Utterly lost. Can somebody please point me in the right direction?

[Lcountz]

Injured and cant work but can "build out" a van to live in? ( Check out all the "living in vans/cars" on You Tube to see what that can involve...PLUS there's no "free lunch". THere are a LOT of costs with "living in a van"......)


Better not plan on collecting disability and having them find out about that!



How will you even BUY a van if you have such terrible debt load? You want to add MORE debt to that pile?!?!?!?



Your wife is "going for a run"?!?!? But your post sounds like she is near death's door?!?!?



On the chance that this ISN"T a troll ( a la that guy who rebutted EVERY solution offered last year...the one from near Washington DC....I'm sure you remember....)..


How about bankruptcy? You have no home to lose, the CC debt can be written off, let the medical bills accumulate and bankruptcy will prevail, sell the expensive cars and everything else, and IF you are going to retire to be with your wife, maybe RENT in a lower cost area where your current insurance will work....








I am NOT cold hearted....in fact, my brother just passed from cancer, and he wasn't going to go for any "runs"...... Please OP consider some of the options listed.


And if this IS real, I do hope your wife gets better. Gosh I hate to be so suspicious.

 

[Teacher Terry]

The most we have ever paid for a car is 20k. You spent a fortune on a depreciation asset. We drive a 2010 Honda and 2008 Toyota Corolla with low miles. Unless I misread if you take money out of your pension you won’t get 3k month. If your wife was terminally ill I could see it. Once the adventure is over is she going back to work since she is much younger than you? I wish you the best but you cannot afford to retire.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

So much great advice here...falling on deaf ears.

All I have to say...SELL those expensive cars. To be in your situation and keep them is just..well, it's not very wise.

 

[Calico]

I have trouble believing this is legit. IF the OP is legit, I hope that both he and his wife recover fully from their health issues and live a long, healthy life together with the retirement of their dreams.

Having said that, I'm really confused by conflicting posts. According to him:

His wife is demanding he retire because she is so very sick.

His wife's prognosis is excellent, she is "going for a run" and she is expected to recover fully.

He is too injured to work, but he is planning to join his wife on the run.

He is too injured to work, but not to single-handedly convert a van and live in it.

They are both sick, and will need medical care, but are planning to live in a van without running water, with no fixed abode, and no consistent medical care.

They are in huge debt, and are planning to buy a NEW $40,000 vehicle.

Regardless of whether or not it is a legit story, the OP has zero interest in any of the excellent advice given above. He and his wife have their minds firmly made up, no matter how risky retirement would be in their shoes. Denial is a very powerful force.

 

[gauss]

Perhaps the best advice would be to spend some time over at MMM (Mr. Money Mustache) in order to learn techniques and structure to live below his means.

Many people don't realize that you can be very happy while doing this.

Will definitely need to be able to separate their sense of self-worth from their collection of material goods if they ever want to be happy.

-gauss

 

[joeea]

I also get free medical insurance for life

But we don't know how to have insurance that will pay for her last cancer surgery, after I've already retired.

So your free medical insurance for life doesn't cover your wife?

If that's the case, she'll need to find an insurance plan for her coverage. Start at https://www.healthcare.gov/

And if that isn't affordable, then you'll need to keep working and get on an employer's family health plan. Perhaps you can find a part-time job where you can work just enough hours to qualify for the health plan.

Good luck to you and your wife.

 

[kgtest]

Based on everything you've mentioned before, this sure seems like an unwise expense right now. You have too many unknowns to go forward with this.

And let me be the first to express suspicions of a troll. I hope I'm wrong. This will be my last comment on this thread.

Oi. LBYM. Christian. Enjoy the time you have with your DW.

 

[RunningBum]

They are both sick, and will need medical care, but are planning to live in a van without running water, with no fixed abode, and no consistent medical care.

No running water, but a bathtub and shower!

 

[Calico]

Oi. LBYM. Christian. Enjoy the time you have with your DW.

Direct quote from OP in post #13:

No worries- her outlook is good. She's not even gonna need chemo or radiation.

 

[kgtest]

Direct quote from OP in post #13:

No worries- her outlook is good. She's not even gonna need chemo or radiation.

That is a good outlook missed that, thanks. In that case...just work on living below your means which means do not finance your future.

 

[RunningBum]

Planet Fitness has 1,742 locations all across the U.S., with unlimited hot showers and toilets, and it's $10 a month for both of us. That's just "Plan-A".

Not that it's a deal breaker, but $10 gets you access to one club. You need to Black Card plan for $22.99/month to use any club and have unlimited guest access.

 

[Calico]

That is a good outlook missed that, thanks. In that case...just work on living below your means which means do not finance your future.

This is what I find so confusing about his wife's insistence that he must retire now, to "be with her."

