Wow, what a January!

[Travelwanted]

Oh my. . .it's been an eventful month:

1-Parted ways with my FA! Huge $$$$ savings.

2-Put in my notice. . .scary. Not sure it will stick 100%. They want to speak to me and I have multiple outside opportunities. At worst I am part-time this summer to retired.

3-Finally made an appt for a physical. Haven't been to a doc in 7-8 years. Bit overdue! If all is good I am considering dropping disability and life insurance now that we are FI. Anyone disagree with this?

Bring on February!

 

[eytonxav]

No one can accuse you of complacency. Great way to start the year!

 

[NanoSour]

If you haven't seen a Dr in years, be ready to do a lot of research on your own. I predict they'll find something wrong with you that requires some type of permanent prescription medication. Most likely in the statin arena. You're gonna have to turn over some stones to see if it's right for you.

Good luck and congrats on dumping the FA.

 

[MBAustin]

If you are FI and not w*rking, I see no reason to maintain disability insurance. Life insurance may have other purposes. For example, if you still have a mortgage and also a pension that would be reduced significantly for your spouse if you were to be run over by a fast beer truck, the life insurance could pay off the mortgage and make life financially easier for your spouse. Just my personal thoughts.

 

[Travelwanted]

Working until this summer. Renewal for DI is Fall. Will let it lapse.

No debt of any kind. But we do have young kids. Even though FI, considering keeping it.

 

[rodi]

Working until this summer. Renewal for DI is Fall. Will let it lapse.

No debt of any kind. But we do have young kids. Even though FI, considering keeping it.

I let my life insurance lapse this past year. Like you - I have minor age kids. But....
- mortgage was paid off last year.
- FI/RE happened last year.

I ran the numbers and even without my SS there's still enough for the kids to get raised/through college and launched, and for DH to have enough $$ as long as he doesn't by a yacht (or is it boat... or is it ship... LOL) and get lots of highly paid nubile young crew members to run the boat/ship/yacht. If he maintains the current lifestyle - he's good and the kids are good.

If there isn't enough $$ for the spouse to make it without your SS or pension... then by all means, continue life insurance.

 

[NanoSour]

You might want to make a visit to ESPlanner Inc.. Even the basic (free) calculator does a pretty decent job of calculating life insurance requirements given you want DS to maintain their standard of living given your departure.

ESPlanner Plus is a pretty good bargain for the piece of mind I get from it's output. Of course YMMV.

 

[NW-Bound]

If you haven't seen a Dr in years, be ready to do a lot of research on your own. I predict they'll find something wrong with you that requires some type of permanent prescription medication. Most likely in the statin arena...

One should get in the habit of having an annual checkup with a blood test, starting in the late 40s, even if one feels healthy.

However, depending on the OP's age, a daily medication is not a given. Even at close to 60 now, I do not have to take anything, other than a baby aspirin and a couple of fish oil capsules.

 

[Fred123]

One should get in the habit of having an annual checkup with a blood test, starting in the late 40s, even if one feels healthy.



However, depending on the OP's age, a daily medication is not a given. Even at close to 60 now, I do not have to take anything, other than a baby aspirin and a couple of fish oil capsules.

There have been some recent studies questioning the value of annual physicals, so I personally have decided to skip mine. Here's one take on this:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/skip-your-annual-physical.html

 

[2B]

Working until this summer. Renewal for DI is Fall. Will let it lapse.

No debt of any kind. But we do have young kids. Even though FI, considering keeping it.

Disability insurance is meaningless if you don't have a verifiable income. Once you retire and are living off investments, DI won't pay you a dime.

 

[2B]

There have been some recent studies questioning the value of annual physicals, so I personally have decided to skip mine. Here's one take on this:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/skip-your-annual-physical.html

Back in the days when I thought I was important, the company encouraged senior managers to have a physical at a KS clinic. I got poked, probed, X-rayed, EKG-ed and anything else they could think of. Since being informed of my true value to mega-corp, my physicals have consisted of a stethoscope, scale, standard blood analysis and a BP test. It doesn't take any more time than a standard office visit. I'm not sure if this is part of the evolution of what medicine considers a proper physical or just a change in corporate status.

