Hi again dolcemia, I am pleased that your husband has a retirement plan ... and that you have one, as well. At what age can you begin to draw on them? Usually they are set up to begin at age 65 ... can you choose to begin drawing before that? For example, in Canada, the Federal pension, to which we all contribute, which began over 40 years ago, intends to have us retire at 65, with full pension (if we made full rate of contributions ... which you don't, if you earn anything near minimum wage, meaning that low income hurts, even into retirement). If I choose to retire earlier, they won't allow me to do it before age 60, and for each 2 months that I retire before age 65, they reduce my pension by 1% ... which means 6% per year, and if I chose to retire at age 60, there would be a 30% reduction. On the other hand, if I choose not to retire until after age 65, I get a bonus of 1% for each 2 months extra that I work and contribute, 6% per year. Is your pension set up so that as inflation continues over the years, does the amount of your pension increase, as well? If there is a provision for it to increase due to inflation, it's almost certain that it won't increase at the same rate as the rate of inflation, but less ... which means that it won't cover as many expenses as the years go by as it would earlier. They call that a pension being indexed for inflation. Is your husband's pension indexed to inflation? ______________________ Do you owe money on credit cards, that you don't pay in full each month when the bill arrives? Is it/are they mainline cards, or cards issued by stores? Do you know what rate of interest that you pay on those unpaid balances? Usually on mainline cards it's about 15 - 18% annual rate. Usually on store-issued cards it's up around 25 - 28% annual rate. If I loaned you $100. and said that you owed me $25. per year for the use of it, would you consider me some kind of rascal? May I ask you a question ... have you heard the saying, "A penny saved is a penny earned"? Do you believe it? If you say that you agree, I'd like to disagree, in terms of much of the stuff that, when you buy, you might be able to save a dollar on the purchase. When you consider most of the stuff that you buy ... when you prepare your income tax, can you deduct the price of it as you calculate the amount of tax that you owe? For much of the goods that most of us buy ... the cost is not deductible. Which means that we have to buy it using money that we've already paid income tax on, i.e., after-tax money. Let's suppose that you could save $1.00 on a purchase that you make. If you're in 25% marginal tax rate (i.e. the rate of tax that you pay on your top dollar of income), that means that you have to earn $1.33 before-tax, then pay 33 cents tax, leaving yu with $1.00 in hand to go out to buy that item. So .. if you save $1.00 on the cost of the purchse ... you've saved $1.333 of extra earnings, right? Plus... if you pay that 28% on a store-issued credit card, most of the things that you bought when using it were not tax-deductible, right? Which means that, if you're in 25% income tax rate, you have to earn $36.00 pre-tax income, then pay the 25%, or $9.00 income tax, leaving you with $27.00 ... oh,oh ... not quite enough to pay that $28.00 owing. Drat!! When you buy a car (or do you lease) do you pay cash for it, or do you finance it? If finance, do you shop around to find the best rate of interest and terms? Are you a member of a credit union, or are there some in your area? Sometimes they offer lower rates, or better terms, than the usual market offers. Do you try to pay the loan off as soon as possible? I recommend that. Be sure to pay off the loan quite a while before you need to replace the car. Then keep putting away that amount of money (or nearly as much) each month, building a fund to enable you to make a far larger down payment on the next car. It would be best if you can pay the full cost in cash ... that lets you put the amount of interest into your own pocket that you'd been paying earlier to a lender. I like keeping my money in my jeans over paying others to borrow theirs. Do you have an emergency fund? That is, if you had no family income for 3 months (or, even better, 6 months ... or, better yet, a year) would you have anough money available that you would still be able to live fairly comfortably? It's important to have such an emergency fund, in case unexpected expenses crop up ... including if we get laid off from work, especially if permanently, as your husbnad is dealing with at the moment. I recommend learning how money works - it's an interesting hobby. And, know what? It pays well ... very well. As I said earlier .. pay off your store-issued credit card balances fully when they come in each month ... save yourself 35%. And that saving is ... guaranteed. Where else can you earn 35% on your money ... guaranteed!?!? Good wishes for making your money work harder for you than for the other fellers! ole joyful

