finaledition
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,896
Jun 26, 2014 0:30:34 GMT
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Post by finaledition on Jul 9, 2021 20:28:37 GMT
I'm part of a couple in our early 50s and currently spending a year really documenting where our money is going and what percentage of that we will need in retirement (for instance, paying college tuition won't be part of the equation, but going on year nice trips is definitely something we'd like to budget). We also want to make sure we have realistically budget for nursing homes so that we are not a burden on our kids. When we factor that, the number we need really jumps. Luckily we have been budgeting for retirement since we graduated college-my dh always made it a priority. So the number, while high, is not scary for us.
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Post by lily on Jul 9, 2021 21:06:47 GMT
Hubs and I are turning 60 this year. He is retiring Sept 3rd, and fortunately he gets pension. We also have our 401k's. BUT yesterday we were told by an insurance broker that medical insurance will be $1800/month for the two of us with $5,000-7,000 deductibles each! I almost died! We had expected around $1200/month with fairly decent deductibles, Not this!! It makes me sick. She said that everyone even if you are getting 'private' insurance HAS to go through the Healthcare Marketplace now. I don't know that I believe her though, but supposedly she is a Healthcare Broker.
So now I am thinking of continuing to work, adding DH to my medical insurance at work (which would be about $400/month for the two of us with $750 each deductible). If I work until I am 63-1/2, then retire and get Cobra thru the company it would carry us until we can get Medicare at 65.
But BOY what a way to take the joy out of DH's retirement. And the killer is we have asked the financial planner for the past 6 years if we were right in figuring about $1200/month and he was all "Yep". Dammit.
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QueenoftheSloths
Drama Llama
Member Since January 2004, 2,698 forum posts PeaNut Number: 122614 PeaBoard Title: StuckOnPeas
Posts: 5,955
Jun 26, 2014 0:29:24 GMT
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Post by QueenoftheSloths on Jul 9, 2021 21:38:44 GMT
Hubs and I are turning 60 this year. He is retiring Sept 3rd, and fortunately he gets pension. We also have our 401k's. BUT yesterday we were told by an insurance broker that medical insurance will be $1800/month for the two of us with $5,000-7,000 deductibles each! I almost died! We had expected around $1200/month with fairly decent deductibles, Not this!! It makes me sick. She said that everyone even if you are getting 'private' insurance HAS to go through the Healthcare Marketplace now. I don't know that I believe her though, but supposedly she is a Healthcare Broker. So now I am thinking of continuing to work, adding DH to my medical insurance at work (which would be about $400/month for the two of us with $750 each deductible). If I work until I am 63-1/2, then retire and get Cobra thru the company it would carry us until we can get Medicare at 65. But BOY what a way to take the joy out of DH's retirement. And the killer is we have asked the financial planner for the past 6 years if we were right in figuring about $1200/month and he was all "Yep". Dammit. No, you do not HAVE to go through the marketplace. We buy our own, and don't go through the marketplace because there is no price reduction for us to do so. The numbers your broker quoted are in the ballpark of what we were paying before DH was old enough for Medicare. My current premium is lower because of my age, but my deductible is $8000. And the coverage is crap, with no vision or dental either.
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Post by katlady on Jul 9, 2021 21:50:56 GMT
no vision or dental either. Lot of health insurances do not include coverage for vision or dental. If you have a medical eye issue, then it is covered, but not for regular checkups or glasses. I go to Costco for eye exams. Our dental coverage is separate from our health insurance. I ran the numbers once and the premiums and out-of-pocket expenses almost equals what we would pay without dental insurance. Dental coverage in the US is terrible.
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QueenoftheSloths
Drama Llama
Member Since January 2004, 2,698 forum posts PeaNut Number: 122614 PeaBoard Title: StuckOnPeas
Posts: 5,955
Jun 26, 2014 0:29:24 GMT
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Post by QueenoftheSloths on Jul 9, 2021 21:56:58 GMT
no vision or dental either. Lot of health insurances do not include coverage for vision or dental. If you have a medical eye issue, then it is covered, but not for regular checkups or glasses. I go to Costco for eye exams. Our dental coverage is separate from our health insurance. I ran the numbers once and the premiums and out-of-pocket expenses almost equals what we would pay without dental insurance. Dental coverage in the US is terrible. yes, I didn't mean that my coverage was crap BECAUSE it didn't include vision and dental, I meant that it was crap AND it didn't include vision and dental. Since the pea I was responding to is new to buying insurance on her own, I thought she should be aware that those things may be extra expenses as well.
