I am in a unique position where my retirement will be a pension, not a 401k. That pension will fully fund everything that we will need from age 65 on. My wife and I also have Roth IRAs that we try to max each year. However, because my pension is classified as private (not state or federal), I do not pay Social Security through my employer. Any SSI benefits that I receive later on will come strictly from pre-current job contributions (SSI will be around $500 per month).
To give a little more context, I am in a position where I could retire from my current job and take another that uses a state pension, at which point I would pay into Social Security again. I could boost my SSI benefits to around $1,800 per month by the time I am 65. However...
I am wondering (and have been trying to crunch the math), would a brokerage account make sense to use as a spillover after the Roths are maxed *instead of* retiring and going with the state pension job? We can't do an HSA because our insurance doesn't qualify. Is it possible for a brokerage account to be superior to SSI benefits due to the flexibility, no tax until you sell (or tax event), no RMDs, and it continues to grow despite age? This is new territory for me.