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Old 03-02-2015, 11:02 AM
 
Location: State of Being
35,879 posts, read 77,121,831 times
Reputation: 22750

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I will share with you a scenario of a couple I know. Paid off house, some land, cars. Husband self employed electrician, so no pension, but he had put away cash savings and invested in mutual funds.

Wife has series of strokes over several years - while in her early 60s. Left with debilitating brain damage. Tremendous expense for skilled nursing home care 24/7. Spend down . . . husband is left with very little by the time wife was qualified for Medicaid. Had to sell everything (tried to divide land up and sell it apart from house but no buyers).

So now, he is a married man, alone . . . with his wife in a nursing home, unable to speak or walk or even feed herself.

Bad stuff can happen and even with money and assets, you aren't always indemnified from financial loss.
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:04 AM
 
1,782 posts, read 2,730,920 times
Reputation: 5975
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aqua Blue View Post
I have enjoyed reading this thread. I too am one of those who ended up retired early due to disablitiy(arthritis). Was it how I wanted my life's? No! But it is what it is. I'm too have decreased my posting as I got tired of being scolded by the "I made perfect choices and so should have you" police. I felt I made the best decisions I could.
I suspect many of those "perfect choice" people had a nice start in life, or maybe inherited a nice sum of cash along the way, or had an unusually successful small business and/or didn't get divorced and/or didn't get sick.

I was moving along on a nice path when Mr. Husband decided (after 24 years) that he wanted out. Nothing wreaks havoc faster than a marriage blowing up when you're in your 40s! The small business we'd spent years building went bye-bye, as did the house, the little bit of savings, etc.

That, and I've had the egerious misfortune to not have wealthy relatives!

The humanity!

LOL.
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:10 AM
 
Location: Salem,Oregon
306 posts, read 414,476 times
Reputation: 857
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vision67 View Post
Perhaps their single wide has neither a computer nor internet access.

I bet many move in with their children and are perfectly happy helping to raise the next generation. In exchange for a free bedroom they provide help with the cooking, babysitting grandchildren, offering advice, and generally helping out.

My own widowed mother lived like that with no income other than her meager Social Security check for 30 years and was one of the happiest persons I've ever known.

Money is very much over rated. I the end, we all go out the same way we came in with our bare asses hang out.
So I know (Hope) you are just joking but I INTENTIONALLY bought a newer single wide and I have a pc, tv, roku, kindle, iPhone, etc... and I know how to use them!

I will not be rich when I retire but I will have a place to live with minimum space rent that covers, water, garbage, sewer and security. I am close enough to neighbors to feel safe, yet far enough for privacy, have space for a garden and a big covered deck for me and the boys (2 cats). Should the park ever get sold it will work out to being less expensive than having paid rent for a house/ decent apartment if I have to move.

I will be able to walk or ride the bus wherever I need to go. I could most likely retire early now(actually October I will be 60) but I get caught up in the fear of not having enough money down the road when I read things here or articles. I have been supporting myself full-time for 42 years and ready to rest a bit. As a single person all my life I have never been able to qualify for any help even in the worst of times, but if it were to come to that I would certainly take what ever was offered. To the poster who lives by the coast and the redwoods - I am so envious, what you have sounds perfect!!
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:34 AM
 
105,766 posts, read 107,756,464 times
Reputation: 79390
Quote:
Originally Posted by brokensky View Post
I will share with you a scenario of a couple I know. Paid off house, some land, cars. Husband self employed electrician, so no pension, but he had put away cash savings and invested in mutual funds.

Wife has series of strokes over several years - while in her early 60s. Left with debilitating brain damage. Tremendous expense for skilled nursing home care 24/7. Spend down . . . husband is left with very little by the time wife was qualified for Medicaid. Had to sell everything (tried to divide land up and sell it apart from house but no buyers).

So now, he is a married man, alone . . . with his wife in a nursing home, unable to speak or walk or even feed herself.

Bad stuff can happen and even with money and assets, you aren't always indemnified from financial loss.
LONG TERM CARE INSUIRANCE is very important and should be at the base of the investment pyramid if you have enough assets to worry about.

for less than a few percent of the average returns you can protect the assets that are above it.

this is a story that repeats over and over and many times could have been mitigated with insurance.

the problem is many folks hate to part with the money so they try telling themselves they are self insuring.

in reality they are not self insuring at all. if they were the money would have to be kept safe and liquid in investments paying little.

you can't risk an extended down turn and 1/2 the money is down when you need it.


if you were self insuring it wouldn't make much sense since what you would have to keep safe and secure could have been invested more aggressively if you had insurance.

you could have covered the premium and more by investing that money you would have self insured with.

