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bajaguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9247
Registered: 9-16-2003
Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
Member Is Offline
Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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| Quote: | Originally posted by udowinkler
Oldjack!
.............
If you wish to talk to several people in person, stop by Baja Country Club at the south end of Ensenada and start with Ken at #337. Bajaguy will fill
you with stories and get you drunk on the best margaritas! |
.......................
I don't know who Ken is, or why he is at my house, but I'll be glad to talk to you..............
Terry......(bajaguy)
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LOSARIPES
Nomad
Posts: 283
Registered: 8-14-2008
Member Is Offline
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Q: I understand one can start receiving S$ benefits at 62, but if you wait till 65 you get more. What about 63?, 64? is it prorated?
Aripes
God bless America
and Baja tambien
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Hook
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9010
Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
Member Is Offline
Mood: Inquisitive
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Yes, I believe it's pro-rated, but you should go to the SS website. Pretty informative, including a means of predicting your income at each age of
retirement. It helps to have your statement that SS mails to you in front of you.
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3401
Registered: 3-24-2007
Location: The Valley of the Moon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Peacefull
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I have been reading this thread with interest as I recently retired on social security and a small pension from Disney Entertainment Productions ....
The total is around $1200- per month.
Those who seem to be succesful have their house paid for. I am a renter and it is not working out.
The cost of food is higher than in the US , where you can shop with double coupon days , etc.
And there are things I really miss, such as the theatre, symphony, and the great infrastructure such as roads that do not beat your car to death,
and sidewalks that are not a threat to your well being.
In about eighteen months I will be starting on Medicare and I would like to take advantage of it. As a side note , my pityful spanish does not allow
for a technical discussion with the doctors (I want to continue to be a part of my healing process, and that requires a dialogue with my healing
partners)
And the number one reason is the weather .... this last summer literally made me sick with the humidity and I decided I will never spend another
summer here again.
As the cost of moveing back and forth each year are probably beyone my financial abilities I will probably not return.
So, I am going to spend this beautiful winter here and have given notice to vacate on April 30.
And there is also a very dark side to this land which seems to be based on corruption and possible danger to Americans.
The number one reason , besides the summer weather, are the work restrictions placed by Immigration. I need to be able to suppliment income by an
occasional small project, not enough to justify the BS required to have a business here. The labor laws here seem to be based on protecting the
sub-standard and dangerious practices of the workers.
You don't appreciate what a great country the USA is until you leave it. And at this time it is not cheaper to live in mexico when you consider the
resources available to seniors in the US.
So, I am getting out while the getting is still an option for me.
CaboRon 
[Edited on 11-11-2008 by CaboRon]
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
Member Is Offline
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Ron, the shame of it all is that you had, very close at hand, before you moved down here all the information that now is chasing you from the place.
I'm able to communicate fully with professional medical people here because they strain mightily to make themselves clear, given we are not fluent and
because I listen, I take advantage of language resources like dictionaries and Mexican friends who are bi-lingual. It's a rough place. Just for you,
here I reprise a little piece I wrote about that.
Warning Label
When I saw it, when I realized what had got me, what was causing me such incredible pain, I could not believe my eyes. The plant, called mala mujer,
Bad Woman, luxuriant, lovely looking thing, would look at home in the garden or on the patio. My calf barely brushed it as I walked through the desert
near my home. Mala mujer. Perhaps this whole place should carry such a warning label and a new name to match. Maybe this part of Mexico could be
called mujer mysteriosa, Mysterious Woman; a thing that has indescribable beauty while sometimes meting out profound pain and heartbreak.
I have a sense of the place that embraces not just the spiky land but both seas, the sky above, the immeasurable history. A cruel place indeed for
early travelers – their boats dashed and ruined on the rocky shoals, their feet cut and bleeding from the crippling scrapes and gouges of dagger
plants and nettles. No Cibola here – they would gladly have settled for a wet tinaja, a tiny waterhole.
The early ones might have seen her as a woman. Her moods, her give and take, are not subtle. Modern day visitors need time to learn her moods.
