Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evolving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Rules For the rest of the Site also accessible on the sidebar.
Election Countdown special! High quality wallpaper for your enjoyment.
Today's wallpaper is Superhero Trump
Todays bonus wallpaper Alternate version
Update on my SS check situation. I will receive a 2% Increase in my Social Security as of mid-2025 for my earnings in 2023 bumping off a low earnings year. Thats great! However...
In 2022 I exceeded the early retirement salary cap by 8,000 so I owed them 4000 in overpayment. In Sept. of 2023 they deducted all of my check until they had their 4,000 back. I received a 1% Increase in Dec of 2023 for bumping off a low year.
In 2023 I exceeded the cap by 23,800 so owed them 11, 800 back. The rules were changed and they suspended my SS In July of 2024 AND sent me a bill for the 11,800 with a due date of Oct.3rd. You can dispute the overpayment, plead that you can't pay, or work out a payment plan as low as 10% a year, and you can just pay in full. I paid in full and my payment cleared Aug 3oth. THEY still do not show credit for the payment. In fact they keep changing the amount they show as overpayment due up and down like a yoyo. As high as 11,800 and as low as 5600, currently showing 9,800.
For this year 2024, they assume you will earn the same as last year unless you notify them. I quit working in Mid-August and am at about 5000 over the cap. So I will owe them around 2,500, BUT they suspended my SS for July, Aug, Sept, and Oct. so far, I don't know when they will resume payment.
So I have been calling them and this last time the agent told me he could see where I remitted the payment, but they had not credited me for that yet for some reason. I explained how I'd quit my job to avoid the large overpayment payback and gave him my earnings from my HR dept. He told me on the phone he would send my situation with no income to try and get them to process my overpayment payback faster. What the heck! They got the money. 30th, it's now mid-Oct..
Its up in the air will they pay me back the payments they owe me? Will they just boost my check for the suspended months AND the money I have paid back?
You can voluntarily suspend your SS and will then receive an increase of .5% per month after reinstatement (Or it may be the 8% per year you get for waiting to claim)
The cap at full retirement year prorated for the actual month will be about 5000 a month (60000 yearly) I am in no danger of hitting either the 5k a month or the 60k per year. My FRA is in May
Since I quit work in Aug. and no SS since June. I have had to liquidate some of my non-fiat holdings, as I did to pay the 11,800.
I was expecting them to just take my check until they got the 11,800 back I was good with that.
Do not go over the cap the rules have been changed...
There is a retired SS branch Director on YouTube who will do a consult, I'm going to do it, its around 100 bucks. Maybe he will be able to tell me exactly how it will pan out, and possibly call someone he knows.
I will return to work next year, and my ultimate plan is to work about 6 months working lots of OT then enjoy off 6 months and the extra money.