Retirement; Thoughts, Advice, Things to know.

[Baatfam]

This is frightening. Anyone else have hard and fast numbers regarding how much health insurance will cost? HMO like Kaiser?

It is only one data point, but five years ago, when I was forced to retire, we carried private insurance about 7-8 months, until my wife found a job that would cover us. Best we found was through Farm Bureau, here in Tennessee. Even with very high detectable plan, it cost us $1600 a month.
That was for the two of us. It was twice our mortgage payment.

[GSXR7ED]

It is only one data point, but bive years ago, when I was forced to retire, we carried private insurance about 7-8 months, until my wife found a job that would cover us. Best we found was through Farm Bureau, here in Tennessee. Even with very high detectable plan, it cost us $1600 a month.
That was for the two of us. It was twice our mortgage payment.

Yikes!

My mother is in SoCal/Inland Empire and has mentioned how expensive PPOs cost!

She has no retirement plan so created her own portfolio through the years…she peaked as a Trust Officer before retiring and does her own trading but also has financial advisor.

Ed Nessism is in Southern California so he’s not joking about the prices out there! Holy Mackerel!!!

Ed

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[bccap]

I can give a bit of insight here but like Trevor I'm in Canada, so most info is transferable except the cost of healthcare which I understand can be expensive in USA.Old age care can be expensive even in Canada, depending on the level of care required, many places here are $6,000 to $10,000 per month for full care in a nicer place with a good nurse to resident ratio, how long should you budget for that and how much is it going to be in 20 years?

This is something I know a little about having gone through it with my mother when it became time for her to get extended care .... My brother is on the island so he handled the research and funding and then had me go to the homes to hear their pitch and assess them ..... We had budgeted $8.500 a month and the average price I was quoted was closer to $7,500 ..... One day he called and suggested we see what the government had to offer .....So I did .... You get to pick three locations and they offer one of them ..... In our case it was your town Langley ...... They aren't government run they are private just like the other ones but paid for by the government .... I was astounded when I checked out the facility .... Brand new and far superior to the private ones I had thus far viewed ..... The way it works is they take a percentage of the tenant's pension income but don't touch any cash or investments they have ..... Doesn't matter whether you have a richly funded pension or no pension... It works the same for everybody ..... This freed up funds to hire a car service called " Driving Miss Daisy " to give a ride to one of her girlfriends { in Abbotsford } to visit her four times a week and give her some compensation for doing it ..... The biggest killer in old age homes is loneliness ..... Every three or four { I forget which } months the family was called in for a board meeting attended by the heads of all departments to discuss everything from the menu and diet to medication and entertainment ..... I was really impressed with how it was run .....

[storm 64]

Remember that "Seldelen" (Steve) guy? The guy that moved to Mexico. I wonder how he is doing? They say your money goes farther living in Mexico. Probably not as good Healthcare. But hey, if you're healthy and don't have family...🤔

[trevor]

Lots of sage advice here. Health insurance seems to be the major factor in planning for retirement. It seem there are so many different scenarios that it is impossible to follow one guideline. For me, retirement may be in the distance future.
However a career change may not be. Going to the same machine shop for the last 32 years is getting old. And now with the new ownership of the company, everything is about to change. Hopefully for the better, we'll see. For now, I'll hang in there. But I'm "a bad day at work" till I move on...

I'm never going to complain about the higher taxes we pay as Canadians compared to the US.

[bccap]

I'm never going to complain about the higher taxes we pay as Canadians compared to the US.

I wouldn't either but we don't ......

https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0411/do-canadians-really-pay-more-taxes-than-americans.aspx

[Rob S.]

Remember that "Seldelen" (Steve) guy? The guy that moved to Mexico. I wonder how he is doing? They say your money goes farther living in Mexico. Probably not as good Healthcare. But hey, if you're healthy and don't have family...樂

I seem to recall that he moved to Colombia.

[trevor]

I wouldn't either but we don't ......
https://www.investopedia.com/financi...americans.aspx

Wow..................

[GSJim]

Lots of interesting things to consider.

I retired from engineering a few years ago and now work as a part-time business administrator for a small charity. We couldn't hire during the pandemic so I ending up taking on too much work, We will re-balance the work load in the spring (if Covid is willing) so I can go back to two or three days a week and spend more time with the bike and home repairs. My wife retired from teaching last year and needs to find something to keep herself busy. When she thinks it's safe to go out again some lucky organization will have an enthusiastic and valuable volunteer. We are fortunate that we each have pensions and that my former employer provides a basic benefits plan for employees that had over 25 years of service. We are both relatively healthy (so far). Heart disease runs rampant with the men in my family but the women in my wife's family tend to live long healthy lives.

My big issue is financial planning. I fired my advisor from a well-known Canadian investment firm because he didn't care enough about my investments to even give me a call when a long-term investment matured. He then dumped my account on a junior advisor who also didn't care. I don't think they even noticed when I transferred my accounts to an online brokerage. I have a draft financial plan from a fee-for-service guy that needs further work. We need to figure out the most tax-efficient way to draw down retirement savings while still working part-time and then leave enough in case of catastrophic illness. A critical age in Canada is 71, which is the last year that registered retirement savings plans (RRSP) must be converted to registered retirement income funds (RRIF) and they both have tax implications. Good long-term care in Ontario tends to be very scarce and stupidly expensive. My wife's family has two people in financial services but I don't think either of them need to know our personal business.

We also need to update wills and powers of attorney for medical and financial care. The last big update happened when we still had minor children. The youngest guy is now 31 so we are a bit over-due. It's easiest to think that the updates will be done "next week", which never comes.

