Retirement plan: quickly emigrate and earn Swiss citizenship! LOL!
âyou have a kid with Tourettes? Thatâs a lot to deal with.â
Actually, for most people with Tourettes, itâs not like the tv shows, where they are uncontrollably shouting obscenities at people. Though I have tried to use that on my husband as an excuse, he doesnât buy it 
Fortunately, after being misdiagnosed for probably seven years, we finally figured it out ourselves and got him to a childrenâs neurologist, who was doing a number of experimental treatments and found one that worked moderately well to control the tics. And even better, many people lose the tics in their early twenties. Iâm probably the only person who even can notice them anymore, and even without medication. So many people take the little things for granted with their kids, and they have no idea of how lucky they are.
Thatâs a great outcome, @busdriver11. I am sure there were times that were very difficult for you and your husband.
^^Yes, thatâs for sure. Most people have no understanding of this, the triumph over little things that are often just assumed. But now it just makes his success and happiness even greater for us.
"Btw, I think that perhaps we sometimes will be able to put in a good word about the kids in some part of their professional lives, but I disagree emphatically with âitâs not what you know, itâs who you know.â
I donât know about that. I think much depends upon the industry, and the company. I know for my company, as far as family members, it is huge. Other companies, it might practically be a disqualifier. At least it might get one an interview, and a foot in the door. I think a big part of, âwho you knowâ, is that it turns you from just a random name and number, into an actual person. Many industries, it is a significant way into the company.
To add to my last post, let me give you an example of how the âwho you knowâ has worked for us. Maybe a little off tangent, but everything goes towards retirement, if you know what I mean!
The first airline job that I got (at American Airlines), when I went to my initial orientation, my husband came with me. He had applied for the company, but there were over 1,000 pilots who had gotten the same letter that he received, âThank you for your interest, you meet the qualifications, and we may call you at some point for an interview,â or something like that. He had been waiting months for a call. He is not a suckup at all, can barely stand to ask for favors, and didnât want to call attention to himself. However, I told him, âThis is your chance, go introduce yourself to the chief pilot, it can only help. Just hold your nose and give it a try.â So he did, and the very next DAY he was called for an interview, and subsequently hired. And then furloughed, but thatâs not my fault!
The next airline I got hired with (and still work for, over 20 years later), he put in his application in after I was hired. They were only calling in âspecial casesâ the first couple weeks of interviews, according to him. Everyone there was either a minority of some sort, or related to someone in the company, or a friend of management. He got the job, way ahead of others.
Our oldest son was offered an internship at our company, in the IT department, where my BIL worked. Apparently no matter how he did in the interview, he was going to get the job, because my BIL knew him and trusted that he would do a good job. âWho you knowâ may be everything, depending upon the job.
I know we made the right choices on education. Hindsight now, I could have had our DDs in our public school through MS and participated heavily with Sunday religious education, instead of participating pretty heavily as a school volunteer and having Sundays for church worship only. An advantage we had with parochial school was knowing the family which had similar ideals. I had absolutely no desire to teach home-school, although I did read some about ideals with educating at every level, and supplemented their education - oversight and some tutoring. Due to block public HS, we still would have chosen the Catholic HS - and our HS tuition was more than returned with college scholarships (which potentially would have also been earned with public HS, but there were negative influences which you donât want your kid exposed to or sucked into).Younger DD went to public MS for 3 years due to phenomenal band program and her gifted-ness on an instrument where she was the only 6th grader in our District Honor Band and one of three 6th graders at All State Honor Band (we were in a very musically strong district). The rest of her education was sound, but there were some issues at the school which were exposure to bad student behavior. One bratty kid who was going to miss a day or two due to a family trip boldly announced to the teacher that her dad made $300,000/year and they were not going to have any homework or assignments required of her missing school. DD made the mistake of bringing money to school in her purse, and during PE, a girl checked out early and stole the money.Then more serious - a 9th grade boy killed another 9th grade boy execution style (at the base of his neck) with a stolen gun (stolen from another studentâs home) - the shooter was a Pakistani Pediatricianâs son - fortunately DD was at the other end of the school when that happened (she was in 8th grade at the time). When that shooting happened, I was at my absolute worst period of chemo fighting stage III cancer. DD is now a college sophomore and I am 5 years cancer free.