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Post by ntsf on Jul 9, 2021 22:06:59 GMT
my dh worked til 68 to get insurance that would cover me for cobra.. because of the way he did it.. I had cobra health care for 3 yrs. I ended up paying 2 months of full price health care ($2000 a month) and now am on social security medicare. so we are both on medicare. we are both retired.
he worked for some big companies in tech and got some great stock options, and 401 k matches, so we are comfortable and don't have to worry. we are still paying off mortgage. but we have worked with financial advisor for 10 yrs. he took social security at 70.
we were really lucky cause he worked for a company that matched 401k 4 to 1. every dollar we put in they put in $4.. and then the company went ipo.. and the company he worked for that he retired from gave lots of stock options.. and tech stocks have done incredible well the last few years. it was not easy working for these companies.. but worth it in the end. both of our dads retired at 57.. pensions, full medical, --something you won't see again.
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Post by Clair on Jul 9, 2021 22:18:47 GMT
Medical costs seem to be the biggest wildcard for retirement.
I just turned 60 and fairly recently divorced. I self pay my private medical insurance for roughly $1,000 per month. I don’t carry dental or vision so I budget another thousand for any other medical type costs. The extra $1000 is high but it makes me more comfortable.
I too don’t have an exact number but I’ve worked with a financial planner and have a plan in place.
I recommend working with someone who can help set a plan I don’t believe there is a magic number for retirement.
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moodyblue
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,188
Location: Western Illinois
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
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Post by moodyblue on Jul 9, 2021 22:33:41 GMT
I think the amount one needs for retirement is so dependent on individual circumstances.
I am 64 now, retired at 63, after 42 years of teaching. I don’t get Social Security because I have a state pension. I make too much money to get any widow's benefits from my husband's SS.
Because I taught for longer than most teachers, my pension is calculated on an actuarial formula rather than a straight percentage of average salary over the last few years of teaching. I get more money monthly than a teacher who retired with the usual 34-35 years of teaching.
I pay for health insurance through a state (Illinois) program for retired teachers. It is heavily subsidized, so it is very reasonably priced for one person. I can convert this to a Medicare supplement when I turn 65, and the cost will go down. I am paying for dental and vision coverage through COBRA at my former district. I may choose to just pay out of pocket for those expenses rather than paying for insurance for them.
I have money from my husband's IRA, his life insurance, my 403b, refunds from the retirement system, and from my mother's estate. My siblings and I are selling the family farm land so I will have another large chunk of money coming later this year.
I have no dependents, the mortgage is paid off, and I have good financial advisors. I feel like I’m in pretty good shape, able to do what I want, within reason, and will have money to pay for assisted living or long-term care if/when I need it. If needed, I can spend every penny I have before I die,
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Jun 14, 2024 6:01:16 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2021 22:34:00 GMT
This is the problem w/America....
Can you tell me what catastrophic accident and/or diseases we will have?
Cuz those will wipe you right out.
So, I can't answer cuz we can't get our heads out of our asses and have publicly-funded healthcare.
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Post by papersilly on Jul 9, 2021 22:38:08 GMT
I am part of a couple. No kids. We currently live in California. Even if we retire to a state with a lower cost of living, we will need more than $2M (net worth). Well, I don't know if we NEED that much but we are aiming for at least that much.
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Post by papersilly on Jul 9, 2021 22:47:33 GMT
This is the problem w/America.... Can you tell me what catastrophic accident and/or diseases we will have? Cuz those will wipe you right out. So, I can't answer cuz we can't get our heads out of our asses and have publicly-funded healthcare. My mom went through an illness that lasted five years until her death at age 68. We had three caregivers who did live in care. No insurance to cover this. It wasn't cheap. If we're lucky, it's a swift illness. If we're not, we want to be prepared for the expenses of care. The cost is not so much in the treatment (there was none for her) but the care. How much of publicly funded healthcare would cover in home caregivers? I doubt much, if any. DH has elderly clients who spend over$300,000/year for caregivers. They've had caregivers for over 10 years. That's over $3M and counting. The wife died a couple of weeks ago but her husband is still alive. They are lucky to have the money.
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Post by malibou on Jul 9, 2021 22:59:37 GMT
Dh retired from a state job 3 years ago at 54. He still has his private business, and though he is scaling back, I doubt it will be gone for quite awhile yet, as he enjoys it still. It can be done from anywhere as long as he has access to his computer, so we travel a fair amount. Our healthcare is covered along with dental and vision.
