Retiring now

[455 Bravo Uniform]

FWIW: In trying to work out what I wanted to do after retiring I realized my last abode would need some upgrades. Unfortunately the neighborhood was in flux and I didn't have the option to expand my shop. After looking for existing setups, I elected to build a new "retirement" house with big shop. Also had all the ADA type structural requirements built into the walls so any grab bars, etc could be installed at later dates. No second floor or other mobility type restrictive designs were used and moved walls where needed to ensure there was a "flow" through out the house. Also included a large game room and designed my shop to handle my perceived future hobbies and projects.

The house proved to be a good idea and works good. Where I failed was every hobby or project I thought I was going to pursue never materialized. So instead of tinkering with a set of Cessna wings or recovering some tail feathers for a Stearman... I have 2 tractors and a collection of small engine projects. My "custom built" reloading benches now have a weedeater and several Stihl blowers scattered on them. The reloading and support equipment are still boxed up in my attached office/man-cave. The pool table and dart board are set up but seldom used. I never finished the outdoor kitchen/tiki bar because I'm to busy doing other things I never thought I would be doing.

I guess the moral to this is unless you are selling your existing house as part of your retirement maybe wait till afterwards and see how life changes. This was one the collective advices I got from other retirees that I didn't heed as much because I thought I knew what I was going to do when I retired. Boy, were they right and me mostly wrong. But don't get me wrong, starting off with a newer house has been a bonus but the game room/shop could have been done better (and a bit cheaper) had I waited.

Thank you for sharing that advice.

 

[Bell206]

Thank you for sharing that advice.

You're welcome. I was blessed that many, many people--all retired or retired before me-- went out of their way to help me by offering very personal information of their retirement plans, financial status, and other tidbits. I promised once I retired, I would pay it forward, as they had done for me, as it is a life changing experience beyond belief.

 

[denverpilot]

Soooo. Can we all retire tomorrow? All good?

Asking for a friend. Today didn’t kinda suck or anything. LOL.

 

[Sundancer]

Calling it a day as a salaried employee of Uncle Sam at the end of next month: net worth just barley $1M; no debt, and we will rely on several (modest) defined benefit retirement plans, plus Social Security, figuring we can do O.K on about $100K per year, without tapping the 401Ks, unless we want to. Not a LOT of money, but ENOUGH money.

Will take a year, see if I can make a few bucks writing; also, a part-time contracting job, on the order of $40K. We won't be doing villas in Tuscany, but shouldn't miss any meals, either. Will miss the paycheck, but am content. . .

 

[hindsight2020]

Calling it a day as a salaried employee of Uncle Sam at the end of next month: net worth just barley $1M; no debt, and we will rely on several (modest) defined benefit retirement plans, plus Social Security, figuring we can do O.K on about $100K per year, without tapping the 401Ks, unless we want to. Not a LOT of money, but ENOUGH money.

Will take a year, see if I can make a few bucks writing; also, a part-time contracting job, on the order of $40K. We won't be doing villas in Tuscany, but shouldn't miss any meals, either. Will miss the paycheck, but am content. . .

how old if you dont mind me asking?

 

[Pugs]

The house proved to be a good idea and works good. Where I failed was every hobby or project I thought I was going to pursue never materialized. So instead of tinkering with a set of Cessna wings or recovering some tail feathers for a Stearman... I have 2 tractors and a collection of small engine projects. My "custom built" reloading benches now have a weedeater and several Stihl blowers scattered on them. The reloading and support equipment are still boxed up in my attached office/man-cave. The pool table and dart board are set up but seldom used. I never finished the outdoor kitchen/tiki bar because I'm to busy doing other things I never thought I would be doing.

Some good advice I suspect. I have a long list of hobbies and interests to get back to but like you new ones may appear. On track to retire at 59 in three years so hopefully I'll go through multiple phases and interests if I live out the actuarial tables.

 

[Bell206]

but ENOUGH money.

