All that matters is what the current wife thinks!
3:-O ~:>
Inserting farm animals because when else will I get a chance to use them?
NRE - actually, the less you disturb the septic, the better. Ideally, if there is not much insoluble stuff is put down the drain, the system can function in a self-sustainable manner for quite a while. We went 7 years without touching it because there was not much to pump during the prior maintenance. Would have gone longer but sold the house. 
We got rid of the garbage disposals (2!) when we remodeled the kitchen at the new place, so âbabyingâ what goes down the drain is not a problem for someone who is used to composting.
Second year in the swamp, we still have not had mosquito issues. Which I thought we would! But we have a colony of bats that happily populated the new boathouse. Fingers crossed our construction workers did not disturb then today.
@IxnayBob, sounds like you have a great spot. Would chickens be a problem for people who travel?
@notrichenough, I think FL doesnât work in the summer. I once worked on a deal where I had to do due diligence in FL in July. Uggh. You need to be elsewhere.
Ah, Canadian provincial taxes. Hadnât thought about them. Combined Federal and British Columbia rates are 49.8% above $205K. 48% above $305K for Alberta. I think I was at 44.7% marginal rate (but there are little blips due to phaseouts of various deductions/exemptions that take it over 45%) but with the Trump tax cut, it should be 42.1% (although I donât know if AMT affects this and how). So, the marginal rates in Western Canada are somewhat higher than where I am now and the top US marginal rates kick in at higher thresholds. On the flip side, being a Canadian taxpayer would enable me to avoid what is now probably close to $20K in health insurance costs (premiums of $12K tp $15K for health insurance plus significant deductibles). The lower thresholds and higher marginal rates would be much larger the health care cost savings.
Just became aware of this thread so I havenât read a nearly 900 pages of itâŠ
Iâve retired early at 55 due to health issues, so with nothing going into my TIAA-CREF account for a long time now, I donât have a very large accumulation. I did have my portfolio set at âVery Aggressiveâ from the get go, and it has done quite well up to this point. However, now that my wife wants to retire next year, and the way things are âpredictedâ to go in the stock market, I decided to change my portfolio just now from Very Aggressive to Moderate Conservative.
Has anyone also changed up the retirement portfolio recently? If so, what are your reasons for the change?
@notrichenough https://www.amazon.com/Bio-clean-Drain-Septic-Bacteria-lb/dp/B001N09KN4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1529606561&sr=8-5&keywords=bioclean+drain+cleaner
We recommend this for our septic customers (including ourselves!)
@shawbridge I have chickens. We occasionally travel. The chickens can handle four days unattended. After that weâd need someone to come in and replenish food/water. Usually a neighbor is happy to do that in exchange for fresh eggs.
Before our kids went off to college, they shared the chores like feeding/watering the hens, collecting the eggs and letting them in/locking them up at night. When the youngest went off to college, DH and I built a better coop that included a full outside enclosure connected to the hen house. They can let themselves in and out. Predators cannot get in (we built a wood structure that is 7â tall and 12âx10â completely covered in hardware cloth.) We can escape for the weekend without worry.
Iâm not sure it all pencils out, but chickens are fun creatures. When Iâm out working in the yard, they are out there too. Most follow me closely (the leghorns do not.) We enjoy their eggs and their company. And their droppings are part of our compost system (composts for a year in with yard waste and food scraps.) Since our country canât easily recycle scrap paper in China right now, Iâve diverted a fair amount of our household scrap paper into shredded paper for the dropping shelf. Green and brown together for the compost pile. :))
âHas anyone also changed up the retirement portfolio recently? If so, what are your reasons for the change?â
we just changed ours from 50 aggressive/ 50% cash to 25% aggressive internet stocks / 25%in 2% monthly CDâS, 50 % cash- kind of a modified âbarbellâ approach.
I just dont have fthe aith that returns will be as lucrative going forward, as they have been over the past 10 years, but want to have some exposure to stocks I still believe in.
Does anyone have a fixed annuity?
Iâm now about 97% in equities, 3% in cash equivalent. Donât plan on pulling it out for a long time, so why not. Online advisor says I should be 80/20 for my age, but oh well.
Bus, we will probably crash and burn together as we are also majorly in stocks. Although Mr. B pulled some money out of his growth stocks and invested in income stocks.
