Learning From Other People

At the start of each fire training I provide a little briefing and then say something related to diet and exercise. In the diet and exercise part of the briefing today I relayed an anecdote about a recent medical call that maybe half the training attendees participated. The patient and spouse are unfortunately extreme examples of the type of bad outcome I am constantly prattling on about here and in fire training. 

Both spouses have pretty much the same set of health issues and they are bad. I then pointed around the room at firefighters where I knew it to be the case that they and their spouses were aging in a similar fashion. These are firefighters so relative to people in their 50's and 60's they are aging very well as are their spouses. My wife and I are aging in the same manner. No false modesty so you can think I am a jerk but we are both lean from not eating a ton of sugar and have good body composition from lifting weights (we lift together at the firehouse).

The reason to mention this and what I think is encouraging is that genetics play less of a role in determining physical/aging outcomes than previously thought. @mangan150 on Twitter has posted about this frequently and you can get more from him. There are of course no absolutes but within the group of firefighters that came to today's training, five of them and their spouses in their 50's and 60's are aging in a very similar fashion and one couple is not. 

Obviously no matter what you do, something bad can happen at anytime. Being able-bodied to end, regardless of whether the end comes kind of earlier than you'd like or at 105, beats using a walker for ten years and taking 12 pills everyday. 

After training, I had a very long conversation with a firefighter who's ten years older than me. We had some department stuff to work through and then we sort of pivoted to financial planning. A few weeks ago I mentioned one firefighter who is my age and retired, he has gone out on our engine a couple of times for out of area assignments. He wants the income so he can contribute to a Roth IRA. 

The firefighter today goes out as a medical unit leader (part of the incident management team) and he said beyond it being fun, he does it to earn enough to pay the taxes on Roth conversions. He's trying to convert what he can before starting RMDs in three and half years. 

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the idea of using inherited IRA distributions to cover the tax owed on conversions. Obviously that assumes a certain financial comfort but inherited IRAs now have to be emptied in ten years and taking it all out at once probably is not optimal from a tax standpoint. If I haven't mentioned that before, I'm doing so now. Spreading inherited IRA distributions over a period of years can be an effective way to pay for Roth conversions.

The older firefighter said something interesting too that I've never heard anyone say. At 69, he regrets starting Social Security at 67. It's made the Roth conversion strategy more difficult, nudging him up into some higher bracket (I don't know those specifics) and he's doing a lot of gymnastics (my word) to avoid IRMAA which is a Medicare thing to learn about if you don't already know. 

It's interesting to hear or otherwise observe how other people process these types of decisions. There is also an element of learning from other people's mistakes. In the past, I've shared the extent to which I learned from my parents' financial mistakes, they were bad about spending. I think we can learn from others' successes and their mistakes. I am not quick to disregard mistakes I see because figuring out what not to do has value. 

The information, analysis and opinions expressed herein reflect our judgment and opinions as of the date of writing and are subject to change at any time without notice. They are not intended to constitute legal, tax, securities or investment advice or a recommended course of action in any given situation.