I had read something recently that one of the part of the CARES Act passed, because of the Corona Virus, is that retirees are not required to take their RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) this year. Not having to take this distribution would lower my mom's tax liability for 2020, as she would be reporting less income. My understanding of how her retirement RMD was set up is that she has half distributed in March and half in September. Unfortunately I didn't know about this suspension of the RMD until a few days ago. If I had known, within 60 days of her first distribution this year, I could have had it "returned" to her investment account, but that one is too late now.
But, I was able to contact her broker and have her suspend the distribution for September. My mom has plenty in her savings account (from her house sale) so that she doesn't need to live off her distributions, for at least this year. Her 2nd half distribution would have been a little over $17,000, so I'm estimating that not having to report that as income will save her approximately $2000 for 2020 federal and state taxes. And allows her money to stay in her investment portfolio and still be part of her principal balance to grow. Less income will also have an effect on her Social Security and could help reduce her cost for Medicare Part B, thereby increasing her monthly payment just a bit, once that is taken into account.
In other news with my mom. She obviously isn't remembering the name of her old retirement living place or the name of her new place. The names aren't even similar in any way. I was checking her emails to delete any spam and checked her sent emails. She had received an email asking her to do a brief "exit survey" of why she left her old place. She emailed back with this reply:
At this time I have no reason to move out of R*****!! So
far I am very happy here!!! I'm sure I will even like it more when we
can get out of our rooms & meet everyone and get involved!
Oh goodness! Luckily it was a "no reply" type of email address she replied back to, as she was supposed to click on the link to do the survey. I went ahead and did the survey, so they don't email her again to try to get her to do the survey. (not that she probably would have even remembered the email or her reply anyway........). BUT, on a good note - I guess she likes it at her new place :)
Gosh tax issues are so complicated aren't they. I'm so glad you're on top of it all for her!
ReplyDeleteI wish I would have paid better attention to the tax changes a couple months ago and I could have had her first distribution this year suspended, but just too much going on with everything and the move.
DeletePerhaps the new doctor you see with your Mom can do the long form memory evaluation or arrange for some type of thorough evaluation. It really helped me to understand clearly what my Mom could and couldn't remember, process, learn, etc. For example - I would help her with paying bills when I visited and for each check she asked me what the date was. One right after the other. No short term memory for new info. That meant she couldn't learn to operate new appliances with different sequences than her old one, etc. Arithmetic - no problem. Summarizing the plot and characters of a book she had just read - no problem. Hers was vascular dementia and each type of memory loss has different challenges.
ReplyDeleteI believe she had that done in the past year and a half or so. Her dr. did an MRI to see if it showed anything that could be causing it. And then last summer when she saw him, he diagnosed her with severe short term memory loss. But it will be good to hear what another dr. says and to also get all the info directly myself. (though I do have all her previous chart notes). Mom can do math fine, like you said. Does her crossword puzzles still, but like you said - can ask me the same question 5 times in 15 minutes. I'm not so sure she is reading much anymore. I think by the time she picks it back up she has forgotten what she previously read.
DeleteThat would be sad not to remember what you had read. But, I suppose she does not remember that she does not remember. I still think it is the stomach med causing her short term memory loss! But, what do I know???Thankfully, she has you.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to ask the dr about it, though some articles I read say they may and some articles say not. I also just read an article that says OTC drugs like Tylenol "PM" can cause reduced brain function, and apparently she takes that quite often to help her sleep, so I'm definitely going to mention that to the dr.
DeleteThe younger generation blames the baby boomers for destroying the economy, for supporting the racist police state which murders black people, and for pretty much destroying America. The level of hatred that the youth feels towards boomers is undescribable. My question is, do you boomers think you're going to have a peaceful retirement? How do you think the younger generation will treat you? Already we see it happening, a couple weeks ago there was that video of a black guy punching a 75 year old white baby boomer man in the face in a retirement home. This is what happens when you live a greedy selfish life without thinking of the future. One day, the CONSEQUENCES of your actions come back to hit you a 100 fold. You boomers destroyed America and the youth is angry enough to riot and burn down the cities. The GREED of the baby boomers caused this. Anyway good luck, you baby boomers are gonna need it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a mean comment and why do you have to be Anonymous? I have been reading this blog for several years now. The younger generation is rather lazy and they like to blame everybody else for their own stupidity. Regardless of color, someone punching an old person is not sane.
DeleteHi T'Pol, from what I read on other's blogs these repeated comments about "boomers must die" are some kind of automated posting all over. I just delete. I just laugh and figure eventually whoever is behind this will someday soon be our age and then it's their turn to die, LOL
Delete