I just made the switch from full to part time work. I'm 67. I've debated with myself for the past year (in fact the past few years) what to do, start SS or withdrawal from savings to make up the shortfall until 70. This post has actually helped me think... it doesn't matter much which choice I make. It's a gamble which choice will give me the absolute greatest sum when you die. But why stress over that choice? Whats the + or - going to be, $10k, 20k, 30k maybe? A piddly amount in the scheme of things? Oh, and by the way your dead at the end anyway.
My decision is to take SS starting July 1st at 67 1/2... and don't look back. SS will actually give me more income than needed since I'll still work part time, so the excess will go to tax deferred savings.
Great discussion!

Jimmy Buffett: "A Pirate Looks At 40:"
"...I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast... Never meant to last. Never meant to last."
I tell you what: I never could even THINK about investing until my career became a career, with benefits and vacation time and Continuing Education budgets, too. Isn't that typical? "Youth is wasted on the young." I was a professional student until into my 40s. Most cannot wiggle around and do THAT for so many years... And I gave up a lot to do it, looking back, in terms of experiences. But I was doing what I liked.
Why is "youth wasted on the young?" We don't trust rookies to manage the whole company, right? So they have to toil away and get some breaks, along with a bigger paycheck before investing holds any attraction for them. Until then, we can explain and teach, but it goes in one ear and out the other. Only to be expected, eh?

Here's a similar thread I started a couple of years ago.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/54511/administrative-nuisances-with-some-financial-institutions
The policies and procedures of different institutions are all over the map. I think that a rational argument can be made for requiring medallion signatures in some cases, but not to the extent that some places do.
To address @ET91's question about why a notarized signature isn't sufficient: A notarization validates your signature, but not the accuracy or even truthfulness of what you're signing. Consider a certified check. A bank will certify a check that you write only after if verifies that you have the money in your account and it puts that money aside to cover the check. Notarizing a check does not make it "as good as cash". Similar to check certification, medallion stanps guarantee that you do own the stated security in the stated institution.
It's not unreasonable for the institution guaranteeing the document to review what it is guaranteeing and to keep copies for its records. I agree that it used to be easier to get medallion guarantees - at least to the extent that institutions weren't so restrictive about what they would guarantee.
Then there are the banks .... I had a similar experience to what @catch22 described - with a relative for whom mobility (rather than distance) was a problem. No accommodation offered. Then there's the pettiness. The only time I've used BofA for a notarized signature (for which they require you to be a customer), the bank insisted on charging me the legal maximum for the service: $2! (I could have billed it to my HOA since I was getting a document notarized for the HOA, but I like to think I have better values than BofA ... at least $2 better :-) )

Thanks for the warning. A few years back I had a med. sig. problem with Grandeur Peaks.
I closed an account where quarterly withdrawals were going to GP. Called to see what had to be done . They sent me some paper work, which I filled out & sent back. Later to find out a med. sig. was needed. They decided to leave it go, but NO money was going to move for x amount of days.
Enjoy the day, Derf

Hello, @hank …
At the moment, my fund managers have me -6% in short positions. Cash and bonds.
57: bonds
39: stocks
"other:" 3
Net 4% in cash.

@Crash Thanks for clarifying. Yep - you did specify RPSIX. I get RPSIX and PRSIX turned around all the time. I don’t hold RPSIX and haven’t for over a year. FWIW Yahoo shows it holding 4% in their Global Dynamic Bond Fund - Class Z.
If I’m reading you correctly, you are net-short the equity markets. That’s remarkable considering RPSIX alone has a 14% weighting in their Equity and Income fund (PRFDX).
Might work. Nothing I’d be comfortable with. Good luck with that.
No disrespect to M*, but I haven’t used their analyzer in years. (Apparently, it’s widely used and respected among the community here.) I try instead to evaluate each fund in the portfolio on its own merits based on current holdings, charts, manager, investment style and expenses. Just different ways of attempting to determine potential risk & reward I guess.

Hello, @hank. I read all of that with interest. I don't own PRSIX. But I DO own RPSIX. That's where my remark about a possible typo comes in, above. i like your idea of using PRSIX as a comparison benchmark. I shall keep it in mind.
At the moment, my fund managers have me -6% in short positions. Cash and bonds.
57: bonds
39: stocks
"other:" 3
Net 4% in cash.
(Morningstar X-Ray.) ... So, I'm not trying to light the world on fire these days. I've been aiming for a traditional retiree's portfolio of 60 bonds and 40 stocks for years. My fund managers won't let me. :) Getting close, though. MFO has offered me a helluva financial education through the years.

A snippet of Morningstar's CTFAX analysis dated 04/30/2021.
"In 2018, when the current managers took over the fund, a new layer was added to the process that includes an assessment of whether the stock market is 'expensive' or 'normal.' This is determined by comparing the seven-year cyclically-adjusted earnings of the S&P 500 to the past 40 years. When this metric shows markets are in the most expensive quintile over that time period, it is deemed to be expensive. Under an expensive market, the fund’s equity allocation could shift from 10% to 90% (the fund’s historical range) but in 'normal' conditions the equity allocation is floored at 50%. This new approach should help the fund keep pace with its benchmark better when the stocks are rallying but not in their most expensive quintile. The trade-off is that it may not do as well at protecting against sudden sharp drawdowns when its equity allocation is at the floor."

