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Anyone close to retirement? / when do you start counting the days?


Look2Sea
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I will be retiring on December 23, 2016, at the age of 62. My wife will be retiring a few days before me, but she is already signed up for Medicare. I am fortunate enough to have worked for a city government which provides retiree access to health care coverage as part of the over-all employee health benefit pool. Of course, I have to pay the necessary premiums, but at least it is a system I am used to using and I benefit from the city's professional HR department negotiating the package on behalf of several thousand employees each year. However, this will still cost my wife and I almost $1,000.00 per month for comprehensive medical, dental, and pharmacy coverage. Oh well, it beats not having any insurance at all. Happy Cruising! Bob and Linda

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I will be retiring on December 23, 2016, at the age of 62. My wife will be retiring a few days before me, but she is already signed up for Medicare. I am fortunate enough to have worked for a city government which provides retiree access to health care coverage as part of the over-all employee health benefit pool. Of course, I have to pay the necessary premiums, but at least it is a system I am used to using and I benefit from the city's professional HR department negotiating the package on behalf of several thousand employees each year. However, this will still cost my wife and I almost $1,000.00 per month for comprehensive medical, dental, and pharmacy coverage. Oh well, it beats not having any insurance at all. Happy Cruising! Bob and Linda

 

My husband just retired on Oct. 21st but I need to wait till i am 65 for medicare to kick in.:mad: We couldn't afford 1000 a month for healthcare!

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Wow! I had no idea health care premiums were so expensive. The UK National Health Service has it's faults but at least I could afford to retire at 62 with no worries about health care costs

 

It's one of the areas that one can legally discriminate against a person due to age (my take anyway) .... To get insurance for DH & I it was going to cost $2,000 per month (no subsidizing) then before the insurance would pay, our out of pocket (not including meds) had to be $6,000 per year per person.

 

I retired without insurance, the penalty will be a lot less. Also without insurance I only pay approx $40 for a three month supply for meds --- with insurance it was costing approx $240 for three months --- go figure! Jan

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Well I am going to take the PLUNGE around the 9th of December, which is just a few days away, and tell them my last day will be around February 10th. I really love my job, but I don't want to go to Kansas, so guess I will after almost 19 years. I'm not a person to stay at home, so I'm going to have to find something to keep me BUSY. :)

 

Yes, as other's have said, I stayed as long as I did because of the insurance too, as our company has about the best insurance a person can have. My husband has the BC/BS insurance as well through his retirement, but it is not as good as mine (does pay good for dental and prescriptions), so thus, when I retire, Medicare and his insurance will be what we have.

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Insurance is one of the reasons I still work and plan to work for another school year or two. My husband was sick for two years with two different illnesses. He still requires meds and visits to the doctors so insurance is an important factor for me. I also want to pay off our mortgage on our house which is 23 months away.

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Well I have been posting off/off for a few years on here, really NOT wanting to post a date, but the day came on Friday. I took the PLUNGE! As I told my supervisor, it was one of the hardest (putting my mom in a nursing home) things I had ever had to do in my life. She knew (she never pushed/rushed me) I would be telling her eventually, as I did not want to move to KS, and so many people are retiring, or no longer with the company that I started out with almost 19 years ago. Many big differences, which does happen for a very large corporate office, which has facilities all of the USA, and some parts of the world. Anyway, I had given her the date (hopefully the weather holds out, and ONLY the ARTIC air we have to deal with) of February 10th, which she said that was fine with her, and then I said, "But if you need me to stay on a tad more, I will." She then pulled out the calendar, and said, "How about the 24th of February?" This was fine as well, as it is only 2 weeks more, and then I have to get ready for our BIG cruise on March 18th, which is less than a month away.

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Insurance is one of the reasons I still work and plan to work for another school year or two. My husband was sick for two years with two different illnesses. He still requires meds and visits to the doctors so insurance is an important factor for me. I also want to pay off our mortgage on our house which is 23 months away.

 

I've been retired for almost 2 years now. IMHO don't listen to the "experts" that claim paying off your mortgage is dumb. Believe me, there is no better feeling of security than not having a mortgage payment every month. There will be plenty of other things to spend your money on. Seems like every time we leave the house, we spend some money.

 

The tax benefit of your mortgage interest at this point is meaningless, I get the standard deduction and don't spend a dime on mortgage interest.

 

The majority of these retirement experts aren't yet retired. All the best in your planning and retirement

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  • 2 weeks later...

As of end of work day today I have 365 working days left before retirement! That excludes weekends, stat holidays, my anticipated earned days off and a guesstimate of vacation days.

 

Next goal - 180 days.

 

In the meantime I continue to lose a marble each month. The jar is starting to look rather low.

 

Congrats to all who have recently (or will be soon) retiring. The rest of us are both envious and anxious to reach the same goal.

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Retirement is not in my lexicon. Cruising is my break from work and 2018 is the big world trip......by cruising various sectors.

 

Hi,...that sounds exciting. Would you care to share your plans ie by sectors do you mean say Asia, Europe, Caribbean etc ?

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I've been retired for almost 2 years now. IMHO don't listen to the "experts" that claim paying off your mortgage is dumb. Believe me, there is no better feeling of security than not having a mortgage payment every month. There will be plenty of other things to spend your money on. Seems like every time we leave the house, we spend some money.

