Planning on dropping Health Insurance. Change my mind.

[kenmac]

I don’t care how rich or lack there of I am. I’m still taking every dime from SS I can get. I might donate that money to charity but I still want every dime possible of my money back from the government. I’m also paying in as few dimes as possible.

Yep, Retired at 57. I really don't need SS. I'm not old enough to draw yet.

when the time comes, I want every penny I'm due.
I didn't have a choice about them taking my money..

 

[MossRoad]

How did I give out my income info? What’s my income?

Earlier, you gave a percentage max you can put in. We all know the legal max limit for 2018. We can figure your percentage of the legal max from those numbers and come up with your income. Unless you mis-stated the numbers or meant something else... well, it's basic math.

No one needs to post the actual number, ok folks?

 

[Macinnis]

Why the rush to pay off the home loan? It’s probably your largest tax write off.

Here is my last six months of using medical insurance.

Driving to work and some a hole runs a light and t bones me totaling my car...dr visits the whole thing.

A few months ago my wife was riding her horse, got thrown and messed up her eye. This Thursday she is having surgery to permanently remove the eye. This...and two or three other surgeries. She is well into the 200k range...so far. Probably 500k by the time all the bills trickle in.

It seems like you are working hard saving financially...if you drop your insurance and some a hole t bones you...all of your hard work could be lost.

Not worth it.

 

[MossRoad]

Why the rush to pay off the home loan? It’s probably your largest tax write off.

It's probably not a tax write off at all. If that's the only thing he's paying on, and he makes average wages, the interest he pays on the house loan will not come close to exceeding the standard deductions. Not even close. Not even half of the standard deduction.

 

[MossRoad]

The standard deduction for individuals in 2018 is $12,000. If you're paying $12,000 in interest on your house every year making average wages, god help you.

 

[MossRoad]

Why the rush to pay off the home loan? It’s probably your largest tax write off.

Here is my last six months of using medical insurance.

Driving to work and some a hole runs a light and t bones me totaling my car...dr visits the whole thing.

A few months ago my wife was riding her horse, got thrown and messed up her eye. This Thursday she is having surgery to permanently remove the eye. This...and two or three other surgeries. She is well into the 200k range...so far. Probably 500k by the time all the bills trickle in.

It seems like you are working hard saving financially...if you drop your insurance and some a hole t bones you...all of your hard work could be lost.

Not worth it.

And sorry to hear about your wife's eye and your car accident.

 

[4570Man]

Why the rush to pay off the home loan? It’s probably your largest tax write off.

Here is my last six months of using medical insurance.

Driving to work and some a hole runs a light and t bones me totaling my car...dr visits the whole thing.

A few months ago my wife was riding her horse, got thrown and messed up her eye. This Thursday she is having surgery to permanently remove the eye. This...and two or three other surgeries. She is well into the 200k range...so far. Probably 500k by the time all the bills trickle in.

It seems like you are working hard saving financially...if you drop your insurance and some a hole t bones you...all of your hard work could be lost.

Not worth it.

Probably 15 years ago my dad got diagnosed with a fairly major life changing health condition. The medical bills are in the millions. Luckily they had health insurance or they would have lost everything they had and still been short and couldn’t ever afford health insurance again since he would have a pre existing condition. My Grandpa would have one arm and his daughter would have 9 fingers if they didn’t have health insurance. Since they had insurance the doctors saved both limbs after the car accident instead of amputating them. They would have also been financially ruined after the accident which wasn’t their fault if they didn’t have health insurance. While I’ve personally never filled a claim over the deductible my family is way ahead with health insurance vs not having it.

 

[D2Cat]

Here's what I read, "When I laid my bike down the bill was around 10k, I paid $1800 of that out of pocket on my current plan. Plus $200 ER visit Co-Pay and prob other expenses I’m forgetting. That was the only time I used the insurance that year."