We have a pricey private school in our town (the HS tuition is double what our Catholic HS tuition is), and interestingly, some parents put their kids in enthusiastically in early years, then often phase out into public MS and HS. IMHO, the reverse is what is the best if you have some public school education in the mix.
I also agree @1214mom about the early savings - and using the time value of money to build up the nest egg. There is a book âThe Automatic Millionaireâ by David Bach, which talks about having the money automatically taken out before you have it in your hands (âpay yourself firstâ). We were DINKS for 15 years (dual income no kids) so we did save and build up. Oh, and he talks about SWAN and the SWAN âtestâ (My monthly expenses currently total $_. I currently have $__ saved, This equals ____monthsâ worth of expenses." The book was published in 2004 - I got it used via Amazon.He also had books âSmart Couples Finish Richâ and âSmart Women Finish Richâ.
SOSConcern, As far as you are happy, thatâs what matters most. I agree with 1214mom. I think we went beyond cautioning with good intentions. Maybe itâs like hiring house cleaning staff. I hire them not because I canât but iâd rather not. Partially because itâs a messy work but mainly because Iâd rather not think about it. Just see how much time we spend talking about money! Mine is up 12%, oh no, mine is down 5. Thereâs something germ-y about it, too. Freedom from that, not having to talk about money is worth some penny, too.
@iglooo I totally agree with you - you were able to budget house cleaning and that was important for your quality of life. I had a wonderful lady (MIL of one of my employees) that came in every Friday for 3 hours to clean - reasonable price and trust-worthy; then my job ended and sadly my cleaning help ended too. I always made sure the house was picked up, and it was so nice coming home Friday after work and having a fresh very clean house. House was always guest ready. Now I aspire to that!
This summer I will be spending three weeks in Switzerland - visiting family and friends that I havenât seen since my last trip 18 years ago when I went with my widowed mother (when I was employed and MIL/FIL visited H and helped with our kids that were 2 and 4 at the time). Switzer-Deutsch was my first language - will see if the language brain switch flips like it does every time I am there immersed in the language (donât know if the big time lapse, or all the chemo I had has eroded that). My sister is traveling with me. Many of my relatives are pretty fluent in English, so we will definitely do OK regardless. The nice thing is our biggest expense will be the air travel, because we have most if not all bed and board taken care ofâŠ
I would like to have a trip to Italy, and if possible, visit some places in France, but will wait for retirement and hope my H will want to go - but if not, will definitely be able to find someone who wants to make the trip. H did visit Switzerland with me once, but w/o knowing the language did feel a bit out of the loop - but he has done so much business travel around the world that he is probably not keen in more. Being Catholic, I want to absorb Rome and some other locations in Italy.
It never hurts to play Devilâs Advocate in dealing with oneâs money. Since we are in a political year, there is a quote by Dick Armey âThree groups spend other peopleâs money: children, thieves, politicians. All three need supervision.â
Letâs hope for the best with our Country, and do our best under our own roofs.
Hubby and I own a business. One child wants nothing to do with it, the other thinks she may want to run it one dayâŠshe works for me every summer and break learning different aspects. Sheâs still way too young to be tied to this, and I do want her out in the world working for other companies. I do want her to have her own thing. It puts us in a weird position. Weâre not looking to sell, but it is worth a lot of money. I donât include it in my retirement planning as I have a fear it could just one day fall apart. There are tons of variables. If my d was very serious about wanting it I would delay retirement to get her well trained and I would continue to consult as long as necessary.
