piano13
Confused about dryer sheets
Hi,
Obviously a newbie here; this is an interesting group of forums. On to the specifics.
I retired officially last month, from a professor job. It's a disability retirement, unplanned. The details of the nightmarish battle with the employer is a book in itself; in the end, I decided to take a settlement (it paid for the atty.) rather than go to court. I couldn't see continuing to live with this confrontational situation in my life for another 2-3 years. Why would I do that to myself? Mental sanity is worth, well, it's priceless. BTW, I'm 52 yrs. old, my husband is 11 months older.
I was earning 50K, and have a retirement account of roughly 270K, in TIAA/CREF. My spouse is working at a different university, so income is still coming in--he earns about 60K. We live in the inland Pacific NW, and love it here! No kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat.
ER was a dream, and then it really did happen! I'm exploring state disability, employer disability, and Social Security Disab. as sources of income. At best, that will look like enough $ to pay the mortgage and the cars, but not much more. We've also taken out a LOC against the house, but haven't tapped it--we see it as a kind of absolute, creditors-at-the-door type of loan. I'm staying with my former employer's health ins. plan @ $450/month; my husband's plan doesn't cover the things I need to use. (I'm not complaining too loudly--I have a choice, and many, many people don't even have an opportunity)
So I'm looking thru this forum at strategies folks have used in "unplanned" ERs, at ways anyone uses to cut back, and other ways it might make sense to use my retirement $. I like what I see, and I like that it's moderated.
Thanks for reading!
Obviously a newbie here; this is an interesting group of forums. On to the specifics.
I retired officially last month, from a professor job. It's a disability retirement, unplanned. The details of the nightmarish battle with the employer is a book in itself; in the end, I decided to take a settlement (it paid for the atty.) rather than go to court. I couldn't see continuing to live with this confrontational situation in my life for another 2-3 years. Why would I do that to myself? Mental sanity is worth, well, it's priceless. BTW, I'm 52 yrs. old, my husband is 11 months older.
I was earning 50K, and have a retirement account of roughly 270K, in TIAA/CREF. My spouse is working at a different university, so income is still coming in--he earns about 60K. We live in the inland Pacific NW, and love it here! No kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat.
ER was a dream, and then it really did happen! I'm exploring state disability, employer disability, and Social Security Disab. as sources of income. At best, that will look like enough $ to pay the mortgage and the cars, but not much more. We've also taken out a LOC against the house, but haven't tapped it--we see it as a kind of absolute, creditors-at-the-door type of loan. I'm staying with my former employer's health ins. plan @ $450/month; my husband's plan doesn't cover the things I need to use. (I'm not complaining too loudly--I have a choice, and many, many people don't even have an opportunity)
So I'm looking thru this forum at strategies folks have used in "unplanned" ERs, at ways anyone uses to cut back, and other ways it might make sense to use my retirement $. I like what I see, and I like that it's moderated.
Thanks for reading!