I found this to be key for me. One thing that added to the "enough" money equation, that I didn't calculate properly, was how your daily cash flow changes. Instead of driving 25,000+ miles a year, I barely get 6,000 now. And I don't regularly eat lunch out anymore. Combine just that lunch money and gas money up and you can easily add $500/mo to the mad money fund. I've also come to re-learn how far $500 can go especially when looking at things from a retirement viewpoint. Good luck!

 

[Matthew]

I found this to be key for me. One thing that added to the "enough" money equation, that I didn't calculate properly, was how your daily cash flow changes. Instead of driving 25,000+ miles a year, I barely get 6,000 now. And I don't regularly eat lunch out anymore. Combine just that lunch money and gas money up and you can easily add $500/mo to the mad money fund. I've also come to re-learn how far $500 can go especially when looking at things from a retirement viewpoint. Good luck!

I've been trying to work out my "working" expenses vs daily. No more daily commute: for me that's not too bad, maybe 20 miles/day, 100 miles/week, 400+/month (out of the 1000/month I average). At $2.40/gal and 25 MPG that's about $40+/month. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it's worth something. I try to keep lunch expenses to a minimum, but there's still around $20/week for breakfast/lunch that I could save, so that's another $85 or so. Now I'm up to $125+. Then there are the nights I get home late and say, "Let's just go somewhere instead of fixing something", so maybe that would slow down, too. There are probably other nickel and dime things that would change, but many might be eaten up by lifestyle changes anyway - it will be fun to find out.

And since I'm already putting xx% away into my 401(k) and other savings, that's xx% of my current income that I won't miss since I'll be pulling it back out over the years.

There's a retirement guy on our local radio station that talks about spending after retirement: He calls it the "go go" years, the "slow go" years, and the "no go" years. Shortly after retirement he sees people try to catch up on everything they've been wanting to do, mainly travel. So the early years tend to get expensive because of that. Once those bucket-list items have been checked off spending seems to stabilize as travel and other similar activities slow down. Eventually age and health start to catch up and "fun" spending goes down even more.

 

[Sundancer]

how old if you dont mind me asking?

65 - - will delay Social Security until 70. Maybe.

 

[MuseChaser]

65 - - will delay Social Security until 70. Maybe.

Don't. Take it now. Don't just take my advice... crunch the numbers. Take the monthly amount you'd get now and multiply it by 60 (12 months times 5 years). Then, take the difference between the higher amount you'd get if you waited until 70 and what you'd get now, and divide your first answer by that difference...that's how many months it'll take you to break even. It'll probably be close to 20 years... you'll be 90. AND... it doesn't take into account what that first five years of money could have made if you invested it.

Example... now, you'd get $1600 monthly X 60 =$96,000 over five years
If you wait unti 70, say you'd get $2000. That's a difference of $400 for waiting. It will take you 96,000/400 months, or 240 months, to make up for the lost $96,000 you could have had during that 5 hear waiting period.

The government telling you to wait for a bigger benefit is just about the biggest, most unethical lie they've ever told. They're just counting on your death to avoid paying your full benefits...which is really just returning your money to you in the first place.

Take it now.

 

[FormerHangie]

I've been trying to work out my "working" expenses vs daily. No more daily commute: for me that's not too bad, maybe 20 miles/day, 100 miles/week, 400+/month (out of the 1000/month I average). At $2.40/gal and 25 MPG that's about $40+/month. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it's worth something. I try to keep lunch expenses to a minimum, but there's still around $20/week for breakfast/lunch that I could save, so that's another $85 or so. Now I'm up to $125+. Then there are the nights I get home late and say, "Let's just go somewhere instead of fixing something", so maybe that would slow down, too. There are probably other nickel and dime things that would change, but many might be eaten up by lifestyle changes anyway - it will be fun to find out.

And since I'm already putting xx% away into my 401(k) and other savings, that's xx% of my current income that I won't miss since I'll be pulling it back out over the years.

