Early class of 2015 vs late?

[Fermion]

I have been thinking about our plans to ER in fall 2015 and am now considering a early spring 2015 departure instead.

We would give up some income and bonus but gain an entire summer. Instead of taking our truck camper down to Florida for the winter in late Sept., we would head up to Alaska from Seattle in late April/early May. Most likely then we would spend 1 to 2 years in Alaska, including a winter (would rent a apt. in winter) then head back down to the lower 48 for a few years of exploring.

I am thinking about healthcare right now. Since our MAGI for leaving in Sept. would be near $200,000, we probably would just do Cobra for Oct, Nov, Dec 2015, then get on ACA for 2016. This way we would take advantage of deductibles already paid in 2015 for our work HDHP with HSA. No idea what those 3 month premiums would be though.

If we departed at the end of March, we would have earned about $60,000. Since we could qualify for traditional IRA that year, plus around $4k of HSA and $17,500 in 401k, we could reduce our MAGI by $32500. Adding in about $3000 of dividends and we would end up with a MAGI in 2015 of $30,500.

Going to the calculator, for a married couple age 44,46 I find a silver plan in Alaska would cost us $1324 a year with a $9013 subsidy. Max out of pocket would only be $4500 so there must also be a considerable amount of cost sharing.

This has me really considering early class of 2015.

 

[2B]

You are seriously planning to spend the winter in Alaska in a truck camper?

One of the issues apparent with the ACA policies is that they seldom are portable between states. BCBS seems a little more flexible if you can get the right plan.

 

[Fermion]

You are seriously planning to spend the winter in Alaska in a truck camper?

One of the issues apparent with the ACA policies is that they seldom are portable between states. BCBS seems a little more flexible if you can get the right plan.

I mentioned in the first post we are planning on renting an apt. during the winter. We would store the truck's camper and probably do a good bit of riding on our snowmobiles.

Florida has nice, portable ACA plans (Blue Cross) but if we headed to Alaska first, it might be easier to get a plan up there, then get a plan in Florida for when we become Florida residents and are traveling the lower 48. I do not think we would be residents of Alaska long enough to collect any oil windfall payments. You have to be there a full year before the first year of payment as I understand it.