Bit The Bullet And Now I'm An "Official" Old Guy
- Thread starter 69hurstolds
- Start date
Although I'll never rule anything out.
As a Federal retiree I don't get SSI. All the years I worked before Fed service are useless. Even though I contributed, they passed a law back under Ronnie Ray Gun to penalize us. So a useless POS that never worked a day in his life can collect on his Wife's SSI, but I who worked my whole life, cannot. So I say take it while you can. You contributed, you earned it. You don't know what lies ahead in life and you just may end up depending on it. Don't believe the BS about it going broke. That is a scare tactic to rationalize them killing it altogether. Remember when Shrub wanted to privitaize it? He said the people could manage their retirement better than the Gubmint. No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the big money boys crashed the stock market and almost killed the entire economy. That SSI looked pretty good then, didn't it?
They say the largest holder of US debt (bonds) is actually the treasury department.
I suspect, or maybe read somewhere and forget, the reason behind this is them regularly raiding the SS trust fund money coming in from payroll taxes to spend in the budget each year. That way technically SS is funded via an IOU. Take the SS money, buy a bond from the govt, then spend the money from the bond sale.
I suspect, or maybe read somewhere and forget, the reason behind this is them regularly raiding the SS trust fund money coming in from payroll taxes to spend in the budget each year. That way technically SS is funded via an IOU. Take the SS money, buy a bond from the govt, then spend the money from the bond sale.
Already doing that, actually. Using a ladder system. Not using SS monies specifically, but we do have a treasurydirect.com account. Easy peasy. Two drawbacks- one is when you buy T-bonds, Savings bonds, etc., you don't actually get actual paper bonds. It's crypto-bonds as it seems. Which is not a huge deal as if you buy them on the secondary market like in IRA or whatever, you don't actually get paper anyway. 2nd is that unlike secondary bond market (where they charge you a tiny fee to buy/sell bonds) buying through treasurydirect costs you no fees, but there's no way to sell the bonds via treasurydirect.com. You have to let it mature which then you can reinvest automatically or have it sent to your bank account automatically upon maturity. This is also where they send any interest gained. Good thing about the taxation it is only taxed Federally, no state/local taxes on U.S. govt. bonds. Only other option is to transfer it to a secondary market broker. PITA actually. So only use treasurydirect.com to buy short term bonds, or if your plan is to ride out a 10-year note to 10 years. It's a hella lot better than money sitting in the bank doing nearly zero.
Last 2 years or so we've been trying to max out our I-bond purchases, on a percentage basis it's pretty good and being linked to inflation means you don't really fall behind, especially with volitile markets.
Speaking of all this good stuff, is June the big day for another year on the calendar?
Yeah, I-bonds aren't a bad deal either. Only drawback to those is you have to hold them minimum 45 days. No biggie if you keep them for a long time, though.
No, June was just what I picked. No real rhyme or reason. I wasn't planning on applying this soon, but the wife always tells me about either a friend, old workmate, or distant relative, or some other person we knew dying off when they were close to retirement or just entering the first few months of retirement, and they were all in their late 50s to mid-60s. Reading through obituaries in the paper is a sport to her. And after Christmas, it seemed like an inordinate amount of people we knew were dropping off the living roster. So that got me thinking that although I already knew our days are numbered, might as well take a dip in the SS pool while there's a little bit of water left in the bottom. Or is it a mirage? But May will mark the end of truck payments so June is going to be a win-win month for me.
I think I'll go get some New Balance shoes and go Corvette shopping...hahaha. J/K. No. Yesterday I took the wife's CT5 in for service, I wandered up to the showroom I saw a black '23 Camaro SS/RS convertible on the floor. I heard it whisper my name. Looking at the window sticker, I thought, yeah, I could just write a check for this today... but then common sense set in and thought about the cobwebs holding down the tires of the ZL1 in the garage where it had to sit during the cold months and thought, aw hell no. I'll just run that puppy. And it'll be 85 today so I might just drag that sucker out, wash it up, drop the top and go cruisin.
I'm a bad influence, but, never hurts to get a fresh one in the stable before they are axed in favor of EVs. Especially with GM vehicles, I dont know that I see them reversing course and making more ICE vehicles when the platform is destined to end, and, I think they announced '24 was end of the road for them?
Yup. They're still going to retain a Camaro somehwere, but it'll be an EV most likely. And who really wants those? It's so bad that Ford is separating out their finance reporting so they can show a profit somewhere. It's aimed at hiding the fact they've lost $6 billion so far in the EV market. They claim it's an emerging start-up market and blah blah. They also claim EV sales are on the rise. Derp. Don't make ICEs and only make EVs then if people buy anything it has to be an EV. Companies are just plain stupid sometimes. Not to derail this thread, but 1) None of the "older" people I know are excited about EVs. Nobody I know are thinking about or planning to buy any battery operated toys soon. 2) The infrastructure, around here anyway, hasn't moved one bit toward upgrading electrical grid or installing charging stations around the area. So this is going to be EXACTLY a cart before horse scenario. And it's going to get a lot messier. 3) People without a ton of $$ to toss at an EV are going to continue to buy gasoline for their gas powered cars even if they wanted to buy an EV. It's hard to do when a dozen eggs costs you $5-6 and grocery bills skyrocketing. EVs will sit on the lot due to high prices, and high interest rates.
Anyway, yeah, the 2024 will be the end of the line for the Camaro as we know it. They are going to And for the first time in almost 70 years Chevrolet will not have had a version of the "SBC" V8 RWD in the car lineup. I think this year is the end of the line for the ICE Challenger and its ilk as well. And Ford Crustang isn't long behind. Who knows what's happening to Corvette. I used to pay attention to all that, but now since they've all gone woke as a joke as well as stealing the tune-ability from the cars by locking down the ECUs, I'm kinda not GAF what they do anymore.
Oh, and I forgot, RMD's for your 401k and savings was raised to age 73 and for any amounts short of the calculated RMD, the penalties were dropped from 50% to 25%. (10% if you take out the RMD amount and file a timely amended tax return).
The only good(ish) news on the small block (ish) v8 based engines is the 800 million or so they invested in a new generation engine, likely for trucks, because EVs just can't cut it with the workload towing in the warm, let alone cold.
When we get hurricane evacuations it'll be interesting how the ev owners manage to make it, when everyone needs an hour charge every 200 miles.... 70000 cars at once needing a charge. That'll be interesting.
I've got a small fleet here that are all ice, but, more importantly, there's factory built variants that can run propane on them. So, might see if I can adapt as dual fuel 70s style, or, worst case scenario go straight propane - you know, if gas stations ever become an issue to try and kill ICEs for good.