There's a retirement guy on our local radio station that talks about spending after retirement: He calls it the "go go" years, the "slow go" years, and the "no go" years. Shortly after retirement he sees people try to catch up on everything they've been wanting to do, mainly travel. So the early years tend to get expensive because of that. Once those bucket-list items have been checked off spending seems to stabilize as travel and other similar activities slow down. Eventually age and health start to catch up and "fun" spending goes down even more.

As you age, fun spending goes down, but medical spending goes up.

I'm 61, would like to keep working full time another 10 years. We'll see, as my mother used to say, "If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans." Granted, I have one daughter who is a senior in high school, so my situation is different from most.

I would rather spend more years working than have to count my pennies during retirement. Granted, not everyone has that option, but I'm certainly not going to volunteer for that situation. I'm not very good at relaxing anyway, and I don't mind working for the most part. I try to make sure I do some fun things on a regular basis so it's not like I'm waiting until retirement to live my actual life.

 

[MIFlyer]

I found this to be key for me. One thing that added to the "enough" money equation, that I didn't calculate properly, was how your daily cash flow changes. Instead of driving 25,000+ miles a year, I barely get 6,000 now. And I don't regularly eat lunch out anymore. Combine just that lunch money and gas money up and you can easily add $500/mo to the mad money fund. I've also come to re-learn how far $500 can go especially when looking at things from a retirement viewpoint. Good luck!

I also think about that. I would spend a lot of time tinkering in the garage, fixing things, chasing equipment for hobbies on craigslist, etc. Besides flying and travel, I don't actually think we'd spend a ton of money in retirement to live really well. our mortgage is our biggest one to solve before then.

 

[Bell206]

will delay Social Security until 70. Maybe.

May want to have a wealth guy work out the SSI for you. It was recommended to me that unless I would need SSI to directly pay for my retirement that I should take my SSI benefit earlier than later. For example, I'm 58 now and every year we look at whether I should start SSI at 62 or wait til I hit full age of 67. For me at 62 my benefit would be reduced by 30%. If I extrapolate monies received at age 62 vs age 67, the values equal out around age 80 I think. The SSI age 70 is somewhere in my 80s but I've never gone that high. And don't forget if you have any qualified funds Uncle Sam requires you to start taking RMDs at 70 1/2. And if your RMDs values exceeds the SSI income levels you'll be paying tax on the RMD and up to 80% of your SSI benefit.

Death and taxes. It's probably more important to have a tax plan after retirement than before. It may be to your advantage to have a complete work up done on which monies you will use to live off and in what order as some monies have advantages over others when they are withdrawn and in what amounts. It's all about the tax liability and every person's situation is very unique.

 

[Sundancer]

Don't. Take it now. Don't just take my advice... crunch the numbers. Take the monthly amount you'd get now and multiply it by 60 (12 months times 5 years). Then, take the difference between the higher amount you'd get if you waited until 70 and what you'd get now, and divide your first answer by that difference...that's how many months it'll take you to break even. It'll probably be close to 20 years... you'll be 90. AND... it doesn't take into account what that first five years of money could have made if you invested it.

Example... now, you'd get $1600 monthly X 60 =$96,000 over five years
If you wait unti 70, say you'd get $2000. That's a difference of $400 for waiting. It will take you 96,000/400 months, or 240 months, to make up for the lost $96,000 you could have had during that 5 hear waiting period.

The government telling you to wait for a bigger benefit is just about the biggest, most unethical lie they've ever told. They're just counting on your death to avoid paying your full benefits...which is really just returning your money to you in the first place.

Take it now.

Already crunched the numbers with my investment guy - did the actuary thing, and it's worth the 8% increase in SSA, per year, to hold off. I'll cover the any difference until 70 with thrift plan (fed TSP) withdrawals - there's no way I'd make 8% on that money anyway. But it is a near thing,always a guess and a gamble. Genetics say my odds of making 90 are actually pretty good (I guess that's "good"?)

