Living on a " fixed " income while not going " broke " .

graham-xrf said:
I was one who deferred retirement for 6 years, all the time piling on pension contributions into a private pension. This would be in addition to the state one, which is, I suppose, equivalent to what you are calling SS here. Of course, being fully being paid up on what is known in UK as National Insurance, deferring means one gets a bigger pension payout for one's remaining (hopefully) years.

@savarin in post #13 referenced the burden that is health funding provision in USA. Adding up what is taken from USA individuals for health-related needs must come to a total that could rival some nation's economies, and there is a significant fraction going into pure corporate profit that makes one suspect the health provisions are either fantastic, or not great value for money. In UK, as in most European countries, this is taken care of in other ways, and for that, I am pleased we have the system we do.

I know I have said it somewhere before in this forum, but I say here again. "However little you think you might have, if you keep going, you can end up with more money than time! "

While I now have enough to get by, and no debts, I regret staying in the race for as long as I did!
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I've compared what I pay for health insurance, and what my friend in Denmark pays in income taxes total. I pay a larger share of my income, and then still have to pay income taxes in addition. Health care in the USA is an amazing scam on the tax payers.
 
I found it easy to live on what I had when I had to retire early for health reasons. I looked at how much money I had coming in and got rid of every unnecessary expense and parred the necessary expenses down to what I could afford. Income went from around 9k per month to 2k. A lot of my expenses were all related to work. When work stopped those expenses stopped. The workers comp settlement paid off all of my debts except for the house with a little left over. My son and his roommates moved out of their apartment and into the house. The house payment was less than their rent. I moved onto my sailboat. That saved over 2k per month. Not paying state and fed income taxes and not paying into the 401k saved over 3k. Car expenses went down too because I wasn't driving that much anymore. I was still able to do everything I wanted to.

When I left on my sailboat to cruise down to Mexico monthly expenses dropped even more. Even got rid of my car after a couple of years. Down in Mexico my monthly living expenses dropped to a little over $300 per month. Still had state side expenses of around $1000 per month. When Obama crap came along that took care of my medical insurance until I got medicare. Another savings. Not eating out all of the tine was another savings. Healthier too.

And the best thing about retiring early was all of my health issues which were stress related went away in 6 to 9 months. Lost close to 40lbs in weight and blood pressure went back to normal along with all of the other things they test you for. I am healthier now then when I was working.

All in all early retirement was a good thing and not a strain on me financially.
 
mickri said:
When I left on my sailboat to cruise down to Mexico monthly expenses dropped even more.
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Lots of folk from San Diego have discovered that working in USA, but living in Tijuana gives them a better deal, especially if they can time the commute into USA, or if they do a lot of remote access work, learned from COVID days.

 
Long term health care can turn a millionaire into a pauper in a very short time. There is insurance to protect against those expenses but it isn't cheap. Electing to purchase laonterm care insurance would have required almost doubling the amount that we are drawing from our savings and investments. We decided not to go that route, taking our chances that we will be able to avoid the need for assisted living.
 
RJSakowski said:
Long term health care can turn a millionaire into a pauper in a very short time. There is insurance to protect against those expenses but it isn't cheap. Electing to purchase laonterm care insurance would have required almost doubling the amount that we are drawing from our savings and investments. We decided not to go that route, taking our chances that we will be able to avoid the need for assisted living.
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Both my parents ended up in assisted living. My dad was in there less than four months and my mom less than two months.
Hopefully if I end up in one it won’t be a lasting endeavor.
 
westerner said:
Stress has killed more of us than nearly anything else. Retire. You will be fine.
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Yes, and no.

If you retire too soon with too much debt you'll just be trading one type of stress for another......
 
Janderso said:
Both my parents ended up in assisted living. My dad was in there less than four months and my mom less than two months.
Hopefully if I end up in one it won’t be a lasting endeavor.
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My Mom was in assisted living for five hears. My Dad for only two months. Fingers crossed!

We have no children and anything left when we pass goes to various charities and educational institutions. Looking at long term health care, most have a three month exclusionary period before claims can be made. Purchasing long term care at that point would probably cost around $20K annually which is manageable for us.
 
I retired 15 years ago with a pension after 27+ years in the military. My wife was medically retired in 1998. She gets SS disability insurance. We have no kids. My second career has been looking after my wife's needs, school, and hobbies. You could say our income is fixed.

Except for our house and a car loan we are debt free with growing investments and emergency cash. We got there by living within our means and saving for the future. We still live within our means. We try not to spend money we don't need to spend. We discuss purchases over a certain amount. We never buy new when used is just as good (there are some exceptions). We like thrift shops, craig's list, ebay, and yard sales. A good amount of the furnishings in our home were bought used. They just don't build stuff to last anymore. The last new car I bought was in 2000 and I kept it for 18 years. It was replaced by a used car.

Our largest recurring expense aside from food is for medical not covered by insurance. We can't do anything about that, but we have it covered. My wife was ill before long term care insurance was a thing, so she can't get it. That's a big if that I hope we don't get to. I have to have it and lots of life insurance too.

It took a bit of time to adjust to not being needed outside the home anymore, but I've managed.

I don't think I gave up any secrets here.
 
RJSakowski said:
My Mom was in assisted living for five hears. My Dad for only two months. Fingers crossed!

We have no children and anything left when we pass goes to various charities and educational institutions. Looking at long term health care, most have a three month exclusionary period before claims can be made. Purchasing long term care at that point would probably cost around $20K annually which is manageable for us.
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RJ,
You have always been my favorite machinist :)
I've often thought of you as my favorite uncle.
 
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