The Medicare folks send H a statement every year so far, “adjusting” his premium based on our most recent tax filing. The amounts for the part B aren’t that much different, based on his income being above the threshold and we don’t begrudge the increased amount. Don’t overthink this and make it tougher than it is.
I’m still too young for SS and Medicare, so am just covered by his private insurance–BC/BS, which provides great coverage so far. He has former coworkers who have opted not to buy Medicare and just have the private insurance, but we figure it’s worth the extra peace of mind.
I am starting to get kind of concerned about the level of aggressive funds we have in our retirement accounts. Virtually no cash. We aren’t planning on pulling anything out for many years (potentially not until we have to, in 17 years), but who knows what’s in store. Just read a philosophy about how we should borrow a huge amount from our creditors for all the projects to get the economy roaring, and if it works-great, and if it doesn’t, we can just declare bankruptcy. No big deal, right? God help us. Kind of makes me want to cash in everything, though obviously that’s not the best approach. Or is it?
@busdriver11, not for nothin’, but a secondary benefit of getting EU citizenship is that we could be immigrants in various countries that aren’t “great again,” but might do just fine for us.
Not being political, but years ago I worked at Bankers Trust, a wonderful place with a very few bad actors that eventually brought it down. We made loans to Pan Am and The Donald, and I asked the parties involved whether we had a burning desire to own Pan Am planes parked in the desert and to get 40 cents on the dollar on our other loan. Both snide predictions came true. Jus’ sayin’.
I don’t think I’m eligible for EU citizenship, but I could get residency in Finland, I think. But it gets so cold there, and Finns can be a little crazy. However, I believe if the US sinks, everyone else does too. We’re such a major piece of the puzzle.
However, didn’t HImom say we could all move to Hawaii? At least we’d be warm.
Did I miss posts about obtaining EU citizenship? Is this a suggested course of action? I started the process for my boys but became bogged down in the paperwork. Should I dig it all back up again?
@CT1417, we are considering retiring to part-year Scotland and part-year Italy. It will quite probably remain a fantasy, but an EU citizenship wouldn’t hurt anything if we stay here, and would be helpful if we move. If it were me, I would dig up the paperwork
@IxnayBob – I think I had visions of college son working there during summers, but it has been enough to find employment locally. I started process when older son was under 18 so had better hurry before younger son hits 18 (different paperwork). Will add to the To Do list!
My number is low, possibly lower than yours, but DW enjoys working, so we’re accumulating in excess of my number (but possibly not in excess of DW’s number). I hope that’s therapeutic.
@IxnayBob, Our family used to have only one number (my number only.) In later years, after we had learned that DW could have her own IRA (because of the lack of retirement account - she does not work outside of home), her number started to go up by $6500 (used to be $6000 or even lower) a year. But her number is still much lower than my number. (DS’s number is far worse – a huge negative number.)
@shawbridge – won’t each person’s number differ based on his current burn rate? I supposed one could develop a number contingent upon moving to Idaho or somewhere…but SFO or NYC COLA being much higher than Idaho’s, I don’t know how to develop a number. (Not trying to be snarky here…)
L.O.L. ! I think the “number” people started talking about was the amount currently in their retirement account, not to be confused with “THE NUMBER” which is the amount of assets you need to comfortably retire into the sunset. When I stopped working in 2007 I didn’t think I had enough total assets to last us (wife and me and any residual needs of 2 boys) forever and ever. Then when the economy tanked in 2008/09 it seemed fairly obvious that our shrunken “number” was less than our “NUMBER”. Now, almost 9 years later and 10,000 Dow points higher, it appears that we will be ok. Total assets (our “number”) is higher now purely due to market forces, we are now much closer to Social Security, and subsidized healthcare hasn’t hurt either, but in the grand scheme, not a game changer.
To me, it is all relative to the amount the person/couple plans to SPEND after “retiring”, as well as any streams of income and future projected expenses. COL in the future factors into future estimated costs.
OK. So the number are the total assets we currently have available for retirement? Whether the number is enough depends, as you guys point out, on a) your spending plans; and b) where you live (since that affects the cost of real estate, nursing homes, etc.). In this case, we have two numbers – post-tax assets and pre-tax assets (e.g., those in DB or IRA or other tax-deferred plans).
