[el ess A]

Be prepared for "sticker shock". I retired this past April in my mid-50s and I've found out that I still have a propensity to think I'm still making bucks I used to.

We've invested wisely over the years so our retirement income at the moment is almost the same take home pay as before, but I need to wait on taking IRA dividends until 59 1/2 because I don't want to pay that 10% penalty for no good reason. Plus, we are pushing out taking social security for a few years past 62 because we can. It's about an 8% "raise" every year past 62 if you can wait it out.

This "Social Security supplement" - sounds like "income leveling" where they pay you almost the equivalent of your expected SSA income at 62 now until you reach 62, then pull that back when your SSA check comes in, thus "leveling" your income. If you live a good long time past that, you might lose out. Is that it? My wife and I both had that offered to us at retirement (different employers) and we both turned it down. If SSA gets cut in the future, we don't want our company retirement checks to get tagged. Plus that's just a big gap from 62 to whenever we decide we want to retire.

That's all drivel though. Prepare quickly though. These couple months will ZIP by quickly. I'm just now starting to forget what day of the week it is. Retirement is great if you're prepared for it.