They are lulled into false security, feel less threatened than the adventurers, the settlers and explorers. Yesterday a rogue wave snatched a family
of these new tenderfoots from the beach, a few yards from the sybarite’s pleasure palace on the shore at land’s end. Killed them all.
She is often rough and dismissive with fawning, moonstruck pilgrims – they run north before the chafing winds of misadventure with empty purses and
infected bowels. Many suitors will not be put off. Broken axles and bleeding hearts lie in the dust as testimony to their unrequited fidelity. She
killed all the Indians, the ones with the darkest skin. They found the place full of food they could not gather. Once they were isolated the end
came quickly for these early tourists.
La Mujer still holds the power to embrace, to heal. She mellows with age. Now she lets the dark skinned ones live but she makes them work like
dogs. She allows me some latitude; I know many of her secrets and I can avoid her nags and nettles because I am no longer fooled by her deceptive
hues and shapes and textures. I just have to remind myself that in Baja California nothing is what it appears to be.
When they talk about my end, how she took me down, I hope they’ll say, by whatever name they may give her, that she let me go quietly into the night;
full of her beauty and passion, sated, at peace, knowing I had wooed her, held her if only for a very short while. They may say of me that my fate
was sealed when she let me feel that irresistible sweet spot between serenity and danger.
[Edited on 11-11-2008 by Osprey]
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by LOSARIPES
Q: I understand one can start receiving S$ benefits at 62, but if you wait till 65 you get more. What about 63?, 64? is it prorated?
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If you retire early, before 66 for most of us. your SS is reduced by approx .5% per month. For example if full retirement is 66 and you retire at 64
and 6 months thats 18 months early and your SS will be reduced by 9% from what it would be at 66.
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bajalou
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4459
Registered: 3-11-2004
Location: South of the broder
Member Is Offline
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It was said several years ago when full retirement benefits were available at 65, that if you took reduced pension at 62, you would be ahead for 14
years, and from then on behind (in total monies received).
No Bad Days
\"Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference\"
\"The trouble with doing nothing is - how do I know when I\'m done?\"
Nomad Baja Interactive map
And in the San Felipe area - check out Valle Chico area |
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Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3747
Registered: 10-17-2006
Member Is Offline
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CaboRon and Osprey,
I have not read such tender dialogue in many years. I appreciate you amigos; both. We are enriched by your candor and eloquence.
There is a reason that so many hazard death to come to the Cold Country though She too can be a siren to her émigrés and some of the same fate await
those who venture to her beckoning arms.
Having just lost a small fortune myself, at least fortune to me, son of a dry land farmer, I wished that I had listened better to those skinny old
gray beards who talked to me of the Great Depression. I wish we all had remembered our history lessons and the stories of the Robber Barons, Gould,
Fiske and the consequences of free boot Capitalism. Caveat Emptor is the law in the North and the South.
Iflyfish
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6346
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
Member Is Offline
Mood: TEQUILA!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajaguy
| Quote: | Originally posted by udowinkler
Oldjack!
.............
If you wish to talk to several people in person, stop by Baja Country Club at the south end of Ensenada and start with Ken at #337. Bajaguy will fill
you with stories and get you drunk on the best margaritas! |
.......................
I don't know who Ken is, or why he is at my house, but I'll be glad to talk to you..............
Terry......(bajaguy) |
My apologies, Terry! I had been communicating with so many Nomads that I got my names mixed up! I guarantee it won't happen again...
Udo
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6346
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
Member Is Offline
Mood: TEQUILA!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Ron, the shame of it all is that you had, very close at hand, before you moved down here all the information that now is chasing you from the place.
I'm able to communicate fully with professional medical people here because they strain mightily to make themselves clear, given we are not fluent and
because I listen, I take advantage of language resources like dictionaries and Mexican friends who are bi-lingual. It's a rough place. Just for you,
here I reprise a little piece I wrote about that.
