retiring

[MossRoad]

My wife and I could retire yesterday if it wasn't for health insurance. That's our biggest concern.

Let's look at some examples.

If you work another 8 years, and earn between $62,500-$125,000 per year combined, you bring in somewhere between 500K - 1M after purchasing health insurance through your employers. If you quit working today, health insurance would cost you between 175K and 225K over 8 years, assuming about $1700 per month for health insurance(that's what it would cost us, so I'm using that in my example).

That's a potential miss-out of up to $1.225M over 8 years, not including the compound interest some of that money would earn in any investments, 401ks, IRAs, etc...

So, I'd say first:

Find out how much money you need to live on per year to maintain/enhance your current lifestyle and afford health insurance.

Second.

Make sure you have guaranteed streams of income. That's known amount coming in every month. It can't be variable returns like stocks. It has to be known. Like guaranteed bonds, annuities(I hate annuities), withdrawals from savings like 401Ks and pensions, etc...

Of course, I am not a financial advisor, planner, etc... those are just my opinions and part of our plan. I did not sleep in a Holiday in last night either. :laughing:

 

[EddieWalker]

My parents retired at age 65 with a decent income and excellent health care. Then Obamacare came along and they where forced into it. Their medical expenses went up dramatically and now they are forced to deal with what it costs them to stay alive instead of enjoying their remaining years. I don't know what they could have done differently, but it does scare me to think about retiring and expecting certain things to remain in place, only to have the government change all of that. 50 is still pretty young. I'm 54. I can't imaging retiring any time soon, and will probably only do so when I'm unable to keep working. I also enjoy what I do and look forward to every project that I take on.

When I was with the Teamsters, part of their pension plan was based on how long people lived after retiring and collected their pension. 3 to 5 years is how long most of them live. They no longer have something that they have to do, and they end up spending all day watching TV, or sitting around, not doing anything physical.

My wife is a nurse. She says that the most scare age for people is when they hit 50. That's when a lot of heart attacks happen. I've seen this happen with dozens of friends that I went to High School. They haven't lived a healthy life and they pass just before or right after turning 50. It's a very scary age.

Of the friends and clients that I know who have lived through retirement, it's painful to see how much they struggle with a purchase or repair to their homes. A lot of the time, the repair might cost a few grand, but they only have a fraction of that and they want me to do what I can to get them by for as long as possible. It's very sad. There is very little left over after paying the bills, food and healthcare. You can never have too much money to live off of, and sadly most realize this after they retire.

 

[goeduck]

^^ at 65 why not Medicare?

I agree with others that 50 is young, in fact the prime of many peoples careers. Also agree that medical insurance is the major reason to keep working (why I am still working and I have multi Ms worth of investments).

 

[Kingsqueak]

Health is everything really. People say it all the time, but wait until you hit 50 and see friends start to drop. It's not a very real concept unfortunately until you are at the line.

The co-CEO of Oracle just dropped at 62, guy had more money than I could ever even imagine and a lot of good it's doing him right now.

Rather than focus on retirement, focus on being healthy and enjoying the time you have, right now. I've made many choices over my career that were not wise financial choices, but were for quality of life. Those decisions were the best ones I've made.

I'll be lucky to live until 70 the way my family goes and if I do make it, I'll be even luckier if I still have my wits about me. 20 years is not a lot of time, so I got my crazy tractor now .

 

[ruffdog]

I know someone with Multiple Myeloma....a blood cancer. One of the drugs costs $250,000 a year. Sadly, people are stuck with the decision of going broke or dying....many times both happens.:thumbsdown:

 

[goeduck]

I am about as conservative as they come, but something does have to be done about the cost of Medical care. Not who pays for it, but the COST. Until the cost is controlled we will not be fixing this problem. Normal market forces are not in play here.

 

[MossRoad]

I know someone with Multiple Myeloma....a blood cancer. One of the drugs costs $250,000 a year. Sadly, people are stuck with the decision of going broke or dying....many times both happens.:thumbsdown:

My dad had multiple myeloma. He was initially given 4 years to live, however, shortly after diagnosis, he developed amyloidosis and died in 5 weeks. That was back in 1995. They've made some serious progress in treating that cancer since then.

 

[MossRoad]

^^ at 65 why not Medicare?
......

That's what I don't yet understand. Doesn't medicare kick in at 65 for most?

 

[EddieWalker]

To clarify, my parents are on Medicare, but their retirement had a supplemental coverage that was to pay for additional things like prescriptions, dental and eye care. When Obamacare passed, they where dropped from this additional coverage that they had paid for. So now they have to pay Blue Cross for their additional coverage, which has a much higher deductible and doesn't cover a lot of their expenses. Dad has had cancer twice now, and both of them have hearing aids. For the medicine for my Dad's cancer, the original cost to them was $30,000 a month after their insurance paid their part. Eventually, after many hours or research and effort by my wife, who is a RN, they where able to get that down to $1,500 a month. Out of pocket cost for their hearing aids has been around $5,000 each. This was covered under their original supplemental plan that the retired under, but isn't covered by anything now. Dental has also been a huge expense, especially with my dad and his teeth falling out. It just keeps adding up and getting more expensive every year for them.

While this only applies to them, it has been very disappointing to realize that what they paid for and planned on wasn't allowed to happen.

 

[EddieWalker]

My parents retired at age 65 with a decent income and excellent health care. Then Obamacare came along and they where forced into it. ...

I misspoke in saying that they where forced into Obamacare. That wasn't accurate. Obamacare forced them to have to pay for additional coverage that wasn't anywhere near as good as they had when they retired. For a lot more money, they are getting less coverage then they did before Obamacare happened.