285 days to retirement

If my math is right it has been 1235 days since retiring, although semi-retirement is more accurate. In the 3 years and change since I retired I've done at least a years worth of full time work spread out on a part time basis. It has been working pretty well for me. I can now enjoy the work when I have it, and when it is done I am reminded that being retired is awesome. The extra money to enjoy my retirement is nice as well. When I get a block of work I usually pick out something I want as my reward for working, and the rest goes into the "general fund".


I guess some people manage to get bored, but I don't know how. I've completely adapted the I don't know how I ever had time to go to work thing.


Skierdude said:
A question for you guys in the US. We often hear comment about how expensive health care insurance is in the US. What’s the range of annual cost for health insurance? Here in New Zealand we have a pretty good public health system but the waiting lists can be long for some elective procedures. My wife and I also have private health insurance that cost around US$5,400 a year for the two of us. It gives peace of mind that we can get treatment much quicker than going through the public system.
Click to expand...

As a retired Federal employee I am able to continue to get my insurance through a group plan which is much cheaper than it would be buying it as an individual. I do have a good higher end plan, but it is far from the most expensive.

Self + family is $18,500 / yr, for self plus one like you have it would be reduced to $17,100. The government (my prior employer) picks up about 1/3 of this cost so my actual out of pocket is around $12,000, but the plan cost is what I listed.

If I went for the cheapest plan from the same provider it would be $11,500 / yr but the coverage is much less and the deductibles much higher.
We ran the numbers last year when my wife got pneumonia and was hospitalized for 5 days, the more expensive plan more than paid for itself when we looked at what we would have paid for her "visit" with the cheaper plan.

I'm not old enough for medicare so I'm not sure how that plays into things.
 
Skierdude,
Us mere mortals- those of us who worked in the private sector, wait for our 65th birthday. Then we are able to receive our benefits we paid into for 50 years. I'll be 65 in February.
If I have to have a full knee replacement right now with my PPO Blue Shield, it would be approx. $7,000 out of pocket.
If I was 65 and older, the same operation would only cost me my supplement monthly premiums -<$200. Yep two hundred dollars.
Our medical coverage is expensive and covers a portion of an inflated number IMHO.
 
I retired last November and loving every minute of it. Really don’t know how I found time to go to work. My ‘shop keeps me busy except when i’m on the honey do list.
 
Janderso said:
This is getting to be the real deal.
How many days do you have?
Hey, for those of you that have already retired, this is a big deal!
Working or having a purpose to get up and be somewhere since 1972!
It's going to be pretty strange at first. Did you feel guilty? At first?
284 tomorrow :)
Click to expand...
I retired at age 45. I've never felt guilty in retirement, I believe I earned it, but I did feel unneeded for a few months. I had to get over the job defining who I was/am.

I got my wife a sign that says "Retirement, Half the money, Twice the Husband!" so she would know how things would stand. She didn't think it was funny and set out to find me another job. That didn't work. I did go to school again, but that was more to mess up the grading curve for the youngins.

Now I just do whatever I want, when I want. I highly recommend it!

Eric
 
Aaron_W said:
If my math is right it has been 1235 days since retiring, although semi-retirement is more accurate. In the 3 years and change since I retired I've done at least a years worth of full time work spread out on a part time basis. It has been working pretty well for me. I can now enjoy the work when I have it, and when it is done I am reminded that being retired is awesome. The extra money to enjoy my retirement is nice as well. When I get a block of work I usually pick out something I want as my reward for working, and the rest goes into the "general fund".


I guess some people manage to get bored, but I don't know how. I've completely adapted the I don't know how I ever had time to go to work thing.




As a retired Federal employee I am able to continue to get my insurance through a group plan which is much cheaper than it would be buying it as an individual. I do have a good higher end plan, but it is far from the most expensive.

Self + family is $18,500 / yr, for self plus one like you have it would be reduced to $17,100. The government (my prior employer) picks up about 1/3 of this cost so my actual out of pocket is around $12,000, but the plan cost is what I listed.

If I went for the cheapest plan from the same provider it would be $11,500 / yr but the coverage is much less and the deductibles much higher.
We ran the numbers last year when my wife got pneumonia and was hospitalized for 5 days, the more expensive plan more than paid for itself when we looked at what we would have paid for her "visit" with the cheaper plan.

I'm not old enough for medicare so I'm not sure how that plays into things.
Click to expand...
Thanks Aaron, that’s interesting. So you’re paying around 3 times our costs. Our public health system is pretty good but we do pay for that through our taxes.
Ike had private health insurance since I started working (that seems a long time ago). Being able to afford private insurance means weave been able to cover most of our health care and leave the public resources available to help those less fortunate.
Our grandson was born with a genetic condition that meant he was in and out of hospital for his first 2 years before having a liver transplant. We conservatively estimate his hospital and home care has cost around $1 million, all covered by the New Zealand tax payer.
 
Janderso said:
Skierdude,
Us mere mortals- those of us who worked in the private sector, wait for our 65th birthday. Then we are able to receive our benefits we paid into for 50 years. I'll be 65 in February.
If I have to have a full knee replacement right now with my PPO Blue Shield, it would be approx. $7,000 out of pocket.
If I was 65 and older, the same operation would only cost me my supplement monthly premiums -<$200. Yep two hundred dollars.
Our medical coverage is expensive and covers a portion of an inflated number IMHO.
Click to expand...
Jeff, I signed up for healthcare insurance when I started work. The premium where really not significant. As you get older the premium goes up and at retirement many find the cost too high so they cancel the policy - just what the insurers want!
 
Been retired for a few years. Busy as ever and loving it. Wondering how I ever found the time to go to work.
 
Janderso said:
I assume you got straight A's. That would mess up the curve.
Click to expand...
YES! Yes I did! I have Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Zeta honors to go along with them too. I'm one of those people who figures things out fairly quickly. After my first Calculus class my wife asked how it went. I told her "You're not going to understand this, but it was Magic!" I wondered why have they been keeping this a secret? My major was Computer Science and I loved it.

Eric
 
Calculus is awesome, and describes much of the physics that goes on around us everyday.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top