Yes. I have started scanning and shredding since the last two weeks. But I am still procastinating.
@dstark, I have 4 years to go (5 for my wife) before medicare. These few years will likely be the most challenging years for us, financially speaking. That is the reason why I keep trying to convince my wife to at least temporarily move to other country (where the health care cost is much lower but its healthcare quality is lower as well - This is mostly because its healthcare system is nationalized.) For example, we may buy the cheapest ACA here (because it is required.) If we also buy healthcare insurance there or even do not buy insurance and pay cash instead for our healthcare expenses there, it could still be cheaper.
I wish I were 65 years old now! (Is there anybody here who would wish (s)he is older? LOL.) Everything will be much easier after 65.
Re: âthe worst worry I have is whether I will be sane enoughâŠâ
This reminds what my wife once told our son: When I am no longer functional, I want you to supervise me.
@mcat2, letâs not wish our lives away. 
My friends over 65 years old say medicare is the best thing about being over 65. They donât say they are happy to be over 65 though.
You are a couple of years older than me. Your costs may be a little lower than my estimates. Those estimates were for me. I was being selfish.
When we see the rates in California for 2016, we will have a better idea where we stand.
Healthcare costs definitely have an effect on retirement planning.
ACA seems to be affordable for those who need a subsidy.
I helped a woman who cleans our house sign up a while back. It was affordable for her, and it was the first time in her life that she had health insurance. Her husband died from complications of under-treated asthma back when having a pre-existing condition made health insurance unattainable.
"I donât think my expenses will go down at all in retirement. Iâm not sure why they would go down one cent?
But this is a choice you are making, right?
If I had your pension, I may make the same choice."
Yes, it is a choice. At least until age 65, then there is no choice. Then again, by that time, the age limit might be 80, and theyâd have to carry us up from the ramp on a forklift. But it doesnât mean that my costs will go down, unless I significantly change my lifestyle.
"I have a great concern about the health care expenses before 65.â - That comes up during almost every retirement discussion at our house. Itâs a new expense that is likely to be more than the $1K/month that weâll save once mortgage is paid off. Darn.
I agree with @notrichenough about some of the costs going down. However, the college costs go down not because of retirement. Same with the 35-36K 401K expense. Yes, you canât put more into it, but really that is not a cost that is going down, it is something that you arenât saving. Downsizing changes your lifestyle quite a bit, Medicare might be useless, and health insurance could be costly. The tax break from making less money is the biggest cost savings.
My point is that just because someone retires, doesnât mean that their costs are going to go way down. They might adjust their lifestyle so those costs go down, but itâs not going to just happen. I guess thatâs all pretty obvious.
The biggest thing for us is that in less than a year, the 60K/yr weâre paying towards the last kids college disappears (he WILL graduate on time), and in a year we have a number of debts that will be paid off, and hopefully in two years, all debts but our mortgage. Perhaps with all those savings, we can pay off more of the mortgage, or save a little more before itâs time to retire. Unless my husband talks me into getting a boat.
@busdriver11, right. You can change your lifestyle.
I am going to tell you a little secret. I changed my lifestyle. A little bit. Not huge. Many years ago, I knew I was going to work less and take less risk
SoâŠ
No more BMWs. They are great driving cars but I am not into cars.
No more staying at the Four Seasons in Maui or the Grand Wailea in Maui. Those places were fun! Michael Bolton was there. Somebody from Bev Hills 90210. Sylvester Stallone, Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, a guy who looked like Pete Sampras but wasnât, were there.
Places like that were fun. Not necessary.
Downsizing is not that big a deal.
The rest of my post disintegrated. I donât know where it is. I donât feel like rewriting the rest.
I am not sure you can downsize anymore than my current lifestyle. I do not smoke, drink or gamble. I brown bag my lunch. I have a government car for work and an old Hyundai for my personal use.
My hobbies are basically free- reading and hiking.
All of my money goes to vet bills for our pets
@busdriver11 can downsize. @tom1944, I take you at your word that you canât.
priorities. that is all I have to say.
Iâm not gonna downsize my pets. And they are pretty costly, always something going wrong with those girls. Downsizing our lifestyle would mostly mean moving. For some people itâs a no brainer, but harder for others. We are really happy here, and my husband has put so much work into this house. We enjoy it every day weâre here. There are some issues that are easy to downsize, and others that really take some effort.
Like @tom1944, I do not think we could downsize much but we think we still have to. But unfortunately, I do not know how exactly - except for a vague idea of relocating to a lower COL area.
We have already downsized the number of cars for us to just one small car we share (if we conveniently âforgetâ about the other larger car we have given to our son.)
We will make the last payment for our small carâs 5-year loans next month. Talking about the auto loans, we have had auto loans exactly twice in our life time. The first time was in 1987. The second time was in 2010. Hopefully, this does not mean that our family were as poor in 2010 as we were in 1987! For all other cars, we bought the cars (the majority are used cars) outright without loans. We did buy new cars 3 times in our life time.
I wonder how many (new or old) cars a household might purchase in their life time, and how many houses in their life time. We have purchased houses only two times.
I do not think we can pay off our mortgage before we sell it. The other largest debt in our family is our sonâs student loans. But we have to say to him that it is his responsibility for this student loans.
4 house purchases (last one we built). about 20% used cars. We have owned a lot of cars- TNTC.
My pets were vegetarian in my country. No pets food. If I had eaten pumpkin soup for dinner they would have had pumpkin soup for dinner. But in this country, pet food is expensive. Vet bills are not cheap either.
@busdriver11, then donât downsize. There are pros and cons to downsizing. You weigh each choice then you make the choice. Many of my friends are not downsizing. They live in huge houses and have high costs. The costs are worth it to them.
In life, you get your first choice, you donât get your second choice. Married or not? Kids or not? Retire or not?
Choose. Lol!
I think with your pension, you wonât have to downsize much if at all. Why are you talking about downsizing again?
Just do what you want.
I know somebody who lives in a 6,000 sq ft house and there are two other 2,000 sq ft houses on the property. She lives alone. She was known publicly. She used to be able to afford the place. Things turned sour. Now she canât. She is fighting moving. She is going to move someday. The numbers donât work. She moves or dies. Staying is not an alternative for long. She is not living in reality right now.
I think you missed my point, dstark. It was that your expenses arenât going to necessarily go down, just because you retire. You may have to make some changes for those expenses to go down, and they may be changes youâd prefer not to make.
DrGoogle, my pets would love to eat our food. Any crumb they can get, and itâs not because of my cooking. I accidentally, in a rather bizarre way, got to try out a handful of their stuff, and it was disgusting!
Actually Iâm increasing my spending in travel but thatâs voluntary, we could go to Palm Spring for a day trip. But while we can and able Iâll do more expensive type of traveling because frankly there will be plenty of time for inexpensive traveling like Palm Spring.
Yes, folksâ resources can force some unpleasant choices of there isnât enough to maintain the lifestyle preferred. Life is full of choicesâspend now vs saving and spending less, when to retire, work part or full-time past retirement age, how much help and financial support to give loved ones, etc.
When folks are older and may have reduced stamina and may have fewer job options, they just hope they saved enough to have pleasant options to choose among.