Warning Label
When I saw it, when I realized what had got me, what was causing me such incredible pain, I could not believe my eyes. The plant, called mala mujer,
Bad Woman, luxuriant, lovely looking thing, would look at home in the garden or on the patio. My calf barely brushed it as I walked through the desert
near my home. Mala mujer. Perhaps this whole place should carry such a warning label and a new name to match. Maybe this part of Mexico could be
called mujer mysteriosa, Mysterious Woman; a thing that has indescribable beauty while sometimes meting out profound pain and heartbreak.
I have a sense of the place that embraces not just the spiky land but both seas, the sky above, the immeasurable history. A cruel place indeed for
early travelers – their boats dashed and ruined on the rocky shoals, their feet cut and bleeding from the crippling scrapes and gouges of dagger
plants and nettles. No Cibola here – they would gladly have settled for a wet tinaja, a tiny waterhole.
The early ones might have seen her as a woman. Her moods, her give and take, are not subtle. Modern day visitors need time to learn her moods.
They are lulled into false security, feel less threatened than the adventurers, the settlers and explorers. Yesterday a rogue wave snatched a family
of these new tenderfoots from the beach, a few yards from the sybarite’s pleasure palace on the shore at land’s end. Killed them all.
She is often rough and dismissive with fawning, moonstruck pilgrims – they run north before the chafing winds of misadventure with empty purses and
infected bowels. Many suitors will not be put off. Broken axles and bleeding hearts lie in the dust as testimony to their unrequited fidelity. She
killed all the Indians, the ones with the darkest skin. They found the place full of food they could not gather. Once they were isolated the end
came quickly for these early tourists.
La Mujer still holds the power to embrace, to heal. She mellows with age. Now she lets the dark skinned ones live but she makes them work like
dogs. She allows me some latitude; I know many of her secrets and I can avoid her nags and nettles because I am no longer fooled by her deceptive
hues and shapes and textures. I just have to remind myself that in Baja California nothing is what it appears to be.
When they talk about my end, how she took me down, I hope they’ll say, by whatever name they may give her, that she let me go quietly into the night;
full of her beauty and passion, sated, at peace, knowing I had wooed her, held her if only for a very short while. They may say of me that my fate
was sealed when she let me feel that irresistible sweet spot between serenity and danger.
[Edited on 11-11-2008 by Osprey] |
Only Osprey could write the above poetic nuance to living in Baja. He flows with optimism and he write with the feeling of a mom with a
newborn baby. I am so proud to call you my friend
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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bajaguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9247
Registered: 9-16-2003
Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
Member Is Offline
Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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My apologies, Terry! I had been communicating with so many Nomads that I got my names mixed up! I guarantee it won't happen again...
Udo..........................................
Too many of those margaritas!!!!!!!!
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
Registered: 6-21-2005
Location: Nopolo
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
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| Quote: |
Having just lost a small fortune myself, at least fortune to me, son of a dry land farmer, I wished that I had listened better to those skinny old
gray beards who talked to me of the Great Depression. I wish we all had remembered our history lessons and the stories of the Robber Barons, Gould,
Fiske and the consequences of free boot Capitalism.
Iflyfish |
Listen to Barry.
It's all on paper and if you just hang on it will all correct itself in due time.
However,the question is, will you live that long.
All
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3401
Registered: 3-24-2007
Location: The Valley of the Moon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Peacefull
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajalou
It was said several years ago when full retirement benefits were available at 65, that if you took reduced pension at 62, you would be ahead for 14
years, and from then on behind (in total monies received). |
This is true .... only I calculated it as 18 years to the catch up point .... use it while you can.
CaboRon
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6346
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
Member Is Offline
Mood: TEQUILA!
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I have to add another footnote to oldjack:
My research has shown that the break-even point is 74 as to collecting your SSI at 62, or wait until you are 66. And in my case, doing the math,
assuming I live to be 80, the difference in money is almost $2,000.00 US, and in my wife's case it is less that $1,800.00. Not a big amount of money,
HUH?
