Any Federal retiree can switch to a individual policy. The reason so many federal employees stick with the government is that health insurance will be available to them for their life. This does not mean that a federal retiree can afford the plans only that they are available. If a retiree switches to a private plan that guarantee is lost. As a fed retiree, not eligible for medicare, I have seen plans come and go. If you opt out of the federal system you can not return if your insurance company fails or decides to pull out of your state. Personally I would rather not take that chance. Many of the federal plans pay for prescriptions so you would not need a separate Part D. You have paid for B already and depending on your income this year you only pay $96.00 a month for A. If your plan does not cover scripts you might need a Part D plan. Jeremy, take a look at the health plans available both nationally and for your state. You might be surprised what they do cover. Of course by now other than dropping health insurance any decisions have already been made. Any changes in government plan would have to be delayed until the next open season in the fall.

I expect it will be a bit of a challenge for them, BUT that's good--learning a new place, meeting new people, finding a niche for themselves are all GOOD things, and those pursuits will keep them active and on the move. We are far more active now--we were starting to stagnate just a little at the other place. We had it all fixed the way we wanted it, we had established friendships that didn't require much work--here, we've had to get out of ourselves just a bit to make this work. It will be a good move for them--they'll do fine, and will no doubt love the new place once they have settled in.

HOA fees can be fairly predictable, they usually don't take huge jumps. We have an HOA on the lot we bought and there is a limit to the increase. It should be published somewhere. I think it is a consideration but I wouldn't think it is a vast swing one way or the other. Full disclosure - I am not retired, but I believe that most people go through several phases of homes - The starter home, the family home, and the retirement home and each of those phases are a departure from the things we wanted/needed before. It really all depends on what you want. My mind always goes to the financial perspective when thinking about these things. If you find a community that you like, there is nothing wrong with doing things for non financial reasons. There is no point in having a little more money if you are not going to use it to be happy. From a financial perspective there is no real difference. Rarely have interest rates been good enough to see a spread once you are retired and have a low risk appetite, but they are now. I personally prefer a small single family house, my grandmother turned 94 in a small "shotgun" house. There are some good Christmas memories as we packed a lot of people into that tiny house. I have lived in condos and townhomes, they don't seem the same to me. But that is just me.

Nice for me? I don't use it, it was information for others. Stats I found from Pew Research with one search (which you could have done yourself) say that 96% of Americans have a cell phone. The share of Americans that have a smartphone is 80%. Any cell phone can receive a text message, even the old style. Email addresses are free. You or anyone else can have 5 new ones in less than 10 minutes. I don't know why but you seem to like to speak up precipitously without enough thinking about or understanding of the topic you're commenting on. I know no specifics of how benefit plans for federal employees work but I'm CERTAIN that access to an employee's account info and any transactions desired must be possible other than online. By mail? By phone? I'm sure there are alternatives.