We all have been taking a great ride on the stock market. I am sure Dad II is getting great advice from his private banker, but I would diversify your portfolio. The interesting thing is I have two accounts with my bank, one is managed account and another is managed by me. I am doing much better than the managed account, but I guess they are better hedged and I am more aggressive.
My mother needs more than 20K/year and she is very frugal. She takes 2 trips a year and does not pay more than 2K/trip. She has no expensive hobby and really think twice before she buys any new clothes. She does have a large house with high utility bills and 15K property tax. She thought about moving after my father passed away, but we convinced to stay because she is very comfortable at the house. I just recently put some of her money in a guaranteed annuity. She could additional cashflow without having to touch the principal.
My DH has talked about retiring early, but (a) if we ever considered moving to be closer to our kids, we would not be able to get a mortgage if we wanted one with no source of active income, and (b) The bigger concern is access to health insurance. I have not followed the ACA thread so donāt know the answer to this (can someone help please?) If someone has no active income,can they get any subsidies or would they qualify for medicaid? That seems wrong to me as Medicaid should be for those truly in need, not just those without an active income. Does passive income count? How does this work? This is one of my biggest concerns if he retires early.
The alternative would be a private individual or family plan, and they are probably expensive. This Is my biggest concern if he retires early, as there is no continued healthcare option for retirees from his employer (few offer that these days). What do people who retire early do for healthcare insurance, and what are the pricepoints?
Very impressive, Dad II. I am not that familiar with the whole college financial aid process, but maybe you could share some tips for others about how you have done SO well financially and yet did great getting aid for your kids for college. That process always puzzles me.
That college cost issue really does make a difference in retirement planning. If you do not pay for your kids college retirement savings sure are easier.
I would either have no mortgage or an extra $150k in savings if I did not layout $110,000 between 2008-2012 and my costs were on the low end of what many spend.
It would be great if you two could stop harassing DadII. It is really not necessary to bring in baggage from other threads into this one. We just donāt want to hear it. Please just let it go.
Supporting those truly in need without throwing it in their face, which is offensive, seems like a reasonable thing to do. That is all. And reading the responses and likes, seems there are several who agree.
So back to the question of insurance. This is a true concern that challenges the retirtement discussion in our home. Does someone know haw private insurance would work for a family with no active income?
When I retire my wife and I plan to cut back on our pets- less dogs. We spend a lot of money on our dogs in terms of vet bills. For some reason the cats have always been way less costly.
I love our dogs but these will be the last set we have.
I agree about the dogs. I love mine so much and donāt know how I will survive when something happens to one of them, but I know itās around the corner. I hope itās just a really long block. But they are a lot of work and money. When we travel, it is really expensive to get someone to take care of them. We have paid up to $700 a month for that, and just canāt afford to do that in retirement, as weād like to travel. Iām thinking that maybe when we get to the years where we donāt want to go anywhere, weāll get a couple more, because they are so loving and comforting. Iām kind of scared of cats. They seem unpredictable, and sometimes they are so snobby.
I desperately miss our cavalier, but I donāt miss the responsibilities of having a dog, with the vet, grooming, boarding costs described by busdriver and tom. ITs a tough balance. Having a pet is wonderful, and DH is allergic to cats so thats not an option (DSās fiancee is allergic to dogs so couldnāt get another anyway), but I miss him. He added great value to our lives. That said, the trips the the cardiologist specialist 2 hrs away was time consuming and costly. But he was worth it.
I think they are so expensive because we love them. I see other people with dogs that do not have the costs we do. Our attitude is that if you bring them into your family you need to care for them to the best of your ability even if that means you sacrifice other things. Many people do not see it the same way and would never spend on the medical needs of their pets like we do. I understand where they are coming from but I could not do it so we are best not getting more dogs.
This is an internet forum. There are no āvictimsā here. If reading something here causes you actual pain, you are too sensitive to be on the internet.
I donāt care whether you agree or disagree, or think someone is lying, or whatever. A post like this:
adds exactly NOTHING to the topic of this thread, and is clearly intended to harass.