Still I might delay 2, or 3, years instead of 4. . .4 years nets me about $1K more per month. . .

 

[MuseChaser]

Already crunched the numbers with my investment guy - did the actuary thing, and it's worth the 8% increase in SSA, per year, to hold off. I'll cover the any difference until 70 with thrift plan (fed TSP) withdrawals - there's no way I'd make 8% on that money anyway. But it is a near thing,always a guess and a gamble. Genetics say my odds of making 90 are actually pretty good (I guess that's "good"?)

Still I might delay 2, or 3, years instead of 4. . .4 years nets me about $1K more per month. . .

Glad to hear you did consider this carefully, but really the only ways you start to come out ahead by delaying are if you'd do absolutely nothing with the money you'd get now, you do live well past 90, and can still enjoy your money at that point. Not needing the money now or having a good plan that allows you to wait aren't guarantees that you're maximizing your benefit. I'd be curious what your actual numbers work out to, and when your break even point really is. If you are still currently working and will have high earnings up until 70, but WOULDN'T work if you started drawing now, that would certainly change the picture. My comments were solely based on a when to start drawing during retirement scenario.

 

[denverpilot]

The Dell on site tech called and said “his boss wanted him to do something else” and he sounded like he had a good pre-game already going before noon on a Friday of a holiday weekend. I had to balance business need against telling him to drive. LOL.

I went with “See you on Tuesday”. He’s taking his retirement in bong hits incrementally it sounds like. Can’t blame him working for a Dell sub-contractor. LOL.

I guess I should have opted for the depot repair and free shipping for that laptop. Why bother paying for on-site when they’ll be there five or six days after the ticket was opened. Sigh. Hahaha.

 

[RyanB]

Soooo. Can we all retire tomorrow? All good?

Asking for a friend. Today didn’t kinda suck or anything. LOL.

I’m in agreement. Fine by me!

 

[denverpilot]

I’m in agreement. Fine by me!

So say we all!

Dilly Dilly!

Enjoy your holiday weekend celebrating your labor y’all! LOL.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

May want to have a wealth guy work out the SSI for you. It was recommended to me that unless I would need SSI to directly pay for my retirement that I should take my SSI benefit earlier than later. For example, I'm 58 now and every year we look at whether I should start SSI at 62 or wait til I hit full age of 67. For me at 62 my benefit would be reduced by 30%. If I extrapolate monies received at age 62 vs age 67, the values equal out around age 80 I think. The SSI age 70 is somewhere in my 80s but I've never gone that high. And don't forget if you have any qualified funds Uncle Sam requires you to start taking RMDs at 70 1/2. And if your RMDs values exceeds the SSI income levels you'll be paying tax on the RMD and up to 80% of your SSI benefit.

But your RMD will be much less since you’ve been withdrawing money from 62-70. And there is a bill in the works that will up it to 72.
If your life expectancy is in high 80s or more, delay, especially if married.
I hope to delay till 67 or 70. Unless politicians start to threaten to cut benefits.



Tom

 

[Bell206]

But your RMD will be much less since you’ve been withdrawing money from 62-70.

The RMD I'm referring to is independent of the SSI benefits and is dependent on the amount in your qualified tax deferred accounts like IRAs or 401ks. So if you wait till 70 for your SSI benefit and the mandated 70 1/2 IRA Required Minimum Distribution kicks in, which if it exceeds $35,000 per year, you will then be paying tax on 85% of your SSI benefits. Since none of my plans are dependent on SSI it is more a tax issue for me than a funding issue.

 

[RyanB]

So say we all!

Dilly Dilly!

Enjoy your holiday weekend celebrating your labor y’all! LOL.

Back atcha!

 

[denverpilot]

But your RMD will be much less since you’ve been withdrawing money from 62-70. And there is a bill in the works that will up it to 72.
If your life expectancy is in high 80s or more, delay, especially if married.
I hope to delay till 67 or 70. Unless politicians start to threaten to cut benefits.

