Agree that there is a financial interest in knowing when a person is within the hast 6 months of life and qualifies for hospice or not, I’m just saying that presently science isn’t able to figure thus out with much certainty in many cases.
Lots of great questions here. Health insurance is the big unknown, which we fully acknowledge. We’re planning to cruise outside of the US (after the first couple of years), where health care is absolutely a different story. If something disastrous happened, we’d likely head for the UK or just jump overboard far offshore (kidding.) The boat is 28’ long, we’ve owned her since 1992 and done 2 extended cruises aboard already, so we are well acquainted with our budget and lifestyle that we enjoy. HAHAHAHAHA on those assuming we have a trust fund. Not a chance. @colfac92 the boat is a Bristol Channel Cutter (see my avatar for a photo underway). Our plan when sailing is not fun anymore (and we are well aware that it will happen, sob) is to settle somewhere yet to be determined (hubby is French and British; I’m American - we have many options open to us) and build a tiny house. @Sybylla we’ve done very well saving, is all I’ll say. No trust fund in sight. Got one you want to share? Our numbers show we’ll be fine. Not counting on social security in any way shape or form. First time we went cruising our monthly was $750, all in (1993-97). Second time, with kids, was $2000 (spent $1750) also all in. We’ve conservatively figured on $3000 a month and think we’re not insane - although, as noted, we have zero idea what health insurance might be for the time we are stateside.
Bristol Channel Cutter – classic! As you no doubt well know, for estimating costs when cruising, the boat itself (and trying to maintain whatever systems you have onboard) is obviously a big factor. I would guess you probably do NOT have a gen-set, water-maker, refrigeration, fully-integrated large-screen electronic navigation system, in-mast mainsail roller furling, etc… and are probably better off for it, too! May you have fair winds and following seas.
So you only need health insurance in the USA? You can't just waltz into an English A&E nowadays and get free treatment as a foreigner spouse or even ex pat if you have no NI contributions, has your DH kept those up if the UK is the fall back? France sounds so much more appealing than the UK as plan B LOL. How do you re qualify for UHC in France as an ex pat, assuming your DH is an actual expat vs just a passport holder?. I know British expats who do keep up the NI stuff because they fully plan to go back.
https://www.expatnetwork.com/expats-have-to-pay-for-nhs-care/
We are not sailors, but DH just loves to watch the various Sailing youtube videos on Patreon and elsewhere. (The most famous is LaVagabonde … the couple that just hada a baby. But LOTS of other couples sailing the world and sharing their adventures. I really like the Ruby Rose couple from UK). I’m not very adventurous myself, so it’s been fun to watch these folks and live the sailing life vicariously. I’ve noticed that things can get expensive quickly, so it’s good if you have a large factor of safety in your budgeting.
I have a friend with a 40’ sailboat he lives in for about 4-5 months per year. Two winters ago it got struck by lightning while on the hard. It fried all the wiring, all the electronics, and everything with a motor, they were lucky the boat didn’t catch fire.
It cost in excess of $50,000 to restore everything.
Fortunately he had insurance which covered most of it. His insurance also requires the boat to be docked during hurricane season, so that would crimp your travel plans if you were on the boat at that time
Half of what he posts to Facebook is about what just broke and how much it costs to fix it.
BOAT = Bust Out Another Thousand
Q. What are the two happiest days of a boater’s life?
A. The day he buys his boat and the day he sells it.
???
Good luck to you boaters. I can’t imagine living on a 28’ boat with kids, holy cow. More power to you.
Just beware of pirates! Our friends sailed around the world a couple of times and had to dodge pirates multiple times. He and his wife took turns watching out 24 hours near the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the Middle East.
@Sybylla the cost of health care outside of the US is astronomically less expensive, making the need for health insurance (which is basically wealth insurance in many ways in the US) far less. There are insurance companies that will insure you only if you stay outside of the US for most of the year. Our personal experience is from the Bahamas (UK trained physician and nurse) - had a bad staph infection that required lancing and packing with antibiotics every day for 2 weeks. At the end of the treatment we were handed the bill with a huge apology. “We have to charge you $50. I’m so sorry.” Try even walking into a doc office in the US for $50, let alone daily visits for 2 weeks. @notrichenough appreciate the worry you and other have posted. I thought I’d answer in this thread so people might get some ideas for themselves - not unlike FIRE philosophy in many ways.
“Fortunately he had insurance which covered most of it. His insurance also requires the boat to be docked during hurricane season, so that would crimp your travel plans if you were on the boat at that time”
One could always choose to be outside of hurricane zones during hurricane season.
Very true, it’s that hard. My BIL lived on the sea for three years. He made his sailing plan accordingly.
You’re a Widow. Now What?
When a spouse dies, women (and it’s usually women) are often faced with a daunting list of financial chores that they’ve never tackled before. Here’s how to cope.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/business/widows-financial-planning-retirement.html
There’s a paywall. Summary please?
