We have a pilot’s forum, something like cc, where we can talk about any little last thing. More accurately, complain about every single thing. That’s a good idea, there’s probably plenty of old threads, and the chance to start new ones. Of course, you never know who is for real, but you can pick the lying ones out pretty quick.
I guess I should slog through this stuff, to at least know what to ask. But like DrGoogle, it might just put me to sleep first! If it was right around the corner, there would be more motivation. Seems like someone in the know could look at my specific situation, and tell me the most important tidbits. Hopefully that’s what the union does.
Some company plans may be more complicated than others, and also harder to retrieve information. Also getting $$ out after divorce - friend is waiting after Dec divorce and the job separation in Jan. H was on a layoff after long term employee (and long term marriage - she gets half). More than likely it is contracted out.
Also agreed that some do not realize the shock of their own situation, and the decision making, financial and other.
Some may have to change their financial ways years before actually retiring. And all the adjustments into retirement.
I am just getting in the years before. Feeling the stress.
The other thing is that situations can change in the years leading up to retirement–you can be supporting more or fewer people, your health or family members health may be improved or worsened, etc. It does pay to check several sources to learn about your retirement pros and cons.
For federal employees, there are some online publications, some forums, a magazine and even a few books. There are seminars as well. I was able to attend two with H and the others he attended, listened and gathered materials he brought home.
For us, some important legislative changes affected H’s salary and pension, from the date it was enacted and for the years up to H’s retirement. It made a huge difference for him and us! We did speak with our CPA, estate attorney and two financial planners as well. The more I knew and had time to digest, the more confident I felt.
Almost free life insurance? That’s a great deal. I just walked out of my retirement seminar (with a major headache and so tired I barely even remembered where I parked). And it sounds like paying for life insurance at retirement age, is so massively expensive that it’s not even worth it. If you find something reasonable, it sounds like there are plenty of exclusions and medical tests to meet.
Yikes, my private life insurance is expensive too. But it has a large amount so I’m still debating whether to stop paying or not. But I found out I could reduce the amount and pay less.
My H could have had free insurance for 1/4 of the face value he currently has but we opted to keep his insurance effective, as it is guaranteed not to have premiums increase and be renewable. H’s current paid up insurance gives us a return of premium annually that pretty much pays the premium on the other policy. We don’t really NEED the extra coverage, but it is easy of us to keep it and would be very expensive to purchase at this point if we ever tried to get a policy.
@Busdriver, sorry you had a headache–from the seminar or coincidentally?
Well, HImom, I felt great before I walked into the seminar…but four hours of too much information for my pea brain to process is probably what made my head spin. Skipping lunch didn’t help, either. Though honestly, I think I could have learned what I needed to know in about 30 minutes, but they seemed to want to go over every possible case for every possible person.
They don’t want anyone complaining that info was withheld. I had to review the info periodically over many months and years until I was confident I understood what we needed to know.
Maybe so. It seemed a little excessive, though. I think I got the main points, and really there are only a couple of things you can mess up that make a significant difference, for us. One thing, we must select the company plan right away for health insurance if we plan on getting it, or we will never be able to get it. It is a really good deal for people who retire earlier than 65. $300/month for a couple for a high deductible (3K deductible) plan that still covers everything under the sun, or $13,700 a year for an excellent health care plan with almost no deductible, low copays. That is a really great benefit and I hope we don’t lose it. We can go back and forth between plans every year until 65.
I think I was the youngest person in there by ten years. More people than I expected are going all the way until age 65 to retire.
I think a lot of people are scared to retire because they aren’t sure they will have enough money, especially if they end up supporting their parents/in-laws and/or live a very long time. We have a no deductible plan that covers a lot and it has a maximum out-of-pocket of $3000/person and $7500/family. It has few exclusions, for which we are very grateful.
^^That is the problem, isn’t it? You really don’t know if you have enough money, and you can’t plan for every single variable that could happen. There are some professions where people can go back to, just jump right back in at the same pay, if they have miscalculated. For us, no way. We’d have to figure out something else. Retirement is very permanent, which is quite scary. It would be good to have a side business or a backup skill that you know is marketable.
H worked for 45 years with his employer. We finally decided we had “enough” for ourselves and the likely scenarios we can foresee, as well as money to have fun. It was a relief to decide that and H is loving his retirement and my more laid-back schedule. Life is good! For us, it’s easier to jsut live below our income than to worry about raising our income or worrying about running out of money.
Having a pension is really a plus, and sadly something that is becoming rarer and rarer. It is often tough to get back into a profession later in life, unless you cultivate one before you retire.
My husband and I decided enough is enough, do we account for every scenarios, no. People at work kept saying walking away from the jobs is wasting money. We know we won’t be able to get back to the jobs once we retire, but we value our freedom.
Bus, It’s not the same as you and your husband’s job, it’s a retirement job for health insurance benefit.
That is awesome that you were able to do that. It seems like such a permanent step. Getting rid of the stress of work (even if you enjoy it), has got to help your longevity. Or does it? I guess it depends upon your job. But yes, having a pension is a definite plus. It used to be the norm, and now it’s pretty rare. I feel that our pension is secure, however, the company keeps trying to freeze it, and who knows what the future may bring. I think paying off debt before retirement would be a huge peace of mind.