Oh yea, we also pay for the kids AAA plus membership and D has used it for long-distance towing at least twice so far. We all have old cars and it’s peace of mind for US.
@HImom Have you considered a handyman rather than a contractor?
Depending on the work involved, you might actually get someone to return a phone call. I’ve also had good luck with workers who are interested in side jobs or someday starting their own contracting businesses, with most of it being word of mouth rather than blind calls.
I’ve also used the website/app Nextdoor if it’s in your area. People are not shy about recommendations there.
Thanks. We are still exploring our options and not in any great rush. I appreciate your thoughts.
@shawbridge - Same with us; we pay cell phones and Netflix, and one of them is on our Costco account (increasing my annual rebate!)
Officially they’re supposed to reimburse us for the cell phone bills, but somehow we all forget to deal with it, which makes me happy.
@busdriver11 - We contributed to our retirement accounts as long as we could, that is, as long as we had “earned income”. It’s frustrating that you can’t stash “unearned” income in tax advantaged retirement vehicles, but I can’t complain, as the donors, correction, our representatives, have determined that unearned income should be treated in other favorable ways.
One other thing: calling rental income “unearned” is beyond absurd, it’s downright crazy.
You guys are way nicer parents than we are. We cut our kid off of our cell phone plan, Netflix, etc. when he graduated from high school. He’s an adult. He’s on his own to fend for himself. If he can’t afford these things, too bad. We did top off his Roth these past two years, but he’s on his own for that going forward because he can. We are emancipated parents! 
Us also @ChoatieMom. We don’t pay for our kids anymore. D and I are on the same phone plan as it’s cheaper but she pays for herself. Kids have their own Netflix but son lets us share his amazon prime shipping.
We ( paid)/are paying off their school loans and figure that is gift enough. We are trying to fund our retirement.
H called about his 401k and pension last night and found out we are going to be better than good. Yea!
Question: we should be able to live comfortably on H’s pension month to month. We can fund extras (traveling, home improvements etc) from 401k. Health insurance will be paid by company until Medicare eligible (he plans on retiring at 62). H was wondering if he should file for social security at 67 or wait until 70? If he waits, I think it was an extra $700 or $800/month.
Also we have a health savings account which we are putting the maximum into. Company puts some money in but it’s approximately $550/month cost for us. Should we continue or can we fund that once H retires? H has 5 years left to fund account, right now we’ve used less than $1000 per year. After retirement, do we still need to use that money just for healthcare or can it be used for other things?
@ChoatieMom and @sherpa, we will transition son off Costco shortly. This is his first month of salary – he’s finishing his last quarter of school but his venture funding arrived just before Christmas and he and his partner have a decent salary plus pretty highly valued equity. His on paper net worth is pretty good and the business plan is to double the valuation by the end of a year. My son will take a reduced salary while he is taking classes. I don’t care about phones/Netflix. He can’t pay bills with equity.
We will be basically emancipated at the end of this quarter (except for NetFlix and phones). However, ShawD went to the first two days of training for her new job and hated it (I wasn’t surprised – it was the first interview she had and it seemed unattractive to me even though $20K per year more than her current job). So, with my approval, she quit.
she is going back on our health insurance until a new job starts. She has an interview on Friday and they would like her to work part-time for a month and then full-time thereafter. Her old job wanted her to work for 2 days per week, which fits with the new possibility.
But, I guess we have enough financial degrees freedom that I have felt emancipated for a while. I’m working hard on interesting engagements and creating new engagements for members of my team (including me).
@deb922 :
“H was wondering if he should file for social security at 67 or wait until 70? If he waits, I think it was an extra $700 or $800/month.”
Generally, if you can afford to wait, it is better to wait. Any future increases in the SS benefit will be based on the higher amount. However, if you/he don’t anticipate his life expectancy to go beyond 83 or so, then it’s generally agreed that it’s not worth the wait. IIRC, the “breakeven” point is around 83.
“Should we continue or can we fund that [HSA] once H retires? H has 5 years left to fund account, right now we’ve used less than $1000 per year. After retirement, do we still need to use that money just for healthcare or can it be used for other things?”
