Roll call unretired! What is your timeline? Contingencies??

[cronewitch]

I retired almost 10 years ago and the stock market is interesting to watch. No way to know what returns will be or losses but the amounts of gains or loses per day are amazing. I lost in 2022 but gain most years. A lot is emotional and learning to control your emotions. I gained about $10K today does that mean go shopping? I am up about 133K YTD, but it really isn't spending money.

Don't worry too much about retirement money. Worry some, just not too much. Save enough to get away from poverty then live on whatever you get. Try to fix your lifestyle to survive on income you can count on then use other income for enhancements to lifestyle like vacations.

I took SS at 70 so get about 3 times my mortgage and could maybe live on it with no other income. If you are even close you will be fine. If markets were flat for your entire retirement you can nibble at the principal then refinance the house or reverse mortgage or sell.
If you have a net worth of equity of 400K and savings of 600K you could draw out a couple thousand a month forever even with no growth. Six hundred thousand should earn at least $30K a year but even if it earns $10K a year you can draw a couple thousand forever even with inflation.

[bean29]

I took some time to do a few longevity quizes.  Short one, 96, longer one 92--which would be 33 more years.  As my Mother has dementia/Alzheimer's, I would rather not live that long.  I told my DS, I better work another 10 years.  Idk.  We will see.  i am kind of counting on my DH working longer, but he is afraid they will pull the run out from underneath him.  I roughly had been planning to work until I am 65 so I at least qualify for Medicare.  I am 60 in January.  DH is a year younger.  I figured I was willing to buy insurance for one year.  

No Pension, just our savings and our Rentals.  I guess I better step up the game on exercise, sleeping, and brain challenges like crossword puzzles etc.

SS table says about 24 more years, but my Mom is older than that RN, so that is estimating low, imho.

So, I guess I really don't need to redo the entire inside of my house.  I might need the $$ later on.

[CCL]

Oct 9, 2023 12:03:11 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Oct 8, 2023 20:44:05 GMT -5 CCL said:

1 can live cheaper than 2. 

huh? not on a per person basis. If the budget for a similar house and lifestyle was 50k for the single and 75k for the couple. Yes the single person is cheaper for the household, but the couple is 37.5k/per person, which is cheaper.

and only one person was accumulating assets. Plus doing all the household cleaning, maintenance, child care, etc. or paying for those serrvices. One person working FT is oftenThe single person has fewer resources of both time and money for the same household.

That said - it does beat being married to a spendthrift.....

No. I didn't mean per person. If I were single, I could easily live on less. I could move to a little 2 bedroom place and be fine.

I don't eat much, so my grocery bill would drop. I'd save on utilities. Water and sewer would drop, for sure. I'd only need 1 car.

Health insurance coverage would be half what it is now.

As far as when to collect SS, it really depends on the individual and what other income and assets they have. If you don't have much in that regard, it might be preferable to wait, especially if you are able to keep working, so you will get a higher payment later. Not me though, I'd rather have it sooner, while I'm still healthy enough to enjoy it.

[countrygirl2]

We are looking at some of this now, I quit work years ago, didn't retire because of taking care of mom at the time and DD. Also had rentals to work on so did that, hubs worked to age 69 to increase SS, it was well worth while. I took mine at 62, don't do that, the cut is a lot and I have regretted ever since. Hubs tried to get me to wait. But I had been used to having a paycheck and hadn't for several years and just couldn't stand not having one.

But now we are facing hubs situation of prostrate cancer. He had his sonogram for his heart,  it is strong.
Friday he gets a PMSA done to see if the cancer is in his bones or lymph glands. The biopsy on the tumor had 8 samples take, each was cancerous. The doctor said he didn't think it was in his bones. We will get the results Monday. He is already scheduled for surgery on the 24th.  He and I are both 77, he has been pretty healthy, but dementia runs in his moms family. She died from it after 10 years, her sister has it and a brother, her mom had it. and hubs thinks his great grandmother did too so we are concerned about that. So far he is ok.

