Post retirement checklist?

[ArkTinkerer]

Left Megacorp yesterday for the last time as an employee yesterday! Is there some sort of post retirement checklist anyone has put together? I'm checking on health insurance first. Have a plan but numbers seem subject to revision...

Paperwork for rollovers won't follow for a couple weeks. Been planning how to distribute those.

Megacorp made an offer for me to do some consulting but I think we are way apart on payment. Happy to let that slide for now.

 

[travelover]

Be sure to steal a lifetime supply of pencils and staples.

 

[nuke_diver]

Congrats

Paperwork for rollovers in terms of 401K? If you are between 55-59 you might not want to. If you are employed by a company and are participating in the company’s 401(k) plan and you leave employment with that company at any time during or after the year in which you reach age 55, there will be no penalty for taking distributions from the plan. This doesn't work for IRA's so if you roll it over you cannot take advantage of it. If you are less than 55 or greater than 59......


Nevermind

 

[Koolau]

Monitor closely your correspondence from your old company in the next few months. At the end of the year I retired, my Megacorp canceled my company provided health insurance (I pay for it, but at a reduced rate.) Some sort of glitch, but I caught it right away and got it fixed. As you and your old empl*yer extricate from each other, you need to be your own advocate. YMMV

 

[frayne]

I think you mean pre-retirement checklist, don't you ?

 

[harley]

I think you mean pre-retirement checklist, don't you ?

Affirmative. Spend your time on this while someone is paying you for it.

 

[ArkTinkerer]

Affirmative. Spend your time on this while someone is paying you for it.

Nope. Planned all I could before that last day. Stupid policy of not providing paperwork until AFTER you leave. I'm asking here because I've never done this before. I hope to never do it again!

Healthcare calls are on the list first like I said. Already had several options picked so I'm just double checking and should pull the trigger tomorrow. Do want to confirm the backup plan in case I get hurt and have to take them up on Cobra since there is almost 30 days (and possibly 60) before the new plan would kick in. Almost certainly a high deductible policy so I will be able to fund a HSA via transfer from an IRA.

Pension and 401K will roll into IRAs. Have a pretty simple plan for a few index funds. Will take some time and try to do transfers to 2 or 3 different brokers to maximize their cash incentives. Company stock already moved out and will liquidate next year when I should be in a lower bracket. Some of it will have to wait another year to avoid being considered regular income.

Extremely unlikely to do a Roth transfer this year but it is something I will check at year end. Will be close enough to the tax and ACA limits I'm planning as it is.

 

[frayne]

You may want to consult others who have gone before you. One would think you should know everything and anything about retiree health insurance if it is offered.

Don't really have any thoughts about post retirement checklist but probably would not be a bad idea to have the group here generate one, very generic as everyones situation is very different.

 

[W2R]

You may want to consult others who have gone before you. One would think you should know everything and anything about retiree health insurance if it is offered.

Don't really have any thoughts about post retirement checklist but probably would not be a bad idea to have the group here generate one, very generic as everyones situation is very different.

I don't have any thoughts about a post retirement checklist, either. I spent years ferreting out information and making decisions before I retired. What else does one do during the last few years of work? Three years before I retired, I took a year to slowly move my portfolio into my planned retirement asset allocation.

I did spend some time on government retiree forums before and after I retired, getting an idea of the timeline until I would get my last paycheck, my leave compensation, and until my pension would kick in. Before I retired I also got some reassurance about my FEHB health insurance continuing seamlessly, which I had read but was concerned about.

Left Megacorp yesterday for the last time as an employee yesterday! Is there some sort of post retirement checklist anyone has put together? I'm checking on health insurance first. Have a plan but numbers seem subject to revision...

Paperwork for rollovers won't follow for a couple weeks. Been planning how to distribute those.

Megacorp made an offer for me to do some consulting but I think we are way apart on payment. Happy to let that slide for now.

I found out as much about retiree health insurance as I could, both from the usual sources and from other federal retirees on that message board. I did that long before I retired.

I didn't do a rollover so no tips from me on that.

My agency asked me before I retired to do some consulting after I retired. I laughed at them and said that the agency did not have enough money to get me to consult for them. Then a higher up asked me too, and I told him the same. After that, they stopped bugging me about it. But for me, all this happened before I retired, not after.

 

[ArkTinkerer]

Everyone, including HR, was pretty clear that the company health plan, while available for retirees, was a poor choice in today's environment.