 

[sengsational]

3-Finally made an appt for a physical. Haven't been to a doc in 7-8 years. Bit overdue!

Do yourself a favor and check out The Great Cholesterol Con: the Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It.
before you go to see a doctor. Way too many doctors have their head in the sand, and you're at risk of getting poisoned.

 

[sengsational]

There have been some recent studies questioning the value of annual physicals, so I personally have decided to skip mine. Here's one take on this:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/skip-your-annual-physical.html

The problem with these "how much value does X have" things is that they're based "on average". I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not average

Yea, so it depends on the person. If you're dad and uncles had aggressive prostate cancer, would you let years go by without a PSA test? If your mom and sisters had breast cancer, would you let years go by without a mamogram?

 

[Options]

You might want to make a visit to ESPlanner Inc.. Even the basic (free) calculator does a pretty decent job of calculating life insurance requirements given you want DS to maintain their standard of living given your departure.

ESPlanner Plus is a pretty good bargain for the piece of mind I get from it's output. Of course YMMV.

+1
I am a big fan of ESP. Someone posted that ESP helped convince them to retire, which is why I got it, and I totally agree. Many complain about the user interface and how much time it takes to figure it out. IMO, ESP is a very robust tool, and it's worth all the time invested in truly studying the user manual and really delving into it. It's one of the best I've come across, and I believe I feel that way because I've used it so extensively.

The problem with these "how much value does X have" things is that they're based "on average". I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not average

Yea, so it depends on the person. If you're dad and uncles had aggressive prostate cancer, would you let years go by without a PSA test? If your mom and sisters had breast cancer, would you let years go by without a mamogram?

+1
I can't imagine waiting that many years to see a doctor. I go twice yearly and believe it's a contributing factor to the outstanding state of health I am in. Health is just as important, if not more important, than the financial aspect of retirement. Poor health leads to death making financials irrelevant.

 

[NW-Bound]

There have been some recent studies questioning the value of annual physicals, so I personally have decided to skip mine. Here's one take on this:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/skip-your-annual-physical.html

I agree that many of the usual procedures done in a normal exam are not beneficial. I do not know about women's problems, but think that a man would know if he has prostate enlargement before a digital rectal exam can detect it. Ditto with the manual exam for hernia that can be self-administered. Even the EKG is not of much help in detecting heart problems. I think the blood test is the most useful thing to detect onset of diabetes, liver malfunction, prostate problems (PSA), etc... These are problems that have no obvious symptoms. If there's a way to just have the the blood work, I would go for it.

In practice, when I was younger, I went for the annual exam just so that the doctor office would keep my file, as I did not bother to go in for an occasional cold. And as the article concedes, "the exam provides an opportunity to talk and reaffirm the physician-patient relationship even if there is no specific complaint."

And when one gets to the late 50s, usually things will start to happen. At that age, most people start to have high blood pressure, high glucose, etc... An annual blood test is the prudent thing to get done.

 

[MRG]

...snip...

In practice, when I was younger, I went for the annual exam just so that the doctor office would keep my file, as I did not bother to go in for an occasional cold. And as the article concedes, "the exam provides an opportunity to talk and reaffirm the physician-patient relationship even if there is no specific complaint."

Couldn't agree more. I had a serious injury and only then realized my PCP and his nurse were incapable of helping me.
They cost me weeks off work by ignoring obvious symptoms and ignoring under medicated "severe pain", their ignorance almost cost my life.

You should at least have a connection with the person you may need to help save your life. First thing I did after recovering from 3 months of wanting to die was get a new PCP.

 

[jabbahop]

i have had very extensive company physicals for about 25 years. One early on found that I had a problem that required removing part of my parathyroid. 5 years ago they found and removed early melanoma. Very happy to have found both of those early.

 

[Rothman]

Dropping disability insurance and getting a checkup are clearly good moves. I'm not sure about the life insurance part. Beyond covering mortgage, etc., for surviving spouse can't life insurance be a good wealth transfer mechanism with tax free benefit to heirs? I am not a life insurance salesperson, just have seen the Ed Slott (PBS) presentations and wonder if a reasonable cost policy could still make sense in your strategy?


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