celticmoon Thank you so much for the plan outline. I have been thinking along these lines but never really put it on paper and crunched the numbers. I think your plan is as good as you can possibly make it with out a crystal ball. You are right about the unknown. How much will they reduce SS based on income? And how much we will have to pay for Medicare again based on income. We will have to use Medicare and buy a supplement. After all the research I did for my parents I have a pretty good idea how much it would cost today buy who knows what will happen in between now and the 3 or 4 when DH retires or in the future. I agree LTC insurance is to iffy at this point and would rather save that money than take a chance on it. If we live to be 100 one of the issues may be every day living expenses. We all have watched the price of food and most utilities double in the last 10 years. It still blows my mind to pay $4.00 for a loaf of bread or $5 something a pound for a tomato. We could also see our property tax skyrocket here in California. Some politicians would love to get rid of our Prop 13 that keeps property taxes from going up and up. After Joyful referred to my DH as being stupid for not paying attention to household finance in another post, he didn't know the whole story, I got to thinking about it so last month I told DH the bills were ready to be paid, money needing transferred, ect and ask him to do it. I had in the past told him I did most of it on the computer and showed him how to find passwords but really didn't think he paid attention. Guess what it took him all of about 20 minutes to do everything. He then said if I wanted him to do this every month I had better give him a key to our post office box. LOL Never even thought about it but in the 20+ years we have lived in the mountains he has never ever stepped foot in the post office. He now knows where the extra key is. So thanks Joyful for making me think. So all of you out there keep the questions and ideas coming. I can use all the help I can get in trying to think this through. At this point about the only thing I can think of that hasn't been brought up, not really a retirement issue but related, is pre paid funeral arrangements. Not terribly expensive but a great gift to the ones left who have to settle your affairs.

If you sold a stock(s) earlier in the year at substantial profit and you have a stock or stocks that is/are worth less now than when you bought it/them, and you don't consider it wise to continue to hold it/them, perhaps sell it/them before the year end to offset some of the capital gain that you made on the one that was sold earlier. In some jurisdictions you can carry a loss back a couple of years, or forward, to offset capital gains made in earlier years - or later. I'm not big on buying and selling stocks: I've bought some (quality ones) twenty and thirty years ago that I still hold. If a stock that you own has a history of volatile pricing, and you think that the price is unusually high right now, you might choose to sell now, with a view to buying back later, at a lower price (and there'll be two commissions to pay, in any case). Trouble with that is - how far is down? Maybe later the train will have left the station before you choose to get on. Not many of us have wings to enable us to catch it at a station down the line. Hope this helps. Come back to ask us more specific questions, if you like, as it's hard to know what fields of the broad financial system that you are interested to explore at the moment. Stockbrokers like to have you trade ... ... for if you just buy and hold for a long time, they don't make any money in the interim. Except that one broker that I use charges me $125./year for carrying an inactive account and my broker says that there's nothing he can do about it - I'm going to close it, as others don't. Some years ago one broker wasn't charging me an annual fee to administer my self-directed tax-deferred retirement account, but when I had to reverse it into the payout (and no more inputs) section, they were starting to charge an administration fee. So I asked around and found a couple of other carriers who were willing to administer it without an annual fee - carriers whom I was less enthused about using, but I didn't feel it necessary to disclose that piece of information to the current carrier. The carrier said that they could administer it without a fee, as well - and have been doing so, for the last seven years. As a matter of fact, they'll be sending me my annual cheque in a couple of weeks. Guess I'll have to start thinking about what to do with the money, huh? Yeah, right - just before Christmas? Learn how to manage your money effectively, for you, rather than the other guys - it's an interesting hobby ... **that pays well**!! If you don't choose to boss your money - it'll boss you. ole joyful

Hi again Jimbg, I imagine that you've had some interesting thoughts regarding your retirement nest egg during the last half year or so. I hope that you have not been so smitten with fear of the stock market that you've decided to stay out of it. There are losses suffered from time to time, which can be substantial ... but over the long term, carefully chosen stocks, ETFs, etc. have produced well for their owners. As have mutual funds ... but, despite their substaial claims to superior performance, about 85% of mutual fund managers are unable to produce a higher rate of return than their chosen portion of the market. As you encourage your friends to start a retirement plan, you can follow a savings plan that's specifically geared to setting up a payout system during one's retirement, but many choose to carry investment accounts that are not geared toward retirement, as well. If one chooses to build a regular investment program, with a view to having it available to fund one's retirement, though unwilling to be tied up with the restrictions that govern retirement accounts, there's an extra benefit that can be used during one's lifetime. When I own a number of stocks or mutual funds, I can have the certificates issued to use as collateral when I make loans, often allowing me to pay a much lower rate of interest that if I must use other kinds of collateral. For example, if I want to buy a car and use the car as collateral, if the lender wants to repossess it in case of my delinquency, there's a hassle to collect it, then advertise it for sle, or go through a brokerage, which charges fees, etc. and they must wait for their money ... plus, if I didn't take good care of the car, they may not be able to collect all of the amount owing, plus costs. So they usually charge high interest rates on such loans. If, however, one has some stocks or mutual fund certiicates to use as collateral and isn't able to pay, it's fast and easy to liquidate the stock or mutual fund collateral, so the borrower almost always enjoys a much lower rate of interest on the loan. Should one have an emergency, it is a great help to one's financial and emotional well-being if one has some assets on hand to either liquidate or, perhaps more frequently, use as collateral to make a loan to cover the need, and the interest rate will be advantageous. Such a cushion helps a great deal in case one suffers long-term layoff, as many have experienced in the past few years. When one uses money that one had planned for retiremen for either an emergency, or to fund one's living during long-term layoff, one should make a strong effort to replace the money withdrawn, plus allowance for inflation, when one's financial stability is restored. Good wishes as you proceed with your plans ... and encourage others to do the same. On the day that you began work, you had brains and hands at work ... but no money. On the day that you retire, you have brains and money at work ... and no hands. If you've set aside a substantial amount regularly over the years, and learned how to manage it for a reasonable rate of return, plus some tax savings, you may well have developed enough assets in order to provide you with sufficient money to retire early. Good wishes for increasing skill in managing your income and assets. ole joyful

I have told my husband upon his retirement, that he can have the ultimate chair...... Instead of a lever on his recliner, he would, with dirty socks and rumpled clothes on....pass gas, and the chair would automatically lean back and raise his feet. ...he is now thinking about early retirement. Trin