Jim

[Buffalo Bill]

All you dudes seem to be in sound financial shape with another decade to make sure. Lot of boasting…as per usual.
What about how you're gonna feel after you retire? What's gonna happen to your friends and family circles?
I'm 68 this year and I'm not worried about money, I'm worried about my people.
I'm watching some decline faster than others, I worry about them.
I hear about my icons dying and look at their age. I look at the age of my oldest friend 88, and ask her about aging. Her entire generation is gone. How would you process that?
It reads like a slo-mo casualty report from a combat zone.
Work on keeping your heart above cold water.

[trevor]

All you dudes seem to be in sound financial shape with another decade to make sure. Lot of boasting…as per usual.
What about how you're gonna feel after you retire? What's gonna happen to your friends and family circles?
I'm 68 this year and I'm not worried about money, I'm worried about my people.
I'm watching some decline faster than others, I worry about them.
I hear about my icons dying and look at their age. I look at the age of my oldest friend 88, and ask her about aging. Her entire generation is gone. How would you process that?
It reads like a slo-mo casualty report from a combat zone.
Work on keeping your heart above cold water.

Well in the close friends I hang out with I’m pretty much the youngest. At 56 a lot of my riding buddies are in their 60s... my neighbour that I’m close with is 70.
The good thing is that most of them are very active and take care of themselves.
I started going to a personal trainer 3 years ago so that I can hopefully be around longer and be able to ride my motorcycles far into the future.
Living out here on the island has changed my life from being in Sw Ontario.. the lifestyle here is way more healthy. Best thing I’ve done for myself was moving here 17.5 years ago

[GSJim]

All you dudes seem to be in sound financial shape with another decade to make sure. Lot of boasting…as per usual.
What about how you're gonna feel after you retire? What's gonna happen to your friends and family circles?
I'm 68 this year and I'm not worried about money, I'm worried about my people.
I'm watching some decline faster than others, I worry about them.
I hear about my icons dying and look at their age. I look at the age of my oldest friend 88, and ask her about aging. Her entire generation is gone. How would you process that?
It reads like a slo-mo casualty report from a combat zone.
Work on keeping your heart above cold water.

You are correct. I'm not too worried financially, as long as we stay healthy and don't need long term care. I was born when my parents were in their mid 30s so most of that generation is already gone. Most of our friends are roughly the same age as us and some are starting to complain about age and diet related decline like arthritis, blood pressure and diabetes. And definitely get a shingles vaccination. One friend has lingering effects three years after his run-in with shingles. I really think the big thing is to stay physically and mentally active as long as possible. I plan to move to part-time work next year and start training replacements so I can completely retire in 2023. After full retirement I will continue to volunteer and maybe reactivate a couple of dormant hobbies. My son needs help renovating things, my bike is in pieces again and I have several musical instruments that need more attention.

You are also correct about the icons. My childhood heroes were astronauts and I listened to a lot of rock and blues in the 1970s. The rock lifestyle took a lot of them way too young and the survivors are getting into their 80s now.

Jim

[GSXR7ED]

This thread has provided PLENTY of feedback and I appreciate it.

My take is, everyone brings a unique situation to this subject. Lots of things to consider...because of course, no one individual has everything covered. But the thoughts put in this thread generate other ideas and branch off for other considerations.

I want to thank all members who read and decide to inject their thoughts on this subject.

Ed

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[argonsagas]

Retire? Is it mandatory?

IF you are single then why not get a highly-educated, gorgeous woman thirty years your junior who loves you.....and then start over?

[salty_monk]

This is frightening. Anyone else have hard and fast numbers regarding how much health insurance will cost? HMO like Kaiser?

Then there is supplemental insurance in case of serious injury or illness.

And managed care living when the end is near.

My 401k is approaching my goal (almost got there a while back before the recent market "correction.") I get a small pension from a previous company which I'm already drawing. And I've got a cash reserve and some good equity in my home. Plan is to sell the home and move out of CA, where I can pay cash for some new place and have money left over. Ideally I'll execute this plan at 62 or 63. I don't live an extravagant life style; give me a decent low maintenance home w/large workshop and I'll be happy.

Maybe I can help... I've always paid my own insurance here. If I was single it would be around $600-$700 monthly for a Kaiser silver HMO through the exchange. You're older so it would be more $100-$200 probably but keep in mind that in retirement you won't be earning as much money (also you won't be paying as much tax in $$ or %% terms) so very likely that some of the costs will be covered for you....
My costs for whole family through the exchange went down from something like $1250 to $900 this year with the way the exchange works.
Also remember that as soon as you hit the right age you get a double bonus.... Medicare brings the price down & you start to draw your Gov pension. Apart from medicine in general you need less and less money as you age after a certain point.

For anyone who hasn't found him yet this guy has some good ideas & some interesting things to read https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ (He's Canadian but living in the US). Approach with an open mind!

For anyone looking to use the stock market.... 4% is still a pretty safe withdrawal rate if you want to maintain the capital (as long as you have it invested in something like VTI).

For anyone looking to retire and keep working - It has to be worth an approach to your existing employer. If you're a valuable part of the team keeping you on the job 2-3 days a week is a cheap way for them to keep knowledge in the business.

Anyone on here who has met me will likely be surprised that I know anything about retirement (I'm 43) but I've been working for many years already to be in a financially independent position as early as I can (to allow me more time to travel & ride motorbikes before I get too old ).

I aim to be done (at least to the part time or "work to pay for my toys & holidays" point) as soon as my kids are independent or sooner if I can.