coverage. She probably thought - I will save money and get the free coverage - why spend more. Not realizing the limitations of the free coverage.
When I retired I was able to stay on the companies plan until I turned 65 (about 16 months for me). When I turned 65 and qualified for Medicare I could no longer be on the company plan but I started receiving a similar stipend.
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That was a very good article.
I heard a statistic about the number of US people above age 55, I believe it was 1/3 of our population. Population may grow with a number of factors - which one needs the balance of the population with the younger working folks.
Some people in jobs that are at the top of their career but is not a strain for them will stay working longer. Self employed, owning a business are also examples.
The average SS amount is not much money â I almost make the average with a large gap in my larger âearning yearsâ being a SAHM, while DH has significantly higher than the average. Once one pays for health insurance, not much left. Definitely lots of people are working or changing their living situation and lifestyle to afford to not having a paycheck. It depends on saving/investing and what happened to not having a nest egg. An example given in the article was a woman who got divorced and her paid off home now was not due to a divorce.
And caregivers/paid caregivers being older - they have the patience with those care situations. Win - Win as long as it is not too physically demanding for the caregiver.
Years ago, my mother had helicopter transport to hospital, and her private insurance only paid about 1/3 of the cost. From what I remember (and this was 1995) her insurance paid $675 out of the total of $2575. I imagine the helicopter billing had a base charge - was not a long transport. They called the helicopter as soon as authorities got to the scene and saw my mother was alive - and the helicopter could get there probably faster than nearest ambulance.
Your home loan was great timing. We locked in at 2.5% interest on a 10 year mortgage at that same time - and the interest rates were going up the next day (I talked to the head of the mortgage dept. of our credit union who still writes their own mortgages); their 15 year mortgage at that lock in time was 2.75%. We probably should have drawn out more money out of our home, but we liked the low monthly payments ($1414) w/o escrow.
That the assumption/conclusion that the author wanted you to draw, with zero evidence. No facts were presented by the so-called journalist to support his/her pov.
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Thatâs not what we were told when we turned 65. We were working with a good employer insurance. HR told us we have to sign up Medicare A when we turned 65 to avoid penalty. We could wait with B.
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Ainât that what passes as journalism these days?
Perhaps the woman looked at Part B (and supplemental) the way I handle my dentalâŠ. self-pay. Of course there was lots more risk as well as saving for her.
I suspect that this was somebody not intending to do any extraordinary measures to treat ailments in old age. She likely would not have wanted that air ambulance ride, had she been in a position to make the call.
Not exactly correct. There is no penalty for Part A if you qualify for free Part A.
https://www.medicare.gov/basics/costs/medicare-costs/avoid-penalties
â Part A late enrollment penalty
- Some people have to buy Part A because they donât qualify for premium-free Part A.
Do I qualify for premium-free Part A? - If you have to buy Part A, and you donât buy it when youâre first eligible for Medicare, your monthly premium may go up 10%.
- Youâll have to pay the penalty for twice the number of years you didnât sign up.â
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Some people may be reluctant to even get a log in for SS/Medicare - (ssa.org
and Medicare.gov) those two entities have intertwining features, but having the ability to log in is good to be prepared for when one wants to apply. With Social Security, having the projections of benefits is helpful.
Applying for Medicare A during enrollment window (just prior and just after turning 65) is helpful for administration to have oneâs files through that stage.
Why be concerned if one is avoiding a penalty or not? Most people on this thread want to be ready for retirement by doing the known things. I am not going to âresearchâ if there is a penalty or not currently but could also avoid IF there would be a penalty in the future. Also, an employerâs insurance may require one to sign up for Medicare Part A at 65 - that may be why the HR person said it was required.