4 years 5 months and counting - Starting to prep for ER launch

[chinaco]

Hi all,

Wifey and I are intending to hang it up @ 55. We could probably do so now... but we have decide to wait on company health care (available @ 55) which is available to both of us from both of our companies. Also, we are still figuring out what we want to do... We are thinking about traveling quite a bit in the years of 55-65. Plus, we are currently helping elderly parents so we are a bit teathered to home for now... We figure we might as well work for now.

We are in a little of a rare situation now days. We both work for companies that are over 100 years old. Both companies are very strong with great balance sheets and revenues. I have a traditional pension coming (but will have less than 20 year with the company), she has over 25 years with a PST.

Both companies offer retiree health benefits. There is a reduced premium cost for each plan. However, I have not identifed the costs (premiums/benefit mix) yet which is an important factor in making decisions regarding selection of plan. But we are fairly sure that the cost of each will be south of $2k/yr for each plan in 2011.

My question to the forum is --- given a 2011 cost of $2k for premiums on each plan, should we each choose our respective companies health plans and place the other on each plan as a spouse (redundancy) or should we try to pick the plan/company that appears to be the best/strongest to try to reduce costs instead of paying for the redundancy (kinda like insurance against a plan being dropped). The savings would be $2k and rising a year. I suspect that @ 65 when Medicare is available to use we would consider making changes that make sense at the time... possibly dropping the spouse option which might save some $ on premium.



Thanks all

[Moemg]

If something happens to you or your wife is the spouse allowed to stay on the policy. Plus if one of you drops your policy does your company allow you to resign up for the policy ?

[Nords]

Welcome to the board, Chinaco.

What would cost more-- paying for a redundant policy for a decade, or having to find replacement insurance if you choose one policy and it gets dropped?

[jdw_fire]

Originally Posted by chinaco

I suspect that @ 65 when Medicare is available to use we would consider making changes that make sense at the time... possibly dropping the spouse option which might save some $ on premium.

If you drop the spouse coverage on both of the insurances now could you add spousal coverage back to one later if the other insurance were to go away? If so it might be cheaper to go this route.

[chinaco]

Good points. This is a topic that I will be researching and crunching numbers. I will keep you posted.

[Retire Soon]

Many companies are breaking promises of health care for life (or until 65) of retirees. I would recommend that you and DW hedge your bet by each going with your own company for health insurance. In that way, if one unethical former employer stoops to the low level of breeching its contractual obligations to those who served them faithfully for many years, then the victimized spouse can go with the other insurance company.