The house had solar when we bought it 2 1/2 years ago. For “inside baseball” Electrical Engineering reasons, we had to upgrade a lot of the existing ground based solar for batteries that would work during a grid outage. The AC units were end of life, and the oil burner needed some work, so not knowing what I was biting off, we went Ground Based Heat Pump. Incredibly pricey, but the government and state wound up shouldering around 40% of the cost, and our run rate is essentially $0 (other than filters, which I replace 4x year, probably overkill).
To do penance for my Range Rover years, I wanted to be carbon neutral. ?
It’s only an eyesore if you let it be. We have 120 panels in our yard. When I look at them, I see green energy not ugly panels.
@IxnayBob Well the field we’d put solar panels in, isn’t in view of the house unless you go outside to the side yard. Still, I like aesthetics. Just couldn’t do it. Maybe could do a partial system on the roof, but the winds are very high here.
Then again, no penance here for driving a Range Rover. I took the subway and walked til I was about 30. So my footprint is probably pretty low. Have had a compost pile forever and buy local. Still would love to have geothermal.
If you want to put up a structure to provide shade for picnic tables or whatever, you can have the solar panels be the roof providing the shade.
Also, are the winds high enough that solar panels on your house roof would be in danger of blowing away? Would a wind turbine be a good way to harvest energy in the winds in your area?
@ucbalumnus We are very close to the ocean. I think a wind turbine would work as many farms nearby have them. I’d prefer the solar to wind, however. The wind makes too much noise and part of the joy is the quiet, especially the birds. The solar panels would be near our neighbors house and I like our neighbors so although it’s our land, I’d be reluctant to put anything other than a field or garden out in that area.
Winds aren’t always high but a Nor’Easter can be very noisy and can blow stuff around quite a bit with wind gusts. We frequently get gusts up to 65 MPH in the Winter when Mother Nature is stepping up. Comes and goes.
I love ChoatieMom’s shingles. Going to look into that when we reroof in the next couple of years.
So we know we are not staying long term in this home, but not changing in the foreseeable future - long term will make a change out of current geographical area. Stable going for now. I know when H and I were from young adults on pretty much reliant on just ourselves. My parents did not spend down their estate so we did receive inheritance; it arrived at good timing for us - while I was in the middle of aggressive cancer treatments fighting aggressive cancer (but it came after a turn around point on the cancer where I was pretty sure I would stay cancer free, which I have). Our two DDs are pretty solid in work/career path, but SIL and BF are struggling. I feel like we are the ‘anchor’ for any rough seas which may be ahead for ‘the kids’. If they run into a crisis, they won’t expect help but will appreciate what we do. For example Covid shutting down GKids’ daycare - and I was live in nanny/babysitter M-F from mid March until June 1. Other set of grandparents couldn’t help due to their health situation. DD1/SIL could continue to work and keep their finances moving forward.
Meeting our financial planner today, I can foresee us making some baby step changes next year. Thinking things out over time.
Question for you guys. My mom is 80, and thinks she doesn’t have to take RMD’s this year, because of the SECURE Act in 2019 (they’ve taken them since age 70 1/2). Scanning the internet, it doesn’t look like the SECURE Act applies to them, it looks to me like you would have to turn 70 1/2 in 2019 or later, and obviously they are well past that. I think that they are required to take RMD’s forever, since they are too old, but I’m not really sure. What do you think?
I’m having my financial planner run the numbers again and will have that this week. As my only child is about to be off my payroll soon (college senior), I can really ramp up my savings. I’m refinancing the house so that it will be paid off a little sooner and I’ll be debt free. I originally wanted to retire at 50-52. Numbers wise, that is still doable, but I realized I can substantially improve my annual retirement income by working just a few years more to age 55, since I’ll have no debt by 50. So barring serious health issues, I’m now thinking I’ll retire at 55. Health insurance still makes me very nervous about retirement planning, however.
How much are those of you retiring early budgeting for health insurance?
Okay, from looking at the information, it looks like nobody has to take RMD’s this year because of the CARES act, because of COVID. But just for 2020.
However, it looks like the SECURE Act does not apply to my parents, since they are older than the limit, so they will have to take RMD’s in 2021. Thank you two for the guidance!
And that is the big, scary question, @itsgettingreal21. Even if we know what health insurance costs this year, what about the next year, and the next? It only seems to go up. If we retire next year (age 58), to keep the same health insurance, it would be at least 24K (which is what it costs the company this year). And there is no upper limit, so who knows, it could go up 10K per year or more! We’re thinking we would switch to a high deductible plan for half the price. I think we’re going to budget what it is for this year, and then just assume it will go up 5K/yr until retirement.
Yeah, I mixed the two together, @bluebayou. They avoid having to do RMD’s this year because of CARES, but have to do them next year because the SECURE act of 2019 did not apply to them, and CARES is only for 2020. At least that was my conclusion!
Dh and I currently about $22,000 per year for our health insurance, but I have the “Cadillac” plan, and he has the “Honda” plan. Our plans are actually identical in terms of co-pays, prescription costs, deductibles, etc. The only difference is that mine has a MUCH broader network. If we both had the “Cadillac” plan it would be around $26,000.
For the worst case (ACA is overturned and you get or already have a pre-existing condition that makes you uninsurable with an individual medical insurance policy), budget for self-paying / self-insuring your medical care costs from early retirement until Medicare age.