Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

check under the mattress and in the coffee can buried in the back yard

Some of that went to the Race Track,some to the bookies.And the rest Wall Street and Washington pinched, the Horror

I started taking SS at 66, the first full year in my age group.  It's a tidy sum, and I don't expect it when it shows up.  I also had deductions for Medicare from checking before that for a year, now it comes out of SS.  It can be confusing.  But I like it.

I would be OK with some kind of need based system.

My "investment strategy" is to have five years of monies in liquid accounts, laddered CDs, a short term money market account SWVXX that pays a decent rate (5.16% at the moment), then have about five more years in pretty stable stocks and ETFs, I have had good success with SCHD, the Schwab dividend fund.  I don't seek high dividends, but I like companies with a good record of incresing their dividend.  The next five years is more risky stuff, but still not crazy.  And then I get a bit crazy.  The crazy part has of course had the best returns of late, so I think about rebalancing when it gets over board.

I wrote some covered calls in Apple and Costco a bit back, the Costco actually jumped and I thought I'd lose the stock and then it dropped back, and now it's back up but the calls expired.  This is a decent way of getting some extra return if you don't mind losing a stock potentially or have too much of it.