Recent content by Trawler

Several years back my wife and I who both retired with no set stream of income and both under 59.5 years of age went to get pre-approved for a fixed rate mortgage to purchase a new home and had a hard time with mortgage brokers. What we learned is fannie mae and freddie mac required a stream of...

ytd invested assets 5.89%.

Great Plan well thought out and IMHO you are good to go! Take some time a read up on the ACA income limits and calculation. With what you have in taxable accounts you should be able to manage ACA MAGI income to what ever level is optimal for you both.

Had same situation with elderly Aunt. Was paying about $40 month for land line and 50 bucks for internet only cable. Thru Verizon bought a phone modem for $30 and plugged in old land phone added her to our Verizon family plan $20 bucks per month. She does use mobile smart phone and showed her...

Congrats!!! Retired in 2012 at age 51 and DW at 54 and one of the hardest things was to actually start to withdraw from investments as we never had before. I just kept telling myself that is why we saved it. Eventually I realized it was Great!! Still crunch numbers for reassurance and to be sure...

4 years of expenses laddered CDs and Money Market plus 1 year of expenses in Bond fund.

In hindsight I wish I did not payoff mortgage early but when we did rates were much higher. Would have liked to have more in my taxable account when we retired early to better manage taxes and ACA tax credits prior to 65. Almost did a cash out refi when rates got this low. So we are in camp of...

For what it is worth DW and I are managing the cliff as well and my projections show we will be short on NON Ira money to make it till 65. Looks like about age 64 for me and DW will be 65. So need to look where best way to get the shortfall. Options for us is Roth withdraw and or use equity LOC...

Take a look at the 2nd lowest priced silver plan price w/o subsidy in your area and compare it to last years. Did it drop? The 2nd lowest silver plan is bell weather for determining subsidy. In addition you may have crossed one of the FPL thresholds that increase the percentage on income that...

I am in the camp of take cash when the portfolio is high as I keep a large cash position in both IRA (401K rollover) and taxable accounts of 3 to 5 yrs worth expenses in total. Then manage realized income with a WDs from IRA cash to manage income taxes and ACA tax credits. Mostly CD ladders...

Yes they are and was glad to see price for same Bronze plan in Ohio was only slightly higher for 2020 versus the letter I received from current insurance co. Deductible and Max OPP went up slightly as well. Only 4 of 34 plans HSA compatible plans available in my area.

I too worked in high stress good pay sales job till burned out and started effecting both mental and physical health and called it quits in October of 2012 at age 51 and DW followed in May of 2013. Almost 7 years now and I experienced high anxiety over net worth still do to some extent but no...

As stated I would be sure the W-2 at year end is correct. In my case I left an employer and they never threw the off switch in payroll and they kept paying me. I called HR and told them if they wanted to keep paying me I was good with that. HR person said opps!! They forgot to turn off payroll...

We are doing Roth Conversions up to the point of being most efficient when looking at of ACA Subsidy and current tax rates. Found for us using ACA income around 300% of FPL which is about a 9.7% of Modified Adjusted Gross income and thru the 12% income tax bracket in conjunction with an HSA...

with your young age, no pension and SS income later I would look at converting some of your IRA to Roth IRA each year at a low tax bracket yet keeping it low enough for ACA subsidy. Tax free growth and no mandatory withdraw at age 70 on Roth. DW and I retired at 54 and 51 and been converting...