Arkansas has an oddball arrangement for ACA but I don't really think it will affect us much. One of the new options our insurance broker found was something labeled "multistate" which I'm getting more info on. Hopefully that will help with one of our sons who is out of state and for our travels.

 

[Live And Learn]

My Mega had a pamphlets for those leaving and those retiring. They included gobs of info plus a checklist. See if your Mega has something similar; mine was very useful.

 

[ArkTinkerer]

My Mega had a pamphlets for those leaving and those retiring. They included gobs of info plus a checklist. See if your Mega has something similar; mine was very useful.

They had a pre-retirement checklist which mentioned a lot of what you hear on this forum. Lots of company specific garbage where they had you filling out paperwork to do HR's job for them.

They did have a retirement information session about a month before I left. They brought in the SS admin, the 401K representative, and they talked about healthcare options the company had (and how bad they were!). Somewhat useful but after reading forums like this for the last year or two much of what they said seemed incomplete or inaccurate. Certainly not aimed at an early retiree. Might have been appropriate for those over 60 at full retirement. But I guess that is really the target audience.

I got to do a couple private questions with the experts after the presentations and it was clear the folks here know an awful lot more than the "experts". Kudos to you all! Or in the southern tongue "y'all".

 

[Huston55]

Left Megacorp yesterday for the last time as an employee yesterday! Is there some sort of post retirement checklist anyone has put together? I'm checking on health insurance first. Have a plan but numbers seem subject to revision...

Paperwork for rollovers won't follow for a couple weeks. Been planning how to distribute those.

Megacorp made an offer for me to do some consulting but I think we are way apart on payment. Happy to let that slide for now.

As many have already said, most of the checklists you'll see here are PRE-retirement. However, when you're on the cusp of FIRE or just FIREd, the Pre/Post actions kind of blend together. Below are a few things I think are important to consider. Hope this is helpful.

Retirement Checklist
1. Make sure employment records are straight: benefits, 401k, transfer life insurance, etc. (Note: This is a pre-retirement action that should be at the top of your post-retirement list if not yet done, while you still have the opportunity to correct any errors or qualify for any benefits.)
2. Develop a rough FIRE/Semi-FIRE weekly schedule; monitor/adjust accordingly based on your experience and desires.
3. Establish retirement income portfolio; determine and sell/buy into new AA and investments.
4. Set investment accounts (and pensions if applicable) to deposit into your MM/checking/savings account. (Note: some set up to have dividends deposited into MM/checking/savings account.)
5. Finalize retirement budget, if you've not already done so. Begin tracking expenses versus budget. (Note: suggest using 'Mint' or some similar tool to automate this task.)
6. Determine what retiree benefits you're entitled to receive; examine health care options carefully. (Note: This is a pre-retirement action that should be at the top of your post-retirement list if not yet done.)
7. Determine if you want part time employment; take action accordingly.
8. Determine if you're going to relo or not. (If you are, that's a whole new subject & checklist.)
9. Find a Financial Advisor if you want one and don't already have one. (Many do this to prep for a surviving spouse who's not financially savvy.)
10. Complete a 1-2 page "When I'm Gone" list which includes all key information and instructions. (Account numbers, passwords, points of contact, other instructions.)
11. Calculate (using available tools) whether or not to do back door Roth conversions and/or capture untaxed LTCG, now that your taxable income is likely lower.
12. Complete/update your will/estate documents as necessitated by FIRE.
13. Make an informed decision about 401k rollover(s). It's not always best to do them so, study this before acting.

PS: Congrats on your FIRE!

 

[cranberryjoe]

Others have covered the financial and healthcare tasks necessary post-retirement. Here is the first item that should be at the top of your post-retirement checklist:

1. Turn off alarm clock

Enjoy your new freedom!

 

[Bamaman]

Retirement checklist:
Monday: Report to the state unemployment office that you're not working and that you're actively looking for a job every day.
Tuesday to Friday: Up early. Fix breakfast. Watch Let's Make a Deal. Watch Price Is Right. Fix Lunch. Take Nap. Wake up and play with the dogs. Watch news.

Just kidding. I'm working so hard in my ER that I never really had time to work anyway. Though I'm 6 years into retirement, I've yet to get to the bottom of the Honey Do list--with a house on 4 acres, a lake house, 2 boats and too many cars.

 

[ArkTinkerer]

As many have already said, most of the checklists you'll see here are PRE-retirement. However, when you're on the cusp of FIRE or just FIREd, the Pre/Post actions kind of blend together. Below are a few things I think are important to consider. Hope this is helpful.