And the idea of giving up the current employee insurance that covers both of them, with her still needing surgery and his health issues unresolved, and going into more debt for another new vehicle, just boggles my mind.

But, to each their own. If their minds are made up, so be it. I wish them luck making it work if that is actually the case.

 

[Christian]

I find you in a very precarious situation. While it's natural to plan ahead, there are too many moving targets in your life to make a good plan of action. Your wife wants you to retire, but sometimes people cannot get what they want. You'll need to continue your disability plan through your employer as long as possible.

Copy that.

With the both of you requiring extensive medical care, you'll have to put the RV lifestyle on hold for quite sometime--possibly years. I'm a RVer too, and there's no way someone with serious illnesses/injuries can be mobile.

We're not crippled- we went out last night for a run after my wife got off work. I may not have full range of motion or a lot of muscle strength, but we're gonna be able to build this van out.

You need to remain close to your doctors and current hospitals for obvious reasons.

One way or the other, my rehab is going to be done this fall. And her cancer care plan should have her finished with her surgeries not long after. It's not going to be a lifetime ongoing treatment process. If we need to come back to see a particular doctor, we will do that.

And a Class B is too small to have a quality of life for full timers.

That's a paradigm issue. We'll be fine with it.

In the short term, try to sell one of those vehicles you can do without.

We both have jobs, and mine involves shift work with a lot of unpredictable mandatory overtime- if I have to go back to work, there would be no way to get by without both cars.

We do plan to sell my car once we retire, and use that money to pay cash for the van.

Do anything possible to lower your debt, including liquidating any sellable assets.

We are. We're looking around the house for stuff to sell. We aren't "thing" people, so there is no jewelry, designer bags, expensive clothing, electronics, or anything like that.

File for Social Security Disability for your wife, and you should meet with Social Security to see what your best plan of action is. Remember that you've got to have worked and paid into Social Security 40 quarters, or 10 years, before you're eligible for Disability payments. The golden egg is that those on Social Security Disability are eligible for Medicare 2 years from when they are deemed "disabled."

I don't know that she'd meet any reasonable definition of "disabled", and I seriously doubt that she's worked 40 quarters in her life- we try to live within our means, to allow her the option of working if she wants to, and not working if she doesn't want to. Since my injury, she's kept a job, because now we need her income.

And if you have a child, the disability payments are increased for them.

Our child is grown and has been out of the house for 5 years now.

As far as liquidating retirement accounts, forget it. If you end up permanently disabled, you will never have the chance to replenish funds withdrawn to payoff "debts." You have to take care of your family for another 30 years or more, and they come first.

There is no option to cash out the entire thing, there is no option to put money back in later, and I wouldn't have the money to put back in anyway.

But even if I decide to pull 100% of my contributions out, my employers contributions still stay in, and I still draw a pension of about $2,000 a month...plus the 2.5% COLA...plus free medical insurance for life.

If you get to where you cannot pay your creditors, talk to them. See if they can change the terms. If they come after you legally, let them get their judgments against you. If you're not a property owner or have tangible assets, they cannot attach them. And they cannot touch your retirement accounts in most states.

We're not going there. Most of our debt is at very low interest- the terms are never gonna get better than they are right now. And I'm not stiffing anyone- that's not how I was raised.

I certainly hope you have great insurance to minimize future medical bills. You cannot give up great insurance--as if you retired, ACA deductibles and co-pays are unaffordable for those without strong incomes.

We do have great insurance.

We're not gonna have a strong income in our retirement

Until you and your wife's medical condition improve, forget filing bankruptcy. Although you may be very deserved of bankruptcy, it's not something you do until the medical issues are solved.

Yup- I can do the math on that one.

Keep your chin up and work on getting physically better day by day. And be thankful you have governmental benefits because in private industry you'd be receiving a small portion of your current benefits.

I am VERY thankful, every day. To include being thankful for your input.

 

[Christian]

Sounds like you are used to driving expensive cars and plan on buying another. I am sorry for your situation but you can not afford to retire. Period.

That sounds more like an editorial than an answer.

The word "expensive" is a relative term. We live in a very expensive place, and since the cost of living is very high, the wages tend to be higher too. Entry-level employees with no experience and nothing more than a GED, are easily able to make $100K their first year. So our cars don't look that expensive to me, especially since we now owe so little on them, what we do owe on them is at very low interest rates, and they're not depreciating much.

Don’t forget you will be taxed on your pension.

At our income level, we're not gonna be paying much, if any federal taxes, and we intend to base ourselves out of a state that doesn't tax retirement pensions.

I don’t mean to be cold it’s wonderful your wife will make a full recovery and not need further treatment.

Thank you.