Also, one can collect at 62, and continue working, and if one works untill one is 66, the higher payment will then apply. The full text is readable at
the SSI.gov website. You need to read it because part of your income is applied to your SSI contributions, even though collecting. Plus there are
other minor ramifications.
The main key of living in Baja, or Mexico for that matter, is to come down with no baggage of bills, RV payments, or major medical problems. If one
shops wisely for housing, a rent of less than $400.00 per month is possible, and living in an RV is less than that unless one choses to rent at a
well-appointed RV park.
Hope this helps!
[Edited on 11-11-2008 by udowinkler]
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
Registered: 6-21-2005
Location: Nopolo
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
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UDO,
Correct, it's 12 years. If you start collecting at 62 it takes till you're 74 before reaching the "even" point. From thereon you're getting behind.
Would be neat to know when you're going to cash in, instead of having to rely on statistics.
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oldjack
Nomad
Posts: 350
Registered: 1-26-2006
Location: Los Barriles
Member Is Offline
Mood: retired
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I probably made a bad choice in "overduing" my palapa... my leased lot is only 60x60 and I have just about covered every sq. ft with something... have
32' trailer on one side and had a bedroom, bath, storage room built on the opposite side then and outside kitchen and bar on one end... I should have
planned on having a garden to raise some food... I don't like to eat fish every day but I can walk 200 yds to the beach to fish and do that every
day... I chose Los Barriles because it was only an hour from the airport at SJD and I could go back and forth on a monthly basis while still
working... I would have been better served having a small house on a lot that could give me the chance to grow food.. I am 63 now and don't draw SS
because of the offset I wouldn't get any of the benefit... I WAS trying to save up some extra cash to put away to augment SS... but the real estate
market had other plans for me... I live well while working as a realtor(own brokerage) and own a Mortgage Brokerage business... but being
self-employed that income stops when I leave... I may end up selling my Los Barriles spot and try to find something up in BCN to cut down on travel
expenses or maybe just bite the bullet and go to the mainland.. I haven't found anybody in LB that has retired on SS... but would like to talk to
them... medical cost could ruin any chance for a quiet retirement but I cannot dwell on that or I would never make a decision... I am thinking the
seasonal job up North coupled with a few good months in Baja might be the compromise..
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6346
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
Member Is Offline
Mood: TEQUILA!
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I'll bet this is going to be a very long thread, just like the one on one of the Yahoo groups...it went on for three weeks.
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6346
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
Member Is Offline
Mood: TEQUILA!
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Oldjack:
You could sell your place in Los Barriles for whatever the market will bear. There are some nice expat communities in Ensenada, Punta Banda and San
felipe, if you wish to stay closer to the border. Look at the Punta Banda newsletter, I don't remember the name. and Baja Country Club is a secure and
cute community just south of Ensenada.
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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Hook
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9010
Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
Member Is Offline
Mood: Inquisitive
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| Quote: | Originally posted by soulpatch
Another interesting twist to SS is that since I have a defined benefit plan and all the quarters I worked were, according to the SSA too long ago,
that they will not allow me to apply them to my SS retirement. Teach me to count on something I worked for being there when I retire.
Guatemala anyone? |
What constituted "too long ago" in your case, according to SSI?
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3401
Registered: 3-24-2007
Location: The Valley of the Moon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Peacefull
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| Quote: | Originally posted by soulpatch
About 25 years. I had been getting correspondence from them for years that stated since I do have a defined benefit retirement that my SS would be
diminished but never before had they stated that there was a time limit for me to access it.
Weak. |
Sounds strange to me ... I have two different difined benefit plans, one from Disney Entertainment which I started collecting at age 61 and another
from San Francisco Opera Company which will kick in at age 65 .... and neither of them has affected my Social Security in any way....
Are you sure you wern't working for the state or national gov't in some way ... I do know that those plans do knock you out of certain SS benefits:
because those employers do not contribute to SS, only to their own pension plans.
CaboRon
[Edited on 11-11-2008 by CaboRon]
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