No cancer of dementia in either side of my family far as I know. 

We have a nice sum of money tucked away. And over the next year will be selling another rental and our house, we have already sold 4. From the last 2 we estimate adding another $480k or so to our savings.

We aren't sure what we are going to do yet, likely depends on his diagnosis next week. We have a small place a modular we bought in March in Washington close to our son. I and he at times were going to summer there and I did this summer. We are going to wait and see if we are going to buy another nice house or just live in it. We haven't decided for sure yet. DD and I should be fine if he doesn't make it for long. I do worry about the money going for him if he gets dementia.  But I'm not sure what his life expectancy might be.  From the SS tables right now its 88 for me and 86 for him. But my dads family is long lived. My aunts lived into their late 90's with some making it to 100. 

So right now we are facing just that our mortality. I don't think we will run out of money, as we aren't huge spenders, but who knows Things could change. Oh and I am still taking care of our DD age 52 with Williams syndrone, so soon I will be caring for 2 again. How long that will be I don't know yet, right now for several weeks. We will see after his surgery what they think.

So very up in the air right now.

Night all, doc appts tomorrow, tele med for me and in person for DD. So later all.

[minnesotapaintlady]

Oct 10, 2023 20:21:18 GMT -5 CCL said:

Oct 9, 2023 12:03:11 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

huh? not on a per person basis. If the budget for a similar house and lifestyle was 50k for the single and 75k for the couple. Yes the single person is cheaper for the household, but the couple is 37.5k/per person, which is cheaper.

and only one person was accumulating assets. Plus doing all the household cleaning, maintenance, child care, etc. or paying for those serrvices. One person working FT is oftenThe single person has fewer resources of both time and money for the same household.

That said - it does beat being married to a spendthrift.....

No. I didn't mean per person. If I were single, I could easily live on less. I could move to a little 2 bedroom place and be fine.

I don't eat much, so my grocery bill would drop. I'd save on utilities. Water and sewer would drop, for sure. I'd only need 1 car.

Health insurance coverage would be half what it is now.

As far as when to collect SS, it really depends on the individual and what other income and assets they have. If you don't have much in that regard, it might be preferable to wait, especially if you are able to keep working, so you will get a higher payment later. Not me though, I'd rather have it sooner, while I'm still healthy enough to enjoy it.

I suppose, if your spouse brought in zero retirement income I could see it.  But usually it also means half the income to live off of and half the standard deduction on taxes.  In a divorce situation it would mean the savings got cut in half too.

Also, if your spouse was a big spender and spending down more than his/her "share".  I mean, there's no reason a couple couldn't live in a little 2 bedroom place either. 

[azucena]

Coincidental timing - society of actuaries just news blasted their longevity calculator. Quick as it asks for smoking and general health. I put no and average. I have 70% prob of living to 85

www.marketwatch.com/story/how-many-more-years-will-you-live-heres-how-to-make-an-educated-guess-38e2e68?mod=search_headline&utm_medium=email&utm_source=rasa_io&utm_campaign=newsletter

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Oct 10, 2023 15:52:01 GMT -5 cronewitch said:

I retired almost 10 years ago and the stock market is interesting to watch. No way to know what returns will be or losses but the amounts of gains or loses per day are amazing. I lost in 2022 but gain most years. A lot is emotional and learning to control your emotions. I gained about $10K today does that mean go shopping? I am up about 133K YTD, but it really isn't spending money.

Don't worry too much about retirement money. Worry some, just not too much. Save enough to get away from poverty then live on whatever you get. Try to fix your lifestyle to survive on income you can count on then use other income for enhancements to lifestyle like vacations.

I took SS at 70 so get about 3 times my mortgage and could maybe live on it with no other income. If you are even close you will be fine. If markets were flat for your entire retirement you can nibble at the principal then refinance the house or reverse mortgage or sell.
If you have a net worth of equity of 400K and savings of 600K you could draw out a couple thousand a month forever even with no growth. Six hundred thousand should earn at least $30K a year but even if it earns $10K a year you can draw a couple thousand forever even with inflation.