Some things we think were the result of bad luck and from left field really were the result of not having a comprehensive enough plan in place in the planning stage.

sometimes it is not the event that does us in as much as the decisions and choices we made leading up to the event.

yeah , there are situations that are unavoidable, I get that . but there are likely more that were likely the result of the steps leading up to and not the event itself .

not all , but enough that could have had different outcomes with different choices made ..

Last edited by mathjak107; 03-02-2015 at 11:47 AM..
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:47 AM
 
685 posts, read 715,781 times
Reputation: 1009
mathjak107: LTC is a decent idea and when I started work for an insurance company in info tech, I had the displeasure of reading the output that showed how much people put in and how much was actually going to my company. I came home after reading many reports and said we'll save (we did and changed our habits). It's what we did to the best of our ability. I do not regret not getting it but I'd never tell anyone else not to get it. It's a personal decision. We're working out an alternative (hence attending a number of end of life seminars locally). My folks made it without LTC ins. We will, too.
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:49 AM
 
Location: Over yonder a piece
4,267 posts, read 6,256,546 times
Reputation: 7132
My grandmother didn't have LTCI and didn't need it. She died at 99 years old of a sudden brain aneurysm and felt no pain. Had very few health problems leading up to that. She had Medicare and that's it.

mathjak107: at what age do you recommend someone purchase LTCI? Right at retirement when health benefits come to an end by the employer, a few years before expected retirement, or a decade before? Longer?
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:52 AM
 
105,766 posts, read 107,756,464 times
Reputation: 79390
plans today have become very simply worded , refined and no longer the minefield they used to be.

I was dead set against it. in fact when money magazine did our story as an article the one area we disagreed was long term care. I wanted to self insure.

well after much research and looking in to the plans I came to the conclusion they were right and I was wrong.

we now took a partnership plan with the state.

the 3 years insurance is only a small part of the story. the perks after the insurance runs out is where it shines.

we have to shift no assets at all and most important extended Medicaid picks up the bills and the stay at home spouse has no income limitations.

that is a biggie. typically even if you shift assets the stay at home spouse has low income limitations from those assets.
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:53 AM
 
105,766 posts, read 107,756,464 times
Reputation: 79390
Quote:
Originally Posted by Girl View Post
My grandmother didn't have LTCI and didn't need it. She died at 99 years old of a sudden brain aneurysm and felt no pain. Had very few health problems leading up to that. She had Medicare and that's it.

mathjak107: at what age do you recommend someone purchase LTCI? Right at retirement when health benefits come to an end by the employer, a few years before expected retirement, or a decade before? Longer?
as far as what age ? the younger the better . two reasons , I am 62 , last year I was diagnosed as diabetic . that now costs us quite a bit extra. the other is the younger you start the cheaper it is.

here in ny it is costing us 7800 a year at 62 and my wife is 64 . it was so much less years ago when we first considered it.

nys gives us a 1600.00 tax credit for it too plus I get some back on the federal..
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:55 AM
 
Location: Jamestown, NY
7,840 posts, read 9,145,765 times
Reputation: 13779
Quote:
Originally Posted by Girl View Post
My husband and I recently crunched some numbers.

If we keep investing at our current levels, we are on track to replace 87% of our current salaries when we retire in 18 years.

Of course, inflation makes that all moot since the cost of living will undoubtedly be MUCH HIGHER in 18 years when we are ready to retire.

As such, we'll continue to increase our investments whenever we get a raise, until we're maxed out. And we'll continue to pay extra on our mortgage so that it can be paid off by the time we retire.

And then at that point we'll hope for the best.

My mistake was that I basically ignored 401K stuff throughout my 20s and didn't start putting in until I was 28. And even then I only put in 3% or something insanely low like that. I'm now putting in 11% and will increase it by 1% every year until it can't go any higher. And then I'll pray that I continue to get raises so that the amount going in will still be higher every year. If only I had taken advantage of 401K earlier - I'd be in a much better position as opposed to having to play catch up now in my 40s.
This is typical of what most twenty-somethings do, though, even when they're hard-working, conscientious kids who manage their money well. They have to pay the rent, pay the car, pay the student loans. They want to save for a wedding or a house or to take off six months rather than 6 weeks for maternity leave. Retirement seems a long, long way off when you're 25, so they put a minimal amount into retirement.
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Old 03-02-2015, 11:57 AM
 
4,522 posts, read 3,715,619 times
Reputation: 17386
Those who saved and are comfortable are being labeled as braggarts, having rich relatives giving them money etc. by those who cannot afford to retire for whatever reason. Those who cannot afford to retire are being criticized for not being financially prudent or not having the foresight to plan for a different outcome.

With all the animosity on both sides, the retirement board is looking like a stereotypical old person.
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