Your goal should be to pay off your expensive cars and save like mad. Trim your expenses and see if you can live off 3k a month.

Paying off the cars would be the worst place to put our money- my car is financed at 1.99%, which is less than the inflation rate during the time that I've owned it, and hers is financed at not much more.

We've been working to pay down the highest-interest debt that we have.

And there is no money to save- we're not gonna put money in savings, when we could use it to wipe out debt with interest.

Our expenses are already trimmed.

There is no way to live indoors here for $3K a month.

I wish you and yours the best, and a long and happy life together.

Thank you.

 

[Christian]

OP - Rather than throw away your retirement money, sell those 2 expensive cars and buy a 2 year old toyota/Honda/Hyundai car for $20K.

There we go with the "expensive" thing again.

The word "expensive" is a relative term. We live in a very expensive place, and since the cost of living is very high, the wages tend to be higher too. Entry-level employees with no experience and nothing more than a GED, are easily able to make $100K their first year. So our cars don't look that expensive to me, especially since we now owe so little on them, what we do owe on them is at very low interest rates, and they're not depreciating much.

We can't get by with one car at this time- if I have to go back to work, that would involve shift work and lots of mandatory overtime. We would still need two cars to commute.

And buying a 2 year old Toyota/Honda/Hyundai (or two) would cost more than we currently owe on our vehicles, the interest rate would be much higher, and they would depreciate substantially.

You must have a bunch of other expensive things you can sell off, as you are going to need to sell them off anyhow if planning to live in an RV.

No, we don't have a bunch of other expensive things.

Since you are currently injured, can you actually work after the rehab or is that simply wishful thinking, would you qualify for SS disability which pays a lot more than regular SS ?

Who knows at this point? Ask me again in the Fall.

Of course if you retire first, then you don't qualify.

If I am retired medically, that would be a different deal, and I suspect SSDI would be an option at that point. I guess we'll see...

 

[Christian]

Christian, sorry for your troubles.

Thank you for your kindness.

Are you eligible for a disability rating from your job related injury? The Federal Employee's Compensation program (similar to private employer Workers Compensation) provides for disability payments for job related injuries. The disability payments are above and beyond the payments for medical and wage replacement. And, if you are deemed totally disabled, you should be eligible for continuing disability payments. If you are not permanently disabled, you should still be eligible for a disability rating and payment.

I'm not gonna be totally disabled, but I might not be able to do my job, which would qualify me for a medical retirement. The figures are different for that one- I would get a pension of about $4,600 a month, plus the 2.5% COLA, plus a refund of all of my contributions (about $161,000), plus the free medical insurance for life.

If so, I would use the funds to pay off and sell the current vehicles and buy low cost cars as others have suggested.

Paying off the cars would be the worst place to put our money- my car is financed at 1.99%, which is less than the inflation rate during the time that I've owned it, and hers is financed at not much more.

Instead, we've been working to pay down the debt with the highest interest.

We can't get by with one car at this time- if I have to go back to work, that would involve shift work and lots of mandatory overtime. We would still need two cars to commute.

We don't owe a lot of money on our cars, what we do owe on them is at very low interest rates, and they're not depreciating much, so they are the lowest cost vehicles we could own right now. My car is still under the factory warranty even.

Buying "cheaper" car(s) would cost more than we currently owe on our vehicles, the interest rate(s) would be much higher, they would depreciate substantially, and we'd have to factor in the increased maintenance cost of older cars.

Thank you again.

 

[Christian]

Christian,
Enjoy the time off as much as possible. There are many moving parts to your situation, and you have enough hard data to know what choices are "optimum" for both of you. Go with the flow. You can both confront each choice when you need to.

Thanks. We're trying to be flexible, consider all options, and breathe. Watching the ocean waves seems to help.

If it were me, I would not retire. I don't have a good grasp of all conversation above, but it is just the way I am, usually trying to massage the near future, and not make a large change which might have undesirable long-term consequences.

I hear you.

For us, we're strongly leaning towards retirement. She's already expressed to me multiple times, that it would feel like she's being punished if I don't retire- some of the CC debt that she ran up in recent years, was stuff that we could afford on the money we were making, but I didn't necessarily think it was a good idea. Sometimes I don't like being right.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Well, seems like you have all the answers you are looking for. I will bookmark this for any future questions I might have on "confirmation bias"

Good luck to you and your wife now, and in the future.

 

[marko]

Well, seems like you have all the answers you are looking for. I will bookmark this for any future questions I might have on "confirmation bias"

Good luck to you and your wife now, and in the future.

+1 I think he's all set.

 

[bigcmagor]

You have good reasons for wanting to retire and I understand the desire to do so. I suspect everyone reading the thread understands too. Most people planning on retiring at 56/41 have done a better job of preparing to do so however. This has come through in the tone of many responses. Not many folks would be comfortable pulling off what you plan to do.