So great to see you posting, crone!!!

Glad to hear you weathered the financial market of late and still in good shape. You were always such an inspiration to other single women on the board!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Oct 11, 2023 7:46:52 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Oct 10, 2023 20:21:18 GMT -5 CCL said:

No. I didn't mean per person. If I were single, I could easily live on less. I could move to a little 2 bedroom place and be fine.

I don't eat much, so my grocery bill would drop. I'd save on utilities. Water and sewer would drop, for sure. I'd only need 1 car.

Health insurance coverage would be half what it is now.

As far as when to collect SS, it really depends on the individual and what other income and assets they have. If you don't have much in that regard, it might be preferable to wait, especially if you are able to keep working, so you will get a higher payment later. Not me though, I'd rather have it sooner, while I'm still healthy enough to enjoy it.

I suppose, if your spouse brought in zero retirement income I could see it.  But usually it also means half the income to live off of and half the standard deduction on taxes.  In a divorce situation it would mean the savings got cut in half too.

Also, if your spouse was a big spender and spending down more than his/her "share".  I mean, there's no reason a couple couldn't live in a little 2 bedroom place either. 

that's a good point - to make apples to apples need the same level of accommodation. Saying a single person is in an apt and a couple in a house doesn't line up for comparisons. A couple could even live in a studio apt together - lots do! Although usually starting out rather than at retirement, but they could if they wanted or needed to,

Also - even in the event of a SAHS, they get their own ss of 50% of their spouses, don't they? 

So if a single person had a particular lifesytle - house/apt, certain neighborhood, etc. adding in another person to that would be added food, some increase in utilities, and then whatever movie tix, airfare, etc. for vacays or other entertainments. Base housing of either rent, mortgage, taxes, etc would be constant.

[soupandstew]

I know this thread was addressed primarily to those approaching retirement, but as one retired for 22 years I just want to recommend resiliency - resiliency in thought, planning, strategy, investment.  DH and I ran all the calculators, all the scenarios, but there was no possible way to foresee housing bubbles, energy sector crashes, inflationary pressures, health challenges, all that and much more.  During your 20-30-40 years of retirement, many things will change in ways no amount of planning can predict so stay flexible.  Don't lock in investments, don't make irrevocable decisions, don't assume today's reality will be tomorrow's  - it simply won't be. 



 

[laterbloomer]

Oct 10, 2023 15:52:01 GMT -5 cronewitch said:

I retired almost 10 years ago and the stock market is interesting to watch. No way to know what returns will be or losses but the amounts of gains or loses per day are amazing. I lost in 2022 but gain most years. A lot is emotional and learning to control your emotions. I gained about $10K today does that mean go shopping? I am up about 133K YTD, but it really isn't spending money.

Don't worry too much about retirement money. Worry some, just not too much. Save enough to get away from poverty then live on whatever you get. Try to fix your lifestyle to survive on income you can count on then use other income for enhancements to lifestyle like vacations.

I took SS at 70 so get about 3 times my mortgage and could maybe live on it with no other income. If you are even close you will be fine. If markets were flat for your entire retirement you can nibble at the principal then refinance the house or reverse mortgage or sell.
If you have a net worth of equity of 400K and savings of 600K you could draw out a couple thousand a month forever even with no growth. Six hundred thousand should earn at least $30K a year but even if it earns $10K a year you can draw a couple thousand forever even with inflation.

Wow time flies! I can't believe you've been retired 10 years already! It's great to see you 😀

[Rukh O'Rorke]

wow - something totally unrealted led me to checking the ancestry.com entry on my maternal grandmother's maiden name........

And at the bottom of the page they had a graph with average life expectancy. It only went up to 2004 but showed that people with that last name lived about 20 years longer than the general population on average. That seems.......crazy! Since I don't have a registered user with ancestry....wondering if it is a phoney sample graph? But my mind is kind of reeling right now....