I think when my girls go, at least I will still have the vision that in my later years, there will be one or two in my life. Hopefully ones without health problems, but thatās hard to predict. Maybe several years from now, you will end up getting another. I know this sounds morbid, but I think if I was given my choice of how to die, it would involve a peaceful death (obviously) while being snuggled by two cavaliers on my couch.
Anyone can buy insurance from either the ACA exchange or from a private plan. Income is not needed, only money.
If your income (modified adjusted gross income, includes both earned and investment (passive income)) is below a certain amount, you get subsidies. If it is too low (below 133% poverty level) I believe you can go on Medicaid for free.
Private plans may be a better deal if you donāt qualify for subsidies, but you would have to research the individual policies.
I havenāt seen anything definitive about whether Roth distributions will count in your MAGI as far as subsidies go. Might be another good reason to have a Roth if you want to retire early.
Thanks, notrichenough. I find the whole thing very confusing. I thought Iād read somewhere that the subsidized plans were based only on earned income (apparently I am remembering wrong) and if you had no earned income you were pushed towards medicaid. Hoping DadII is also considering the cost of healthcare in his budget. If he happens to work for an employer who will offer health insurance to retirees, he has again hit the jackpot.
DocT, I have forwarded that article to many people I know. However, it needs to be clarified that MO has since span off many of their businesses since 1968.
To grow total net worth is one thing, to have stable income is another. High net worth does not buy you food. High dividend stocks from good companies such as MO, CAT, etc give you both. They have grown their dividends at about 8~ 10% lately. The only short coming is that there are no very tax efficient. That is my next area of learning.
I am going to seriously check out those stocks next week. Since my little account is a Roth, the tax efficiency doesnāt matter to me. It seems the high dividend/return stocks are the ones to put in a Roth.
Note your income for this purpose includes untaxed SS income and untaxed interest income, and taxable IRA distributions. No mention of non-taxable IRA distributions.
Wow, CC should start to pay me since I bring so many new posts ever single time. LOL
Roman, if you show me your monthly spending, I will be able to help you. I canāt disclose how we are doing it. That will be twisted and then throw on my face 20 years from now.
Also, please remember I did not say we could live on $20K a year for ever. There are several things we enjoy now but will not be here forever.
Thanks, notrichenough. I am not good at understanding/deciphering all that, but it looks like dividend income is included. Iāll print that table for DH, thanks. Then again, itāll bring up this retirement discussion again! I am semi retired (yay!) and on year 2. of it. We are looking at how thats affected our cashflow, etc, and given how well the market has done this year, and a nice bonus, we were able to not touch any savings. We are fortunate that he is very good with the stock market, and is trying to teach the boys about this. His (DHās) stock investment group looked into buying MO, but they all voted it down on ethical reasons (wouldnt buy a cigarette stock, oneās parent was dying of lung CA, etc). Fortunately there are many other good stocks out there, though not many pay such strong dividends
This maybe an internet forum, but I would say a lot of us know each other IRL, even if we donāt we probably know who most people are. I wouldnāt surprised if some people may know who Dad II in real life. We should think twice about what we post on here because we do remember. A lot of us saved and tightened our belt a lot in order to send our kids to college. We did it legitimately without hiding our assets or income. When someone comes on CC to flaunt FA they received due to their clever maneuvering of their finance, it does rob some the wrong way. We are all fairly savvy people on this forum and we know when something doesnāt sound right.
You can certainly get medicaid or be on SSI if you want to transfer your assets to your children (or a trusted friend) over time, so you could be qualified for it. I know a lot of wealthy immigrants who have done that. They didnāt pay a dime of taxes, but before they move to this country (as American citizens) they transferred all of their assets to their children so they could take advantage of USā benefits. My mother receives her SS and pays taxes on it, she pays for her house and insurance, but her friends are living free in a 2 bedroom apartment with medicaid. My mother sounds bitter from time to time.
I am not one of those who has been harassing Dad II, but I do think about what some have expressed on this forum.