75 is also in the works on the heels of that one. It will probably die before a vote.

The 72 is in the SECURE act which can seriously screw over a family that’s passing down inherited IRAs. (Government always figures out a way to get more money and break promises.)

It’s been held up in the Senate over the ability to use 529s for homeschooling. Which honestly is a reasonable thing.

Whether SECURE will even pass is questionable, but boy howdy do the investment firms and their donation money to Congress loooooove it. Fidelity wants more capital under management, Baby.

Most of the provisions in it are helpful to most folks, but there’s the little jabs like the homeschooling thing and the investment thing that are fairly mean for no particular good reason. Honestly surprised the Congresscritters didn’t put a nice fat carve out for themselves on the investment thing. That one will tick off a LOT of their best donors.

If they’d just leave those piddly little jabs out of bills that big, they’d fly through without problems. They think it makes the people who block them who have principles that aren’t even unreasonable to most of us, look bad.

It very well may die from their little games.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

The RMD I'm referring to is independent of the SSI benefits and is dependent on the amount in your qualified tax deferred accounts like IRAs or 401ks. So if you wait till 70 for your SSI benefit and the mandated 70 1/2 IRA Required Minimum Distribution kicks in, which if it exceeds $35,000 per year, you will then be paying tax on 85% of your SSI benefits.

Right, so delay SS till 70.
Withdrawal from IRA every year from 59.5 or convert some to Roth which have no RMD, so by 70.5 there is little left, so no big RMDs. Also, if retiring before 59.5 you can withdraw from IRA as well but special rules apply.


Tom

 

[Bell206]

so delay SS till 70.

Only if you think it will still be there. I prefer to hedge that my money will be there at 80 vs SSI. But that's just me.

if retiring before 59.5 you can withdraw from IRA as well but special rules apply.

Agree. Retired at 53. Been distributing since age 55 under one of the special rules. The Roth move did not work for me.

 

[MuseChaser]

I'd love to get my 403b into my Roth, but as far as I know there's no real way to do that w/out taking an INCREDIBLE tax hit when you do it. I'm 58, and haven't contributed the 403b since I retired at 55. Any experts with advice? Right now, we're in about the lowest tax bracket we'll ever be in; pensions are set, ancillary earned income is intentionally minimal, some capital gains that are automatically reinvested (that we pay tax on each year), we aren't withdrawing anything from our 403bs or Roth, and won't start collecting SS for another three years (wife will hit 62 half a year before I will). Mostly, I'd love to shelter whatever we can, but still be able to access it. Concerned that once we start collecting SS and maybe enjoying some of the 403b/Roth/mutual fund money we socked away, we'll be in a much higher bracket... which would certainly dampen some of that enjoyment...

 

[Bell206]

Any experts with advice?

The only experts are those you engage and work for your specific situation and location. As I said earlier, the best money I spent on my retirement plans were the professional fees I paid to my personal tax/estate attorney, CPA, and wealth advisor. In all honesty, there can be a million options out there to get you what you want.

 

[MuseChaser]

The only experts are those you engage and work for your specific situation and location. As I said earlier, the best money I spent on my retirement plans were the professional fees I paid to my personal tax/estate attorney, CPA, and wealth advisor. In all honesty, there can be a million options out there to get you what you want.

Makes sense. I've always done everything on my own, investments and tax prep wise. The two times I hired respected tax preparers, they missed a bunch of things (and yes, I checked with them, they admitted they missed them, and that they were indeed legal deductions to which I was etitled). I've done my own ever since. I've hired real estate lawyers for our property purchases and sales, and met with mixed results... some were competent, two were not, and one was completely unethical. Investments.. well, I read, research, and just did it. Never thought I'd end up doing as well as it turned out we did and to be honest, I do get a little nervous dealing with numbers I never expected to see. Would probably be good, at this point, to hire somebody. However, and this is just one of my admittedly unflattering personality traits, but given past experiences with contractors, tennants, car salesmen, etc., I find it very difficult to trust people. I don't mind sifting through a bunch of potentially conflicting advice, researching each scenario, deciding on what seems to be the best plan, and executing it. Paying someone and putting my faith in them to do the right thing and act in my best interests hasn't worked out very well for me in the past on numerous occasions, so I'm reluctant to go that route. Probably very stupid, but there it is. Your advice is, of course, very sound. It's probably time for me to start asking around and find someone to trust. Still would rather learn on my own. Sigh. I'm still very much a work-in-progress.

