60+ year old thread.

Can't like the back pain Bill. It's a bummer that you couldn't get an earlier appointment with the neurosurgeon. The healthcare system has gone down the drain. Take care and hope it eases up for you and thoughts.

 

Dawhen?

That's ridiculous.

 

Thanks Ken

 

Morning all:

Sorry to hear about the back Bill, had mine go out twice and couldn't believe how much pain it caused.

Time to get a new hunting lic. today, I have a senior combo lifetime, so all I need to pay for is DMAP doe and bear, then later for doe licenses, glad that I bought that senior lifetime combo when I became eligible.

 

Man, sorry for the back pain Bill - that's like the whole summer waiting!

Good Morning Porch Pals & Gals! Yep; it's going to be hot again, and again, and.... so dry and hot I saw the weatherman point to the Gulf, and say there was a 20% chance of wishing for development! Not likely! If Tuesday doesn't break 100* (only day forecast not to at the moment), be the longest streak of 100+* in June ever. Headed for that 2011 record summer....
And I'm headed to 4LoFab here in a bit to take care of those U-Joints, and get that skid on finally. Keep me off the ground! Then home to chase down meds and putz.

 

And here we go. Already proved this is NOT a DIY for me!

 

So sorry to hear about the back pain. Almost nothing is worse. I’ve had surgery and while it was successful, it was a long recovery. I’d still do it again in a heartbeat. Please get better.

 

Although it's a bit late for coffee here TBH!

Sorry to hear of the back pain. My back goes sideways every now and then and I hurt everywhere when it happens. I've found that sleeping on my side seems to help the discs get lined back up again and shortens the duration.

Good surgeons can get backed up on appointments for sure. I waited all summer, until October in fact, to have hip surgery back in 2013. They scripped me some pain meds and sent me home to wait it out. Wasn't fun but the guy was good I was willing to wait.

I've been chewing on what to do about Social Security for the past week. My plan was to retire at 68+, but wait until 70 to collect SS. I planned to fill the income gap with the sale of some stock options from my former employer. I have always treated those as "found money", never included them in any financial planning; I figured this would be a good use for them. I retired in January, and what has happened since? You guessed it, the markets have tanked and those options have plummeted in value. What to do?

I'm leaning towards holding onto the options and moving up my timetable for taking SS. The way I see it the question is: what will increase more between now and a year from now, the options or SS? I know how much the SS will go up -- about 7%. By taking SS earlier than planned I would be betting that the markets are about done crashing, and the upside will be more than the raise in SS. Looking back at other downturns, they've tended to bounce back fairly quickly once the bottom is found. But these are not normal times. Hence my dilemma.

 

First SS, talk to a financial planner about taking SS later but I researched this thoroughly before I started taking my SS. Waiting one to two years to start SS, yes your monthly benefit will be higher . But it will take 10 or more years of the benefit to break even , in other words to make up the money you lost out on. An example using made up numbers. Let’s say instead of collecting at age 65 you wait until 68. You will be missing out on anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000 in benefits. You start collecting at 68 and even at the higher benefit it will take 10 or more years to make up the 100000 to $150,000 you would have not collected. If you don’t need the money you can just take it and bank or invest it. At our ages longevity is very iffy. You may not live to 68 or 70, then you get nothing, you lose, the government wins. There are calculators you can use to figure this out. I’m certainly not trying to tell you what to do, I’m just saying study this carefully. Discuss with a financial planner or expert and then make a decision. Just an example, a friend of mine retired about the same time as me at age 65 1/2. He was adamant about waiting to 70 to collect his much larger benefits. He was in good health and didn’t absolutely need the money. He was diagnosed with liver cancer a couple years ago and died at 69. Get some professional advice.

Regarding back pain. Both my wife and I suffer back pain and back problems. She worse than me. She’s been to pain specialists and gotten some relief. Me I just take over the counter pain meds. My back pain has restricted things I can do. For example I no longer deer hunt (still duck and pheasant hunt). I can’t hike the rugged mountains and pack out a deer because of my back. Other things I’m restricted from doing too. Two years ago my wife and I got an adjustable king bed. Her side and my side adjust separately and both the head and foot of the bed. It’s been like a miracle. Our backs still bother us but nothing like before. Our backs are way less painful and bothersome and our sleep is greatly improved. We like to travel but we hate the beds we sleep on while traveling. We always can’t wait to get back to out tempur-pedic adjustable bed. Not cheap though. We paid over $10,000 for it, but to us worth every penny. The difference back problem wise is night and day.

Well enough blabbing, I’m heading to the pool, followed by lunch and then reading a good book this afternoon. Be safe all.

 

I made myself a "when do I break even" spreadsheet a few years ago. I wanted to know about the difference between taking SS at 62, 66, or 70. I can plug numbers into it so I know what the difference is among the various numbers. I'll end up with more SS dollars at age 87-ish if I wait versus taking it now. The thing is, those types of calcs don't take all of the lost opportunities into account. What you do with that money once it's yours, what you are not doing by waiting and not taking it sooner, stuff like that. Intangibles.

