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Old 01-14-2015, 12:14 PM
 
2,064 posts, read 4,419,262 times
Reputation: 1468

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Quote:
Originally Posted by rdflk View Post
Somehow I think Warren Buffet's wife would have been OK....regardless.
(She's passed away though)
I believe that Buffet has made it clear to invest his money (after his will distributions, etc.) in a low fee market index fund (such as the vanguard total stock market fund) after he passes. Probably a little aggressive for me to put everything in equities but I guess Buffet can handle that (and he won't be here...)

I don't know much about annuities but yeah, don't go with salesmen...go with someone who doesn't have a vested interest in you signing up for their policy.
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Old 01-16-2015, 07:31 PM
 
Location: Central Florida
3,256 posts, read 4,963,457 times
Reputation: 14997
I'd like to thank everyone for their very helpful posts. I see that I need to take a multi-pronged approach to my financial future. I'll go and have a talk with my current financial guy and find out why the dismal showing in my account. I'll also find a fee-only adviser and have a consultation with him/her about what to do next.

In addition, I'm working on reducing expenses. I've already cut out cable TV and the land line phone, and just today switched to a less expensive internet provider. In about a year I'm going to put my too-large house on the market, and when I sell it, I'll move to a less expensive condo or rental apartment, depending on how the numbers work out. I'll probably trade in my gas-hog minivan for a more economical smaller car too.

I thank you all for helping me not to panic. Too often that seems to be my first reaction to unpleasant events, and it helps to have you all talk me down off the ledge.
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Old 01-17-2015, 11:53 AM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,162,817 times
Reputation: 27718
Quote:
Originally Posted by WellShoneMoon View Post
I'd like to thank everyone for their very helpful posts. I see that I need to take a multi-pronged approach to my financial future. I'll go and have a talk with my current financial guy and find out why the dismal showing in my account. I'll also find a fee-only adviser and have a consultation with him/her about what to do next.

In addition, I'm working on reducing expenses. I've already cut out cable TV and the land line phone, and just today switched to a less expensive internet provider. In about a year I'm going to put my too-large house on the market, and when I sell it, I'll move to a less expensive condo or rental apartment, depending on how the numbers work out. I'll probably trade in my gas-hog minivan for a more economical smaller car too.

I thank you all for helping me not to panic. Too often that seems to be my first reaction to unpleasant events, and it helps to have you all talk me down off the ledge.
Sounds like you have a good plan to get yourself in a good situation for the future.

Getting rid of cable isn't really so bad..most TV stations show their full season of episodes on the internet and there's other sites, like Hulu, where you can watch TV shows.
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Old 01-17-2015, 08:32 PM
 
13,389 posts, read 6,380,873 times
Reputation: 10022
Quote:
Originally Posted by WellShoneMoon View Post
I'd like to thank everyone for their very helpful posts. I see that I need to take a multi-pronged approach to my financial future. I'll go and have a talk with my current financial guy and find out why the dismal showing in my account. I'll also find a fee-only adviser and have a consultation with him/her about what to do next.

In addition, I'm working on reducing expenses. I've already cut out cable TV and the land line phone, and just today switched to a less expensive internet provider. In about a year I'm going to put my too-large house on the market, and when I sell it, I'll move to a less expensive condo or rental apartment, depending on how the numbers work out. I'll probably trade in my gas-hog minivan for a more economical smaller car too.

I thank you all for helping me not to panic. Too often that seems to be my first reaction to unpleasant events, and it helps to have you all talk me down off the ledge.
Good for you and good plan.

You might also want to look at your car and homeowners insurance. Sometimes you can get lower rates just by calling around, putting both of them with the same company and raising your deductible amount if you are comfortable with that.

I also noticed you are in Orlando. There is a widows exemption of $500 on your RE taxes. Also, an exemption for limited income seniors if you qualify. And, I seem to recall from other posts you haven't lived there long. Make sure you got the Homestead Exemption. If not, must be filed by Mar. 1 as well as the senior exemption. Here's the link.

Exemptions - Rick Singh, CFA - Orange County Property Appraiser

Also, if you have a relatively simple tax return and feel up to doing it yourself, you can use TaxAct for free. They only charge for the state return which you don't need for FL. Its easy just fill in the questions they ask and avoid paying someone to do it for you.

Good luck.
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Old 01-18-2015, 10:18 AM
 
3,490 posts, read 6,071,916 times
Reputation: 5421
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caltovegas View Post
If your just looking for a lifetime of payments the annuity is the way to go. Keep it simple. When looking at the markets just ask yourself is it worth the risk? Can you handle any loss?

Just remember your retired and go from there. Many people will say go equities but many
people rely on that guaranteed soc sec check every month. I say get a final expense life insurance policy for a funeral and start enjoying life. Spend it all because with all the savings plans available to young folks today they can build their own nest egg.

