@garland - We are both federal employees (new system, so we get less of a pension), and I could have retired as early as 56 and some number of months. We can carry our health insurance with us into retirement.
I am sorry to hear about your husband’s diagnosis. I hope it all turns out OK.
I can relate to the hit to retirement savings. My “soft” retirement date is next March, but I was thinking I might go earlier, IF the market had stayed up. Now I have an artificial number (DOW getting back above 26,000) that would let me consider earlier. If it hasn’t returned to that by March, I may keep working.
Dh retired a little more than two years ago. He had always said he would take a job if it seemed to be the “right” thing. Lo and behold, he was contacted by a headhunter in early April. Hired by Easter and officially started on the payroll May 1. A small, start-up company with only himself, the owner, and one other person. The building the owner had acquired to be used as office space is being renovated and won’t be ready until August/September, so all are working from home, which is perfect for the times. They occasionally get together at a marina for meetings outside. His salary is certainly lower than the peak of his career, but it is surprisingly decent (though no benefits). He is thrilled and very much enjoying the work!! Even with the financial hit to our investments, we were going to be fine, but I have to admit that it is nice having a steady paycheck coming in. So, my dh is now OUT of retirement.
Anyone have opinions on beach condo prices in Florida?? We had done a major downsize when dh retired and are in a 935 sq ft condo. It is fine for just the two of us but tricky when we have company. I will also say that being in a such a small place has made food (and TP) storage challenging during these stay-at-home times. We’ve managed, but a bit more elbow room and storage would be nice. Our original plan had been to consider making a change to a somewhat larger condo that was beach side (we are currently intracoastal side) five years from the initial move/downsize. We are trying to figure out if that move should be accelerated as we speculate about what is going to happen to real estate prices down here. I wish I had a crystal ball!! When our beaches were closed, I missed being able to walk across the street to view sunsets. If we were beach side, I could at least have the view even if the beach itself were closed. However, we have a long list of wants, and it has been difficult to find something with all of them at our desired price point and size. We seem to have a desire for a sweet spot that is hard to come by because we really don’t want a ton of square footage.
Anyway, just wondering what the collective hive mind thinks will happen to real estate prices.
I am no expert but I looked for property in the Bay Area and there is no sign of recession. We are not “retirement community” kind of people. Not the lake/beach/mountain retirement home kind of people either. Maybe a suburb 30mins- 1 hour outside a university town would be a compromise. Still many years away from retirement age but I like looking around.
H had considered adjuncting or speaking for free at local law school. He is an expert in his field. But Covid will put that out of the question with health issue. His other love and possible retirement hobby involves music - accompanying singers. Also not great idea. He really is going to need to find something else to do other than watch TV, sigh.
My husband stared a new job in the middle of all of this. This is going to be his last startup gig - possibly. He will likely retire and go into consulting after this. I will continue working for as long as my work is interesting. One silver lining for us is that our biotech portfolio has not done a nosedive like some other investments. If travel will become an expensive PITA post-Covid, I think we will end up buying a small hobby farm for entertainment in retirement - my husband discovered that he really loves to garden and tend to landscaping.
Speaking of RE, the inventory here took a giant hit. Demand seems to be strong. It is interesting what sells and what does not. An ugly flip a few blocks away just sold for more than a million bucks (!!). A couple of houses priced over $2M went pending in a few days after being listed. All sold for list or over list price. Condos tend to linger… but remodeled, nice ones with views sell quickly.
DH and I retired from our corporate jobs three years ago, but DH has been consulting to the Irish Health Service part-time the past two years. He is getting busier as they are expanding a particular program to deal with the pandemic in their country. He will see this engagement through to the end, but he is ready to walk away from it all for good. I never looked back. We’re good with our current ACA healthcare package until Medicare in 2-3 years, but we are now looking more closely at our SS situation and considering scenarios with our tax attorney and financial planner as to whether or not it makes sense to take one SS and hold off starting withdrawals from the portfolio for at least another couple of years.