Seems like way too much to summarize. I was able to open it and select the option to continue reading (I think you can read 10 free articles a year or so). Some of it seems like a good guide if the worst happens, however it does start from the very basics. I suspect that most of us, if not all of us ladies on this forum are aware of what assets we own and how to pay our bills. The subject of this article went from being totally clueless to educating others.
I wonder if someone in this forum has started a FIRE thread, it would be interesting, and definitely a route for some. When I first read about the philosophy, I thought it was intriguing. Then I read a little more and realized it was not for us. I like having extra money and what I can do with it, the comfort and options that it brings. Being able to spend money on my family and friends if I like, feeling that we could take care of ourselves and our kids with our own money, when needed. There are people that are comfortable with an extremely frugal lifestyle, as they like to stay home, grow and cook their own food, constantly watch what they spend and do free stuff. For us, though we aren’t into buying all sorts of expensive items, we enjoy having discretionary spending money. I’ve been poor for much of my life and I know what it feels like. I wouldn’t choose to live that way purposefully, unless I truly hated my job.
What is FIRE?
In the context of this thread, FIRE probably means something like “Financially Independent, Retire Early”.
@busdriver11 - her situation seemed to be needlessly exacerbated because of his paper stock certificates.
My fil passed away last August. In their household, he managed all the money and paid all the bills. While he had a will, he had really not planned everything very effectively. He did not have any paper stock certificates, but he did have several assets (even his car) titled only his name. No PODs set up. Everything went to mil per the will, but assets being solely titled took extra effort and necessitated probate which could have easily been avoided. He had a decent, hand-written book with all assets listed, but it was easy to tell as he had aged that he wasn’t as diligent and specific about keeping up with it. His handwriting had become harder to read, only partial account numbers listed, etc. An reams and reams of paper records. The entire dining room table was covered. Dh and I were able to sort through all of it, but there was a $25,000 account that he had no written record of at all. Weirdly, mil received an e-mail for his birthday (they shared an email account) from them. It was obviously something he opened for some sort of airline points benefit, but he had no written record of it. If he had received a 1099 on it, he hadn’t shared that. We wonder if he signed up for online only without realizing it. He would not have every knowingly chosen online banking. He had tried it, but would get frustrated when he would get locked out, so he gave up. Earliest issue we had to contend with was the fact that both of their credit cards were in fil’s name. Yes, she had a card with her name on it, but they had been taken out in his name. Both cut off. And one not paid because the auto-pay for that one was through an account solely in his name. So, that had been secured as well. When mil went to apply for her own card, dh was walking her through the online application over the phone. She had to ask him, “What is my net income?” I don’t think she even knew how much her teacher pension and SS income were. Fortunately, dh had done their taxes for several years. That was helpful when going through everything as well.
Mil really had no idea what they had at all. He was very miserly, and I think she was somewhat shocked that they could have been living life a little more fully had he not been so tight with their money. He was very controlling on many levels.
She has done very well with the learning curve. I am proud of her. It is difficult to learn new things at 80. She does online banking now, too. Dh has been able to do some better investing for her, so her money will earn more than fil had been earning by just leaving cash in a bank account or putting it in CDs. Dh called her to ask her if she had remembered to pay her quarerly estimated tax payment, and she had already done it because she had put a reminder on her phone. She checks her credit cards regularly for any fraudulent transactions.
Couples should definitely sit down together to make sure each knows the whereabouts of assets, account numbers, log-ins, passwords, accounts bills are paid through, etc. For better or worse, usually one person handles the bulk of that. Though, I don’t think it’s necessarily as much along gender lines as it was for older generations. It could just as easily be a surviving husband who was lost if the deceased wife had handled all of that.
I follow some FIRE blogs and pages, it’s not always about retiring with a very frugal lifestyle (although some do). A lot of them spend their early years saving a lot more than most and create passive income to enable them to retire early. If it weren’t for the cost of health insurance I would be joining them in my early 50’s! For me, being able to retire early will mean selling one or more of our business and having a low stress part time job to supplement my income.
Yes, I handle nearly all our finances and have done it most of our marriage.
As my FIL started spiraling down from Alzheimer’s, he became vulnerable to telephone solicitors, and started to do some crazy stuff like buying maternity insurance for his 70 year old wife.
As he got sicker and sicker, my MIL had to start learning all the financial stuff because he had always handled everything.
At one point, she got a brokerage statement in the mail from a company she had no idea they had an account with, with a balance of several thousand dollars. She called them up and discovered he had opened this account some months before, and had no recollection of it. If she hadn’t gotten a paper statement, she would have never known of this account’s existence.
She started calling all of the financial companies she could find, asking if he had an account there, and wound up locating over $25,000 in money she knew nothing about. Apparently these companies were cold-calling him, convinced him to open an account, he would send some money, and then promptly forget he ever did it. And he never kept any of the paperwork.
Who knows how much more was never found.
She was able to get a refund on the maternity insurance, too.