67 is young and weed is legal in Colorado. Go to a concert and partay. If not that try Vegas for a weekend d.
<--This is the financial analyst again

For the love of god, don't buy a new life insurance policy in retirement. Keeping an existing policy with value built into it, or keeping a term policy that was acquired years earlier at a lower rate is within reason. Buying a new life insurance policy is an absolutely awful financial decision. Many people will tell you otherwise, but the thing those people have in common (no offense intended, even if taken) is that they did not spend years learning personal or professional finance.

The value proposition on buying life insurance after you are retired is absolutely awful. The only reason for buying life insurance is that the person being insured will cause a substantial loss if they die. With survivors benefits, that should not be the case. It isn't like you need to go from renting an apartment on two incomes to renting on one, retiring without owning a home is simply poor planning. That doesn't sound like the OP.

On the topic of life insurance, for comparison, there was a very sad but hilarious fail that I'd like to mention. I had a friend working with a financial adviser that was not bound as a fiduciary (so a salesman, rather than someone legally bound to work in the best interest of this friend).

The friend had just had another child (married, only thing they had in common was wanting lots of children). He informed me that he had just purchased a small life insurance policy for his child. All I could do was face palm. No person was financially dependent on the new born. He had to pay enough to cover the expected costs of the policy payouts (the chance his kid would actually die), plus the cost of commissions for the salesman that sold it to him, plus the administrative costs of the insurance firm, plus the profits of the firm.

When you buy life insurance, you are buying a product with a negative expected value. The company selling it understands exactly what they are selling. The reason you buy life insurance is to transfer risk from yourself onto the insurance company. My wife and I are DINKs (double income, no kids). We both carry life insurance policies to protect each other from the higher costs of living alone because we still have costs like a mortgage that require the same amount of dollars regardless of whether there is one or two of us alive. We use term insurance so that we can get substantially more insurance for the dollars spent. It is okay that it will expire because we will have dramatically more money saved up then. We only need the insurance to cover the very small chance that one of us dies while we are relatively young and in strong earning years.

<--Financial analyst signing out
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Old 01-18-2015, 10:29 AM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,162,817 times
Reputation: 27718
Quote:
Originally Posted by lurtsman View Post
<--This is the financial analyst again

For the love of god, don't buy a new life insurance policy in retirement. Keeping an existing policy with value built into it, or keeping a term policy that was acquired years earlier at a lower rate is within reason. Buying a new life insurance policy is an absolutely awful financial decision. Many people will tell you otherwise, but the thing those people have in common (no offense intended, even if taken) is that they did not spend years learning personal or professional finance.

The value proposition on buying life insurance after you are retired is absolutely awful. The only reason for buying life insurance is that the person being insured will cause a substantial loss if they die. With survivors benefits, that should not be the case. It isn't like you need to go from renting an apartment on two incomes to renting on one, retiring without owning a home is simply poor planning. That doesn't sound like the OP.

On the topic of life insurance, for comparison, there was a very sad but hilarious fail that I'd like to mention. I had a friend working with a financial adviser that was not bound as a fiduciary (so a salesman, rather than someone legally bound to work in the best interest of this friend).

The friend had just had another child (married, only thing they had in common was wanting lots of children). He informed me that he had just purchased a small life insurance policy for his child. All I could do was face palm. No person was financially dependent on the new born. He had to pay enough to cover the expected costs of the policy payouts (the chance his kid would actually die), plus the cost of commissions for the salesman that sold it to him, plus the administrative costs of the insurance firm, plus the profits of the firm.

When you buy life insurance, you are buying a product with a negative expected value. The company selling it understands exactly what they are selling. The reason you buy life insurance is to transfer risk from yourself onto the insurance company. My wife and I are DINKs (double income, no kids). We both carry life insurance policies to protect each other from the higher costs of living alone because we still have costs like a mortgage that require the same amount of dollars regardless of whether there is one or two of us alive. We use term insurance so that we can get substantially more insurance for the dollars spent. It is okay that it will expire because we will have dramatically more money saved up then. We only need the insurance to cover the very small chance that one of us dies while we are relatively young and in strong earning years.

<--Financial analyst signing out
And here I thought I was the only one that thought that way.
Son is grown and left the nest.
No debts, plenty of savings, beneficiaries named.

I don't have or need life insurance anymore.

And when it comes up I hear "What, you don't have insurance ?"
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Old 01-18-2015, 11:10 AM
 
Location: Baltimore, MD
5,291 posts, read 5,961,044 times
Reputation: 10823
OP,

Given YOUR priorities, I'd go with partial annuitization. Here's a good book that explains annuitization in simple terms. (Free Kindle version via Amazon.)

Life Annuities: An Optimal Product for Retirement Income by Moshe Milevsky

Kudos to Mathjak107. My understanding of annuities has increased exponentially because of his references to annuity experts Milevsky and Pfau. Thank you, Mathjak.
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Old 01-18-2015, 11:24 AM
 
13,389 posts, read 6,380,873 times
Reputation: 10022
Quote:
Originally Posted by lurtsman View Post
<--This is the financial analyst again

For the love of god, don't buy a new life insurance policy in retirement. Keeping an existing policy with value built into it, or keeping a term policy that was acquired years earlier at a lower rate is within reason. Buying a new life insurance policy is an absolutely awful financial decision. Many people will tell you otherwise, but the thing those people have in common (no offense intended, even if taken) is that they did not spend years learning personal or professional finance.

