I am signing up for classes! retirement class!
 

all sorts of classes. medicare, deferred savings.

stoked!!! I am shocked how many moving parts there are! as a kid I thought it was, "I'm done".

no way. the medicare stuff alone is daunting. I am still ways away from dipping into that pot. Social Security is another blackhole for me.

I have 2-4 years, and "I'm effen done". trying to learn things.

I went to ours about 3 weeks ago. Must have been over a thousand people there. Very informative but still going to call my accountant for my IRA rollover. The great thing to learn was with our health plan I don't have to worry about all the "Medicare Part B" offers and mailings I've received (a lot). It's already taken care of through the Motion Picture Fund.

Only 27 more days (but who's counting). Great news Vash! You're like me, I have enough outside interests to keep me busy for years. Fishing, golf, travel, woodworking projects and some volunteering thrown into the mix.

Nice, congrats on the imminent "Poof! I'm done."

I'm not there yet, but based on what I've seen/heard, there does seem like there's a lot of moving parts. I assume the SS isn't too bad. How much money do you have and do you think you'll need it? I think the best thing is to delay SS as long as you can get away with it, because that increases your benefit. But hey, I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that.

My mom, and dad before he passed, were very lucky to have retired from Military/Govt, so they have medical covered for life. It sounds like you've got a pretty good deal as far as medical goes.

I am lucky in that my wife was the HR director for a university. She just told me how to get signed up for all Medicare and Social Security. I was in a class by myself! ;)

Yes, we're covered for medical, dental, vision, chiropractic, mental health. Even "Eastern medicine" like herbs and acupuncture. It's a good deal.

My retirement regret is that 16 years ago when I retired I signed up to withhold $300 a month for survivor benefits for my wife.
At the time $300 was the monthly bill for health insurance.
Frick $300 x 12 = $3600 a year.
Retired 16 years so 16 X $3600 = $57,600 in reduced pension so far.:rolleyes:

One of the best things we did, as we were rolling off the COBRA, was to contact a local insurnace consultant. This dude was most helpful getting us onto the barrycare!

I'm in the same boat with the pension payouts.

You can get full pension with benefits ending on your death, or reduced by a certain percentage with benefits paid to spouse 10 years after your death or for the rest of their life after your death.

It's like betting the craps table in Vegas. I do have life insurance that benefits the Wife when I take the old "dirt nap". Taking the reduced pension would decrease my monthly check by $300-700 a month depending on which payout I take.

Another thing to discuss with my accountant.

The amount part is pretty simple. If you take at 62 you get less but three years sooner. It was maybe $75,000 for me when I hit 65. Had I taken it at 65 I would get more monthly and have the same total benefit paid to me at 81. After 81 I'm stacking benjamins many hundreds a month more than had I taken at 62. Maybe $600-800 is my guess.

Defer taking it if you have other income. I think it's earned income they will beat you to death over tax wise when stacked on top of SS. After 69 you can earn all you want on top of SS. You will still pay taxes but at regular rates.

Get ready for the rules of retirement.
1# Everyday is a Saturday
2# see rule 1#

When you do retire you won't feel like it till a year later.

Anyone call for a crusty skeptic?


There are a lot of retirement seminars out there,
many of them are designed to separate you
from your money.
Some are legit. "Some" being the key word.

I get junk in the mail every week promising a
free prime rib dinner just to attend a quick
30 minute retirement seminar. Uh huh.
they're like time share cons only worse.

Don't agree to pay anyone to manage anything for you and
certainly don't buy any books or subscriptions to web-based services.

If the people who write financial books knew anything
about retirement (or real estate), they'd be be too busy
getting rich to sell books.
Or earning commissions on expensive "medicare advantage" plans.

First rule of retirement:
you worked hard to get your money, don't give it away.
There is nothing you can find in a seminar that isn't
easily available on the internet.
Including scams.

Congrats!!!

I signed up for SS on my desktop 5 1/2 years ago right after I turned 64. Very easy and very straight forward!

Then I was able to get signed up for Humana the following year at the local Walmart - and that process was also very easy and very straight forward.

They got things set up pretty good for us retirees!

My advice - keep it simple and don't get too caught up in a bunch of options. You can do most of this on your own......

Plan on retiring? You NEED to watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMHMOQ_05
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DMHMOQ_054U" title="The 4 phases of retirement | Dr. Riley Moynes | TEDxSurrey" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

^^^^ this & KISS. Gotta tackle the 65 stuff soon. SS is VERY individual ... I and many like me started at 62 ... lots of reasons why, and yes, I can do the maf ;).

Retired at 48 .... no regerts.

I did not sign up for survivor benefits after my first retirement (military) because I was very young and healthy, term insurance was cheap, my wife was still young and attractive enough that she would likely remarry, and it was likely that I would pay a very long time. I decided to cancel the insurance because I joined the reserves, and they provided insurance. It would be 21 years now (so apparently a good choice).

When I retired the second time, I was quite a bit older and better off (enough in investments to cover my wife's expenses if I were to precede her). That would include the loss of my military retirement and the cost of paying someone to do the things at home that I do. But I took the survivor's benefit this time. It seemed pretty reasonable (all things considered compared with alternatives), and I really did not expect to pay it (the reduction) for a very long time. Hopefully I will be wrong and live a very long tie (and that will be a positive in of itself). We are both waiting for 70 to start SS and 73 to begin RMD from our 401Ks. My wife will hit the age for both ahead of me, but taxes will be a big issue then (as will Medicare) as the cost is based on income...

Unlike insurance, most survivor benefits are pretax deductions and somewhat inflation protected (if your retirement is). It is a pretty good deal unless you retire young.

I did a lot of retirement counseling, advice and planning for friends of mine, usually engineers. My council to them was to treat retirement obstacles as an engineering problem with dollar signs.

Sounds goofy but it worked.

That and don't bundle the issues of retirement until you work through each cylinder of health care, Social Security, etc.

You have time...haste is not a problem for you.

Best of luck.

Anyone have any thoughts on the feasibility of retiring with no debt in the midwest at 62 starting with 1-1.3 million in 401k and ira's? Spouse is two years older and will retire sooner. I know there are many varying opinions on this from "hell yes" to "hell no".... just curious what some of you who are at or nearing retirement think on the issue.

Am guessing it would be smarter/easier to wait until at least 65, but I hate my job. Lol

Then get out now.

Don't believe you will be just as healthy at 65 as you are now. Aging is no fun. You would be better off living frugally and enjoying your life now than saving up so you can sit around with arthritis and bad eyes counting your money.
You have skills that would allow you to pick up decent money doing things you enjoy doing.
I bailed on a job I didn't like when I was 35 and made a good living working for myself, doing work I enjoyed.