Recent content by FireCat

Yes we are kind of locked into living near our kids in PNW where housing prices are crazy. House price is pretty locked in unfortunately for the area we are looking at.

After spending 5 years post retirement aboard our sailboat we are back on land house shopping in this crazy market. Our questions revolve around spending cash and retirement savings on the purchase. We know we are going to overpay for the house already:facepalm: I am considering a 40%...

I don't think GPO or WPA affect your spouses SS benefit whatsoever. Even as a survivor benefit of my pension upon my death. I will look into it though. Thanks

Thanks to all for the thoughtful replies. I think we will wait until at least FRA for my DW and as far as Roth conversions go I am just not sure,It seems a good strategy might be to take the hit in taxes up to the 22 percent window each year until we run out of funds in our IRA's?

Well the problem with that is as I stated we are just under the 22% tax threshold maybe by a couple of thousand so yes, some years I could do a Roth Conversion, but it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Hello all would love to hear from the board. We have been retired for 5 years and have not tapped into any of our retirement accounts. Me age 58 government Pension w/cola capped at 3% so no SS or prospect of any of DW’s or survivor benefits. DW age 60 no pension but mine has a 66%...

Luckily we were traveling in February first Australia then in March we flew to New Zealand. Traveled the South Island until Lockdown for 9 weeks in Queenstown. Our Lakeside 5 BR house was just $60 US per night. Apex our rental car company has been great as well extending our rental car for...

Good day from Norway. While on a cruise with my DW I was thinking about investing in CD’s for my fixed income portion of our portfolio. I know how CD’s work outside a brokerage account, but I am not sure that buying them and setting up CD ladders inside my IRA’s makes sense. Anyone have any...

Hello Joyless! My plan is to spend or convert up to The 4% of my total portfolio. My withdrawals for spending will always keep me squarely in the 22% bracket unless I went crazy and convert more than 4%. My plan is to convert whatever I don’t want to spend up to the 4% I would potentially...

Thanks all for your advice. I was planning on spending down our tIRA’s first to soften any RMD hit and convert to Roth’s any money up to the 4% per year annually.

Good day, My wife and I have been retired for 4 years and are living off my cola'd pension with survivor benefit of 66% which puts us just below the 22% marginal tax rate. I, like many here seem to be having trouble kick starting the "Spend that Dough" wheel. Hoping to get it going this...

That’s just too funny to pass up. USGrant are you kidding me? You must have a nice retirement medical plan keeping you well cared for. I worked 30 years as a fireman in a large metropolitan Fire Dept. I and my beautiful wife retired from nursing early knowing there were no affordable...

Yes you are correct we have not had a claim. Regarding reviews I would definitely look at that but with IMG we had a claim that they paid on but it was a pain to go through the process. I can’t think of anytime working with insurance companies especially in the healthcare field that I’ve been...

Sure thing, We have used other companies the previous two years we were retired and have switched to Azimuth Risk Solutions, 5218 S East St, Suite E-1, Indianapolis, IN 46227 USA We switched due to our premiums going up significantly and found the sign up and application process for Azimuth to...

Just wanted to jump in on the healthcare topic. My wife and I are lucky enough to have retired 3 years ago at 53 with a well funded pension. The only negative being we aren’t eligible for subsidies so buying even the lowest rated plans with high deductibles would cost over $1100/mo in premiums...