@CountingDown, that’s rough. Between my family and DH’s there is only one sibling on this path. Still horrifying to watch.
My H is sufficiently intimidating that noone has ever asked us for $$. OTOH, they ask my dad, who doesn’t have a lot to spare, and seem to have no compunctions about it. I worry about whether we will have enough long term. (Let’s put it this way: we aren’t funding big weddings or grad school, and we will never have a second home/condo.) DH and I live very low-key lives and other than college for our sons, we are frugal. Our splurge in life is travel, but we use DH’s FF miles, we plan things ourselves and we don’t go crazy.
Most of what we have is in retirement plans and home equity. My medical stuff is a money pit and we have to take that into account now and in the long term, as well as my lost income.
We avoid talking about money stuff with my family. Y’all know more than they do!
Reading this thread makes me feel like we don’t have enough for retirement. But I really think we do.
I have a defined pension plan…and that pension is decent. Let’s just say, it’s $15,000 more right now than my husband will get if he retires at age 70. It’s “value” is like having a million or more in an account (that’s my thinking since 5% of a million is a actually less than what I get). In addition, we have no debt (does a $290 car payment count), a fully paid for house.
Between the two of us, we have five retirement accounts of varying amounts. The total value is seven digits but I’m not sure the exact number. And DH will collect the max SS benefit.
We also have favorable Medicare/supplement coverage. Great coverage, low cost.
And we have savings in addition.
I don’t think we will be in the poor house. Will we be the richest money wise retirees? No. Will we be able to pay our bills? Yes. Can we anticipate every bad thing that could happen? No. But we think we can cover whatever.
Our financial planner calls us frugal, but really I don’t think we are. We have always gotten things we wanted. Yes, we are careful shoppers.
Things we will do before DH retires…get central air and replace boiler at the same time. Get our driveway repaved. Get new mulch on our landscaping.
Whew.
Yes, the Seattle couple and their storage locker! Really what could be in there that is worth spending money on every month when they have nothing left over at the end of each month. I wonder what the plan is for when they will need that stuff or have room for it.
It also seems strange to give an adult child $300 a month towards grad school tuition with so much debt, including student loans, of their own to pay off.
It has been a long time since we were in a situation of having nothing left over at the end of a month…I did not like that one bit, carefully waiting for the paycheck to get deposited before paying the bills, ick. But for us that was a temporary thing while I was staying home with a baby…and then I got a couple of little side jobs, and then spouse’s income increased, and things got easier.
And we were very frugal then.
I would not want to be living that way in my fifties.
Interesting thoughts:
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190930-the-untapped-potential-of-the-longevity-economy
Why are catastrophic plans no longer viable, @CountingDown ?
Because ACA prohibited them for those of us over 30.
“Between the two of us, we have five retirement accounts of varying amounts. The total value is seven digits but I’m not sure the exact number. And DH will collect the max SS benefit.”
@thumper1 - given your frugal ways, you have PLENTY of $$ for retirement, unless you plan on buying a yacht lol, or a grand new house in a hi tax state!
We have a great plan now. The reality is that I still hit the OOP every year, not counting what the insurance doesn’t cover for non-network providers or charges above R&C. Because of my complications, I have to go out of network.
Medicare considers my chemo a Tier 5 med – it’s expensive. We still worry every year if it will be taken off the formulary (on our current insurance or Medicare). At 100+k/year, that is a deal breaker.
There are other medical issues popping up, too. We can budget and manage just fine with our regular expenses and activities based on what we’ll have in retirement. It’s the medical piece that’s a total wild card, and cost/coverage levels going forward are a total cr*p shoot.
@menloparkmom what?? No yacht? ??♀️
Oh well…as long as we can pay our bills, we will be happy. The biggest ticket items are some trips we would like to take.
A Seabourn cruise from Vancouver to Alaska and back to Vancouver, then to LA.
And a several week trip to Australia and New Zealand (at least we have relatives to say with!).
@thumper1, those trips (Alaska and Australia/NZ - I can live without the LA part on that particular trip) are both on my bucket list. Next year my husband turns 60, and he picked to go on a trip to Italy. I turn 60 2 years later, and at least NZ, and probably Australia, will be my birthday trip. It may be our “we are DONE” tour. My husband will likely retire when he turns 62, and I will likely retire when he retires (or before). We have no relatives to stay with though…
We are not taking our good health and physical ability for granted, so we have been doing some travelling. Not at a frantic pace, but deliberate. Just got back from 3 weeks in Hong Kong and Japan which included a strenuous 4 day hike, and immediately booked a river cruise in France for next March with 3 days in Paris before and a week in southern France after. At some point… hopefully in quite a few years, but who knows when, one becomes too old to get around like this.
@1214mom I’m turning 60 next year and I’ve told my H I want to go to Italy. H would like to retire but that isn’t happening so my remedy to his misery is planning more holidays. He can get away if we plan it. I know it isn’t the same for him but I figure it’s at least helpful to get away. We have a 3 night mini trip coming up, followed by a 6 day trip a few weeks later. He has 3 snowboarding trips planned this winter. We have a two week trip already scheduled for next summer and Italy next fall.
I had a nice conversation with a young man I’ve known since he was young. He was telling me about his financial strategy and savings. He mentioned how he questions the financial brains of some people. The people driving Uber in a Range Rover. His thought was that if you have to drive Uber you can’t afford a Range Rover.
This is so not true. For some, UBER is a side hustle, retirees making some cash to buy grandkid a toy and to get out of house.
This is so true seeing my 90 some-year old mother. You can do it but it stops being fun at some point.
I agree. I considered driving Uber in my Tesla Model X, not for the money, but as a way to get out of the house while my wife is at work. It turns out that supervising our home renovation and volunteering fill my days pretty fully, and I decided that screaming at a rider if they spilled coffee in my beloved car wouldn’t be good for my blood pressure :))
If you are Uber-ing in a $100,000 car, you’re not doing much other than earning back the depreciation you are putting on the car.
A side note for those wanting to Uber, primarily as a means to get out and meet people for the fun of it. If finances aren’t the issue, I’d vote for delivering Meals on Wheels. Haven’t done so myself (yet), but know others who have. Very worthwhile cause.
My mom is in her 80s and in her spare time she drives other seniors or younger people with health issues to their doctor’s appts, grocery store, etc.
@doschicos - I had a friend whose mom was instantly popular when she moved into her continuing care facility. She had a car and could drive! My friend said it was akin to be the first one in your friend group to turn 16 and receive your license.
Driving your CCRC friends around has risks - some people need help getting in and out of the car, and a senior driver can’t always provide that help safely. My mom stopped having passengers after another resident, with a passenger, had an at-fault wreck with injuries. Things were pretty ugly.