Compare: 5 years from 05-13-2016 to 05-13-2021
PRDSX: 111%
BCSIX: 140%
DVSMX: 190%
AOFAX: 190%
Relax.......

@Starchild, you must be refereing to the Kummelweck roll which has the kosher salt and caraway seeds...if in Buffalo you need to go to Charlie the Butcher's for one of these.
Come to think of it, I haven't been to Buffalo that often, last time was a couple years ago for work, but love the people, they are all so authentic, good decent folks, love the city, love the Beef on Weck's!
Baseball Fan

Yes! unfortunately, 350 miles is a treck for a sandwiche!

We can't force the timing, though. It might be starting here, but this week is just as likely to be nothing - a minor blip.
Remember Meredith Whitney's classic MUNI bond "crash" call back on 60 minutes years ago? Nice pearl necklace and all. The markets never listen to those in the prediction business.
The Schiller PE ratio can still make it all the way back up into the low 40s. Why not.

Actually, Hussman’s flagship gained a bit more than reported above by @Baseball_Fan
HSGFX +.29% yesterday.
As @Derf reported, PRPFX (which I also own) was up slightly. A miracle considering several of its components were soft on the day: equities, real estate, precious metals, treasury bonds. I was expecting much worse.
Cuggino‘s got the bond duration all the way down to 2.3 years. Helps explain why it held up better. Often mentioned as a “static allocation” fund, they do play around a bit - particularly with the bond component.

Yup, beef on Weck. I lived/worked for about 5 years in that ski resort town, about 90- minutes south of Buffalo. (Ellicottville.)

@Starchild, you must be refereing to the Kummelweck roll which has the kosher salt and caraway seeds...if in Buffalo you need to go to Charlie the Butcher's for one of these.
Come to think of it, I haven't been to Buffalo that often, last time was a couple years ago for work, but love the people, they are all so authentic, good decent folks, love the city, love the Beef on Weck's!
Baseball Fan

Not to get to far off-topic from the original post, but even EVDIX or EVDAX (Camelot Event Driven Fund - event driven) is having one of its best years since the fund commenced operations.

Hi @JD_co. I think there is plenty of room. I bought DBC a couple months ago so I'm up since that buy, but it's been trending up for about a year with the steepest up tick starting in Nov 2020. I believe it will be an up trend for a couple years to come. All commodities have been in a drought for a decade or more with low inflation, dropping interest rates and a strong $. Times they are a-changing. Just my 2-cents.

@BenWP - You can’t go wrong with RPGAX, IMHO. I expect it to lag a while until the dollar eventually weakens. Then the international exposure will begin to help. That said, the fees are high on it. FWIW - My equity exposure isn’t high and is primarily divided among RPGAX, DODBX and PRWCX.
Re TMSRX ... It isn’t intended to be a stand-alone investment. Those who put a lot of faith in their self-designed allocation models can benefit by using it as an offset / hedge against other risk assets they hold - or possibly as a diversifier. I believe all the fund houses, including TRP, tell you their funds aren’t intended to be stand-alone investment# - but in the case of TMSRX it’s really true.
And just noticed M* gives TMSRX a 4-star rating. LOL - that’s nuts (and I own it). IMHO it hasn’t been around long enough to rate. And trying even to rate a fund like this would seem tantamount to telling the wind to stop. Give it 5 years minimum and see what kind of personality it develops in many different market environments.

...if we get more yield-curve control policies in coming decades, (then) bonds become even more useless. Now, they are a lot less useful than they need to be.
Well, ya, my bond fund investments amount to a surrender, an admission that I won't make as much as I could if the money were in stocks. But the market has a rocket in its pocket, zooming upward toward unreasonable valuations and prices. I'm still making money, just standing pat. Just not as much. But you see, I'm NOT desperate to squeeze-out the conceivable ultimate maximum profit that might be possible. When it comes to the Sharpe ratio, these days I'm happy with a fair-to-middling performance--- deliberately. I want to make money, but not at any substantial level of risk, in retirement. But I'm still optimistic: I just renewed my US passport for another 10 years. :)

Independent eateries and bars have gone weeks without wings, owners say. Chicken breast prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, and wing prices have hit records, according to market-research firm Urner Barry. “The overall supply is constrained. That affects every part of the bird,” Wingstop Chief Executive Charlie Morrison said in an interview earlier this week. Wingstop said it is paying 26% more for bone-in chicken wings this year ... One reason for the higher prices is the chicken sandwich wars of recent years.
WSJ May 8, 2021

A Barron's conversation with the soon to be retired manager of TRBCX.
Link
Note: I'm able to access this article without a Barron's subscription.

I'm investing in etfs solely to avoid early redemption fees. If, for example, Fidelity would eliminate early redemption fees on their funds, I would buy their funds and reduce my etf purchases.

Hi Carew,
Fidelity eliminated short-term (under 60 day) fund trading fees from their own FIDO mutual funds years ago. Did you mean from all of their 3rd party fund offerings?