Retiring early

[readysetfire]

My husband has been a member here for years. We are at the point where I think it maybe time to retire. He is 50, I am 45. Net worth 2M. We both currently work FT and the plan is for him to retire July 2018. I am leaning towards requesting to work remotely so that I maintain Health insurance through my employer as I have an autoimmune disease that requires frequent doctor visits and very expensive medications.

We currently rent but have a home in another state that we will move to when he retires. We have done all the fire calcs and run numbers and we expect that we should be fine financially as long as we can live on a budget for the first five years (about 350K is non retirement money). We talk of doing roth ladders too. If I continue working then we will be less likely to need to do a roth ladder. I am hesitant to tell my employer my plan to request remote work until my husband notifies his company that he is retiring. I am pretty confident that they would do part time work at a lower salary with benefits due to my service and knowledge etc. On the off chance that they don't agree it does not change the plan to retire early...we would do COBRA and then probably coverage through obamacare. I just don't want to pull the trigger before he does.

Just wanted to share to see if anyone had any reactions to our plans one way or the other.

 

[tony d tiger]

Your healthcare plans may change soon; how would it affect your ER if ACA is defunct?

 

[readysetfire]

I would have to private pay for health insurance or work to get health insurance. I am not convinced that the law about pre-existing conditions preventing you from getting coverage will go away. Lot's of unknowns. We talk about medical tourism. I think it could be years before all the health insurance stuff shakes out from a legislative perspective. Not sure I want to wait given that I am more than healthy enough to work if I have to just to have health insurance.

 

[kimcdougc]

Welcome readysetfire. We have been on the exchange for 3 years now and it is ok. Given we have had 3 different plans in these 3 years. Not the best but ok.

Life is short. We can't plan for if the health insurance goes away or not. An earthquake, flood, etc might happen too. We have insurance for that , but it might not cover all.

So, if you think you have covered all your bases. Go ahead and retire and enjoy life.

Nothing is for certain.

 

[BrianB]

We live in Minnesota so we use the state exchange, not Healthcare.gov.

The first year we did our own sign up and paid about $400 per month premium with a moderate tax credit.

In 2017 we went to an insurance / investment agency that our state exchange authorized and trained. They are called "assisters". We don't have any other business with this agency, but they get a small commission from the state to help people like us. No cost to us at all. They have a hotline to the state offices and other tools not available to DIY'ers. The premium was $170 per month with a larger tax credit. Same health insurance company and a better deductible / OOP cost.

For 2018 we went back to the same agency. With some number crunching we got a higher deductible plan (still same health insurance company) with a great tax credit and only $80 per month.

While I am a DIY type for almost everything, navigating the complex & fast changing health insurance market is one area that help is worthwhile.

 

[MBAustin]

Welcome readysetfire! It's great that you have joined your DH here with us. Personally, I think the more in sync a couple is about financial matters, the better. Even though I make most of the actual financial decisions, I always consult my DH before actually doing anything material.

If you haven't found them already, we have a helpful list of things to think about before you make the leap:

Some Important Questions to Answer

We look forward to your contributions here - happy 2018!

 

[MarieIG]

All heath care coverage is not created equal. I have a co-worker with an auto-immune disease. Her treatment is currently in the range of 10k+ a month, and requires multiple specialists. Luckily her husband works for a government entity and has exceptional coverage. Before she could even receive some of the infusions she needed, they had to be approved.

My last job had awful, absolutely awful, coverage. Not only was the deductible very high, in my opinion the hoops that the employees had to jump through impacted on the care received. I would make sure very good coverage is in place for you before taking the leap.

 

[karen1972]

One thing you may want to do is look at the exchange plans, check out what special meds you need and see what is and isn't covered and at what level just to get a basis. I know people with certain conditions where none of the exchange plans covered their treatment until they maxed out of pocket expenses. They also had issues as exchange plans had limited doctor options.

Basically I think if you look for your situation you can see if this is something that will be a problem for you and you can plan accordingly. If your treatments are covered in current plans while things can change, you can feel some level of comfort that your treatment isn't deemed to obscure and if it is, then you may need to keep some backup health care.