Retirement Checklist
1. Make sure employment records are straight: benefits, 401k, transfer life insurance, etc. (Note: This is a pre-retirement action that should be at the top of your post-retirement list if not yet done, while you still have the opportunity to correct any errors or qualify for any benefits.)
2. Develop a rough FIRE/Semi-FIRE weekly schedule; monitor/adjust accordingly based on your experience and desires.
3. Establish retirement income portfolio; determine and sell/buy into new AA and investments.
4. Set investment accounts (and pensions if applicable) to deposit into your MM/checking/savings account. (Note: some set up to have dividends deposited into MM/checking/savings account.)
5. Finalize retirement budget, if you've not already done so. Begin tracking expenses versus budget. (Note: suggest using 'Mint' or some similar tool to automate this task.)
6. Determine what retiree benefits you're entitled to receive; examine health care options carefully. (Note: This is a pre-retirement action that should be at the top of your post-retirement list if not yet done.)
7. Determine if you want part time employment; take action accordingly.
8. Determine if you're going to relo or not. (If you are, that's a whole new subject & checklist.)
9. Find a Financial Advisor if you want one and don't already have one. (Many do this to prep for a surviving spouse who's not financially savvy.)
10. Complete a 1-2 page "When I'm Gone" list which includes all key information and instructions. (Account numbers, passwords, points of contact, other instructions.)
11. Calculate (using available tools) whether or not to do back door Roth conversions and/or capture untaxed LTCG, now that your taxable income is likely lower.
12. Complete/update your will/estate documents as necessitated by FIRE.
13. Make an informed decision about 401k rollover(s). It's not always best to do them so, study this before acting.

PS: Congrats on your FIRE!

Thanks! Most of this was done pre-FIRE but its a good list.

Any specifics on what you think might change in a will due to FIRE? I can see that if one owned a business but for a lackey like me I don't see it having much affect on who gets my rifle.

Southern list additions:

14. Make sure porch rocking chair is in good shape. (I'm going to have to build a porch!)
15 Acquire hound dog to sit with you on the porch.

 

[ArkTinkerer]

Just kidding. I'm working so hard in my ER that I never really had time to work anyway. Though I'm 6 years into retirement, I've yet to get to the bottom of the Honey Do list--with a house on 4 acres, a lake house, 2 boats and too many cars.

DW tells me I'm not allowed to die until I finish all chores around the house. I should be around until I'm at least 90!

 

[scrabbler1]

Before I ERed, I had a lengthy checklist of things to do, many of them relating solely to the 401k/ESOP account I had at my old job. There was a 10-page form I had to complete (some pages had nothing to fill out) in order to specify what I wanted to do with each part of the account. The account included company stock, pre-tax funds, and after-tax funds. I also wrote some special instructions to make sure everything was handled properly, which, to the 401k administrator's credit, it was. Some of the more unusual things I had to do was to get a medallion stamp from my bank because I was transferring more than $100k electronically to the bank, and to get one of the pages notarized.


After I left the company, I had to wait about a week until I was ready to make a visit to Fidelity to deposit all the account's proceeds, some of them into a Rollover IRA and some of it into the bond fund whose dividends would fund my everyday expenses. I wanted to do this in person, with my Fidelity Account Executive because the amounts were quite large (totaling over $500k). I had a small checklist for that, too.


Then I was set to begin my ER.

 

[jim584672]

Healthcare calls are on the list first like I said. Already had several options picked so I'm just double checking and should pull the trigger tomorrow. Do want to confirm the backup plan in case I get hurt and have to take them up on Cobra since there is almost 30 days (and possibly 60) before the new plan would kick in. Almost certainly a high deductible policy so I will be able to fund a HSA via transfer from an IRA.

COBRA is retroactive to your last day of coverage on your job. You have 60 days to decide and 45 days to pay it. Since it is retroactive I skipped two months and got an Exchange policy, saved $1230 in COBRA premiums.

 

[Huston55]

Thanks! Most of this was done pre-FIRE but its a good list.

Any specifics on what you think might change in a will due to FIRE? I can see that if one owned a business but for a lackey like me I don't see it having much affect on who gets my rifle.

Southern list additions:

14. Make sure porch rocking chair is in good shape. (I'm going to have to build a porch!)
15 Acquire hound dog to sit with you on the porch.

Nothing special if you & DW already have it the way you want it. Mostly, FIRE is just a good time to confirm/adjust your will/estate docs.