Recent content by BuysToys

Neither DH nor I had high paying jobs. We were run of the mill, ordinary worker bees for most of our lives. Although we married late in life, we both had pretty much had the same plans for retirement (not early) and saved for it. I always invested 15% of my paycheck into my 401(k) when I had...

I haven't run it lately, but we are retired for eight years now. Our portfolio has grown tremendously since we retired, but our spending has also grown these last couple of years. If we bit the bullet and cut back, we could do without our withdrawals and just live off SSDI and DH's pension...

Certain pacemakers are MRI compliant with some MRI machines. There are new models out that may or may not be compatible with your particular pacemaker. Always keep the card of your pacemaker model with you. That also goes for stents.

After losing two PCPs due to retirement, I intentionally chose someone younger this time. I use a Nurse Practitioner who is very competent. I have to use a PCP since I'm in a HMO plan. Even if it wasn't required, I'd still use one. I have several specialists and there are some issues...

Our budget includes one major project per year. So far, after eight years, that has worked well. We're almost done with the "wanted" home projects, so I suspect we'll start to reinvest those monies when we don't use them. Right now, our cash bucket is a little full, but we're OK with that.

I wasn't necessarily working on FIRE, but I did want a comfortable retirement. Then, lo and behold, life happened. I ended up on disability and can't work. Planning for a comfortable retirement ended up being RE. Fortunately, we were FI as well and have all our needs covered as well as most...

I like i-Orp.com and https://earlyretirementnow.com/. Even if you haven't retired early, both offer some good insight.

I use 95 but there's a slim chance I will make it that long. Too many health issues already and I'm not yet 60. I'd rather be conservative, though, and not run out of funds if I do happen to break some kind of record for my family.

Have you been checked for fibromyalgia? Some of the things you are complaining about are fibro symptoms.

We're at 65/30/5. There is no plan to change at this time, but we are always willing to re-evaluate based on needs. If anything, we'd likely move more bonds to cash.

I waffle between, "I'm retired," and, "I'm unemployed." Neither has gotten much comment. My family and close friends know I retired early. My mom was jealous, but she was that type of person. Nothing I could have said would have made it easier for her to swallow. Everyone else was happy...

I withdraw once a year as part of my rebalancing activity. The money comes only out of an IRA. It's always a percentage of equity and bond holdings. For the past six years, it's been mostly equities with just a small smidgeon of bond. I'm taking about 3% of our total portfolio as the annual...

Our TX ACA plan was an HMO as the only available option. We had very limited coverage areas and would pay 100% OOP for any service not in our provider list. Fortunately we had all our doctors in network and could work around all the other required services. We're currently on Medicare...

We do an annual withdrawal based on our budget for the year. It's worked for us for six years now, so that's probably how we'll continue to do it.

I'm working with my dad to write his. My nephew gave him a book for Christmas that asks questions about his life: where he was born, who his best friend was in grade school, that type of thing. I'm doing it on the computer so we can print off as many copies as necessary. I'm certain other...