Nervous Handling Money?

[Jacob Petersheim]

Do you get anxious when shuffling around large sums of money?

No specific amounts, "large" is different for all of us.


One thing about getting old and being retired is that there can be a maze of possibilities, tax obligations, penalties, market conditions, and imposed rules that require pulling out retirement money at certain stages. Not to mention the current general economic environment.

You can run into dire-sounding warnings that ask you to "sign off" on things. Some signoffs involve "I have read and understood 'Scary Form 666' and attest to that fact" and such.

Or the old "Should we just mail you this fat check, or do you want to set up direct deposit into your bank? Oh, allow 5 to 7 days though before you can use direct deposit to a 'new" bank account you haven't already set up with us!"

And of course the issues of taxes, withholding, or the need to actively file quarterly estimated tax payments.

And then more "Do you really want to do this? You could do X or Y instead you know, as we've told you 7 times already. Are you sure? Have you read Forms SPQR through LSMFT yet? Are you sure?"

Followed by another "Come on, go paperless! Oh, and do you want to get emails and texts about this transaction? You did say you wanted them, but are you sure?"

As if things aren't bad enough, you get constant elbow-jogging and needling.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Do you get anxious when shuffling around large sums of money?

What money? Me? I ain't got no money.

Actually, no. I've handled far more cash than I can get now.

One thing about getting old and being retired is that there can be a maze of possibilities, tax obligations, penalties, market conditions, and imposed rules that require pulling out retirement money at certain stages. Not to mention the current general economic environment.

Being on the low end of Social Security Retirement, I don't have to worry about most of that. But having to fork out so much to keep my car is getting to be a bit much. $325 this year for the registration. $50 for smog testing. $125 a month for insurance. $50 to $75 a month for gas. $300 for a new battery. $500 for two new tires. $525 for my car getting towed. $180 for have the computer checked for why the "check engine" idiot light was on, and it was because the Costco guy didn't put the gas cap on correctly. I chalk that one up to stupidity too, because a friend told me to check it, I did, but the light stayed on. I forgot I have a Dodge. Dodge computers seem to be slower than my first PC. It took four days for it to register that the error had been corrected. And the car needs an oil change...

You can run into dire-sounding warnings that ask you to "sign off" on things. Some signoffs involve "I have read and understood 'Scary Form 666' and attest to that fact" and such.

Or the old "Should we just mail you this fat check, or do you want to set up direct deposit into your bank? Oh, allow 5 to 7 days though before you can use direct deposit to a 'new" bank account you haven't already set up with us!"

I highly recommend you never touch those unless it was something you expected from your financial team. There are many scams based on that sort of thing. They want direct deposit of your money into their bank account...

And of course the issues of taxes, withholding, or the need to actively file quarterly estimated tax payments.

The reason my retirement is skinny as hell is, of course, my own fault for not incorporating the band long before I did. If I had done that, and paid my taxes accordingly for the final 13 years of my career (instead of like someone who always made minimum wage), I would have had a better retirement package. Then there's all the things my business savvy Grandmother taught me when I told her the band wasn't making as much as I had hoped. She got us on the right track in a year.

And then more "Do you really want to do this? You could do X or Y instead you know, as we've told you 7 times already. Are you sure? Have you read Forms SPQR through LSMFT yet? Are you sure?"

"Hell yes, I'm sure. Why do you think I clicked on ________?!"

Followed by another "Come on, go paperless! Oh, and do you want to get emails and texts about this transaction? You did say you wanted them, but are you sure?"

I hate all the paper. I've got tons of it. Bank statements that go back to 1998 when I moved to Flagstaff. Electricity bills, cable bills, etc., you name it. My Grandmother wanted me to put all that with my business records, but she passed away before I could send it all her. My Grandfather is a great guy. But he has even less business sense than I did. So it just piled up. Now I have boxes and boxes of it. I could paper the Garage, if I had one...

When anyone asks me to go paperless, I tell them I have already lost a lot of stuff due to computer failures. I know it isn't very green, but I want to keep my records. I found a place over in Bakersfield that will shred it all and recycle it for free. The problem is getting it there...