 

 

 

The tax benefit of your mortgage interest at this point is meaningless, I get the standard deduction and don't spend a dime on mortgage interest.

 

 

 

The majority of these retirement experts aren't yet retired. All the best in your planning and retirement

 

 

When I retired in 2008 the RE market was crashing, could have paid off the house but instead used equity to buy short sales and foreclosures we have 9 rentals and 3 we sold and carry paper on, my house payment is $2350 my net income from or properties is $8000 per month plus $2300 from SS so in our case paying off our house would have cost us $8000 per month in income! Plus all these properties have at least doubled in value!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Edited by goldenrod
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When I retired in 2008 the RE market was crashing, could have paid off the house but instead used equity to buy short sales and foreclosures we have 9 rentals and 3 we sold and carry paper on, my house payment is $2350 my net income from or properties is $8000 per month plus $2300 from SS so in our case paying off our house would have cost us $8000 per month in income! Plus all these properties have at least doubled in value!

You were just in the right place, at the right time...... and having a right mind.

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For me paying off the house (22 payments left) makes the most sense. One less payment to have when I retire. My husband gets SS now because he has been disabled for 11 years. I will get SS and a pension from where I work. Most of the payment now goes to the principal so it is like saving $1,000 a month. Just trying to pay off what I can before I retire so we can be comfortable. I will still work parttime or sub(I am a teacher) to help with the insurance costs.

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Hi Shirley, I haven't been on here for at least a year. Changed phones and never put cruise critic back on until recently and this came up as a favorite. I hope everything is going well for you.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Forums mobile app

 

I have not been on cruise critic much in the last year, just a few posts. Everything is fine. I have a really small class (13 kids) and my partner has the same. My granddaughter started kindergarten at my school this year. She comes home with my every day until her parents and brother come home. We went on a cruise in August with our son in Texas his wife and his 3 boys. We are going to Alaska with my other son and his family in August. In Feb. I will be 65. I will start taking my SS next year when I am 66 so that I am not limited to how much money I can earn. I need to work one more school year to pay off my house. But I would like to do two years if everything works out. My teaching partner is 70 and is retiring at the end of this school year. That's my life of the past year and my goals for the future.

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Hi,...that sounds exciting. Would you care to share your plans ie by sectors do you mean say Asia, Europe, Caribbean etc ?

 

Here is my bucket list. We may have to compromise....but you need to dream big! :)

 

· Leaving Melbourne, Australia early April 2018

· Australia cruise to Hawaii

· Return not before 1st September 2018

· Hawaii 7 day cruise

· Stay Hawaii 10 days-2 weeks

· Cruise to USA West Coast

· Alaskan cruise

· Canadian Rockies Mountaineer train

· North America travel

· Niagra Falls

· Las Vegas

· San Francisco

· New England

· Transatlantic Cunard crossing

· Scandinavian cruise

· River cruise Amsterdam-Budapest

· Hungary long term stay

· Travel through central/eastern Europe

Cruise home to Australia

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Wow,…great list and thank you for sharing.

 

I have similar interests but in the opposite direction ie for late 2018 I was mulling over;

 

Fly from UK to Las Vegas for a few days then onto San Francisco to spend some time there.

Then cruise from Seattle to Sydney via Hawaii and Fiji etc on Explorer of the Seas.

Spend some time in Sydney then take a land tour round New Zealand.

 

We will be visiting Sydney for the first time this April (Voyager of the Seas) so looking forward to that.

 

I agree that we need to dream big as,…who knows,…. it may come off.

 

Other places of interest that are on my ever increasing list but in no particular order are;

 

Antarctica

South America,

Alaska

Vietnam / Asia

 

Thanks again for sharing.

Regards

Ron.

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Here is my bucket list. We may have to compromise....but you need to dream big! :)

 

· Leaving Melbourne, Australia early April 2018

· Australia cruise to Hawaii

· Return not before 1st September 2018

· Hawaii 7 day cruise

· Stay Hawaii 10 days-2 weeks

· Cruise to USA West Coast

· Alaskan cruise

· Canadian Rockies Mountaineer train

· North America travel

· Niagra Falls

· Las Vegas

· San Francisco

· New England

· Transatlantic Cunard crossing

· Scandinavian cruise

· River cruise Amsterdam-Budapest

· Hungary long term stay

· Travel through central/eastern Europe

Cruise home to Australia

 

Good on you!!!...

Hope you do all on your bucket list and more. Travel safe and enjoy.

 

I retired on Oct. 31, 2012 we sold everything home, autos, no storage.

We left MN that day, Then left the USA on Jan. 3, 2013.

Been traveling the world ever since renting vacation homes.

 

Our itinerary for the next 669 days.

http://www.worldwidewaftage.com/2016/10/at-last-our-new-upcoming-updated-669_14.html

 

Tom,

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21 months for me or 653 days to be exact.

 

To be clear I am NOT wishing my life away, far from it, but look on it as an exciting new chapter once this (work) one has been completed.

 

I am still looking at ideas for a trip to celebrate retirement with my DW and also what to do in my spare time. I have a few ideas but will continue to review this in the months ahead. Who knows,... it is still a long way ahead and anything can happen.......

 

Ron.

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