Hitherto, my retirement portfolio has been 99% equity. Today, I diversified it to 40% equity and the rest divided up in bonds, real estate, etc. Iâm not going to risk now that my wife is going to follow suit in retiring next year. Weâve had a longer than usual bullish run, and I just donât think itâs going to last much longer. Iâm even rethinking about that 40% in equity. I might want to bring it down even lower.
We rebalanced at the end of the year, putting two years expenses into a money market fund. DH is retired, and I will follow in the next few years. My teaching salary isnât enough to support us, so we need to pull from the IRAs each month. We have been drawing from that fund for the last few months, hoping our equity funds will bounce back before we need to draw from them.
I have run numerous scenarios with various retirement calculators, and came to the realization that if we even if get can get only a 2% return on our investments, which should not be a problem with rising interest rates, we wont ever run out of $$. I just started getting SS last week, [ yehaa!!] and In 4 years , when DH turns 70, we will have close to a 6 figure income from the combination of 50% SS/ +50% IRA withdraws, and will still have lots in the bank for emergency funds.The house will be paid off by then as well. So that is the main reason I decided to become MUCH more conservative with our overall investment allocations recently. Neither of us wants to see our investments lose value.
<:-P
read an interesting article in the WSJ todayâŠwell the article wasnât that interesting, but the fact that was mentioned was eye opening, at least for those considering when to take SS.
The article stated that the US Actuaries estimate that a married couple, age 55 and in excellent health, will have a 95% chance of one of the spouses making it to age 95,
Well, my folks at 93 and 88 and physically very healthy. I can see either or both living many more years.
A question regarding social security:
On the Social Security Admin website, it states:
âThe law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2034, the combined trust fund reserves are projected to become depleted â the same as projected last year. Payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 79 cents for each dollar of scheduled benefits.â
If this is the case, i.e., the combined trust fund reserves being depleted in 16 years, what are your thoughts on the strategy of WHEN to start collecting your monthly paycheck? Iâll be 62 this September. Whatâs the point of waiting until the max benefit age of 67 (I believe) when the max benefit youâll receive is going to be shorter in years? Wouldnât it be a better strategy by starting to receive a monthly paycheck at 62 even itâs a reduced amount but for a longer years? Of course I could do a simple math to answer my own question here if not for the fact that laws regarding SS can change or my life can change or that the SS reserves could get dried up faster or corrections are made or⊠etc. etc. Iâm aware of the estimated differences in the amount expected to receive if I start receiving the paycheck at 62 vs. 67 and later.
Your thoughts?
@TiggerDad, it all depends, and thereâs not much you can do about the laws and regs, but I think the biggest factor is âhow long will you live?â Thatâs difficult to know, but you probably have some idea if youâre likely to live less long than the actuarial average or longer. And, for what itâs worth, you do have some ability to change the odds.
I personally think that the $40 (iirc) I paid for MaximizeMySocialSecurity.com was money well spent. It canât answer questions about longevity, but it will give an optimal claiming strategy for a couple.
ETA: a free SS strategy calculator can be found at https://opensocialsecurity.com/. I havenât used it, but the developer has a good reputation.
Your SS paycheck at 62 is what? About 65% of what youâd get at 67? If I recall that correctly. Assuming your life expectancy is the same in both scenarios, and your SSN earnings will go down to 79% in 2034 or so⊠you do the math to figure out what would be better. Instead of trying to figure out what your actual SS benefit would be, start with a hypothetical $1000 at 67. Your numbers will be proportional.
a new article in the WSJ about the upcoming old age crisis - Americans who are financially unprepared for retirement.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-generation-of-americans-is-entering-old-age-the-least-prepared-in-decades-1529676033?mod=hp_lead_pos5
Just shaking my head after reading that articleâŠ
"Money tight, Ms. McCord says she is selling parts of a collection of Star Trek action figures, dolls, yo-yos, lunchboxes and a book autographed by actor Leonard Nimoy.
She also struggles with another higher cost for her age group: life-insurance premiums. The annual premium on a policy she has owned since 1994 more than tripled over the past two years, she says, to about $2,000 this year. âI just want to scream bloody murder,â she says. âIt is hurting so bad.â
She wants the $100,000 policy to pay for her funeral, to extinguish debts and to âhopefully have a little for our grandkidsâ left over."
What a freaking waste that life insurance policy is! She canât afford those premiums, but the thought of letting this policy go is too much for her. Some people just canât deal with the concept of sunk costs.