You can continue to fund the account until he reaches 65, Medicare age. After age 65, you can continue to use that money for healthcare – in which case it’s totally tax-free – or you can use it for any expense, with no penalty. However, if you use it for something besides health care,. it will be taxed as ordinary income, just like your 401(k) money. If I were you, I would continue to fund it, assuming you don’t need the money for something else.
Thanks @VeryHappy, very helpful
I’ve got both kids and my son-in-law on my cellphone plan. It costs me $10/month for each of them for unlimited everything. I’m not interested in collecting $10 a month from each kid. Neither do I see any reason to kick them off my plan so they can pay much more than that as individuals.
The kids use our Netflix. It costs nothing extra per month.
Our one launched kid is still under the family cell phone plan. I’m okay with it. Kiddo is otherwise self-supporting although we do treat to occasional things and do help fund a Roth.
We can afford it, it helps said child save $, and I consider it passing along a small piece of future monies now. Husband and I had some very lean years right out of college. I don’t think the struggling made us “better” people.
Little kid is still on our cell plan but has her own Netflix etc. Married kid and her hubby have their own cell plan to which they will probably add a line in a few years. Little kid drives my car but that will end soon as we will transfer the title to her like we did with the big kid a while ago. We waited because she could have ended up in a place where a car would have been a burden but it looks like she is staying put in Seattle proper.
Periodically, we bring some of our Costco loot to them to share… that’s pretty much it.
Unless you believe SS will reduce or further means-test benefits in the future, in which case you may be better off grabbing what you can while it is still available. The trust fund runs out in 2034 or thereabouts. Who knows if Congress will ever fix it or if we will all get a 25% benefit reduction when it runs out or if high-income retirees will face greater cutbacks so poorer retirees stay at the same level, or who knows what else.
What company is this? That seems very cheap.
The kids are still on our cell phone plan, they are supposed to reimburse us but somehow it never works out… huh. They leach off our comcast account, but we leach off of DS’s netflix account. DD is still on my health insurance but it costs me nothing to have her on it.
I did kick both of them off the family EZPass account and made them get their own. I drew the line at paying for them to commute to work. 
Older kiddo’s phone is paid by his employer. He is well-set financially, so we don’t need to give him $$. He had Staffords, should be five years in on repayment, but he has talked about killing them off. Don’t know if that has happened yet.
S2 is still living at home, working FT and a PT gig, but not making enough to live on his own. Has been saving to go overseas for a couple of years and plans to work while he’s there. His medical coverage expires in Feb., so we are having a conversation about what he plans to do about that. He still has Staffords as well. He is on our cell bill until he goes overseas. He says when he returns, he’s going to be into full-scale adulting. He’ll need a much larger paycheck to do that. He is putting money into his 401k. He doesn’t have a car (sore spot).
They each got to attend the college of his choice, knowing that there would have been more money for grad school, a car, Roth, etc if they had chosen the financially cheaper option. We can’t finance both. Nevertheless, both had a significantly better situation than either DH or I had.
@notrichenough, I agree that those things are feasible, but I find it hard to believe that they’d do something to literally take food out of current retirees’ mouths. Typically, when they talk about changes to SS, they’re talking about changes for future recipients – those who are still decades away from receiving benefits.
@VeryHappy you may be right, but I don’t think we’ve faced this magnitude of shortfall before. No one in Congress in either party seems interested in solving this now, and certainly not in a bipartisan manner.
The trust fund currently runs out 3 years after I turn 70. It’s not obvious to me that waiting until I am 70 to start collecting will be the most beneficial for me.
@Wellspring, I pay Verizon $20/month/line access fee for our cellphones, which I thought was very good, for unlimited talk/texting and we share 2GB of data. Who is your carrier and how many GBs? Agree with you that I see no point in bumping our kids off our plan now so that they’ll have to pay more on indiv.ones but time will tell. I’m retired, DH is still working.
Our T-Mobile plan is $60 for 2 lines (as long as one person is 55+). The price includes all taxes and fees, unlimited voice, texts and data (no throttling), plus international texts and data. We have been happy with it. I have one plan with D and S and H have another plan. We bought our phones outright so no monthly fees for those.
I concur with the above, but there is one other consideration: spousal benefits, which the feds do not consider actuarially in the SSA formulas. As longevity increases, the odds are also increasing that one of a spouse will hit 90. And if that is the lower earning spouse, the increase in spousal benefits for waiting until 70n can be significant.