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I’m working to have all of that done before retiring, but I’m older than you. Just don’t want any debt or big upcoming expenses. Fully remodeled the inside of the house last year from the ground up including all new furniture throughout. Starting outside hardscape/landscape now. Last thing we’ll do is get Mrs Smails the car she wants with cash. I’m sure we’ll have surprises later on but taking care of what we know about now
We switched to "unlimited" time off as well - I definitely have taken less vacation days the last two years this has been in effect.
The way the calendar fell this year, that basically blew two weeks of getting anything done. Then we had a major snowstorm right after New Year's that nuked another week of finding available the folks you need.
You never know how things will change in retirement. Two years in we decided to buy a bigger house in a better neighborhood. It is 35 years old and could use a full remodel, but we love the neighborhood. We will do projects slowly to avoid paying taxes all at once on money taken out of investments to fund these projects. One great side effect is that the value of our new home has increased 50% according to Zillow. That is much more than our $$ would have increased in our other investments. This has not effected our other activities in retirement much at all.
I always thought downsizing in a house was the way to go in retirement. I'll do neither for now.
I retired at the end of December. For reference I'm 62, not married, and have no kids - so my workable numbers are going to be different than most. I do have a manageable mortgage with about 2/3 of the home value being equity. I have no other debt.
A couple of things I went through or learned:
1. I just missed the open-market deadline for health insurance and took a COBRA plan that matches the plan I had when working. My problem was my company's EAP either explained COBRA to me incorrectly or I misunderstood. Many thanks to @matttyl here for helping my dumb *** understand how this works. So I'm carrying COBRA until November, then we'll see if I want to switch.
2. If you're gonna sign up to draw SS, leave yourself plenty of time. It'll be basically two months from the time you're submitted to start drawing.
3. Don't try to do this over the holidays
4. My company dragged their feet on letting the company that handles my 401K know that I didn't work there anymore, so I'm still in the process of getting that rolled over to another plan. I think the employer has a certain amount of time to do this and they waited until the last second they could (one of the many joys of working for a multi-billion $$ global company). Anyway, should be resolved by next week.
We down sized ten years ago. Then my wife decided she wanted something with a water view. We can also now walk to the beach instead of drive. Plus she needed more room for her stuff. Much better neighborhood with lots of amenities.
Stuff is the worst. Get rid of it!!
I think they do have to let the 401k know you are no longer an employee. But there isn't any reason and in most cases you don't have to move it to another plan if you are happy with it where it is.I retired at the end of December. For reference I'm 62, not married, and have no kids - so my workable numbers are going to be different than most. I do have a manageable mortgage with about 2/3 of the home value being equity. I have no other debt.
A couple of things I went through or learned:
1. I just missed the open-market deadline for health insurance and took a COBRA plan that matches the plan I had when working. My problem was my company's EAP either explained COBRA to me incorrectly or I misunderstood. Many thanks to @matttyl here for helping my dumb *** understand how this works. So I'm carrying COBRA until November, then we'll see if I want to switch.
2. If you're gonna sign up to draw SS, leave yourself plenty of time. It'll be basically two months from the time you're submitted to start drawing.
3. Don't try to do this over the holidays
4. My company dragged their feet on letting the company that handles my 401K know that I didn't work there anymore, so I'm still in the process of getting that rolled over to another plan. I think the employer has a certain amount of time to do this and they waited until the last second they could (one of the many joys of working for a multi-billion $$ global company). Anyway, should be resolved by next week.
I understand. I want it to be in a place that's more flexible according to my needs and I have one.I think they do have to let the 401k know you are no longer an employee. But there isn't any reason and in most cases you don't have to move it to another plan if you are happy with it where it is.I retired at the end of December. For reference I'm 62, not married, and have no kids - so my workable numbers are going to be different than most. I do have a manageable mortgage with about 2/3 of the home value being equity. I have no other debt.
A couple of things I went through or learned:
1. I just missed the open-market deadline for health insurance and took a COBRA plan that matches the plan I had when working. My problem was my company's EAP either explained COBRA to me incorrectly or I misunderstood. Many thanks to @matttyl here for helping my dumb *** understand how this works. So I'm carrying COBRA until November, then we'll see if I want to switch.
2. If you're gonna sign up to draw SS, leave yourself plenty of time. It'll be basically two months from the time you're submitted to start drawing.
3. Don't try to do this over the holidays
4. My company dragged their feet on letting the company that handles my 401K know that I didn't work there anymore, so I'm still in the process of getting that rolled over to another plan. I think the employer has a certain amount of time to do this and they waited until the last second they could (one of the many joys of working for a multi-billion $$ global company). Anyway, should be resolved by next week.
We’ll “rightsize”. Probably a more expensive place but smaller. We love the neighborhood and location while we have kids in school but priorities change when circumstances change.
The thing that helped out the most was we bought a second home where we planned to retire in a resort community when the prices were down, then rented it out for several years which covered most of the cost of the house. Then we moved there after my wife was offered early retirement. After a few more years I retired and then home prices went up, so we were able to sell and get into a nicer community.
I'm afraid that the wife would go along with her stuff.
I did that once
And half of yours.
Pretty low liquidity, but if you're holding to maturity that shouldn't matter. Does seem like a pretty easy way to build a muni ladder.
If it was 4 years from now I would have seriously considered it
Congrats. You won't regret it.
Yeah, as long as you have a high deductible health plan and aren’t on Medicare yet. Yeah, exactly.
Bad: Will be a huge affect on Feds as many get promoted in their final 5 years or a change in location. Permanent loss of pay percentage.
I knew you'd see it here lol.
Wow. Didn't realize how much this bill supercharges HSAs. Letting you use them for gym memberships too?
x3
This makes me very happy for you JohnnyU
Im seeing fairly low income limits on that increase but maybe high enough for a retiree You seeing differently?
This doesn't really specify what the phase out is I guess: https://www.kff.org/tracking-the-health-savings-accounts-provisions-in-the-2025-budget-bill/
I just saw it in a yahoo article so take that for what its worth. said something like 75k-100k phaseout range for single and 150-200k naturally for couple.
He has been making the podcast rounds about a new book: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-...afe-retirement-withdrawal-rate-180042257.html
Yeah. He’s updated it to be 4.7% now, but otherwise his core principles are largely unchanged.
Yes. But most people in the business acknowledge that you can go over that if you’re flexible. The guardrails might be the best plan. Set 5%, stay between 4-6%. Or use something like 3% for your basic / floor, 1% for extras each year, another 1% for big expenses in good times - big travel, a new vehicle or whatever.
Good article...thx!
Congrats. You won't regret it.
So 6 weeks from surgery? That's pretty good, wife is 8 weeks and pretty much 100%.