Itâs nice that one of your kids has shown an interest in your business. You are right that it does make planning trickier. I guess keep working for now and see how things develop?
I agree with @doschicos post #7985. I would use a fee-only advisor with either a CFA or CFP.
I just finished reading through this lengthy and helpful thread. I wish it had an index (For information on the difference between Medicare A & B, when to file, and how your previous salary affects pricing, see posts # --, â, and â) as Iâm not sure Iâll ever find my way back when I go looking. But I have bookmarked many recommended links and know I will return to re-read posts as retirement planning issues emerge. So this is really just a thanks to all the wonderfully knowledgeable and candid CCâers who have posted here.
We are in the midst of doing some retirement fund rebalancing, setting up an appointment with a Vanguard financial advisor, and attempting to create a budget so we can envision what our expenses are likely to be. It is good to know there are many who have gone through all of these steps and have insight. The budget in particular is daunting as our investment and spending strategy has always been to tuck away the maximum retirement contribution allowed, pay off our mortgage and any other loans asap, and then live frugally on whatever is left over without paying too much attention to details. That is a luxury we can no longer afford if we are going to plan effectively.
It is awesome, isnât it, prof parent. I canât believe you read the whole thingâŠwow.
âpay off our mortgage and any other loans asap, and then live frugally on whatever is leftâ
^^ That is the hardest part and puts you well ahead of the majority of Americans! Even better, you are taking the next steps to insure your financial security. Congrats to you, @profparent.
profparent, thatâs been our strategy. Seems to be working â it enabled us to pay for college for two kids and still save for retirement.
Well, @sax, I have to admit I didnât read it all in one sitting. I spread it out over a few days. Actually, I had started reading it many months ago and then gotten overwhelmed and given up any attempt to get all the way through it, and then watched as more and more posts were added. But I knew I wanted eventually to read through the whole thing, and Iâve been reporting on insights from it to my DH each day in little snippets.
Thanks, @doschicos. We are good about saving and being frugal. But neither one of us is particularly interested in or knowledgeable about investing, and we are daunted by the task of switching from the mindset of simply tucking away everything we can into index funds to actually getting near the point of drawing on that money in a systematic and responsible way.
Good to hear our strategy has worked for you, @CountingDown. I have found this thread quite reassuring in that regard. Many posters have financial philosophies similar to our own, but with more experience.
Medicare A is available at no premium charge for everyone who has paid into it for at least 40 quarters. It can be claimed as soon as you turn 65, and it is recommended you do so. It covers hospitalizations and is generally primary UNLESS you are still working and get insurance from employer, which is primary.
Medicare B needs to be purchased within 8 months of whenever you turn 65 or stop being covered by employerâs insurance to avoid having a lifelong penalty of an extra amount tacked onto your premium for life. It had one rate of about $100 as a base. If your income is above set brackets, it goes up from there.
Medicare B is generally primary and any other policy you have is secondary. You can have premiums deducted from your SS and some pensions automatically or you are billed.
Supposedly if you have both Medicare A&B and a good unsurfaced plan, you rarely need anything else and most companyâs are fully covered. Some folks opt to switch from their insurance plan to a Medicare supplemental plan plus a Medicare D for Rx.
Every state has an executive office on aging in the department of health that can help you understand the options which work best for your situation.
Thatâs about all I understand about Medicare. The claims should go seamlessly first to Medicare and then your insurer, in a perfect world.
Ooh, @HImom, as long as I have you on the subject, let me see if either you or someone else here can answer one or two questions I had about the timing of purchasing Medicare B. I am aware from an earlier post that your salary for two years prior to claiming/purchasing Medicare B affects its cost. But letâs say you are planning on working up to age 65 or so and then moving to half time (with full insurance coverage from the same employer) for 3-5 more years after 65. Should one, in that case, wait to purchase Medicare B until full retirement? Would the half pay for those years bring down its cost? Or does one risk the penalty for not filing for it at 65, if you have filed for Medicare A at that time?