flu – your friends are fortunate to have higher taxes in retirement. It means they have very good assets. Not your typical boomers – since, as a demographic, they’ve UNDER saved for retirement from everything I read.

For the post boomers I think the pension thing is a non-issue… Most private employers have eliminated or frozen pensions. My employer froze it a while back and is now underfunding it so it’s no longer available for lump sum distribution. I think most folks 50 and under won’t see any negligable money in the form of pension.

As far as the no deductions – your friends did well – had kids young and paid off their house(s). I’m a little behind the curve on the kids – so I hope to still have deductions for kids when I retire. Unfortunately, that also means still having college expenses when I’m retired.

I still think my RMDs will be less than my current salary when I retire… but if my house is paid off my spending will be less… I’m not worried about being in a higher tax bracket.