[Rukh O'Rorke]

looked up maternal grandfather's name, fathers name, and smith.....all relatively average lifespans. Wierd!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

here is the link for smith, if anyone wants to check it out.

can go to the url and just take out smith and put in the name you interested in to check on yours...

www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=smith

[seriousthistime]

Oct 8, 2023 11:16:01 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

Oct 8, 2023 8:22:23 GMT -5 movingforward said:

Everyone's situation is different but I can't wrap my head around not taking SS as soon as I possibly can. The average lifespan is around 76, and 90% of my relatives died before the age of 72. If they had waited until 70 to start collecting they would have received very little. Dad is my only older relative still alive at 76 and in good health. He started collecting at 62 and said he has never regretted it.

Wrong way of looking at it. The older you are, the longer you will likely live. Make 60, and life expectancy is late 70’s. Make 70, life expectancy is 83. Make 80, it is 88. And remember, 50% of people live longer.

Americans seriously underestimate how long they will likely live. If you wait to claim and you die early you leave money on the table. If you claim early and live a long time you could be in a serious problem if your savings are not adequate. Which situation is riskier?

pulmonarymd, I want to thank you for starting this discussion. We here on YMAM are pretty good at figuring out various financial scenarios, but figuring out whether our money will last during our lifetime was a missing key element.  

It's not perfect, but financial projections aren't perfect either. 

I did three longevity calculations and got 84, 88, and 89.  I have one aunt on my dad's side who died two weeks before she turned 100, another who died at age 94, a grandmother who died at age 94, and an aunt on the other side who died at 92.  My dad died suddenly at age 44.  His oldest son died suddenly at age 54.  My younger brother and sister have recovered from heart attacks and strokes. I've so far been able to avoid all the bad stuff. I worked until age 69, collected SS at 70, and have always been flummoxed when assessing longevity because my family history is all over the map.

When I bought my house a year ago, I specifically wanted a single-story house to be able to age in place for the longest time possible.  I was hoping for 20 years in this place.  It was just a wild-ass guess. The longevity calculations indicate my time frame may be somewhat accurate. 

[Rukh O'Rorke]

welp - my mother has officially become a centenarian! She is settling into assisted living now after living on her own at home until about 2 months ago. Now I am grappling with do I need to plan to live past 100? pretty daunting! My mother was doing pretty poorly but has bounced back and is doing really well, getting stronger. She might do another decade!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

as far as contingencies goes - the only thing I can come up with is saving up 3 or more years in cash and then quit and hope for the best! If market gets good before I save it all up, sell out some stocks to get to the 3 years....and delaying soc sec til 70 to get the most out of it if I can.....

[laterbloomer]

Oct 22, 2023 18:24:58 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

as far as contingencies goes - the only thing I can come up with is saving up 3 or more years in cash and then quit and hope for the best! If market gets good before I save it all up, sell out some stocks to get to the 3 years....and delaying soc sec til 70 to get the most out of it if I can.....

How does the equity from your house fit in your plans? Depending on my health, if I get to 90 I plan on selling my house or getting a reverse mortgage to subsidize my income.

[TheOtherMe]

Oct 22, 2023 18:22:17 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

welp - my mother has officially become a centenarian! She is settling into assisted living now after living on her own at home until about 2 months ago. Now I am grappling with do I need to plan to live past 100? pretty daunting! My mother was doing pretty poorly but has bounced back and is doing really well, getting stronger. She might do another decade!

Congrats to your mom.  One of my aunts and uncles went to assisted living when they decided to retire from farming and he wanted to sell the farm.

They tried to take all of their furniture, which did not work.  My aunt was very hard of hearing and had the beginnings of macular degeneration when they moved.  They even got to take the dog.  

My aunt was older but my uncle died at age 97.  By then she was totally blind, so moved to the nursing home side.  They kept her going until she was 104.  