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

We have a lot of restrictions on what and how and when we can burn. For example, dead leaves: never. In a screened steel firepit we can still burn wood, but during times of poor air quality (damned Canadian wildfires!) this is restricted as well.

However... the firepit needs kindling. So I can get rid of a lot of old aged-out paperwork there for starting wood fires.

I get plenty of wood from deadfalls. Lots of tall trees here and after every big wind or storm I get everything from sticks to 4 inch "logs" to dispose of. This year I have so many I need to keep putting out bundles of 4 foot long under 2 inch stuff with the yard waste for pickup. I saw up the larger stuff and keep a lot of sticks in a barrel for Winter burning, but that barrel's about full already.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

After bouncing around in my youth (I've worked painting office buildings, light assembly in factories, chemistry lab tech, etc.) I settled into a job with an old-style pension and then stuck it out through decades of BS until 55. An early retirement incentive made it possible to bail out then after much calculation. I had banked leave time and such that I could "cash out" and then "buy" additional service credit from a couple of my earlier jobs as a student university part-time employee. So I did ok there and have been living on the pension with its health coverage for a long time.

I did stick some toward the end into a 401(k) plan, and employer-match helped that grow a little bit as well. So additional delayed gratification instead of having that additional cash pay.

With some scrimping (I keep cars a long time, never played the "trade up to bigger" housing game after my divorce, don't have boats and other toys) I've held off taking Social Security though when I turn 70 next year I'll have to start. At least waiting on that has gained me 8% each year on the payout.

So next year my income basically doubles. That makes the 401(k) and some Savings Bonds a problem. I need to draw those down some, but too much and I hit IRMAA thresholds which can radically increase the cost of Medicare. I can't let the 401(k) ride because before long RMDs start, and if those are too large I'm back in the IRMAA soup again anyway.

If I had known then what I know now... oh well.

I have nothing to complain about, but the juggling gets darned frustrating.

I have a charity in mind, but donating from a 401(k) isn't straightforward. You have to take a distribution as cash, pay tax on it, then donate the cash and claim a deduction. You can still end up paying a lot of tax, and the "income" can push you over IRMAA thresholds once again. Or there is another path involving a rollover to an IRA and waiting until at least age 70 1/2. It's all a snarled mess and you pretty much need to pay a tax accountant to go over everything. I don't want to face penalties from goofing up.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

This isn't even a lot of money as such things go. I'm not living in a McMansion or driving a fancy car. Grr!

 

[Axel Slingerland]

It's all a snarled mess and you pretty much need to pay a tax accountant to go over everything.

In that, and many other financial respects, I was lucky to have my Grandmother. When I was growing up, I thought she was a teacher. She was, but she was actually a Professor at Auburn University and was a CPA. She was licensed in Alabama and Georgia, and when she convinced me to change the way the band was run to be more than just a band, it was a for profit business. So I incorporated the band in Auburn, Alabama, since that's where she lived. She taught me about book keeping, contracts, how to write contract riders, she did our taxes, she kept all of our business records at a local records storage place in Auburn. She wore many hats, and did all sorts of things, all of which would have cost me a lot of money to pay someone else to do. This was stuff most bands that we played with could never afford, thus never had.

 

[Shortie]

I get nervous carrying any amount of money around with me nowadays. Ever since the pandemic, I have started carrying less and less cash around with me and now only carry my cards or just my phone to use for payments.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

I get nervous carrying any amount of money around with me nowadays. Ever since the pandemic, I have started carrying less and less cash around with me and now only carry my cards or just my phone to use for payments.

I guess I was more worried about the paperwork gymnastics, tax liabilities taking distributions from deferred savings, nd the panoply of government tax and Medicare landmines, not to mention penalties from small mistakes.

But I was never one to carry large sums of cash. A $100 bill in my wallet was a real rarity over my lifetime. The most I carry now might be 10 or so $20 bills, and then just long enough to get them home. Normally I might have $50 or $60 on me, tops.