I retired three years ago and I have work dreams almost every night. You can checkout but you can never leave. 
Congratulations!
@teelabrown : I’ve offered some thoughts above. But now that the deed is done I have one more:
Congratulations!!!11!!111!!!11!
Big change but I bet you’re going to love it. Keep us posted on your adaptation to the life of leisure.
How soon does the higher premium go away? I was taking shorthand notes during my call with the insurance broker, and I’m having trouble reading them. I think I wrote “one year”, but I’m not sure.
The surcharge — if any — is calculated annually based on your income two years ago (so the 2023 surcharge is based on 2021 income) and takes effect in January. More information than you probably care to know here.
I was hit with a surcharge the year after I retired because back SSA benefits (I didn’t retire till I was over 70) and an accrued vacation payout put me over the limit. I filed an appeal because the increase was due to retirement and got the surcharge removed.
I’m pretty sure mine went away after 1 year. The year before I retired I made a lot, the year I retired I only worked until June and so was under the limit.
I’m taking the plunge soon, and this thread has been very helpful emotionally. Thanks!
It was mentioned briefly earlier in the thread, but if you missed it the early retirement boards are a great place to also ask questions and get reassurance if you need it.
I’m on hold with Social Security right now, trying to ensure that our applications for Medicare Part B were indeed received and are processing. Online advice says you can check this through your My SSA.gov site or your My Medicare.gov site - nope. Nothing appears on either site. We faxed them in on May 11 and have the confirmation receipts. We can’t apply for Part C until the Part B applications are approved, and if we don’t apply for Part C in time, we’ll get hosed. So I’m understandably nervous that our Part B applications have been received in good order.
Simmer yourself down, Teelabrown 
I was nervous as hell about all that, too. Everything worked out just fine.
mmm
I did get through to Social Security after 45 minutes. They had no record of receiving our faxed applications, and furthermore told me (after a discussion) that I had done something wrong on the application. So I drove down to a local branch of Social Security office and remarkably only waited about 5-10 minutes and saw a human being. She confirmed they had no record of having received our faxes, and helped me with the part I erred on. Then she scanned in both our applications and NOW they’re processing. I hope.
Good thing I checked. Simmering down now.
That’s music to my ears. When I checked a few months ago, they were still only taking appointments and you couldn’t just enter the office. They must have done a quiet opening; not announcing they were open again.
My one and only in-person visit to SS went as smooth as silk. I had no appointment, got there when the office opened, and was out in about 30 minutes. This was around year ago.
mmm
We’ve always had appointments and hardly had to wait but there seemed to be tons of people without them who were waiting a long time. But we never went first thing in the morning which might be better.
This was all pre-Covid. After that we scheduled an appointment on the phone which worked perfectly.
I did try to schedule an appointment by phone, but never got through to anyone. So I resigned myself to going in and waiting a long time, but miraculously, I was in and out. I think it was because it was a small semi-rural branch.
I was able to ask questions on the phone but the answers were clear as mud so I requested an appointment. They said I would hear about an appointment within 10 days. I did not. Several weeks later, I received a snail-mail letter telling me that I had an appointment for a day 10 days away from the receipt of the letter. It was like magic. The gentleman I spoke with was perfectly clear on my options and, unlike the first person I spoke with, actually had real answers for me about retiring at various ages, the possibility of returning to work and then retiring again, and more. It was everything I needed to hear. I just wish I could have heard it when I first called. Nonetheless, I was and remain grateful for his clarity.
My sister-in-law is trying to get through to someone at SS to help sort out the in-laws’s situation (FIL has died, but SS has not yet adjusted the payment yet, which means there’ll be a huge clawback at some point). She has had zero luck with it.
I suggested she call on a different day of the week - Wednesday or Thursday - as those are hopefully less likely to be backed up.
Me, on the other hand: I spent 45ish minutes on hold to get through to SS earlier this week. Not a biggie, I didn’t have any other meetings to go to, so I just did my work and waited. Finally got through to someone, who was actually very helpful: I needed to get a 1099 for my FIL’s benefits for last year so I could do their taxes, and the agent asked “where would you like that mailed?”.
Which was a surprise: I had assumed that a) they might not send it to me anyway since I’m not the beneficiary nor have power of attorney, and b) they would only send it to his address on record. The latter would have been fine - the new owner could just forward it to me. But nope - she asked for our address, and it is being sent here.
I laughed and said “Well, if I was a scammer, I suppose I wouldn’t have bothered to wait an hour on the phone”.
We had hoped to simply set up a SS account online for both MIL and FIL. MIL’s was successful: my husband had them send some kind of code via snail mail when he was down there in March, and we completed it in April. FIL’s was not successful, as there is scary language about not setting up an account even if you have the person’s permission to do so - but you can HELP them do it. Well, FIL was beyond assisting in the process at that point…
Anyway, the tl/dr is: everyone should set up an online account with SS now, while you’re in shape to do so.
Heh - this is exactly what happened with my late Mother. I needed to change something for her (address, maybe?) and figured online was the easiest method. But, as you say, the language is such that I had to think it over for a while before proceeding. I reasoned that I was setting up the account on her computer, using her information, so they would have a really hard time proving that she didn’t set up the account.
Mom passed away six months later without getting a visit from the SS IT squadron, so I guess I got away with it.
…And then the dog leaves a muddy mess for others to clean up.
This is exactly my situation
I retire next week, and the folks left behind can do about 85 per cent of my job.
The other 15 per cent is gonna be a BIG mess .
But not for me!
Congratulations, Teela!
I’m now 4 weeks into retirement. I’ve eliminated the daily 1/2 of an Ambien I’ve taken for years. I figure if I don’t sleep well, it won’t matter to anyone. And I’m not sleeping well, but I’m doing better than I did at first. Frustrated right now that my tractor is down. I just received the parts I need to rebuild the front axle shaft. Wish me luck. My fields are getting long and I need to bushhog while I can still get through them with my little tractor. I’ve started thinking about finding a new hobby or volunteer gig. I have the farm and the bees, but I want something off the farm. Recreational shopping, which my sister seems to do, is not for me or my budget.
StG
Thank you, and congratulations to you and your month of retirement, StGermain.
I’m two weeks into retirement, and Mr. brown’s last day of work was Friday. He sent a good-bye and thank-you email to the famous CEO of his massive company, and got an email back from him wishing him the best on his retirement. We’ve saved that email as a nice memento.
I’m plugging along on my list of things to do. The current tasks are:
Buying our Medigaps and Parts D, as we’ve decided on what we want. I have a call in to the broker to set this up this week.
Rolling over my 401(k) to Schwab. I went to my company’s 401(k) website and did all the work to start the rollover, and I hope to god I did it right. The website was not intuitive nor intelligently designed. It’ll take ten business days, it says, to see the funds appear in Schwab. And they’ll ding me $100 for a transfer fee.
Contacting realtors both here and at our destination to start setting up buying and selling. I’ve sent emails to both, but the long Memorial Day weekend means I’ll probably have to wait until Tuesday to hear from them. Mr. brown and I are currently bickering over two strategies: buying the new place on contingency and then proceeding to sell our current home, or sell our current home first and then shop for the new place. I said we’d wait for our local realtor’s advice. Funny thing - this realtor is the same guy who sold us this home 23.5 years ago. I thought he’d be retired by now.