We borrowed $510K @2.625% a year ago (?). We are using that to fund renovation rather than sell securities. I looked at borrowing against the securities and didn’t really like the terms of that deal, though the interest rate was lower.
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Margin rates and terms generally suck. In our case, we somehow guessed the all time high! 
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We have a mortgage over $500k with 29 years left, unless we choose to pay it down.
Not optimal maybe, but it got us into a phenomenal property for retirement.
Which we probably couldn’t afford today as the value has increased 75% (!) or so in the 4 years since we bought it. The market here is insane.
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@notrichenough the ‘new numbers’ make your deal extra enjoyment knowing if you decide to go elsewhere you made a very good real estate action. But I know you put a lot of thought and detail into your ‘new home’ and are enjoying it a lot. Key is you have your cash flow worked out and are doing well.
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I had term life through my employer til I didn’t return to work after S1 was born. Decided to get a term life policy (40 years) though USAA at age 30. Doubled that amount six months later when I was pregnant with S2. It had an automatic increase provision on the face value, so by the time that expired, it would have paid for college for both. I kept that policy even after returning to the workforce. Good thing – I got cancer at 41 and have been uninsurable since. I still have the policy, and when it expires at age 70 (g-d willing), I will not renew it.
I had LTD coverage at work. First time, I quit because I didn’t have energy to be a good mom, employee or spouse (was on chemo). Second time, I quit my job six weeks before my cardiac arrest because I was so wiped out. Oh well. I knew because we were a small pension/benefits company that the insurance company would fight tooth and nail, but it would have been nice if my employer had actually suggested I apply and that he’d back me up. H says I never would have been able to collect SS Disability. I’m not so sure about that, esp after the cardiac stuff.
We have gotten through without the disability coverage, but we have been living well below our paychecks for decades, so that helps.
We can’t deduct our mortgage interest any more, either, due to SALT limits, so we paid off a chunk of our mortgage a few months ago. Had cash sitting in an account making .1% and didn’t want to throw any more into the market than we already are, so decided we could “earn” 2.65% by knocking four+ years off the loan.
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@mom60 - so interesting that your sister-in-law can get health coverage through university as a professor with teaching only 2-3 classes. Curious - I’ve heard colleges cutting back on benefits for adjuncts, etc. for years. Was there something special about her scenario that allowed her to get benefits?
I love my job but am exploring possibilities of future part-time work that could provide benefits. I know that is a rare! Never want to be a Starbucks barista or the like (waitressed in college and that’s enough in the service industry for one lifetime lol). Would love to do something where prior skills are valued…
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@Jolynne_Smyth She has been teaching one class a semester off and on for about 10 years. It’s a required course for several majors in her specific field of expertise. She has a PhD and has worked in her field for 30 years. She teaches at a California State University, she said two classes would get her benefits. She will agree to three classes since sometimes one class gets canceled.
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Mark me as another surprised that a college/university would pay benefits to adjuncts. Perhaps CA is unionized and that extends benefits to part-time faculty. My system only pays health insurance and other benefits to full-time faculty.
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All of the Washington state adjunct instructors get all the same benefits as tenured instructors as long as they teach half time. That’s why I never pursued a full time job at my cc. Less pay, but I had much more control over my schedule and my teaching assignments and much less work.
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We have several local K-12 school districts that pay benefits for certain positions that are not fulltime. Often see retired/near retired people in those positions.
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Lucky folks in CA & WA!
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I was asking D today why she is planning to move ~1000 miles in a few years. One if her biggest reasons was that her fiancee would have a spectacular pension plan. I love to see her thinking that far ahead.
In hindsight it would have been wonderful if I had a job with a pension. Unfortunately that concept was going the way of the dodo in my field when I was in my 20s. H will get a pension from a job he had ages ago that will pay for a simple dinner out a couple times a month 
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In my hometown it seems everyone works at Cornell part time for benefits after their career and before Medicare/Social Security. Some are happy to be driving the buses around campus.
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Today, dh got his first two annuity checks from his retirement. It’s amazing how close the net is to the gross, now that they aren’t taking out for the annuity or health insurance (yet). It felt so abstract until today, but now I feel like I can really plan and budget and figure out how far the reduced income will go against our expenses.
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After my first year of retirement, I owed a big payment on April 15. So, during my 2nd year of retirement, I made a dummy file using the previous year’s TurboTax to track my tax liability as the year progressed. I made quarterly payments as necessary and adjusted my withholdings accordingly. Now I have things set up such that there will be no surprises when income tax season comes around.
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So I just had my Social Security phone appointment to start receiving SS. They have the payments after each month, so my Oct payment (the beginning) will be 2nd Wed of Nov 2021.
For a long time this year, we weren’t spending down a lot - but I have been working less and so our checking account is shrinking. We plan to wait for DH to be closer to ‘full retirement age’ for his SS benefits, since our full retirement SS date is 66 years and 4 months. My goal is to wait until then, as he has longevity in his genetics/genealogy and I hate the idea of the penalty hurting on all future payments. I plan to transfer money from 401k once I figure out what our needs are for the time between now and when I want to withdraw again. My payment history and therefore my payments are much less than his, so the amount of early withdrawal penalty is not as much for me.
If you are old enough to collect SS, there is no early withdrawal penalty on a 401k.
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@notrichenough – yes I know – we have been taking some money out of 401k since DH (primary income) retired already. Also needed to take money out last year when DH’s car was totaled by a careless driver and we weren’t expecting to have to replace a vehicle.
Financial advisor thinks we should both take SS after stopped working, but I don’t want to have DH’s SS benefits chiseled away. I think he will ‘go the distance’ and it will pay off for us to wait on collecting his SS.
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