I think part of it is they eat better when they don't have to prepare their own meals.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Oct 22, 2023 19:13:22 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

Oct 22, 2023 18:24:58 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

as far as contingencies goes - the only thing I can come up with is saving up 3 or more years in cash and then quit and hope for the best! If market gets good before I save it all up, sell out some stocks to get to the 3 years....and delaying soc sec til 70 to get the most out of it if I can.....

How does the equity from your house fit in your plans? Depending on my health, if I get to 90 I plan on selling my house or getting a reverse mortgage to subsidize my income.

I guess it is a contingency if need be. Would prefer to pass it down, but want to turn it over to someone when I am about 85 or so. If I need the money, obviously I will sell instead.

My mother will likely be exhausting her estate for her later life care. I was looking into trying to keep her house in the family, but it is just not possible. As one piece of this, my mother's senior freeze on property taxes will go away. She is paying a few hundred a year (as she has been a senior in the home for 35 years!), next door neighbors with same house (but super fixed up) are paying 20k. Based just on location she will be paying at least 12-15k I think.

Parents paid 20k for the house in 74. Now there are several teardown with mini mcmansion replacements on the block going for 1.5 million. Redfin says her house worth about 525k - but I think it will be lower for an asis sale.

Her assisted living is costing nearly 7k/month and her income from soc sec and pension is only 2.5k. She had about 75k in the bank at the start. We paid 2k to one assisted living place and then they rejected her for the placement, non-refundable fee. She was in the hospital for about a week, then went to rehab. Medicare paid for a while but the last week or so was private pay at 440/day while we lined up the assisted living. This one had a 5k non refundable fee, so was well over 10k to let her walk in the door. Her liquid funds will not last much longer at a 4k+ burn per month.

Still need some conversations with the family on how long funds will last, what we going to do with house - emptying out, etc. That is going to be a lot of work! I definitely plan to quit my house while I am still able to actively close it out and sort through my own stuff. I was to pick out a nice complex where I can go from ind to assisted to nursing care seemlessly along the say - and I don't want one of those "buy in" situations, but a monthly rent that will take the medicaid if I go indigent after 15 years.....

[minnesotapaintlady]

Oct 23, 2023 11:10:03 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Still need some conversations with the family on how long funds will last, what we going to do with house - emptying out, etc. That is going to be a lot of work! I definitely plan to quit my house while I am still able to actively close it out and sort through my own stuff. I was to pick out a nice complex where I can go from ind to assisted to nursing care seemlessly along the say - and I don't want one of those "buy in" situations, but a monthly rent that will take the medicaid if I go indigent after 15 years.....

I've started this already.  I really want to get to minimalist lifestyle in the next decade or so, so that my kids will have it easy, but it's been slow going.  My aunt that turned 70 this year had a ton of crap and has been having huge garage sales unloading all the collections that seemed important to have at one point in life...which I'm grateful for since I'm the executor of her estate. 

If your mom sells her house for 500K or so she should be set for assisted living for more than a decade.  My house is my long-term care plan as well. 

[plugginaway22]

That book... The art of Swedish Death Cleaning was so motivating. I really need to read it again.

[debthaven]

Congrats to your mom Rukh O'Rorke ! 

[minnesotapaintlady]

Oct 23, 2023 15:11:27 GMT -5 plugginaway22 said:

That book... The art of Swedish Death Cleaning was so motivating. I really need to read it again.

My first thought....I'm totally going to get that!   Then I cringed thinking "more clutter". 

Maybe I'll compromise and get it on Kindle or check if the library has it.

eta: Library has it.  I put in a request for them to pull it for me.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Oct 23, 2023 11:22:29 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Oct 23, 2023 11:10:03 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Still need some conversations with the family on how long funds will last, what we going to do with house - emptying out, etc. That is going to be a lot of work! I definitely plan to quit my house while I am still able to actively close it out and sort through my own stuff. I was to pick out a nice complex where I can go from ind to assisted to nursing care seemlessly along the say - and I don't want one of those "buy in" situations, but a monthly rent that will take the medicaid if I go indigent after 15 years.....