 

[Bell206]

It's probably time for me to start asking around and find someone to trust.

Referrels are everything. No different than looking for doctors. For me, once I found my CPA--through several like recommendations--I followed his lead to my tax attorney and wealth advisor. I selected those individuals from a list provided by my CPA. And while I'm not his most valueable client by far, he considers me one of his "best." Because like you , I had done things on my own and remain engaged on where my future is going. In other words I'm an easy client for him (his words). Perhaps you might start with a good attorney instead of a CP A and have him recommend your team.??? Regardless the relationship has to click for it to work. At least for me it had to. And if anything, because of the relation I have with my "team" my learning curve on all issues has straightened out considerably as all lessons are specifically about me and my situation.

I'm still very much a work-in-progress.

And so am I. The day I stop I'm 12 feet shorter and horizontal.

 

[denverpilot]

The only experts are those you engage and work for your specific situation and location. As I said earlier, the best money I spent on my retirement plans were the professional fees I paid to my personal tax/estate attorney, CPA, and wealth advisor. In all honesty, there can be a million options out there to get you what you want.

I normally agree with this sentiment and I have good ones. Or so I thought. Emailed them all this week and said, “Hey, I MIGHT have a long term disability down the road, let’s talk about strategies for that.” Zip. Nada. Zilch from all of them.

They’d better be researching, and writing a damn good response next week. They’re on the path to being fired. I’ll give them a week but not even a “I want to work up a solid response, give me a week.”

Bold move Cotton, you’re all about to lose a customer... grrrrr.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

If you don’t get emotional about your money, ie if the stock market drops >20% during retirement would you start to panic? Then you might want to do it yourself. The financial/wealth advisors charge ~1% of your assets, so if you expect 5% growth, you end up with 4%. Pretty significant over time. Definitely make sure they are a fiduciary. Many are just salesman, insurance or stock brokers, they only are worried about their retirement.


Tom

 

[Bell206]

long term disability down the road,

FWIW: In my limited discussions on LTD I found my options to be limited: purchase LTD insurance, SS Disabilty, my money. The insurance option was not feasible at $10-12k per year. And until I actually became disabled (if prior to 65) how I restructure my assets maybe dependent on how I was disabled, if that makes sense. Best option for me was to get on SSD asap which per my attorney would take a crack SS attorney. LTD was one of those "what if" things that I elected to roll the dice on as my desire to retire was greater than my concern at the time. However, everytime I hear about someones sudden quirks, like yours, I kind of run through my head what would I do if that happened to me.

 

[Bell206]

The financial/wealth advisors charge ~1% of your assets,

In my experience, that depends on if they are managing your investments or just giving advice. My wealth guy charges by the hour for advice but would charge me a quarter point or higher depending on balance if he managed my funds. I prefer to manage my investments but that may change one day. But fiduciary is paramount as well as track record.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

In my experience, that depends on if they are managing your investments or just giving advice. My wealth guy charges by the hour for advice....

That’s definitely the way to go, but think about how you would handle a 2008 downturn if you were retired. He should be able to back test your assets and tell you how you will be impacted.
Don’t be the person that panics, pull money out on the low, then only gets back in after the market has gone back up.


Tom

 

[wsuffa]

The financial/wealth advisors charge ~1% of your assets, so if you expect 5% growth, you end up with 4%.


