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one point to carefully consider is the fact if you self insure you need to keep a lot of powder dry just for that purpose. you can't risk you are down 50% in a downturn and don't recover so fast no matter what your age.
my coworker was painting and fell off a ladder breaking his hip.
during surgery he had a stroke at age 51 and is paralyzed on one side now. .
you can actually invest that money you have to keep safe for self insuring more aggressively and buy a policy with only a small part of the long term gains on that money you are holding for self insuring without worrying about short term volatility .
you may be spending just 1% of your gains on a large portfolio to protect all your assets with a policy.
don't want a full LTC policy?
certainly a linked benefit policy would be better than self insuring. instead of tying up hundreds of thousands in a conservative investment you can take 100k , throw it in a linked benefit policy and have 3x the amount available for long term care or 2x the amount as a death benefit.
today I see little logic in not having a plan and trying to self insure when just the income you give up by self insuring conservatively costs you more in opportunity costs on the money.
No one will sell me a linked benefit policy. I can buy a linked benefit annuity, which is not underwritten, and get some protection that way - I am considering doing that. However, with about $3M in assets and no liabilities other than ordinary costs of living, I will probably expire before the money does.
in our area, ny , 5 million in assets is about the min for self insuring at 400-500 per day. but I could never see tying up what it could take in safe secure investments for long term care when for about 1% of gains I can get a full policy on my wife and i
I was not talking about rich Californians or the rich of Tenn i was talking about poor people I know
ever hear of the worlds longest yard sale in Tenn? Google it
a toothless event
You apparently live in a world of tv reality show cliches. I did attend the the world's longest yard sale YESTERDAY and there was not a toothless mouth in sight! No, mainly antique sellers and those of us buyers out there looking for a bargain (by the way it goes thru 6 states, not just TN). Tennessee is not the land of toothless banjo pickers. It's a real life retirement haven (or heaven) for thousands of escapees from CA, MI, WI, FL, IL, etc.
OP, If you have $250K + $300K from the house and $3K a month, with a medi-care supplement plan, you should be just fine in TN. Don't listen to folks who THINK they know what goes on across the country in states they've NEVER BEEN TO.
eta: huckleberry...punctuation is your friend; learn to use it.
I'm curious as to why neither one of you thought about retirement. Why not, did it surprise you that you suddenly were that age ? What else were you thinking about ? I find it unbelievable that you wait until your in your 60's and say "Hey, were almost ready to retire, what should we do "? I thought about it and started planning for it as soon as we got married in our 20's. It sounds to me like you should be OK with what you have but you'll have to be careful not to waste $'s. I hope it all works out for you, but for the life of me, I can't see how you didn't look ahead.
Not everyone lives life fixated on saving for a retirement that may or may not happen. You chose to be a saver and as a result you probably had to pass on some purchases or experiences that you have rather not. Your payoff is that when your old you can experience what they did in their younger years. As I ofrten post on CD, I agree with their "decision" and have done the same. the last thing i wanted was to be old and then enjoying things that are best enjoyed in youth when you can move and travel in a much more carefree environment. Beaches of St Tropez at 30 or at 70, you decide.
??? and what do you do when you are no longer able to care for yourself and you need help and you have no money and no assets and no home to sell?
You take a walk in the woods with your dog. You find a nice place to set down and breath the fresh air and admire the view. You open the vial of pills you have been saving for just such an occasion. You drift off to sleep. If i can't care for myself, I want to be on my way. I had a good life and now its time to move on to whatever is next. the last thing i would want is to be incarcerated in a stinky assisted living situation with a bunch of old people dreaming about their glory days and how Clinton was the best damm president they ever saw.
as i love to quote tyson "everyone has a plan until punched in the face"
for all the talk about what folks are going to do the reality if they need care is they will just end end up being just another pennyless medicaid person in the home as you leave your spouse struggling financially
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