The value proposition on buying life insurance after you are retired is absolutely awful. The only reason for buying life insurance is that the person being insured will cause a substantial loss if they die. With survivors benefits, that should not be the case. It isn't like you need to go from renting an apartment on two incomes to renting on one, retiring without owning a home is simply poor planning. That doesn't sound like the OP.

On the topic of life insurance, for comparison, there was a very sad but hilarious fail that I'd like to mention. I had a friend working with a financial adviser that was not bound as a fiduciary (so a salesman, rather than someone legally bound to work in the best interest of this friend).

The friend had just had another child (married, only thing they had in common was wanting lots of children). He informed me that he had just purchased a small life insurance policy for his child. All I could do was face palm. No person was financially dependent on the new born. He had to pay enough to cover the expected costs of the policy payouts (the chance his kid would actually die), plus the cost of commissions for the salesman that sold it to him, plus the administrative costs of the insurance firm, plus the profits of the firm.

When you buy life insurance, you are buying a product with a negative expected value. The company selling it understands exactly what they are selling. The reason you buy life insurance is to transfer risk from yourself onto the insurance company. My wife and I are DINKs (double income, no kids). We both carry life insurance policies to protect each other from the higher costs of living alone because we still have costs like a mortgage that require the same amount of dollars regardless of whether there is one or two of us alive. We use term insurance so that we can get substantially more insurance for the dollars spent. It is okay that it will expire because we will have dramatically more money saved up then. We only need the insurance to cover the very small chance that one of us dies while we are relatively young and in strong earning years.

<--Financial analyst signing out
I think there may be exceptions to this advice that are worth noting. One being when there is a large difference in age between the spouses. My BIL just died less than a year from being able to retire. My sister is 11 years younger than he was and not working. She is 5 years away from being able to collect his reduced benefits, 7 from hers and 12 from his full benefits. Fortunately he still had in place a large policy from his employer that will cover about 4 years of living expenses and reduces both her need to go back to work and the risk of hitting the investment portfolio he left too hard too young.

Not sure what his plans were re this insurance if he had retired, but my guess is he wasn't planning to replace it.

Bottom line she is glad she had it and would have been in much worse shape had he lived to retirement, not replaced it and died a year after retirement.

So, sure run the numbers, but if you have a much younger spouse, make sure they are covered until they can collect social security if that is part of the overall income needed in retirement.
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Old 01-18-2015, 11:42 AM
 
105,811 posts, read 107,799,717 times
Reputation: 79430
Quote:
Originally Posted by lenora View Post
OP,

Given YOUR priorities, I'd go with partial annuitization. Here's a good book that explains annuitization in simple terms. (Free Kindle version via Amazon.)

Life Annuities: An Optimal Product for Retirement Income by Moshe Milevsky

Kudos to Mathjak107. My understanding of annuities has increased exponentially because of his references to annuity experts Milevsky and Pfau. Thank you, Mathjak.
you are welcome . that is why I post so much about that stuff. the misinformed shoot from the hip and with no facts other than what is in their head they end up convincing other misinformed folks with poor facts and then they go off and spew misinformation as well..

I still have a life policy I got as a kid which I am glad I kept.

with this being a 2nd marriage and kids from both marriages creating a blended family ,being my wife and I are leaving everything to each other the policy goes to the kids. let them get something up front so they do not have to wait until the surviving spouse who is not even their parent dies so they can see something from their parent.

keeping that life policy alive even though I no longer need insurance was perfect. I think the poiicy is 250k and will be split between all the kids.
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Old 01-18-2015, 10:16 PM
 
Location: Florida
6,593 posts, read 7,254,205 times
Reputation: 8102
Quote:
Originally Posted by WellShoneMoon View Post
I'd like to thank everyone for their very helpful posts. I see that I need to take a multi-pronged approach to my financial future. I'll go and have a talk with my current financial guy and find out why the dismal showing in my account. I'll also find a fee-only adviser and have a consultation with him/her about what to do next.

In addition, I'm working on reducing expenses. I've already cut out cable TV and the land line phone, and just today switched to a less expensive internet provider. In about a year I'm going to put my too-large house on the market, and when I sell it, I'll move to a less expensive condo or rental apartment, depending on how the numbers work out. I'll probably trade in my gas-hog minivan for a more economical smaller car too.

I thank you all for helping me not to panic. Too often that seems to be my first reaction to unpleasant events, and it helps to have you all talk me down off the ledge.
Glade you got some insight. Education is the key so the more you learn from the retirement planning web sites of the mutual funds and brokers the better prepared you will be to get value out of your planners.
I am a do it myself person so I would write up a plan and list any questions I am not sure of. Then I would go to the planner for a check up. Sounds like you are going to do OK.
Having said that there are two parts to retirement. Money and life style. Put a lot of work into the life style you want as it could affect your budget.
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