Wow that is so complex, I have no idea what Medicare means, who gets it and who doesn’t. I just know my friend isn’t on any government support.
Medicare is for seniors aged 65+
Thanks for laying that all out, @bluebayou. I agree with your assessment that it is hard to get to the $$ this couple was quoting and I feel they may have been exaggerating a bit to build some case they were making as they appear/act extremely active, very fit, and healthy. I did a lot of online searching and adding up all the medicare parts, I was finding I couldn’t get there.
I was trying to explain to them how expensive it is for many people especially including the fact that people are paying those levels or more with still high deductibles and very limited networks. Medicare offers much more flexibility than most individual (non-employer) insurance plans.
Where do you get this? My Medicare plan pays 80% of my medical expenses. My supplement pays the remaining 20%. I do have a deductible to meet for Medicare and my RX but total, it’s about $600 a year.
Now I have a Medicare Advantage Premium PPO Plan…it pays way more than half of what I’m billed.
It’s federally funded health insurance for folks ages 65 and over who have contributed to FICA during their employment years for a certain number of years. @Nhatrang just do a google search for Medicare.
$22K is probably typical for under 65. It doesn’t surprise me at all. We paid about $1,000 per month for medicare IRMMA+premium. That is not including supplemental plan. Our ex-employer covers that. $1,800 also doesn’t surprise me. We were paying $1,000 per month with employer covered supplemental insurance. We are also very fit. To think medicare is almost free…
Our IRMMA is going down next year but still not cheap and IRMMA starts at not so high income. If your income is a little over $200K, you pay about $600 per couple. So $7,200 a year plus medigap premium. After experiencing that, I gave up the idea of medicare for all. Not trying to be political.
My estimate was a bit off, more like 57%.
https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NHE-Fact-Sheet says that the 65+ age group had about $19k health care spending per person in 2014. https://www.kff.org/medicare/state-indicator/per-enrollee-spending-by-residence/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D says that Medicare spent about $11k per person that year.
Socialized medical insurance for people age 65+ in the US, although it does not cover everything, so many people buy supplements or use it to help buy a private plan. Funded in part by FICA payroll taxes.
Tips on getting to retirement or being retired?
Be patient with yourself (and spouse, if applicable).
Read Bogleheads. 
Save a ton while you work, spend cautiously when you retire.
More like financial advice about better ways for saving and investing wisely etc
+1 on Bogleheads. I’m too old to be a FIRE disciple but feel like I could have been talked into it if I were some 30 years younger.
FIRE is financial independence / retire early.
Curious to hear information about how much income one needs to retire comfortablely and what type of mix: 401K/403B; social security, income producing property; mix of stocks and bonds etc.
I hear 4% draw on assets is the norm but is his realistic?
We retired early and draw down much less than 4% now (more when we were paying private school tuitions but that was money we had set aside for education) but the past few years have been good to our portfolio and have helped enable that. I’ve run many different retirement calculators with monte carlo simulations that show we should be in good shape. The “how much” question really depends on one’s cost of living and spending habits.
Bumping this up.
If you have any valuable tip, do share it here as your new year’s gift to CC parents.
What shall we talk about? We touched everything there is. I am guessing everyone is sitting pretty after the run up.
Strategies for generating that 4% income without touching your principal. What investment (NOT an annuity) would produce this cash flow, give or take some. I am
Sure newer posters will like to hear that.
Thank you for merging these threads.
@Riversider if you read through this thread, you will see LOTS of information about retirement, finances, and planning for retirement…which is what you want to know.
Wouldn’t that depend mostly on your typical spending level pre retirement, adjusted by removing work related costs like commuting and adding costs of whatever you want to do with you time and any costs that were previously gotten as work benefits (e.g. medical insurance)?
Also, expect medical costs to increase faster than inflation, plus your personal medical needs are likely to increase as you get older.