So I take the $10,000 and subtract $1800 = $8,200 insurance covered. Divide that by the $185 p/mo you mentioned you paid = 44.3 months of payments, or 3.7 years.

So your one road rash incident with no major damage to your body absorbed over 44 months of the payments you made. I think you said you been employed there for 6 years. If so, that one incident took health premiums for over half of the time you been employed there.

Not having health insurance will jeopardize all your goals. Oh, and sell the tractor. You already said you don't need it, and get your 401K replenished.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

You can't pick and choose which morals you want to follow. You're either a good guy or a weasel. No wiggle room there.

All morals aside, you're taking a huge risk by going without health care insurance so you can afford rental property to try and retire early.

Why in the world are you coming on a public forum and looking for affirmation on this issue? Not one person has sided with you on this decision. THAT should tell you something. It's like polling the audience in "are you smarter than a 5th grader" and 90% of the audience tells you the answer is X, so you choose Y and lose.


If it makes you feel any better, my wife and I both make average wages. We've been debt free since 1995, when I was 34. We've raise two children, afforded great day care, private school K-12, and sent them through 4 years of college debt free. We've paid off two houses, 20 acres of land, a dozen cars, taken trips all over the country, sent wife and kids to Europe, south America.... we want for nothing on average wages. We have enough in investments to retire today at age 57 and never work another day in our lives if we want to. And we've always had health care insurance.

Health insurance has helped us with the following over the years, all unexpected, with the exception of the babies, we tried for those....

Babies, knocking myself out at work, female problems, male problems, fertility problems, mental health issues, sports injuries, back issues, physical therapy many times, foot issues, vision issues, opthamolic migrains, norovirus, rabies, infections, urinary tract issues, weird growths, moles and tumors.... the list goes on and on.

That crap happens to everyone sooner than later. Most of that happened before I was 35 years old. It would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars had it not been for health insurance.

You'd be making a poor decision going without health care insurance because the odds are, you will need it and the bills will come out more than the premiums over the long run. It's all about the long run.

Good luck to you young man.

401k loans should always be the last choice. Try not to make a habit out of it. Every time you take a loan out against a 401k, you're shorting yourself on gains that could have been made on that money, and increasing the time you'll have to work to get the amount you need to retire. Also, if you have an outstanding loan against a 401k and you lose your job or change jobs, you have to repay that loan immediately or pay the penalty and taxes for early withdrawal, so only do that as the very last choice.

First and foremost I will take any advice on a more efficient way to reach my goals or on anything really.

I would disagree that going without health insurance would automatically make me a weasel.

Why did I come on here? Because there are a lot of people on here that know more than I do and I will end this thread knowing more than when I started it.

Btw not a fan of the reference, I’m on here discussing the opposition, no decision was made.

See I didn’t grow up with a role model like you to base my finances off of. My parents where horrible with money, my dad made well over 100k from 80s threw early 2000s, he had multiple mortgages on the house we grew up in, after 30 years of payments, he owed more than he bought the house for, he eventually had to sell it at a quick sale and walk away from it. We didn’t have money growing up, non that made it to the family, to this day I don’t know how someone could send so much money and have nothing to show. They were also borderline hoarders, we had rooms with mountains of stuff in them, which is why in my adult life I have adopted more of a minimalistic outlook.

I told myself I would not end up in his situation so I watched my finances like a hawk. The retirement and investing game, I don’t know anything about, haven’t had the money for it yet.

The 401k loan, I knew had to be paid off if I ever left my job or would have to pay a early withdraw free etc. wasn’t as keen on the not making as much money as the loan is open. I just figured the loss would be less with that loan vs a higher interest loan.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Earlier, you gave a percentage max you can put in. We all know the legal max limit for 2018. We can figure your percentage of the legal max from those numbers and come up with your income. Unless you mis-stated the numbers or meant something else... well, it's basic math.

No one needs to post the actual number, ok folks?

I thought the max was percentage based for some reason and not numerically valued. Learn something new every day.