We lived very frugally with a goal of retiring at 56. We hit our goal 2 years early and the timing was perfect.
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Post by paulao on Jul 9, 2021 23:57:33 GMT
I am retiring in 301 days. As of today I have $700K in my 401s, I will get about $2K per month SS and I have a $900 a month pension from a previous job. and a low mortgage (about $979/month).
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Post by hookturnian on Jul 10, 2021 0:06:24 GMT
Are defined benefits schemes still common in the US? South Africa and Australia shifted to defined contributions schemes many years ago. I was in my first job after university when we switched over, so 20+ years ago in SA.
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Post by littlemama on Jul 10, 2021 0:31:06 GMT
More than we would ever be able to save.
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Post by beaglemom on Jul 10, 2021 0:31:30 GMT
I'm in my late 30s and my dh is in his early 40s. I want to say $10 million is the number he has in his head as wanting. We have a wonderful financial planner and we love meeting with him because every time we leave we feel so much better about the future. His company has a really good matching 401K program and he always maxes out his contributions by the Spring, so the rest of the year he puts money in post-tax, so it adds up pretty quickly.
We have 4 kids 10 and under and paying for their post-secondary education is very important to us. Thankfully they all have 529s with a significant amount in them from their grandparents, it should easily cover at least their undergraduate degrees anywhere they want to go.
We are in the process of looking at moving to a lower-cost state to be closer to dh's sisters, my parents will follow if we move. We are currently out visiting and we could sell our house and buy something 2-3 times the size of our house for cash and be great.
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Post by katlady on Jul 10, 2021 1:13:12 GMT
Are defined benefits schemes still common in the US? South Africa and Australia shifted to defined contributions schemes many years ago. I was in my first job after university when we switched over, so 20+ years ago in SA. I had to look up what that is. Google says it is the same thing as a pension, where the employer puts a certain amount of dollars into a retirement fund for you. Is that correct? Pensions are up to the individual companies. My company has one, you get money based on your years of service and salary. But the emphasis now days is on a retirement saving plan, where the employee puts in the money and the company matches some of it. I know lot of company don’t have a pension plan anymore.
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Nanner
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,984
Jun 25, 2014 23:13:23 GMT
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Post by Nanner on Jul 10, 2021 1:41:07 GMT
I plan on retiring 3 or 4 years from now. DH is younger, and will work 4 years more than I do.
One thing I did get from my previous employer, is retiree benefits. This is medical and dental, etc. In addition, once you reach 65 in Alberta, we get seniors blue cross. All on top of our Canadian healthcare system.
We've always contributed to our pension plans. We should be fine.
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Post by lily on Jul 10, 2021 2:17:42 GMT
In the US 'back in the day' almost all companies had pension plans, but I think around hmmm the 1990's or so they started doing away with them and going to full 401k's.
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Post by rymeswithpurple on Jul 10, 2021 2:43:31 GMT
My husband and I are both 31. We have $150k+ in our savings, and around $16k in a Schwab account. I don't remember how much he has in his retirement accounts offhand, but I have about $33k in mine.
We have no debts, and when we do eventually buy a place, it will very likely not be where we live now because of the high cost of living. Rent is our biggest expense each month.
We'd love to retire in our 50s, but we'll see what happens. My dad will be 70 next year, and is planning to cut down to 12 hours a week and will still be able to make what he does now. I'm very happy for him.
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Post by hookturnian on Jul 10, 2021 3:08:25 GMT
Are defined benefits schemes still common in the US? South Africa and Australia shifted to defined contributions schemes many years ago. I was in my first job after university when we switched over, so 20+ years ago in SA. I had to look up what that is. Google says it is the same thing as a pension, where the employer puts a certain amount of dollars into a retirement fund for you. Is that correct? Pensions are up to the individual companies. My company has one, you get money based on your years of service and salary. But the emphasis now days is on a retirement saving plan, where the employee puts in the money and the company matches some of it. I know lot of company don’t have a pension plan anymore. Defined benefits: what you get *paid out* (sorry on mobile so can't bold) is based on a formula of some sort, (e.g. percentage of final salary, number of years of service, whether you reached a certain age, etc) and sometimes tied to other factors like whether you left in good standing. It might be just the employer, or both employer and employee paying into the pot. And that's the key, it's a pot for all the employees, not an employee's personal retirement fund. It's normally tied to the company. With defined contributions, the amount the employer *pays in* is calculated using a formula. Employees can also pay in. It's not a pot for everyone, it's the employee's personal retirement savings. There are usually no strings attached. The employee may have some flexibility on how the money is invested. In Australia this is called Superannuation, and there is a national minimum percentage (currently 10% of ordinary time earnings) that employers must pay. Some employers may pay above this percentage (for all employees, not something you as an individual can negotiate) to be more attractive as an employer.