Do you expect to retire right soon (within 5 - 7 years) ... and have a fairly small amount of dollar-denominated assets in your tax-deferred retirement account? Do you expect to probably die before age 60 - 65 - 70? That is - do you have a short-term time horizon for your retirement system to complete its business for you? I figure that I should figure on financing my retirement till age 100 or so: prefer to run out of days before I run out of money rather than the other way around! Does the idea of having the current value of your assets fluctuate somewhat set you to chewing fingernails/not sleeping well nights/being too crabby to live with? Do you like to get a genuine bargain, e.g. a real discount of, say, 40%? Stocks are on sale, lower price relatively now than for many years. They may be on fire sale later, who knows which way the market will go over the short term? But over the long term, stocks have done about the best of any investment vehicle ... and you have, what ... a 30 year time horizon? 40 years? Even up to 50? But I`ve been buying, periodically, and expect to continue to do so ... getting to the airport to see my flight pulling on to the tarmac (or taking off) isn't my idea of a good way to travel. See my fuller suggestions over on the "Retirement" forum. Good wishes for making current choices that'll please you in 10 years, that you'll be happy with, then. ole joyful P.S. Memo to Canadians ... most financial advisors say that *everyone* should have RRSPs. I say that they may be useful in some situations ... but were I able to buy them now (at 80, I've not been able to for over 10 years: I'm required to remove certain minimum amounts annually now, with the percentage rising annually till 20% at age 90 and beyond), I'd be following a different path for all but dollar-denominated (i.e. guaranteed dollar) assets. On my death, they get all added into income in that year ... and taxed at top rate: no, thanks! There are some substantial tax reductions and deferrals available when buying equities with after-tax money that one loses entirely if one puts them into an RRSP. In low tax brackets back then ... I saved about 26% tax going in ... with higher income now, am paying about 37% now as I take the money out. Again ... no, thanks! But I don't have an option! Well, yes, I do - but I'm not sure that I want to follow it, big time. o j

colorcrazy- I'm retired under CSRS, and what I can tell you is that no one can answer your question with the info you've provided. You need some planning time with a retirement counselor or a private investment planner. When you retire, what will your expenses be, and what will your income be...over the long term? In my case, my annuity is sufficient that I have not had to drawdown my TSP or any of my other investments, and I doubt that I will ever have to. I made that determination before I put in my retirement papers. Maybe that will be your case, or maybe you'll have to work another 20 years. You won't know until you: 1) do a serious budget, 2) have a reliable estimate of your annuity, and 3) have an assessment of what you can expect from other investments, as well as the VRA...if you do it. And if you have the money to fund a VRA, you have money to do other things with it that may be just as good. Investing in a VRA might be a good idea, but it won't make the difference between being able to retire now or not. The one thing I can say with certainty is that, until you have a financial plan and it shows that you can retire and stay retired without having to take a job as a Wal-Mart greeter when you're 85, you'd best hold on to your job.

Just thought I'd add the final installment of this excellent adventure, sigh. Where we left it, contractor was going to get a 6" duct cover to fill the space between soffit and hood, and we'd call it a day. So I heard from the contractor on Monday. Turns out that for this specific hood, Imperial recommends a minimum 12" space above hood and will not make a 6" cover. (head hitting desk). This specific issue isn't exactly the contractor's fault, but a general cluster: Imperial's mfg installation instructions _do not_ include that 12" requirement, they just won't sell a cover smaller than 12; the retailer web site says "6 to 60 inch covers available" for all Imperial hoods, it's only after you try to order that they call and tell you not possible for this hood; the retailer and Imperial were both closed the day after Christmas so I just relied on the website when I made the call to go with a 6" spacing rather than have this idiot remove the soffit, etc. I could have lived with that, but again, the guy opened his mouth (via email): "You were wrong. They do not sell 6" covers. Why didn't you check that? I told you it would have been better to remove the soffit and use the existing 12" duct cover, but you made a bad decision." In fact on Friday, he had shrugged and told me "this is your choice, I'll do what you tell me to do" when I asked point blank which option would be better. His Monday tone seemed beyond simply defensive, into mocking -- like he thought it served me right for questioning his work. Before she even knew my reaction, my 'cut your losses' wife was enraged enough to download the state contracting board complaint forms. So, I sent an email telling him no further work was required and to please drop off the existing cover at his convenience and -- yet again -- send us the receipt for warranty purposes. I ended up having to go get the cover at his locale, he wouldn't drop off, and he ignored my repeated questions about a receipt, until told him I was going to stop payment on our check (that did the trick). Joy. At this point, we do intend to document all the non-code work and file a complaint with the contracting board. So our plan is this: in the medium term, find a new contractor, remove the stupid soffit, fix the electrical and duct tape and whatever. Either order a new 16" cover or move the hood again, a few inches up. With work and travel demands, that probably gets postponed to late February. For now, we're having a basic 6" sheet metal piece fabricated that will fit in the current gap.