The US tax code includes an Estate Tax for inherited wealth. Oligarchs and other opponents of such a tax like to refer to it by a more ominous title, The Death Tax. Ooh, scary.
After the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, this tax applies only to households with more than ~$11 million per adult (~$22 million per couple.) Fewer than 0.2% of US households qualify. (*)
I’m personally more concerned with the tax that will apply to the other 99.8% of us. The real death tax.
Over the course of the years, I’ve shared how we’ve been increasing our spending with portfolio growth. Not unsurprisingly, this has garnered some criticism.
Statistically speaking, the 4% rule is flawed and is designed to fail! Scary!
This is a terrible idea! You are going to be begging for spare change when you are 80!
Increasing spending with growth is misguided and sharing this with GCC readers is irresponsible!
It seems that people interested in early retirement are a naturally conservative bunch.
My perspective, which I will irresponsibly share once again:
When we officially stopped working for a regular paycheck, it would still be 30 years before I could start to collect full Social Security benefits at Age 67, and 35 years before Winnie could receive the spousal benefit.
With Social Security so far in the future, many early retirees don’t even consider SS as a factor. Who knows, maybe the program won’t even be in place in 30 years. Best case it might be an insurance policy, a final layer of protection for worst-case outcomes.
But time marches on. It is now only 18 years before I am eligible for reduced early benefits at Age 62.
Which got me thinking… should I start to include Social Security in our overall portfolio value? And if so, can we spend that future Social Security income now?