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Post by worldwanderer75 on Jul 10, 2021 3:22:51 GMT
I think we'll be able to retire comfortably when we're 55 (in about 10 years) but I think we'll choose to work longer. Both DH and I enjoy our work. My DH sometimes talks about retiring at 55 and teaching high school science & math as a 2nd career. We have saved aggressively throughout our entire marriage and lived overseas for almost a decade which was a huge boost in our retirement savings. SS does not factor into our retirement income at all.
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Post by lisacharlotte on Jul 10, 2021 3:39:30 GMT
DH retired last year, I plan to retire in two years. We saved aggressively for the past 15 years. We have worked with a financial advisor and are where we need to be. Maybe if we live to 85-90 we’ll find out we were wrong. DH is retired military, so that covers medical. Our house is paid off. DH also gets VA disability payment and a pension from his company. We have less than $2M. All our calculations say we’re covered until we reach 90, with enough left to leave a nice inheritance for DS.
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Post by ntsf on Jul 10, 2021 4:35:59 GMT
my dad calculated whether it would be better to take social security early or wait til 70. he would reach the tipping point at 88. well now he is 95 and it would have paid if he waited. but he has an old fashioned govt pension and medical and so he is ok. someone told him about mutual funds in the early 1950's..never heard of them, so he invested a little bit every paycheck and after 35 yrs...it added up. he is comfortable. he has paid for ltc insurance for years. but still lives alone.. with little help.
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Post by papersilly on Jul 10, 2021 4:45:17 GMT
We're in our early 50s, and we're looking at moving / buying a different house (with some property), instead of paying our current house off... Backwards from what most people want to be doing at this stage, I know. We will be doing the same thing. We don't have kids and we have no intention of leaving fully paid property to our heirs. We want to enjoy our money while we're alive and whatever is left when we're gone, is theirs.
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Post by AussieMeg on Jul 10, 2021 4:58:06 GMT
Last time we had a meeting with the people from my superannuation fund provider, they explained how much we would need if we wanted to live a "comfortable" compared to a "modest" lifestyle.
For a couple: Modest = 40,000 per year Comfortable = $62,000 per year or $640,000 by age 65
Except the retirement age for people my age and younger has recently been lifted to 67yo dammit.
I guess our figures would be higher if our private health care costs were as high as they are in the US.
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Post by karinec on Jul 10, 2021 16:34:03 GMT
I am divorced and my retirement is a mishmash of programs. Two pensions, an IRA and a 401k. I’m only contributing to my 401k currently. I calculated my retirement needs based on a monthly basis. How do you calculate an aggregate amount? I suppose I could google but prefer an answer from a pea.
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Post by MichyM on Jul 10, 2021 16:45:28 GMT
I am asking this because my Financial Advisor told me that I was off base. Not way off base, but enough so that I will have to work another year or two past where I thought I could work. I’m interested to know what your financial advisor told you. Our number was much higher than $2M. If I recall it was in the realm of 6 or 8 million. While many of the Peas' numbers seem very low to me, 6-8M seems high. Are you young? Plan on traveling a lot (half the year or having 2 homes for summer/winter) during retirement? Plan on purchasing additional properties after retirement? Plan on leaving a good-sized estate for your children? Live in a big city or on a property that requires a lot of upkeep? Just trying to understand those numbers, thanks!
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Post by ntsf on Jul 10, 2021 16:47:02 GMT
5-8 million is a pretty sweet life and most will never get there and do fine during retirement.
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Post by 950nancy on Jul 10, 2021 16:50:08 GMT
When I started working as a teacher in 1987, my dad looked at my pension plan and thought it seemed too good to be true. Thankfully it was true and since I got in in the 80's as a teacher, I get 85% of my salary for life. Teachers hired after I was, get less for more years of service. I'll get some SS since I did work for that for some of my career too, but that won't be much. We've saved quite a bit, but never really worried about saving as much as some have needed to to support their retirement.
ETA: We have a pretty inexpensive heath insurance (compare to many and supplemental by previous employer), but we also have a 6K deductible. We purchased a policy for $60 a month that will cover that 6K deductible if we are in an accident. My husband has already used it. We have found that overall this is much cheaper since we haven't hit our golden years with lots of medical issues. I retired at 50.
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