Stuff like that! I could put in a pool!!

 

in my case, my choices were take the early SS at 62 or wait for full funding at 65. I didn’t do a spread sheet, but as I had retired at 55, and gone back to work part time at 60 just for kicks, the money wasn’t the issue, it was more about how much longer I would live, as my father had died at age 76. I just saw it as free money, not to be left on the table. Now at age 81+, I see that I would definitely have been better off to wait that piddling 2 more years for full funding. It’s all a crap shoot, just figure what is important to you now, and if you make a dumb decision, just be glad if you live long enough to know it was dumb.

 

Look... I'm no doctor... but I've found that laying on my side, having my wife start at my tailbone and moving up an inch at a time to put pressure on my spine helps a lot. She holds the pressure for maybe 10 seconds in each place and sometimes does it twice, concentrating where I tell her to do it longer.

If nothing else I sleep better.

Your mileage may vary.

 

Yup, totally a crap shoot, regardless of health and other factors. My wife and I are both in our mid-sixties, I am working and earning the highest income of my life, and given A) my wife and I both come from families with centurions on both sides, and B) we're still out running local races with distances upwards of a half-marathon; I think we have reasonably good odds of seeing the far side of 100 ourselves. So, yeah, we're waiting until we turn 70 before we start suckling at the SS teat; only time will tell if it was a good decision or not.

 

Afternoon all:
Boy, you ask tough questions Dave!

As for SS, there are MANY things to consider. Look at right now, market is dropping and by how much is anyone's guess, and prices on EVERYTHING are going up I don't even see how the 8.9% SS raise they are talking about will even begin to cover the actual cost of living increase.
Ken hit some good points, when I took SS at age 62 I was figuring on around 4 1/2% yield on investments, well that went to crap fast and I ended up turning back to the market to get any return on capital. There are REITS and limited partnerships available that pay 10% or more if you want to invest in the market, BUT those can drop in price if the market goes into a tailspin as well as mutual funds.
AND: the variable that Ken also brought up and no one knows the answer to, how long are you going to be around to collect, 15-20 yrs., or a year or two or less!
The more info. you can apply to your own situation, the better, I'm sure a financial planner could at least give you some things to contemplate that you may find helpful.
Just thinking, when the market went South in 2008, there were people ready to strangle their financial planners because their portfolios took a big hit, they say there are no sacred cows when the market corrects.
I've been following BRK A for a few months, glad I didn't buy it, it's down $100,000+ a share from it's recent high!
Just like Dale posted, only time will tell if it was a good decision or not, we all have to roll the dice sometimes.

 

Thanks Bryan

 

Thanks Carl . I’ve been keeping busy again today but I know tonight the pain will get worse .

 

I am in a similar place…years of chronic back pain. After my MRI the Dr. prescribed physical therapy to start (6 weeks @2x per week) as the first step. I had my 1st PT appointment today, evaluation and exercise regimen to start. Next PT appt is Wednesday.

I appreciate the conservative and methodical approach my Dr has planned. 6 weeks of PT to evaluate how that helps (or not), next potential step is spinal steroid injections (temporary relief) and lastly surgery (laminectomy) as a last resort. Laminectomy has a lot of risk and a less than impressive success rate. I don’t trust a surgeon whose first choice is to cut when less invasive options need to be explored.

I hope you get relief and have success with your path to recovery. Good luck and post up on your journey.

 

Hey guys and Susan, regarding back pain, if it’s bad enough have your physician refer you to a pain specialist. Most people don’t really know much about these doctors. They have dozens and dozens of ways to treat all kinds of pain, especially back pain. They did wonders for my wife who isn’t pain free but much better than she was. Cortisone injections didn’t help her but they found something that did. I believe it was a nerve block injection but it’s been a couple years so I don’t remember specifically.
I have a friend who is a retired physician and he told me back surgery should be a last resort. He told me that often enough that not only does surgery not improve the pain but it sometimes makes it worse and after they do surgery there is no way to surgically undo it.
I have found that general pain seems to be a part of growing older. I keep finding new body parts that hurt. Growing old ain’t for wimps.

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!

I hope you find some relief for the back pain, Bill. Nothing worse than chronic pain.

I took SS from the day I retired - 65+ 3 months - instead of waiting to full funding. If I make it to 84, I'll have closed that $ gap at current funding. It just made sense to use that money up front in our retirement income and let our investments grow since they generally always grow faster than the cost of living increase that SS gives. Right now, with what the market is doing, I'm much happier taking SS than pulling out retirement investments. And, it's not just a matter of quantity of years you have, it's also a matter of quality. Even if I make it to 90, the odds are that I'll be much less able/inclined to travel or do the things I'm doing now at 67. Being members of the SKI Club - Spend (the) Kids Inheritance Club - is challenging and we are working hard at it.