My advice would be to reconsider the RV approach in lieu of finding a very low COL community and buying a home for what you plan to invest in the vehicle - especially if you have followed through with getting another dog. Insurance through the exchange will be more effective if you are settled in one place and should be heavily subsidized given your retirement income. Obtaining part time work will be easier if necessary to keep food on the table. If you are sold on the RV route, it seems you are throwing all caution to the wind on health insurance. In any event, good luck to you.

 

[Christian]

Christian, you seem to be blowing off the issue of HI.

No- this whole thread is about health insurance.

Even it you get an ACA subsidy, HI is simply not very portable. Your in network service will be confined to a limited area. Most like in the state of your residence. No ordinary medical expenses will be covered, everything out of network will be 100% on your dime, likely with no limit. In a true emergency you might convince your HI to pay, but otherwise forget it.

I called Kaiser yesterday and asked them about that. They told me that we would simply be treated as "visiting members" if we are in a different Kaiser region. We just have to enroll in the Kaiser region that we reside in.

Our retirement people are telling me that Blue Cross Blue Shield is a nationwide network, and that our insurance would be good with any part of the Blue Cross Blue Shield network, anywhere in the nation.

This includes any type of cancer treatments ...your insurance is for a year at a time. If you DH had a reoccurrence of any type of cancer in say February you need to return to the HCOL area you live in and stay there indefinitely.

Understood.

Would you even consider living in a converted van without running water during a serious illness?

We would have hot and cold running water.

Yes you have a dream but you haven't really planned ahead and or saved for it.

Cancer was not part of our dream.

Does you pension have a survivors benefit?

Yup. There are numerous ways that I can structure it, but I have to pick one way at the time of retirement.

You probably could research a low cost of living area with plentiful lower cost rentals and try to retire on place. But there again the dog will cause issues.

We're already planning to move someplace much less expensive.

I have great sympathy for your situation, since cancer took both my parents.

I am so sorry. Wow.

Your plan has so many holes in it, your can literally drive a truck through them.

I'm here asking questions, so that we can come up with the plan that is right for us.

You don't really seem to be giving credence to the great advice people are offering here. You are nowhere near ready to retire.

I am taking in any good advice.

Bad advice would be things like selling our cars when we need cars to get back and forth to work and medical appointments, going from two cars to one car when we need two cars, trading a 1.99% car loan for a 5% car loan, trading cars that aren't depreciating for cars that are depreciating, and trading a car that's still under factory warranty for a used car with no warranty.

I'm also confused about why you would pull out pension money, pay tax on it, lower your monthly pension number to then sell a car worth 45K. Why wouldn't you just sell the car, now.

At my current income level, pulling $120K out of my retirement may push me from the 22% tax bracket up to the 24% tax bracket, but it won't push us into the 32% tax bracket.

And what difference does it make whether I sell the car before or after pulling the money out? It all adds up to the same amount of money.

I suggest no matter what you decide about retirement you need to get rid of that car pronto. Stop the payments and downsize into a much cheaper older car.

We're only going to need one car in retirement, so we're already planning on selling mine AFTER I no longer need it (after I retire).

You're suggesting selling my car while I still need a car, and replacing it with "a much cheaper older car"...which in turn I will then have to get rid of after I retire in a few months, because I won't need a car anymore.

There is an old saying- "The least expensive car to buy, is the one that you already own". That is especially true in the case of my car- it's financed at 1.99%, it's not depreciating, it's still under factory warranty, and it gets great gas mileage.

Trading that for a higher interest rate, on something that's depreciating, with no warranty, an unknown maintenance history, and the prospects of having to pay for any upcoming mechanical breakdowns, and then have to get rid of it again in a few months, just doesn't make sense.

 

[Christian]

Not that it's a deal breaker, but $10 gets you access to one club. You need to Black Card plan for $22.99/month to use any club and have unlimited guest access.

Lol, okay, I stand corrected.

Thanks.

 

[marko]

After post #72 you don't sound 'utterly lost' to me. Sounds like you've got it all figured out!

Good luck.

 

[Christian]

Not exactly. I have 40 quarters in, but my SS statement says:

"To get benefits if you become disabled right now, you need 34 credits of work, and 20 of these credits had to be earned in the last 10 years. Your record shows you do not have enough credits in the right time period."

Either way, I don't think it's gonna matter. She has worked a little, but she stayed home for almost all of our daughters juvenile years, and up until my injury, only worked when she felt like it, because we were living well within our means.

 

[foxfirev5]

While I have nothing to offer I certainly hope this is not a trolling situation. Karma and all that stuff.