Married, 55 & 58, need next-step advice!

[JoeWras]

Oversoul: just research it a bit more. You are probably going to be drawing an income level that will be subsidized, so you'll catch a break on the cost. Additionally, when we give worst case scenarios, it includes out of pocket. So, in a healthy year, you would only pay premiums. What we're saying is your health care expenses need attention.

Here's what I've been doing for expenses. DW and I enter EVERYTHING on Quicken. All our checks, all our withdrawals, all our credit cards. We categorize everything. We now have a 12 year record and know very well what our expenses are. Some of our surprise expenses have been house related: old appliance replacement, roofing, hot water heater replacement, etc. We also keep track of our dining out versus groceries. Very enlightening.

I'm not saying you can't do it at $36k, but I suspect you may want to give it just a bit more cushion. Perhaps this means firecalc says 95%. If so, you can probably go for it and manage your expenses in the lean years.

[jclarksnakes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oversoul After payroll deductions, medical/dental/eye insurance & 401k contributions, we bring home $4005 every 2 weeks combined out of our $160k yearly salary. Our Federal tax bill for 2012 is roughly $25k. We don't qualify for anything except the standard deduction.

Your taxes at 25K are exactly what I would guess they would be. I think you do not understand what I am talking about. If you are saving 5K a month that is 60K a year. If you are spending 3K a month that is 36K a year. Let's add this up. 25(taxes)+60(savings)+36(spending)=121. You are missing the difference between 160K and 121K each year. That is 39 each year that you seem to have lost. I do realize that FICA taxes are taking about 11K out of your 160K combined income but that still leaves a good bit (like 28K) of money unaccounted for. You entered 36K annual expenses in Firecalc and got good results but it would seem that you have been spending a lot more than 36K in recent years. Firecalc results are only as good as the data you enter into the calculator.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jclarksnakes You entered 36K annual expenses in Firecalc and got good results but it would seem that you have been spending a lot more than 36K in recent years. Firecalc results are only as good as the data you enter into the calculator.

Jclark says it more directly. I've just been hinting. I can't see how the expenses are that low.

The OP needs to seriously, seriously look at expenses and get realistic.

And JCS is right, the data is only as good as you put in. Garbage-in, garbage-out as the saying goes. I respect OBGynes opinion, but to say "if firecalc says you are good, you are good to go" isn't true if you fed firecalc garbage.

OK, there's theme here. A lot of us are simply saying: Get Real About Your Expenses.

[Katsmeow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jclarksnakes 25(taxes)+60(savings)+36(spending)=121. You are missing the difference between 160K and 121K each year. That is 39 each year that you seem to have lost.

I think that also out of that $160k is taken FICA, health insurance premiums, and 401k contributions. I suspect those collectively make up the bulk (and perhaps all) of the $39k.