Can we talk about retirement?

I waited until I was 70. I now think that was a mistake. I wanted to maximize my SS. But I can live perfectly well W/O any SS. The body is showing signs of going down hill.
 
I have decided to wait till I am 70 to retire. I realize I will have no money to acquire the tools I want after I retire. So, I am loading up while I still have disposable income. One fairly good predictor of how well you will age is your parents. Mine are currently 88 and 80. They are living independently in a new house they just had built. My spouse is a decade younger than me, and has never worked in a high paying profession. As such, her best numbers for Social Security are achieve by her claiming 1/2 of my Social Security payment. Obviously, that number climbs the longer I defer claiming it (up to age 70).

I do bemoan the way retirement has changed over the years. It has been decades since I have worked for a company which had a "true" retirement package. i.e. One which you retired after reaching the "rule of 80", or "20+ years of service" at a rate which was roughly the same as your last year of earnings. Now, unless you work for the Government, most only offer you the opportunity to pay into a 401K with some measure of "matching funds". Perhaps this is why the various lotteries have become so popular among the boomers these days.

I am still on the bubble on deciding whether I am getting the tools to make supplemental income when I retire, or simply to tinker with to avoid boredom The jury is still out on that one.
 
This July 10th, 2021 marks the one year point until I retire from work. I will be 66 and some months by then. But I will not be taking SS until later. Most all my disposable income goes to the 401 at this time. Thankfully, my company will match up to 8% of my salary and contributes another 5%. Between the companies and my contributions, I should be set by July of 2022.

Looking forward to retirement and building my shop. Will have to wait to add any machines to my shop inventory until then. I expect that may require some significant travel to get equipment at a reasonable cost. Not a completely bad thing. Thankfully I have an F350 Dually so pulling a heavy load is not a huge concern.

Oddly though, my biggest concern about retirement is not having that paycheck coming in. I have been working in some form since I was in the 6th grade. Times when I have had no paycheck were bad times not good. Even though I should be good, the thought of retiring and the loss of that check from my hard work tends to send panic through me.
 
I know I've mentioned it before, but I retired very early at 56 in 2019, after a bout of cancer which shows no sign of coming back at this point. Wife and I don't have any kids so that puts our finances in a pretty good spot. While I had planned to work until 60 to pay for a nicer retirement home, it didn't really matter after the uncertainties while going through cancer treatment.

I'd been setting up a bit of a shop before that as I've always liked woodworking and welding/fabricating. My grandfather was a machinist so I had purchased a few new Grizzly machine tools (mill and lathe) before retirement. I've opted to put the time and effort into rebuilding older machines to expand my machine collection.

While I have to be a little more careful with money since retiring, the reality is expenses go down pretty drastically too. Less eating out for lunch, no work clothes needed, less miles on the cars and so less gas and maintenance, etc. More time to look for unicorn deals on used equipment ;)
 
To those guys who're retiring soon, what are you finding out there for health insurance? My plant is slated to close in ten years so I have time before I retire but I've heard horror stories about the insurance costs.
 
I'm not retired yet but my wife and I had a few months last year of paying our health insurance out of pocket. I'm 55 and she's 60, both in good health, and we were able to purchase insurance through her former employer.

At $1800/mo we quickly realized that was another mortgage for a house we could never live in. Fortunately I've landed a job with benefits but it's clear I need to work another 10 years regardless of our saving and having good retirement investments. The old way of your employer paying for health benefits and pension income was great for our parents but that rug has been pulled out from almost every worker in the US.

Personally I find our system where you can "retire" at 59 1/2 but can't sign up for Medicare until 65 to be very cynical at best. Seems like they're just betting you'll die before you can get into the system you paid for your whole working life.

Both my wife and I come from families that have long life genes so chances are we'll be healthy far into the future. But, it would be nice to appreciate the fruits of our labor while we're still able to enjoy them....

Add into all of this the responsibility of caring for elderly parents and it feels like you're getting the short end of an increasingly short stick....

John
 
I was planning on retiring on February 28, 2022, but might extend that date by three months. My company (and every other one in the USA?) was required as of 1993 to recognize the Family Medical Leave Act. In my case, it allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from work to take care of a sick family member or yourself if you are ill. The act also requires the company to maintain your healthcare insurance and to give you an equivalent job when you return to work. My plan could be starting the year on FMLA, then work 2 weeks, take my 6 weeks of vacation and retire.

I can purchase retiree healthcare from my company, but the premiums and deductible are much higher than active employee healthcare insurance. The FMLA will allow me to maintain my current healthcare into "pseudo-retirement" for another 3 months, then I'll go for sure. Kind of milking the system a little bit, but it's their system so I'll take advantage of it if I can.

I may be taking some FMLA this year too as my mom has cancer that is progressing. She has spots on her pancreas and L1-L4 vertebrae. She has a fantastic attitude about it because of her faith. If things start going south quickly, I'll take 3 months off from work without pay to be with her.

Another option a cousin of mine told me about (but I haven't investigated well) is the Affordable Care Act. If I understand my cousin correctly, he is delaying SS until 66/9 months for his full share. He receives no pension from his former employer. He and his wife banked enough money after taxes to live on until they both turn 65 and file for Medicare. In the meantime, they are technically paupers and qualify for health care through the Affordable Care Act. He just has to make sure they don't exceed something like $36,000 or $38,000 a year in unearned income, of cashed in 401K bucks.

Bruce
 
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