I am glad we retired when we did as the decision is made and we are fine. If we were trying to make the decision now during this time of uncertainty, I know my ultra financially conservative self would be pushing hard on the brakes, suffering longer in a job I hated and consigning DH to further burnout from so many years of relentless travel. On a health level, at least, we’re glad to be out of the fray.
Our housing market appears to be holding steady, from what I can see in our area anyway. Houses are both listing and selling (the house next door to us sold last week for asking price), and we have a lot of new construction that does not seem to be slowing down. Our son bought a house this week in the Augusta area where he says there was a lot to choose from, and his offer was immediately accepted. His closing was pushed out two weeks, though, because the lender says they are trying to get through stacks of loans with a diminished workforce due to the pandemic.
When travelers are reluctant to fly and are cutting back on overseas holidays, I can imagine a somewhat different outcome between places where most people travel to their second home by car (eg New England, Sierra Nevada) and those places that owners are flying to (Florida?).
Re: healthcare, H’s retirement buyout gave us both health insurance until each of us is 65. We have to pay for it, but the coverage is good & the cost is reasonable. It is entirely possible that we could lose it before turning 65, since the company has reneged on retirement promises in the past. We are close enough age wise that we don’t think that will happen to us, though.
Word on the street is that Medicare needs to be completely dismantled because it will be insolvent in a few years… but any politician who dares to do so, especially during a pandemic, is dead meat.
There have been plenty of concerns over the years about Medicare, but it’s medium term solvency is unlikely to be worsened and may even be improved by a pandemic that is disproportionately killing older people.
Interesting thinking about real estate. My complete guess is that big vacation destinations people often fly to (like the Florida beaches) may take a hit, but people may decide to upgrade the homes they live in full-time, since they will plan to spend more time at home.
I am going to have to start paying attention to this. A couple of places we would consider for retirement are tourist destinations. (Not in Florida though).
We pay a very large amount for health insurance as is, through DH’s employer. DH was seriously considering retirement early this year if our house sold. The mortgage and real estate taxes along with the maintenance of a large house starting to need all sorts of repairs is our largest expense. Our health insurance premiums costs remain about the same regardless of what we do.
Two major developments in addition to COVID19 : 1) Our house sold. 2) DH’s employer asked him to stay on at least to year end. He works remotely so locale of our new residence won’t matter.
So we are as we were in terms of income but without the expense of our house But we are on hold as to where we shall move. We are holed up in our paid for summer/second home for now with our things in storage. Though both of us are eligible for Medicare, employer health insurance is still what we have —negligible difference in cost; we can continue to contribute to our HSAs is the big benefit of continuing with what we have.
I started seasonal work a couple of years ago, and as a result, am currently getting hefty unemployment benefits. They’ll be reduced in a couple of months but the regular state payments now will continue to year end when the usually ended in October for me. So, actually, this year has been a banner year rather than a huge loss. Worst case scenario was DH asked to retire with house still unsold. Though it’s possible the housing market goes up after all of this, we are happy with what we got for our house. We were contemplating a big price drop when both COVID19 and our offer hit. Many possible outcomes , because not safe for DH’s health to go into NYC for work, many companies cutting pay and furloughing employees , and I think this was the best possible outcome for us. We will continue to shelter in place, albeit a different locale, but we are spending far far less money on a larger income this year. We’ll see what happens at year end, and make plans for moving into another home then.
Real estate prices have remained steady, but there have been indications that some older listings have a good possibility of price negotiation. Not a lot of inventory and interest rates are low. I have looked at some possibilities, and found some very good deals, I think, if I only knew what we wanted to do!
I’ll work seasonally again next year—don’t expect to bring in anything like I will this year, but it’s still a nice piece just for me. We don’t expect to start taking SS until DH is age 70; I may start mine at my retirement age. We’ll see if DH is offered a package to stay next year. Otherwise, he’ll officially retire with this year his bonus year. Kids are all on their own; just one going to need some help through this.