I've started this already.  I really want to get to minimalist lifestyle in the next decade or so, so that my kids will have it easy, but it's been slow going.  My aunt that turned 70 this year had a ton of crap and has been having huge garage sales unloading all the collections that seemed important to have at one point in life...which I'm grateful for since I'm the executor of her estate. 

If your mom sells her house for 500K or so she should be set for assisted living for more than a decade.  My house is my long-term care plan as well. 

I hope so! I don't think we'll get 500 for it, then there's going to be expenses for the selling and income taxes. I'm assuming she doesn't get the double exemption since my dad has been dead 10 years? 

even at 500k in cash - rich dead broke has the money running out in ~7 years, (WR initially was 10.4% so unexpected. putting money into bonds was slightly better....and who knows how much the costs will go up year to year....

But we'll see what happens. If we get an offer of like 300k for the house, not sure what to do!

[Pink Cashmere]

Oct 23, 2023 11:22:29 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Oct 23, 2023 11:10:03 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Still need some conversations with the family on how long funds will last, what we going to do with house - emptying out, etc. That is going to be a lot of work! I definitely plan to quit my house while I am still able to actively close it out and sort through my own stuff. I was to pick out a nice complex where I can go from ind to assisted to nursing care seemlessly along the say - and I don't want one of those "buy in" situations, but a monthly rent that will take the medicaid if I go indigent after 15 years.....

I've started this already.  I really want to get to minimalist lifestyle in the next decade or so, so that my kids will have it easy, but it's been slow going.  My aunt that turned 70 this year had a ton of crap and has been having huge garage sales unloading all the collections that seemed important to have at one point in life...which I'm grateful for since I'm the executor of her estate. 

If your mom sells her house for 500K or so she should be set for assisted living for more than a decade.  My house is my long-term care plan as well. 

My house is not worth as much as either of the houses you all are talking about, but it is my ace too. I would really like for my children to inherit it, but if it doesn’t work out that way because something happens and I am taking care of me, that’s just how it’s going to be. 

[TheOtherMe]

Most likely your mom isn't going to live 7 more years.  That would be 107.

My house equity is my nursing home plan, too.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Sept 29, 2023 15:00:37 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

ok....I'm feeling a bit of a shift in my mindset....I just went into my 401k and directed all new money into the liquid fund. Prior contributions are in 50% small/midcap, 40% large cap/sp500, and 10% international....so pretty aggressive. Will leave those funds there, just changing where new money is going. Current balance is a bit below 200k there.

I'm having a hard time sticking with this! 4 weeks later, sp500 is down 2% and a group of frat brothers in the back of my head are gathered around a keg chanting:

stocks! stocks! stocks!
 
Sticking with the cash right now, but as the market goes down, the chanting gets louder.....I guess that's ok! I'll play it by ear....and if at some point I switch back tto 100% stocks in this account, it will be a good move - think a 10% decline, I put my allocations back to stocks, at 20% decline, I'll also cash out the cash position and go all in....

So I still don't have a real contingency to retire into a down market! I guess because I can't

[resolution]

I am retiring in December, but we will keep contributing to retirement accounts as long as my husband is still working. Otherwise I would be pretty upset at the market downturn right as I retire.

I should actually receive a small lump sum in my final check, since they will be paying out my annual and sick leave balances. That was supposed to be going into a money market fund, but I am tempted to throw it into stocks while the market is down. My bonds and international funds have been tanking worse than the domestic market, so my asset allocation is all screwed up.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

wish I got sick time payout! I have 5 weeks right now, and with all the holidays and vacation days I need to take or lose before Dec 31....I can't take any extra time off unless super sick. I will get 2 more weeks Jan 1st and be up to 7 weeks sick time. Seems I use about 1 week per year. Need to step that up...I've been trying to, but whenever I am actually sick there seems to be some work crisis I just have to take care of.....

will try harder in 2024. More mental health days!!

[debthaven]

Rukh O'Rorke is there any way they might agree to pay out a week or two? Is it worth asking?