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.

I know quite a few .... been "working from home" for decades .... yer age. $et ... lotsa options ... build violins, etc.

$ee ya $ucker$ :)

None regret it... only TH knows TH ....

I think I speak for everyone here in saying, uh, whatever you decide to do will be fine:cool:

The key is no or minimal consumer debt entering the retirement fray, a solid well thought out budget plan and, if you are able, do not plan on Social Security as a major pillar in your retirement budget.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the ease of using SS websites and planning tools...very straightforward and detailed.

Health Care is always going to be of concern.

One last thing, for everyone...get all the legalities (Will, End of Life desires, DNR, etc.) out of the way soonest: If you have children, talk to them now and address any their concerns and your expectations.

I am always surprised at the lack of communication between folks on the one thing we all know is going to happen...shuffling off this Mortal coil.

When dreaming of retirement, I keep forgetting about the health insurance cost aspect of retiring early.... That really puts the hurt to my plans of retiring early... dang it!

About a year ago we took my aging parents to an estate planning lawyer and got their crap in order. Wife and I then did the same. Not counting/expecting/hoping for it at all but someday when parents pass if they do not spend much time in expensive care facilities, retirement will be a much easier nut to crack financially.

Tough call. I was afraid of being old and broke...so I probably worked several years longer than I needed to. On a positive note, I poured all that money into savings/investments, so I really have much more than my frugal needs now. Having no real money needs/worries is pretty nice.

Strangely enough, I miss my crappy job and have considered going back to work. It was both my work and my hobby...and most of my friends were through work. Although it is nice to relax, it is a bit boring/lonely after the hectic pace. A job where I would only have to work 40-50 hours a week would be nice...but it seems most are a 65 hour a week grind. Hard to sign up for that when I really don't need the money.

My wife retired before me, and I regret that now. She is so set in her relatively sedentary ways and I still want to go, go, go. I usually end up deferring to her wishes.

The privately owned company I work for got bought out by a huge corporation this past year.... It is no longer fun in any way.;) I just need to keep my head down and ride it out for at least a few more years while continuing to max out my 401K.

Everyone is different but my happy place has always been out by myself in my shop. It is heated/air conditioned and full of hobbies/projects to play with/work on. I will thoroughly enjoy being home nearly 24/7. ;) Lucky for me, my wife is not a shopper, cooks dinner every night and does not desire going on long expensive vacations. I think we will do just fine at home in retirement. :)

Yep. Each to their own. My work had stopped being fun long before I retired (but it was challenging). Eventually the stuff I did at home became my work and now it is not a lot of fun either. I worked on old projects like a madman for about two years (things like cutting up downed trees, fixing my septic system, getting long sitting cars running, and renovating our rental and vacation homes). Now the new things that pop up and those that were pushed back due to priority are pretty boring. That said, it is good to "own" my own time and distribute it as I please.

When I was retiring from the Army they make you go through a transition assistance class. It was a week long. I think the classes are really geared for getting Soldiers to re-enlist once they see how much things cost out of the Army. I had 31 years in so I pretty much had to leave.
Anyway they made us do a budget and it had to be approved by some civilian. Since I'm clueless what my income would be I just made some stuff up. The lady kicked back my budget because "I was unrealistic (not spending enough) with budget Christmas and birthday expenses". I had enough of this nonsense so my reply was " I'm a Jehovah Witness and I don't celebrate Christmas or birthdays". Got my budget approved really fast with that response. I'm not a Jehovah Witness and never have been but as a senior leader in the Army I'll take advantage or say anything to end the stupidity. LOL

If you "flunk" retirement classes .... do ya have to work forever?

I skipped a LOT of classes making straight 'A's :D.

Time verses $$$ .... and balance ... everyone's situation is unique and there isn't an algorithm that applies imo.

^^^ Yep .... a no brainer for me too ... and I am qualified to make "no brainers" ;)

my wife and I are on the same page in this department. I have my final plans outlined, and it is gonna be FRUGAL! hahah..I don't feel I need any elaborate pomp/circumstances to say goodbye.

we are downsizing soon. condo, maybe. unload a bunch of crap I don't use. learning quickly how my taste in firearms really isn't for everyone.

I like craigster, I will get lifetime health, and so will my wife. I'll pay a tiny bit, but it's palatable. (learned about it in a retirement class!).

my wife (younger than me) thinks she is going first. ha...dont she dare! :D

I think the key is understanding your budget<>nest-egg relationship and sticking to a budget that works within those bounds. Consider the possibility of having medical bills or living longer than average (or both) and make sure that you have a buffer for those possibilities. It sounds like you guys are probably suited to retirement. (my 2¢ worth which is probably worth what you paid since I'm not retired or an expert).