My Last Purchase?

[Formerly YB-2]

My vote would be for speakers. Computer modeling has reduced the distortion in modern speakers 10x from pre-2000 speakers. Am always amazed at the clarity (whether or not you like the SQ of a particular speaker) of new versus old speakers.

[prepress]

Things have gotten interesting. I applied for Social Security earlier this month, and after a bit of phone tag, got to speak to the person SSA advised me to speak with. I had put in for benefits to start in June (not sure why I did that), but the agent informed me that they were going to retro my benefits back to October. I am looking at a first check of over $ 23K; I don't know if that's with or without taxes.

This opens up some possibilities. It would be foolish to spend it all of course, or even most of it; I'll take my "if I had $1M" approach and set a portion aside for my church, then most of it will go into beefing up my emergency fund, and I'll be increasing my 401K contributions as a result of the extra money. But I'll be setting aside some of it to spend. All of a sudden audio came to mind. I thought about those Martin-Logan Motion XT-F200s I was looking at a while ago. My fantasy speaker has always been the Legacy Focus SE, but that's too big a chunk of money to give up, plus I don't see them as a practical fit for my current space. Tekton speakers are out there too. This is not to say I don't like my Mirages, but I wonder if bipolar speakers are the best for the space I have. There's also the more modest idea of upgrading my speaker cables from Transparent Plus to Super, plus the Salamander Synergy racks I was planning to get anyway, then calling it a day.

I should wait to see how big the check really is then consider reasonable options. Besides, there may be other, more important things to do with the spending portion of this money by then.

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by prepress

Things have gotten interesting. I applied for Social Security earlier this month, and after a bit of phone tag, got to speak to the person SSA advised me to speak with. I had put in for benefits to start in June (not sure why I did that), but the agent informed me that they were going to retro my benefits back to October. I am looking at a first check of over $ 23K; I don't know if that's with or without taxes.

This opens up some possibilities. It would be foolish to spend it all of course, or even most of it; I'll take my "if I had $1M" approach and set a portion aside for my church, then most of it will go into beefing up my emergency fund, and I'll be increasing my 401K contributions as a result of the extra money. But I'll be setting aside some of it to spend. All of a sudden audio came to mind. I thought about those Martin-Logan Motion XT-F200s I was looking at a while ago. My fantasy speaker has always been the Legacy Focus SE, but that's too big a chunk of money to give up, plus I don't see them as a practical fit for my current space. Tekton speakers are out there too. This is not to say I don't like my Mirages, but I wonder if bipolar speakers are the best for the space I have. There's also the more modest idea of upgrading my speaker cables from Transparent Plus to Super, plus the Salamander Synergy racks I was planning to get anyway, then calling it a day.

I should wait to see how big the check really is then consider reasonable options. Besides, there may be other, more important things to do with the spending portion of this money by then.

Welcome to the SS Club!

You most probably won’t have taxes withheld.

PS: do what I do, spend some; make sure it still works.

[prepress]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Welcome to the SS Club!

You most probably won’t have taxes withheld.

PS: do what I do, spend some; make sure it still works.

Yes, taxes are not withheld. Going forward, I can arrange that but I have to fill out a separate form. I'll plan on doing that when the regular payments start next month. Meantime this first lump payment could be in my account as early as the end of the week/early next, I was told.

What began as a consideration of separate phono stages has morphed into a consideration of speakers. Before I do anything on either front, I must straighten up my space, which is a disaster. Sometimes to motivate such actions I'd invite someone over, which would force the issue. Not doing that this time; I want to get the place together first, and that won't be a quick process. Besides, the usual suspects for such an invitation are not readily available these days (relocations, work schedule changes, unresponsiveness, even 2 deaths).

[miner]

Congrats on your windfall that you have earned. Spend wisely because we all know there is no such final purchase in the audio world.

[Antonmb]

And remember, even if taxes aren't withheld, the tax man cometh eventually.

[Formerly YB-2]

Many, if not most, states do not tax SS income.

[Antonmb]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

Many, if no most, states do not tax SS income.

But the federal government does. Some or all of your social security benefits are taxable by the IRS if your income is more than $25,000 for an individual or $32,000 for married filing joint.