So with my husband’s retirement, he successfully appealed the IRMAA bracket. Yay! However, I paid his bill already this month so I assume they will adjust it, and since it’s retroactive I won’t have to pay any more for many months, until close to the end of the year, it seems. He filed the the appeal for us jointly and married filing jointly, but my IRMAA has not come down yet. Anyone know how long that will take for them to adjust both of our IRMAA amounts and if turnover payments just sit as a credit on his Medicare account? How will they work the amount due back to me since my Medicare premium is paid out of my Social Security?
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I am not retired yet but have a general plan. I am 58. My spouse is the same age. We are both employed professionals. We get the last kiddo out of college in about a month. The next two years, my spouse and I will keep working full time while we track our spending and continue aggressively saving to retirement accounts. We will also make some capital expenditures on the house (resurface pool, paint the house, new roof). We should have a much better idea of exactly when we CAN retire and when we WANT to retire in two years. From 60-65, we plan to reduce work hours gradually but remain employed enough to continue benefits. Hopefully by then, our retirement funds will be sufficient to retire by 65 and then defer SS to 70. I think this plan has about a 25-33% chance of occurring in this fashion. The arrival of grandkids, our children likely living far from us, unforeseen health issues and something changing at work to affect job satisfaction will quite likely hasten full retirement.
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Your story sounds exactly like what I felt too. It’s crazy how work becomes ten times harder right when you need more energy at home for your family. I realized that no salary increase is worth losing your health over endless meetings.
About the fear around the numbers, I went through the same thing. The Excel sheet looked fine, but I still couldn’t sleep at night. What genuinely calmed me down was letting someone from the outside review everything. I worked with Harvest Wealth Partners for a real stress test, not just optimistic numbers.
That gave me the mental “permission” to stop. I hope your husband is feeling better now, health is really all that matters.
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Congratulation! Bet it felt good paying that last tuition check. (I remember that well in our family.) Good idea to start tracking your expenditures. You can probably get a jump start on some categories by looking online at your 2025 credit card report / breakdown. Or just the monthly total average… I’m a fan of simple macro outflow tracking (checks + autopays + VISA + cash), with occassional review of the macro big hitters. Tip - don’t forget to factor in medical insurance and future car purchases.
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Here’s a fun article from retired grandparents…. moving to son/grandkid town, picking a house. In this case, there are three grandchildren under age 10 in that town. I can certainly see how in other cases becoming new grandparent is what convinces a couple to retire.
So I actually did guess correctly which of the houses they picked 
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My husband retired in his early 40s. He had a great job, got in in the early days of an industry and was able to take advantage of generous compensation and stock. He also had a hobby/second career he wanted to pursue that has been rewarding, if not very lucrative.
I went back to work PT when the kids were in school because intellectually I needed to.
While we did all sorts of projections, I don’t think anyone anticipated the enormous increase in healthcare (and college tuition) over the years.
My salary, small as it is, has become vital to supplementing the investments we thought we’d live on. Our health insurance is over $2000/month for a basic bronze plan with a $10k deductible.
Our kids are requiring more assistance than we were at their age, with education, mental health costs, supplementing after layoffs (thank you COVID) etc.
Again, I realize we are extremely lucky, but I say often if I took at job at Trader Joe’s for the benefits, I’d probably net more money in the end. But I love my job, so I am sticking with it.
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Wonderful attitude. To roll with the punches and to pivot when needed and still feel very fortunate.
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Met with my Chair two weeks ago to tell her I wanted to retire at the end of August (short of the 6 months notice required but so burned out from the increased teaching load). She got back to me today and said no, and said they want me to stay till December 20*27*. And also would I be willing to move out of my office for a new hire (a Chair)? They’d move me to another good one. So frustrated. Trying to stay cool.
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This is awful. Probably part of the reason you are ready to go. They can get you for not giving 6 months I guess, but to ask you to stay for another year and a half and give up your space….TONE DEAF.
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Agree. Trying to breathe deep and not react. I hadn’t even realized until researching retirement this March that they have to agree to early retirement. Going to try to meet with HR this week and find out my options.
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Can they force you to continue to work? Is this a union position? If so, contact the union rep. In so many places, they are thrilled to see higher paid, senior employees leave so they can hire newbies at a lower salary.
I hope this works out for you.
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I didn’t think indentured servitude was a thing anymore. Wow! I can see them flexing and insisting that you work the full six months, which would mean you’d need to stay through the fall term … but an entire additional year?? Just no.
I guess I don’t understand how they can even “make” you stay the six months. Do they have the ability to reduce your pension if you don’t? Otherwise, what is the penalty for noncompliance? If you aren’t planning to teach elsewhere, what power do they hold over an employee?
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That is what I thought. They can replace my teaching at a much lower cost than they pay me. However, the university recently announced that they will be replacing faculty at a rate of 1 for every 2 retirees. We are already understaffed so I think it is more that the Chair doesn’t think they will replace me. The Chair has a sessional teaching budget which is fully committed so she does not benefit if I retire. However, it is possible if I meet with the Dean that the Dean will see the bigger picture since professor salaries are in her budget. Not sure if she would override the Chair but seems like they could reach a compromise and let me retire and allocate additional sessional money to cover my courses.
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Pension is reduced if you retire early, which I had already worked out. But they have to agree to an early retirement plan. I have to meet with HR to find out what the consequences are if I refuse to stay as long as they want.
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When manager wants you to stay longer they usually would offer you a good package to stay, but I have never heard of a firm to make you stay longer than you want.
A good friend recently gave notice about retirement and the date was going to be May 1. They have already gave her a going away party and presents, but a new boss showed up and asked her to stay until end of year. She said she wanted to work out more and play golf in the summer. The boss said she could play golf during the day if she were to give them a schedule 2 weeks ahead, and no matter what happens she would get a full year bonus and salary until end of 2026. She agreed to it because it was a good deal for her.
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That just blows my mind. I am sorry that you are dealing with this when you should be able to sail off into the sunset.
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Lucky for her. Much different situation in higher education these days. It’s quite the s_ _t show.
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That’s a shame. She works in finance with a fairly senior position.
@ProfandParent, why don’t they expect quiet quitting or malicious compliance? You stay the extra year but phone it in?
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They should expect that, even if it’s not what I want to do, because I am burned out. They are getting remnants.
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