Tom

Well, it depends. Some are on a per-hour fee, some are fixed at a percentage, and some have a sliding scale: 1% for the first million and lower percentages beyond that, and some wo k against a high-water Mark. YMMV.

 

[denverpilot]

FWIW: In my limited discussions on LTD I found my options to be limited: purchase LTD insurance, SS Disabilty, my money. The insurance option was not feasible at $10-12k per year. And until I actually became disabled (if prior to 65) how I restructure my assets maybe dependent on how I was disabled, if that makes sense. Best option for me was to get on SSD asap which per my attorney would take a crack SS attorney. LTD was one of those "what if" things that I elected to roll the dice on as my desire to retire was greater than my concern at the time. However, everytime I hear about someones sudden quirks, like yours, I kind of run through my head what would I do if that happened to me.

Yeah, well... I rolled the dice on that one too. LOL. Well, wasn’t planning on pricing it for another decade plus, anyway. Hahaha.

LTD used to be reasonable. Pricing in that market has changed and it’s a lot harder decision to make.

 

[weilke]

The only experts are those you engage and work for your specific situation and location. As I said earlier, the best money I spent on my retirement plans were the professional fees I paid to my personal tax/estate attorney, CPA, and wealth advisor..

Make sure that your wealth advisor gets paid by the hour or second best as a percentage of your assets under management. If not, he'll convince you that you can't possibly retire without buying a 'whole life' policy or annuity through him.

 

[Matthew]

Yeah, well... I rolled the dice on that one too. LOL. Well, wasn’t planning on pricing it for another decade plus, anyway. Hahaha.

LTD used to be reasonable. Pricing in that market has changed and it’s a lot harder decision to make.

Yeah, with any insurance policy the longer you wait the more it costs. I got an LTD policy a long time ago when my wife was staying home with the kids. I still have it, but at this stage I could drop it. Adding up what I paid in all those years vs buying one now, I don't know if it was really cheaper or not.

 

[denverpilot]

Yeah, with any insurance policy the longer you wait the more it costs. I got an LTD policy a long time ago when my wife was staying home with the kids. I still have it, but at this stage I could drop it. Adding up what I paid in all those years vs buying one now, I don't know if it was really cheaper or not.

They’re usually not, but if something happens and you can’t qualify for one anymore, you have it. And it’s usually the same thing you’ll need it for.

The old advice (and advice Ramsey still gives but with the pricing changes and limitations on them, I bet that advice just fades away without fanfare) was to buy LTD around 60 for the typical few years someone usually is in skilled nursing care before keeling over. It usually paid better than paying it yourself.

But most policies have adjusted upward dramatically and have such massive limitations on them now, they’re almost always not worth it. Depends on the circumstances. And lots of the nicer places won’t take them anyway.

You might win and get one to pay off and it’ll put you up in one of the lovely places with Bubba the Elderly Abuser.

 

[Bell206]

Make sure that your wealth advisor gets paid by the hour or second best as a percentage of your assets under management.

+1. And that's how I pay mine by the hour as I mentioned earlier, but it is important advice to mention multiple times as quite a few people do not realize this.

 

[Matthew]

They’re usually not, but if something happens and you can’t qualify for one anymore, you have it. And it’s usually the same thing you’ll need it for.

The old advice (and advice Ramsey still gives but with the pricing changes and limitations on them, I bet that advice just fades away without fanfare) was to buy LTD around 60 for the typical few years someone usually is in skilled nursing care before keeling over. It usually paid better than paying it yourself.

But most policies have adjusted upward dramatically and have such massive limitations on them now, they’re almost always not worth it. Depends on the circumstances. And lots of the nicer places won’t take them anyway.

You might win and get one to pay off and it’ll put you up in one of the lovely places with Bubba the Elderly Abuser.

I added the Long Term Disability to supplement my company’s LTD. I have to o look at the policy but I think it’s only good to supplement lost income until I hit 65. Long term care policies take care of nursing and other occupational or physical therapy. LTC policies are expensive, so is long term care.