Well My Company Just Decided To Liqudate My Department (All Of It)

Sorry to hear the news...

Do remember that the SSA benefit reductions are basically a zero-dollar net present value calculation...

https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/longevity.cgi

At Age	Additional Life Expectancy
(in years)	Estimated Total Years
63	20.8	83.9
67	18.0	85.0
70	15.9	85.9

20.8 x 12 x $1600 is around $400k

15.9 x 12 x $2600 is around $500k in (estimated) total benefit

But simplifying to a single payment in July of every year and assuming 5% inflation, the difference in net present value is $258k vs $252k.

You largely ignore inflation from 63->70 because the payments increase each year (although this doesn't keep up with inflation, it's theoretically supposed to).

The higher benefit is - statistically - paid for fewer years.

You need to figure out a way to bridge to age 65 and Medicare. Not that it's great, and managing it seems to be a full-time job, but it's effectively a large group policy that's cheaper than you can buy individual coverage.

Now for SSA, if you can bridge to age 70 it's certainly easier to live on $2600 vs $1600 grown via 5% inflation to $2250...

This is a case where you need to hire a fee-based retirement advisor (not a financial planner, because their justification is to sell you products).

But you need somebody to run YOUR numbers.

This is my FREE advice. "Put a pencil to it" and you will be shocked at how long it takes before waiting pays off. In my wife's case it was 10 years and 5 months past full retirement age before the total collected by waiting exceeded the total collected by taking SS "early".

Thanks everyone! lots of great advice, I'm already planning on maybe filing for SSDI but I can't go back to work for a year and that would drive me nutz! If it comes to keeping everything or losing it all, SSI is my second choice (but it would just kill me to take it early)

So, for now, I'm stopping all non-essential purchases (like coins) reducing any and all expenses I can. I do get a disability payment from the VA of just over $4K so I'll be able to keep the house (and hopefully the utilities.) then siphon from my skimpy savings. The biggest kicker is that I just purchased a $50K CD that I can't touch for 12 months...

Thanks Brand - funny you should mention food. I have save up about 12 'banker' boxes of canned food that I was planning to bring to St. Mary's Food Bank to donate, but now I think I need to keep it for myself.

Your intended good deed has been restored to you in a different form! Irony or providence? =)

I've always been a cheap eater. I enjoy cooking, and it's so much less expensive to cook for yourself rather than eat out. Especially after COVID, restaurants have gone completely nuts with prices. I can make 10 servings of fried rice for like $3, a good burger for like $2. I make all different kinds of soups, and I just started baking my own bread. My handmade gnocchi are a hit with even picky eaters.

Dearborn sorry to hear that your company is downsizing. In your opinion is this isolated to your company or is the hole area you live in slowing down. And do you have any experience with pulling and terminating data cables. If yes to data pulling and terminating I would visit your local IBEW. You may be surprised. The skilled trades are about to lose 50 percent of there workforce due to retirees. It may be worth a look see. Hoping it all works out for you.

I really think you have more options than you are giving yourself credit for. Good luck and keep us posted. When the time is right.

yeah well, I guess I'm still in shock and a "Why me?" frame of mind

Thanks macmercury - that was the first thing I did - to log into my SSA Account and see where I was at.