I am revisiting RPM, focused for the moment on getting my Social Security entered correctly, specifically my current widow's survivor benefits. I thought I had done it correctly, but just now have noticed that I don't see that income on either the Results or Details pages under Social Security income. The absolute dollars don't matter a great deal, but modelling it for Roth conversions from now (age 66) to age 70 does.Yes, this is definitely the fix. Seems so logical once you wrote it, but I didn't figure it out properly for myself. May I suggest that you add a mention of "widow(er) survivor benefits" in the comment box attached to Additional Benefits? That would likely help others to notice this differently. Thank you again for your help, and for this great tool.I'm back with access to RPM. To enter your current SS spousal benefit use the Social Security Benefits "Addition Benefits: You" section, with the appropriate starting and ending ages, e.g. 63 and 69. Then enter your age 70 benefit amount in the "You" line. "Benefits have started" should be "n". Your tax filing status should be "s". These settings should result in a single IRMAA surcharge.BigFoot48, I finally had time to sit down this morning and test this out. I entered a spouse receiving what I now receive in SS survivors benefits from now until 70, and then started my own full benefit (as "you" naturally ) at age 71. I checked the IRMAA result with no Roth conversions, so very high RMD. Then, to test, I removed the spouse and removed that benefit, and the IRMAA remained the same. So I think it is accurate when IRMAA begins after the spouse "dies".
Then ran it with a very large Roth conversion, starting now age 63, at about $180K MAGI. 2 years from now, with the spouse still "alive", my IRMAA is $10K. My figures from the Medicare page show an IRMAA cost of 475-148.50=$327 / month, therefore $3924 annual per person. So I think the pseudo spouse is affecting IRMAA while still "alive"
My situation is likely not common: collecting survivor benefits, early retirement, collecting my own much higher benefit at age 70. For now, I will just make a note of the anomaly. It isn't the biggest factor by far in planning, since taxes etc swing much more. The key was changing the inputs to have my full survivor benefit listed as being the spouse's benefit, and having it and the spouse end when my benefit begins. That has minimized the error as much as I can see possible.
Thank you again for all your input, and please don't deal with this while you are travelling .
Let me know if that works.
I've entered it as my current FRA benefit, FRA age 67, start age 70. Then going down the column, I have Spouse 0, COLA 2.6%, Y benefits have started, N for automatic spousal benefits, and then my current survivor benefit annual amount. Can't figure out why I don't see it show up.
By the way, please ignore the IRMAA question at the beginning of the post. That got resolved. Thanks so much.
Statistics: Posted by DebiT — Mon Feb 26, 2024 4:23 pm — Replies 1761 — Views 528366